Divya Dwivedi is a

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and author based in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. She is an associate professor at the

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is a public institute of technology located in New Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technolo ...

. Her work focuses on

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

, and

philosophy of politics Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

Early life and education

Dwivedi is originally from

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

. Her mother is Sunitha Dwivedi and her father, Rakesh Dwivedi, practices as a senior lawyer for the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

. Dwivedi’s grandfather (paternal), S. N. Dwivedi was a judge at the Supreme Court of India, and her grandfather (maternal)

Raj Mangal Pande Raj Mangal Pande (10 May 1920 – 22 November 1993) was an Indian politician. He was elected to 9th Lok Sabha from Deoria constituency of Uttar Pradesh as a member of the Janata Dal. He served as Minister of Human Resource Development in Chand ...

was a minister in the union government of India. She received her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from

Lady Shri Ram College Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) is a constituent women's college, affiliated with the University of Delhi, and has a legacy in women's education. History Established in 1956 in New Delhi by the late Lala Shri Ram in memory of his wife ...

, Delhi and her

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from St. Stephen's College. She pursued her M.Phil from

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

and received her

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

from

Career

Dwivedi is currently an associate professor at Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT Delhi. She had earlier taught at St. Stephen's College and at Dept. of English, Delhi University. She was a

visiting scholar In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

at Centre for Fictionality Studies,

Aarhus University Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

in 2013 and 2014. Dwivedi's political writings have been critical of caste oppression, religious discrimination, Hindu nationalism. She is the editor and co-founder of the international multilingual journal '' Philosophy World Democracy'' with Zeynep Direk,

Achille Mbembe Joseph-Achille Mbembe, known as Achille Mbembe (; born 1957), is a Cameroonian historian, political theorist, and public intellectual who is a research professor in history and politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economy Research at the ...

Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy ( , ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...

Shaj Mohan Shaj Mohan is a philosopher based in India. His philosophical works are in the areas of metaphysics, reason, philosophy of technology, philosophy of politics, and secrecy. Mohan's works are based on the principle of ''anastasis'' according to ...

, and

Mireille Delmas-Marty Mireille Delmas-Marty (10 May 1941 – 12 February 2022) was a French jurist, honorary professor at the Collège de France, and a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. She was a member of numerous legislative and constitutiona ...

. American journal for critical theory, ''Episteme'', published a special issue on the work of Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan in 2021. She is a member of the ''Theory Committee'' of the

International Comparative Literature Association The International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) (French: Association Internationale de Littérature Comparée—AILC) is an international organization for international research in comparative literature. Founded in 1954, ICLA pro ...

along with Robert J. C. Young, Stefan Willer and others. Dwivedi is a member of the International Network of Women Philosophers.

Philosophical works and views

Dwivedi's philosophical standpoint departs from the school of

deconstruction The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...

and it was described as ''deconstructive materialism''. Her philosophical research projects developed in a “community of friendship with Jean-Luc Nancy, Bernard Stiegler, Achille Mbembe, and Barbara Cassin”. She publishes in the areas of

narratology Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by Tzvetan Todorov (''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretical li ...

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, and

. Dwivedi’s work on

Psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

is focused on the theory of drives in

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

. Jean-Luc Nancy said that her work on Freud is “very enlightening” and she has “tied up a very important link between the texts of Freud”, thereby showing the connections between Freud’s theory of drives, mass psychology and politics.

School of thought

Dwivedi said that philosophy is a disruptive practice following from the Socratic model. Following from it there is "a necessary relation between philosophy and politics". She is opposed to treating philosophical traditions as adjectives of philosophical practice. In an introduction to the December 2017 ''Women Philosphers' Journal'' guest-edited by Dwivedi,

Barbara Cassin Barbara Cassin (; born 24 October 1947) is a French philologist and philosopher. She was elected to the Académie française on 4 May 2018. Cassin is the recipient of the Grand Prize of Philosophy of the Académie française. She is an Emeritus ...

wrote Dwivedi "is a philosopher" whose refusal to make "the post-colonial the first and the last word undoubtedly allows us to clarify with greater precision what is happening to women, philosophers and intellectuals in India today". In an interview with ''

Mediapart ''Mediapart'' is an independent French investigative online newspaper created in 2008 by Edwy Plenel, former editor-in-chief of ''Le Monde''. ''Mediapart'' is published in French, English and Spanish. ''Mediapart's'' income is solely derived ...

