New Horizons of Human Development

New Horizons of

Human Development

What is Human Development? Human development means not only to have to have the capability to function; it also at the same time involves the art and practice of imagination. Human development means not only economic, political and ethical development; it also means artistic and spiritual development. Indian Business Academy is trying to give shape its thought through International Dialogue at Greater Noida on 14th and 15th September 2008.

Dr. M.K. Shridhar, Reader, Canara Bank School of Management Studies, Bangalore University, has forwarded a mail of Dr Subhash Sharma, Dean, Indian Business Academy, Bangalore to PARYAYA which sketches about this dialogue.

The discourse and practice of human development is at a cross-road now. For quite some time, critics and reflective practitioners in the field of development have raised ethical and moral issues in the vision and practice of development such as poverty, hunger, displacement and production of underdevelopment by the very interventionist process and logic of development.

This has led to the rise of a vibrant critical field of development ethics but this seldom addresses issues of development aesthetics and spirituality.

In the forthcoming international dialogue, "New Horizons of Human Development: Art, Spirituality and Social Transformations," we seek to address some of these neglected issues in the discourse and practice of human development.

This dialogue is based upon new movements of thought and practice in the field of human development, art, spirituality and society. Human development means not only to have to have the capability to function; it also at the same time involves the art and practice of imagination.

Human development means not only economic, political and ethical development; it also means artistic and spiritual development. All these dimensions of development are interlinked but we have not paid sufficient attention to artistic and spiritual development. To develop, both individually as well as collectively, is to develop one’s artistic and spiritual potential.But to develop ourselves artistically is not just to look beautiful as it is perceived externally; art is linked to living life as a work of art.

As Michel Foucault would ask: "What strikes me is the fact that, in our society, art is now linked to objects, rather than to individuals or life itself [..] But couldn’t we ourselves, each one of us, make of our lives a work of art? Why should a lamp or a house become the object of art—and not our own lives?"

There is a transformation in the discourse and practice of art now which links it to establishing relationships of beauty and dignity in society.

Art is not only what we draw on a piece of paper but the quality of life we live and create in our lives and society. It is the poetry that we write in our bodies, social as well as self. As Chitta Ranjan Das argues, there are two streams of aesthetic consciousness—Anna and Ananda (food and joy)-- and human development lies in establishing bridges between the two.

Aesthetic development facilitates border crossing between many domains which are considered isolated from and opposed to each other such as economic and artistic, material and spiritual.

The broadening and deepening of vision and practice of art resonates with broadening and deepening of both spirituality and society. If in the discourse of development there is now a move to include self-development, in the discourse of spirituality there is now a move to make spirituality a multi-dimensional initiative in self and social transformation.

There is a practical and social turn in spirituality where many movements of spirituality wish to address concrete problems in society such as poverty, shelter and suffering—physical as well as spiritual. In this context Giri argued about the need to explore new paths of yoga and tantra of human and social development. The yoga of human and social development involves creating fields of mutual learning and connectedness.

The tantra of development involves creating vibrant spaces of conviviality where all concerned would enjoy being together and grow in each other’s warmth of relationship. The broadening of art and spirituality also is accompanied by deepening of the discourse and realization of the social where social no longer means only structures but also spaces of self and mutual realization.

In the forthcoming international dialogue attempt will be made to explore themes such as development ethics and development aesthetics, practical spirituality and human development, violence of dominant development and aesthetics of transformations.

This dialogue takes place immediately after the Annual Conference of Human Development and Capability Association at Delhi, September 10-13, 2008 (http://www.capabilityapproach.com/Conference.php) and some of the participants in this conference such as the noted development ethicist Des Gasper are joining.

The workshop is held at Indian Business Academy, Greater Noida (PLOT NO.44, KNOWLEDGE PARK III, GREATER NOIDA-201308PHONE: +91-120-3921061, 3921012, 3921064, 2323641-2, 2323645, FAX: 3921099WEBSITE: www.ibainternational.org) which is around 50 KM from Delhi and is being coordinated by Dr. Ananta Kumar Giri of Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai (email: aumkrishna@yahoo.com) and Professor Subash Sharma, Dean, Indian Business Academy, Greater Noida and Banglore (email:

re_see@rediffmail.com).