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Ist Annual
NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION CONFERENCE
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Thurs., Dec. 25th Fri., Dec. 26th, 2008

INVITATION AND
CONFERENCE PROGRAM (TENTATIVE)



Intellectuals, academicians, public service
professionals and activists are invited to participate
in the 1st Annual National Reconstruction
Conference (NRC) to be held in Chennai, Tamil
Nadu, from 8:00 AM, Thu. Dec. 25th until 9:00 PM,
Fri., Dec. 26th, 2008. The NRCs provide an
opportunity to network with fellow intellectuals and
activists in a non-partisan environment. NRC brings
intellectuals and activists to a common platform for
exchange of ideas and ground realities. A tentative
agenda for the conference is attached.

Once your affirmative intent is received, you will be
included on the distribution list of Call for Papers and
other conference related documents. This invitation is not transferable to another person. If you have a
referral, please send his/her contact details to the Conference e-mail address, or call Mr. R.
Ananthanarayana, Conference Director, at 099400 25848 (mobile).

The purpose of NRC is to bring intellectuals,
public commentators, technocrats,
entrepreneurs, journalists, activists, public
service professionals and youth (as potential
future leadership) on the same platform for
exchange of perspective and ideas relating to the
health of our democracy and public institutions,
and issues of national importance in political
and socio-economic spheres of public life.
Ideologues and activists from all political parties
and ideological persuasions are invited to come
face to face with each other. The organisers of
this conference are committed to providing an
unbiased and non-partisan platform to all to
come together and work jointly towards
attempting to solve the myriad problems faced
by our nation.
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE
K.S. Lal Memorial Lecture on History Marxist
Historiography and Beyond Exploring History
Writing in India
Seminar: Assessment of Indian History
Seminar: Law Enforcement Reforms
Seminar: Educational Reforms (Curriculum)
Seminar: Educational Reforms (Governance)
Seminar: Internal Security Review and
Countering Terrorism
Seminar: Secularism and Roadblocks to
Secularization in India: Theory and Practice
Seminar: Illegal Immigration Causes and
Consequences
Seminar: Rural Economy
Seminar: Natural Resources and Environmental
Protection
RSVP
via e-mail
chennai2008@nrs.org.in

Mr. R. Ananthanarayana
Conference Director
Mobile: 099400 25848

YOUTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
See details inside
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TRAVEL PLANNING

If you want to attend, your first step should be to make arrangements for your travel to Chennai. Please
keep the following information in mind before making travel arrangements:

Destination: Chennai
Arrive By: Evening/Night of December 24th, 2008
Schedule Return after: 9 p.m. on December 26
th
, 2008

Once you are confirmed for the conference and have made your travel arrangements you will receive all
necessary logistics / arrangements related information.

COST

Participants bear all convention related expenses,
including the following:

1. Travel cost to Chennai
2. Mandatory non-refundable registration fee of
Rs. 500/- (payable at the reception)
3. Hotel/accommodation in Chennai (a list of
hotels in close proximity to the conference venue
will be provided)

The conference organisers do not have financial
resources to issue travel/expense grants. These may be obtained from several 3
rd
party sources. The
organisers will work with deserving candidates one-on-one but cannot guarantee positive results in each
case.

MEALS

Registration fee includes meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, water and beverages throughout the
duration of the conference (Thursday morning to Friday evening). All meals will be vegetarian.

YOUTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Developing youth leadership in public affairs is an integral part of the National Reconstruction mission.
We invite high academic achievers to apply for a grant to attend the NRC 2008. The grant includes all
costs including train travel by 2
nd
AC, sightseeing tour / field trip in Chennai and surrounding areas. In
return the youth participant will make a presentation and sign up for prospective summer or calendar year
Internship. The NRS Internships are designed as an early intervention program for public leadership and
is implemented in such a way that it remains non-intrusive to a participants primary vocation. Qualifying
criteria is: (a) Between the ages of 18 and 25 years, (b) 85% or above marks in secondary examination or
80% or above marks in +2 or 60% marks or above at graduation/ Master level examination, and (d)
interest in public affairs.