'' Dwivedi said that postcolonial theory and Hindu nationalism are two versions of the same theory, and that they are both upper caste political projects. Dwivedi noted that in the field of

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

postcolonial theory remains an upper caste theoretical standpoint which has been preventing lower caste feminists from opening their own currents in the context of the

Me too movement #MeToo is a social movement against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in ...

. Dwivedi wrote in her editorial introduction to the ''

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

'' journal ''La Revue des Femmes-Philosophes'' that postcolonial theory is continuous with Hindu nationalism.

''Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-politics''

In 2018, Dwivedi co-authored '' Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-politics'' with the philosopher

. The book examines different aspects of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

's thought from a new philosophical system based on the concept of ''anastasis''.

wrote the foreword to ''Gandhi and Philosophy'' and said that it gives a new orientation to philosophy which is neither metaphysics nor hypophysics. The book proposes that in addition to the

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

tendency in philosophy there is a 'hypophysical tendency'; hypophysics is defined as "a conception of nature as value". As per hypophysics the distance from

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

that human beings and natural objects come to have through the effects of

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

lessens their value, or brings them closer to

evil Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...

. Gandhi's concept of passive force or

nonviolence Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

is an implication of his hypophysical commitment to nature. Dwivedi made a separation between ''metaphysics'' and ''hypophysics'' in her

Royal Institute of Philosophy The Royal Institute of Philosophy, founded in 1925, is a charity organisation that offers lectures and conferences on philosophical topics. The Institute is "dedicated to the advancement of philosophy in all its forms, in order to access the wid ...

lecture, "While both seek to diagnose the 'west', each opens on to distinct futures: metaphysics to an "other thinking" than philosophy, hypophysics to the other of thinking itself". ''Gandhi and Philosophy'' identifies racism with caste practices and controversially ascribes a form of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

to Gandhi. When ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' reported on the developing uproar resulting from allegations of Gandhi's racism, Dwivedi said in response that Gandhi was a specific type of racist "invented a new basis for racism, which is based on moral superiority".

Scholarship and public interventions on caste

Dwivedi is noted for writing against caste oppression and arguing that Hinduism was constructed in the early 20^th century by the upper caste leaders of India to hide caste discrimination. As quoted by

The Print The Print is an Indian online newspaper, owned by Printline Media Pvt Ltd. It was launched by journalist Shekhar Gupta in August 2017. History Printline Media Pvt. Ltd, founded by journalist Shekhar Gupta, was incorporated in New Delhi, India ...

“The Hindu religion was invented in the early 20th century in order to hide the fact that the lower caste people are the real majority of India…” In an interview to

LARB ''Larb'' ( lo, ລາບ; th, ลาบ, , , also spelled ', ', ' or ') is a type of Lao meat salad that is the national dish of Laos, along with green papaya salad and sticky rice Glutinous rice (''Oryza sativa var. glutinosa''; also ...

she said that “Hindu” as a word is not of Indian origin. The British colonial census revealed that the lower caste people of India are the majority of India and the upper castes constructed the Hindu category in collaboration with the colonial administration. She wrote in the journal ESPRIT that caste oppression is masked through the Hindu category. In the 2021 January cover story of the Caravan magazine titled “The Hindu Hoax: How Upper Castes Invented a Hindu Majority” she argued that lower caste political leaders were opposed to the Hindu category when it was being proposed during the colonial rule. In the same article Dwivedi said that colonialism was mostly a liberating experience for the lower caste people, as it allowed them access to public spaces and public institutions such as schools and the army. After the publication of the Caravan article Dwivedi received threats against her as reported by Le Monde. Jean-Luc Nancy wrote in the Liberation about Dwivedi’s writings on caste oppression and expressed concern about the threats to her. She opposed caste oppression in several interviews including to Le Monde and articles. Dwivedi has also supported individuals suffering under institutional caste oppression. Dwivedi believes that the

caste system Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

is the dominant factor in the organization of Indian society and governance, and destruction of the caste order is the "only worthy pursuit of Indian politics." However, in her view, this goal cannot be achieved through routine transfer of political power but would instead require a French-style

social revolution Social revolutions are sudden changes in the structure and nature of society. These revolutions are usually recognized as having transformed society, economy, culture, philosophy, and technology along with but more than just the political syst ...

