School chairman Mr Goradia interacts with Class 11 on Political Ideologies

Mr. Prafull Goradia, School chairman, engaged in an interactive session with students of class XI on the topic' Political Ideologies', on 20 April 2023. He offered his vast knowledge of ideologies, their essential features and drawbacks and explained their core fundamentals.

The session began by defining ideology as a set of ideas or beliefs that shape people's understanding of the world and guide their actions. Then, he explained the Hindi term "Vichardhara" to the students. Referring to King Bharat, Mr Goradia discussed the idea of Raj Dharam, which existed before the modern-day political ideologies and had guided Indian kings of the time. He shared his experience about his meetings with Mr Jawaharlal Nehru, Ms Indira Gandhi, and Mr Rajiv Gandhi. Mr Nehru believed in Socialism but not necessarily Marxism.

After this, Sir expanded on the history of ideologies. The first ideology discussed was Conservatism, which believes in preserving established traditions. He cited the example of the UK which has been predominantly led by the conservative party; the liberal party does not wield much power and has since declined.

In the session, Mr Goradia also talked about the core ideas of Socialism. He mentioned that Communism iss the elder brother of Socialism, by which he meant that the latter was far more extreme than the former. Karl Marx, a great thinker, was a German philosopher interested in exploring the relationship between the economy and the people working within the economic system. The idea of socialism was majorly considered to reduce the plight of workers and focused primarily on social welfare. He even mentioned that Marxism had failed rather quickly. The nature of these ideologies to begin with popular support and, in the end, become authoritative, was also discussed.

Mr Goradia later explained how Leon Trotsky was treated after the death of Vladimir Lenin. Stalin gave orders for his death with an axe. He shed light on the ideology of Trotsky, which was to forget about one's own country and spread Communism worldwide. Sir mentioned that economic growth was not possible under a Socialist model as it provides no incentive for people to work harder and contribute to overall economic growth. To further explain, he mentioned the example of having fixed scores for all students, hence taking away incentives from the students to work hard and pay attention in class.

Another ideology deliberated upon was Capitalism, which he defined as one's own ability to own greed. The United States of America has showcased the success of Capitalism. He also stated that capitalism involved exploitation.

Next, Mr Goradia explored the intricacies of Fascism. He started by breaking up the term and acknowledged that Facio means bunch or bundle, meaning a group. Then, he spoke of the core ideas of Fascism. Mr Goradia further discussed that Fascism was a popular form of Capitalism and, in Europe, emerged as a counter and response to the rise of leftist politicians. He stated that, in essence, Japan was a fascist country. Japan, like the Germans, Italians, and Franco of Spain, had also decided to end unemployment by mass drafting young men into the army. In addition, they believe in producing tremendous wealth and goods so that everyone is wealthy.

Later, he dived deep into the ideology of India during the early independence years. India was a socialist country between the 1950s to 1980s. He also elucidated that no doctrine has actually come out of Bharat's roots; hence, all of them are foreign and therefore don't connect that much with the local population.

Later, the session primarily focused on questions from the students. Some of the questions eruditely answered by Mr Goradia included: What is the role of individual freedom in Liberalism? Is Marxism still being followed in any country today? If yes, do you support it? What do you think are the core causes for the rise conservative politics in Europe? Do you think there will be any change in ideology due to the Russia- Ukraine conflict?

It was a great learning experience for the students and the teachers who returned after grasping immense knowledge from the informative talk.