FURTHER INFORMATION
Ramakrishna Ananthanarayana
Conference Director
E-Mail: ramakrishna.ananthanarayana@nrs.org.in
Tel.: 099400 25848
DONATIONS WELCOME

As this is a non-partisan intellectual-activist
venture, financial sponsorship and donations
are hard to come by. Therefore, we welcome
donations from the society to support this
activity. If you would like to financially
support this effort, kindly let the conference
director know.

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CONFERENCE PROGRAM
(Tentative)

Memorial Lecture

K.S. Lal Memorial Lecture on Marxist Historiography and Beyond: Exploring History Writing in India
(Details not available at this time)

Seminars

{Selected seminars may be conducted in parallel due to the intrinsic complexity of the subject matter.}

1. Assessment of Indian History
Session Chair: Prof. Bhagwan Josh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Session Coordinator: Mr. Vikas Pathak, Research Scholar and Journalist

Synopsis: The research and teaching of Indian history has been a keenly contested issue. The Marxist
School of Historians have interpreted history from a materialistic perspective, being true to their
worldview, and over a number of years, have built up quite some serious scholarship to their credit,
signified by giants such as D.D. Kosambi. Till date, there does not exist a serious assessment and
evaluation of the materialist framework, as has been the case elsewhere the world, where most Marxist
schools of History have been critiqued against a wide variety of post-modernist benchmarks. The tragedy
of Indian history is that the Marxian pure materialistic interpretation of Indian History seems not to have
been challenged by serious post-modernist professional historians, though plenty of quackery exists in the
name of History (Taj Mahal is a Hindu Temple type pseudo-scholarship). The result is that the research
and teaching of history has become a politically divisive issue where the ultimate sufferer is the Indian
student. It is incumbent upon professional historians to respectfully critique Marxist School of History, by
first unequivocally rejecting pseudo-scholarship as a pre-requisite, and then establishing a post-colonial
post-modern framework of re-interpreting Indian history. This session will focus on current assessment of
Indian History and explore the possibility of establishment of a new framework for re-interpreting
historical events from a post-modern perspective.

2. Secularism and Roadblocks to Secularization in India: Theory and Practice
Session Chair: Prof.. Omprakash Mishra, National Law University, Jodhpur
Session Coordinator: Mr. Rajesh Anand, Esq.

Synopsis: India is a secular state both by constitution and law, as well as most of the times in practice
since the time immemorial. Indic civilisational ethos does not allow for imposition of a way of worship or
a certain religious dogma. Yet in our country there are laws and public practices that defy the
conventional meaning of secularism. The incursions on secular character of the country come from all
religious groups with the complicity of all political parties. Only the type of incursion differs with each
party. In no secular country does the state own and operate places of worship, funds and sponsors
religious educational institutions, pays for pilgrimage and discriminates against communities based on
religion. If India has to survive as a liberal nation-state, it has to treat its citizens as atomic individuals,
and not as a chattel that can be traded on the electoral stock exchange for seats in parliament and
assemblies. This session will take up the debate on secularism at the fundamental level and derive a
position that will go a long way towards absolute secularization of the Indian state, without any favor to
any religious group or community.

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3. Educational Reforms (Curriculum)
Session Chair: Mr. Michel Danino
Session Coordinator:

Synopsis: Curriculum reform in our country has become a political football where changes are brought by
one party (often tinged with parochial goals), only to be undone by the other party. The ultimate sufferer
is the Indian student. The Indian people are fed up with this political football and partisanship, and are
looking for a saner non-parochial non-partisan non-divisive non-ideological approach to curricular
reforms. In this session educators, parents and other experts will come together to discuss and debate the
pedagogical changes required in the school curricula, and develop a blueprint for affecting meaningful
curricular reforms in a non-ideological non-partisan manner.

4. Educational Reforms (Public Policy and Governance)
Session Chair: Prof. C.B. Sharma, IGNOU, New Delhi
Session Coordinator:

Synopsis: The existence of elite institutions such as IITs/IIMs is only an illusion in terms of overall
educational infrastructure is concerned. The fact of the matter is that this country does not have a
structured secular public mass-education system. The public schools are actually private schools that
cater to the English-speaking elites of the society. The government funds are used for supporting
parochial schools while the government owned and operated K-12 schools do not function properly, and
their teachers often engage in providing private tuitions to double their personal income. The situation
becomes farcical and comical when IAS/PCS officers with no background in education are entrusted the
task of managing the educational system. The purpose of this session is to propose radical reforms in
educational infrastructure and governance, and not limit to patching mechanism. This session will table
the gaps that exist in terms of educational infrastructure and suggestions will be made on how to
remediate those gaps. New models of educational governance may be presented and evaluated.