Reception

The Book Review said that the philosophical project of ''Gandhi and Philosophy'' is to create new evaluative categories, "the authors, in engaging with Gandhi's thought, create their categories, at once descriptive and evaluative" while pointing to the difficulty given by the rigour of a "A seminal if difficult read for those with an appetite for philosophy". Robert Bernasconi noted that ''Gandhi and Philosophy'' is "not a book that you will understand at first reading". The difficulty due to the constructivist style was noted by other authors as well. ''

'' stated "Mohan and Dwivedi have done a masterful job of avoiding the binary fork — hagiography or vituperation — as much of Gandhi and hagiography comes from a need to spiritualise Gandhi". ''Economic and Political Weekly'' pointed to Dwivedi's participation in the paradigm of "western philosophy", especially when Gandhi's goal was to create an alternative to

Eurocentrism Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism) is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western worl ...

. '' EPW'' said that her work may be of interest only to

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a term used to describe some philosophers and philosophical traditions that do not fall under the umbrella of analytic philosophy. However, there is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Pri ...

as she does not participate in ''Indic'' discourse. ''The Indian Express'' commented on the negative implications of ''Gandhi and Philosophy'' and said that through this book "Gandhi can be seen as a nihilist — someone who even decries sex for reproduction and would like human society to wither away".

Bibliography

Books

* '' Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-politics,'' Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.

Edited

* ''The Public Sphere: From Outside the West,'' Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. * ''Narratology and Ideology: Negotiating Context, Form, and Theory in Postcolonial Narratives,'' Ohio State University Press, 2018.
Virality of Evil Philosophy in the Time of a Pandemic

Rowman & Littlefield Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

, 2022.

Articles

* "A Flight Indestinate", in ''Coronavirus, Psychoanalysis, and Philosophy'', Editors Fernando Castrillón et al., Oxford: Routledge, 2021. * �
Jean-Luc Nancy: in whose wild heart immortality sleeps homeless
��, ''Philosophy World Democracy''. * " May 1968 in the Memories of Imagination", ''Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies'', Vol 22, 2020. * �
The Hindu Hoax How upper castes invented a Hindu majority
�� Caravan Magazine cover story (with S. Mohan and R. Janardhanan) *
Nous ne saurons jamais pourquoi et pour quoi le monde existe et tourne
in

France Culture France Culture is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France. Its programming encompasses a wide variety of features on historical, philosophical, sociopolitical, and scientific themes (including debates, discussions, and documentari ...

. * �
Ce que l'hindouisme recouvre
��, (with S, Mohan), Espirit, June 2020. * �
A Mystery of Mysteries!–
�� ''European Journal of Psychoanalysis'', 2021. * �
On Freud’s Group Psychology. A Debate (J.-L. Nancy, D. Dwivedi, S. Benvenuto)
��, ''European Journal of Psychoanalysis'', 2021. *
The transitivity of the We in Narrative and Political Discourse
, ''

Style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

'', Vol 54, No. 1, 2020. *
Nancy's Wager
, Philosophy World Democracy, 2021. * ''“'' Homologies in Freud and Derrida: Civilization and the Death Drive''”, Eco-Ethica,'' Vol 9, 2020. * �
The Endogenous Ends of Education: For Aaron Swartz
��, (with S, Mohan) ''European Journal of Psychoanalysis'', 2021. * “Modal of Lost Responsibilities”, i
Virality of Evil Philosophy in the Time of a Pandemic

, 2022.

Interviews

#ELLEVoices: Divya Dwivedi On How She Is #ImaginingTheWorldToBe

Elle Magazine ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the wo ...

.
A French-style revolution alone can help India recover from its current caste stasis, says Prof Dwivedi

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

* ttps://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/philosopher-en-inde Une nuit de philosophie (1/4) : Philosopher en IndeInterview with '' Les Chemins de la philosophie'' at the

Headquarters Paris, available as Podcast. *
The proletariat are all those who are denied the collective faculty of imagination
, ILNA
Interview with Divya Dwivedi

Unesco The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

References

External links

Divya Dwivedi
Author page at

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

episteme issue 4: philosophy for another time; towards a collective political imagination
Special issue on the philosophical work of Divya Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan {{DEFAULTSORT:Dwivedi, Divya Deconstruction Narratology Heidegger scholars Ontologists Philosophers of nihilism Living people Indian women philosophers Lady Shri Ram College alumni IIT Delhi faculty St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni IIT Delhi alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Indian philosophers

Early life and education

Career

Philosophical works and views

School of thought

''Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-politics''

Scholarship and public interventions on caste

Reception

Bibliography

Books

Edited

Articles

Interviews

See also

References

Further reading

External links