Date: Thursday September 24, 2026
Time: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM Central Time
Location: Zoom
Abstract
Whether liberty and equality have survived as values after our world’s recent history is the question I ask. For answers I go to the modern stories of India and its neighbors in South Asia, which I’ve been studying for a while, and also to the Gulf and the Middle East, and to events unfolding in Europe and the US. The talk will recognize that liberty and equality, historically demanded in universal terms, i.e. for everyone, and at times inscribed for everyone in prestigious documents, were in practice always and everywhere confined to certain social groups and some geographical areas. The ambit of liberty and equality widened spectacularly in the 20th century, but has narrowed in this the 21st century, with supremacyand security acquiring the status of great national goals. I will conclude with a reflection on the possibilities of restoring the primacy of liberty and equality.
About Speaker
Rajmohan Gandhi has been a journalist, a professor of history and politics, an author, a member of the Rajya Sabha, and a worker for dialogue and reconciliation. Currently he serves as editor-in-chief of the website www.weareonehumanity.org. His father Devadas Gandhi (1900-1957) was Mahatma Gandhi’s fourth and youngest son.
This event is free and open to the UT community and the general public.