5. Law Enforcement Reforms
Session Chair: Mr. Prakash Singh, ex-Director-General, Border Security Force
Session Coordinator: Dr. Jatin Mohanty, Researcher, CORD

Synopsis: Maintaining law and order is a basic function of the government. In our country the law
enforcement machinery has come under enormous stress due to a plethora of factors. In large part it has
been compromised by vested political and economic interests. There is rampant corruption and misuse of
authority amongst its ranks. The law and order situation has come to such a pass that, first the police fails
to file an FIR, second, they fail to catch the right offender, third, they bungle the investigation, fourth,
they fail to prove the case in a court of law, and last, they fail to keep the prisoner in prison for long.
Thus, the entire life-cycle of law enforcement has become lifeless. If such a situation is allowed to
continue, India will become an anarchy where vigilante justice will replace the rule of law (if not already
there yet). This session will focus on realistic assessment of malaise in the law enforcement system,
propose comprehensive systemic reforms and debate various issues pertaining to law enforcement.

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6. Internal Security Review and Countering Terrorism
Session Chair: Gen. SK Sinha
Session Coordinator: T.K. Singh, Researcher, IDSA

Synopsis: India has long been a soft state where a number of groups have committed grave acts of terror
against the common masses. Just about any disgruntled group (for real or imaginary reason) feels free to
explode a bomb at will and then get away with it. The terrorists are not limited to any one single
community they come from all communities. The public discourse has increasingly taken partisan tones
in debating issues related to terrorism. While one political party plays Nero, the other tries to exploit it for
electoral gains, while there are fringe groups ready to incite communal passions at every incident. Further,
there is a whole industry of tacticians (e.g. so called Human Rights activists) who are ready with their
media blitz, petitions and lawsuits to nullify the counter-terrorism operations (if any). There is an urgent
need for the civil society to debate all aspects of terrorism. Further, there are structural lacunae in the
internal security infrastructure that inhibits the functioning of security forces. There is no single agency to
counter terrorism. By definition, terrorist acts fall under law and order which is on the state list. This
lumps acts of common criminality like thievery with a complex subject such as Internal Security, leaving
the state police to tackle both the subjects. The situation warrants a comprehensive review of our Internal
Security laws and infrastructure. This session will go into all aspects of internal security and propose and
debate a new model of internal security infrastructure that can address counter-terrorism effectively.

7. Womens Issues and Integral Feminism
Session Chair: Dr. Medha Nanivadekar, Shivaji University, Kolhapur
Session Coordinator: Ms. Nisha Srivastava, Research Scholar, JNU

Synopsis: Though the condition of women has noticeably improved at the upper and upper-middle class
levels, a large percentage of female population is still lagging behind on majority of human development
indices. Indian women continue to face socio-economic repression in the form of dowry and family
harassment, gender discrimination, femicide and sexual harassment, inspite of existence of a plethora of
laws that are seemingly designed to protect them. Laws alone do not seem to be enough, as we have had
them for this purpose since the abolishment of Sati and then later enactment of the Sharda Act. The
problem of dowry has become more widespread than ever before. What is more disturbing is the fact that
dowry has increasingly been normalised and people no longer consider it as an evil practice. Women
themselves play a major role in demands of dowry. On the flip side there have been abuses of the anti-
dowry laws by unscrupulous women culminating into human rights violations. Quite often the society
uses the adversary principle a priori to enact laws to protect women. That these do not always work is
self-evident. Thus, there is a structural and doctrinal problem with resolution of such problems. If we
have to resolve various gender discrimination issues, we have to establish an entirely new framework for
womens empowerment. This session will focus on womens issues and will explore constructing a new
paradigm relating to feminism and women empowerment, keeping the adversary principle in perspective
and yet not losing sight of the practical realities of social life in todays India that will facilitate gender
justice and equality, enhancing healthy family life, and catalyzing the healthy organic growth of society.

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8. Illegal Immigration Causes and Consequences
Session Chair: Mr. DC Nath, Former Special Director, Intelligence Bureau
Session Coordinator: Shreejay Sinha, Journalist

Synopsis: By some estimates we have 20 million illegal immigrants in the country. As it is we have
population explosion, and on top of that if we keep receiving illegal immigrants unchecked it will add
immense pressure to our public services, our economy and even national security. This issue has become
a political football in the hands of politicians, as they have taken unnecessary adversarial positions on this
issue. Predictably, one national political party defends illegal immigration for the sake of its vote-bank,
while the other uses this to incite communal passions. The civil society cannot afford to get wrangled in
partisanship and let this problem pose a threat to the integrity of the country. The civil society needs to
bypass the political parties, and come together to propose resolution to this issue in a non-partisan
manner. This session will go into all aspects of the issue and will strive to reach a general consensus on a
viable set of steps towards a possible solution that does not discriminate against any community
religious or linguistic.

9. Rural Economy
Session Chair:
Session Coordinator:

Synopsis: The urban infrastructure in India has come under a severe stress due to heavy internal
movement of people from rural to urban areas in search of livelihood. Every Indian city and town is home
to large swathes of slums and shantytowns. Unless the economists and planners take an integrated view of
the national economy, and until concrete steps are taken to re-build smaller towns and civic infrastructure
in villages, we cannot have world-class cities and metros. There must be equitable job-creation and
infrastructure development in rural areas. This session will focus on issues related to rural economic
development.

10. Natural Resource Management and Environmental Protection
Session Chair:
Session Coordinator:

Synopsis: India faces an ecological disaster in the making. It is rapidly losing forest cover, its rivers are
drying up, and its air in cities is unbreathable. On the other hand, due to poor natural resource
management, during heavy rains the same rivers swell causing floods. Some parts of the country have
floods and some parts shortage of water at the same time. India is the only country in the world where
citizens of two of its own states fight with each other over sharing of water resources. This session will
focus on all green issues.

Debate

Based on the deliberations of the aforementioned seminars there will be an expert panel formed that will
question and facilitate a debate between representatives of major political parties. Select representatives
of all major political parties will be invited to take questions from the expert panel. The debate may be
canceled if all major political parties are not represented.

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Fellowships

Developing non-partisan youth leadership in public affairs is an integral part of the National
Reconstruction mission. Several fellowships will be awarded to potential youth leaders to pursue one of
the several subjects discussed in aforementioned seminars. The fellowships are designed as an early
intervention program for developing public leadership skills. It is implemented in such a way that it
remains non-intrusive to a participants primary vocation. Qualifying criteria is: (a) Between the ages of
18 and 25 years, (b) 85% or above marks in secondary examination or 80% or above marks in +2 or 60%
marks or above at graduation/ Master level examination, and (d) interest in public affairs. The youth will
work with panelists and under the guidance of experts in their respective subject areas. The leadership
development curriculum may include conducting surveys, library research, field trips, data collection, and
other types of work. The fellowship work may require visiting rural areas and interacting with common
people. The fellowship recipients will be compensated by a suitable stipend and a certificate will be
awarded at the end of 1 year of fellowship.

*** Please note that implementation of aforementioned sessions are contingent upon participant
interest, availability of qualified personnel/speakers, availability of funds, and related factors. Some
sessions may not materialize due to lack of resources. ***

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WHAT IS NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION?

Background

Our country is going through both challenging and promising times. Challenges come from a plethora
of directions. While there is a promise of a rising India, there are traditional socio-economic challenges
relating to violence, hunger, poverty, disease, and illiteracy. There are also gigantic challenges being
posed from both outside and from within, viz. terrorism, regionalism, casteism, etc. On the other
hand the prospect of a Rising India that is based on a remarkable economic growth rate in certain
sectors of the economy in the last 10 years with its worldwide recognition as a rising star among the
emerging economies, leads to new hopes and aspirations among its citizens in general, and its youth in
particular. The promise of Rising India can be illusionary due to structural problems in the political and
socio-economic spheres of public life. If these problems are not addressed India may not realize its full
potential, and hence even the recent economic resurgence may slow down and its gains not accrued to
the national prosperity in the long run. The future may relegate India into the most fantastic
dysfunctional but nominally operating democracy and economy in the world.

Preamble and Vision Statement

India must rebuild and reengineer its civil society on the basis of issues alone in a non-partisan manner,
with an Indic civilisational nucleus that is non-parochial in content and character. The new civil
society shall consider the citizen as an atomic individual and treat all with equal respect, and where the
citizen's caste, religion and community is irrelevant to the Indian state. The new civil society will be
reconstructed by youth who are first trained in political affairs within a non-partisan framework, after
which they can join a political party of their choice or remain to serve the society in a non-partisan
manner. The reconstruction of the Indian nation will be guided by philosophers, thinkers, writers and
poets with an Indic civilisational vision of India, and the public policy to attain that state shall be
formulated in a non-partisan manner through praxis by the joint efforts of academicians, thinkers,
professionals, public affairs personnel and political and social activists.

Objectives

a. to facilitate a platform for structured exchange of ideas and debate in matters of philosophy and
doctrine relating to only the temporal affairs of people (political, social, economic and cultural) to build
a framework of issue-based non-partisan public policy;
b. to facilitate a process of taking the extract of aforementioned philosophical churning and turning it
into practical issue-based non-partisan public policy;
c. to formulate a process of translating the stratospheric intellectual output into the ground-level
knowledge base for non-partisan voter-education and voter-empowerment;
d. to document and disseminate the extract of philosophical churning and the derived public policy
thereof to the consumer base consisting of media, public commentators and thinkers, public policy
activists, youth with leadership potential, elected representatives, and other policymakers;
e. to develop a process of current public policy evaluation and critique, and monitoring public
administration;
f. to bring representatives of opposing ideological persuasion, and leaders of opposing political parties
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to a common platform to evaluate and debate their positions on issues of importance to the public;
g. to develop a Youth Leadership Development program for training youth with leadership potential in
a non-partisan manner;
h. to develop a professional human resource base of intellectuals and activists who can re-
organize various instruments of the civil society; and
i. to provide a forum to attract and consolidate citizenry from various fields in public human activity
that can contribute to the task of national reconstruction in a non-partisan and non-parochial manner.

Methodology

In order to realize the aforementioned objectives a sector-based strategic plan needs to be formulated.
The Strategic Plan for each sector of public activity may differ in structure, but will be based on similar
fundamentals. These fundamentals can be described in the form of Knowledge-Awareness-Action
Continuum where the knowledge formulation needs to precede spreading of awareness, while action by
activists must follow the other two. The process of knowledge to awareness to action cannot be
circumvented. Knowledge engineering in public policy is a product of application of intellectual
faculties to strong background in the humanities (history, political science, religion, spirituality, culture,
archaeology et al.). The products of development process are knowledge elements or intellectual
building blocks that are relevant to the current state of the nation. The knowledge elements are then
applied to real-life challenges that the country faces to produce a philosophical framework, with a well-
defined perimeter, including a strategic vision and direction for the nation. The theoretical framework
developed by intellectuals is utilized by public policy activists in the political, social and economic
spheres of human activity to meet the challenges faced by the country, for the peaceful existence of its
citizenry as an organic whole, with its distinct but integral parts at peace and harmony with each other.

Public policy formulation by itself is meaningless, unless and until it is propagated throughout the
general consciousness of the citizenry. To make public policy knowledge engineering practical, it must
be translated into a language and form that the voters can understand, and hold their elected
representatives accountable to that standard. This calls for structured and comprehensive voter
education and empowerment. Long-term sustainable voter empowerment will result in
meaningful public administration.

National Reconstruction Society
National Reconstruction Society (NRS) facilitates a common platform for intellectuals and activists to
work towards the objectives of the National Reconstruction Mission as outlined above. NRCs are
organized by NRS. Further information about NRS can be obtained from:
Mr. Ramakrishna Ananthanarayana
General Secretary, NRS
E-Mail: ramakrishna.ananthanarayana@nrs.org.in
Tel.: 099400 25848