BodhiCommons
10 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 4 years ago -BodhiCommons is a left and progressive bilingual website in English and Malayalam. This podcast is a collection of lectures and talks on various topics like Marxian Political Economy, Feminism, Politics of India and Kerala, organised by BodhiCommons during the Corona lockdown in 2020.
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Episodes
Stimulus for Whom? Demystifying the Economic Package of the Government of India
May 26, 2020 14:12 - 1 hour - 68.5 MBR. Ramakumar (Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences) and V. Sridhar (Associate Editor, Frontline) discusses the special package announced by the Government of India to fight against the economic downturn due to Covid-19 lockdown. They unpack the schemes devoted for agriculture, industry, and other sectors in the wake of ongoing crisis, exacerbated by the lockdown.
COVID-19 Pandemic and Food Security
May 02, 2020 11:07 - 1 hour - 57.8 MBProfessor Madhura Swaminathan talks about the situation of food security in India in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 pandemic has struck India where millions of Indians are malnourished and the situation will be worsened with large scale unemployment. Professor Madhura Swaminathan explains why the state should step in with measures of universal public distribution system (PDS), doubling cereal transfers to households, and expanded food basket under the PDS to tackle this crisis ...
The Economic Impacts of of COVID-19 Pandemic - Prof. R. Ramakumar
April 17, 2020 22:47 - 1 hour - 90.7 MBIn this lecture, Prof R. Ramakumar talks about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic and highlights the uniqueness of the crisis as it induces both demand and supply side shocks. The lecture shatters some misconceptions about the pandemic’s links to global agriculture and goes on to highlight the inadequacy of India’s economic package at a time when governments around the world are abandoning the orthodoxy of neoliberal economics.
Science, Environment and Society: Emerging Lessons
April 12, 2020 09:22 - 1 hour - 71.5 MBIn this lecture, Prof. T. Jayaraman talks about the history of science as well as how the benefits of scientific knowledge and practice often tend to get appropriated for private gain under capitalism. The lecture also includes a critique of mainstream environmentalism that tends to ignore the livelihoods question. Prof. Jayaraman highlights the significance of productivity and science to reasonably address the environmental question without losing sight of the impact on livelihoods.
Science, Environment and Society: Emerging Lessons - Prof. T. Jayaraman
April 12, 2020 09:22 - 1 hour - 71.5 MBIn this lecture, Prof. T. Jayaraman talks about the history of science as well as how the benefits of scientific knowledge and practice often tend to get appropriated for private gain under capitalism. The lecture also includes a critique of mainstream environmentalism that tends to ignore the livelihoods question. Prof. Jayaraman highlights the significance of productivity and science to reasonably address the environmental question without losing sight of the impact on livelihoods.
Coronashock and the Global Left - Dr. Vijay Prashad
April 07, 2020 21:17 - 58 minutes - 54.5 MBIn this lecture, Dr. Vijay Prashad looks into the history and talks about why the COVID-19 pandemic has paralysed the world. He explains the dramatic transformation of capitalism from the 1970s to the current time, its implications, and the tasks for the global Left in the way forward.
Marxian Political Economy: Lecture 4 - Questions & Answers
April 04, 2020 22:30 - 1 hour - 59.9 MBThe fourth session of Marxian Political Economy lecture series has Prof. Venkatesh Athreya responding to the queries of the listeners, based on the previous three episodes. The queries and the discussion ranges from reading recommendations on Marxism to the role of mass movements, questions about stock markets, labour theory of value and the historical specificity of the capitalist mode of production.
Marxian Political Economy: Lecture 3 - Theory of Surplus Value
April 02, 2020 21:28 - 52 minutes - 49 MBIn the third episode of Marxian Political Economy lecture series, Prof. Venkatesh Athreya introduces the circuits of capital and the general production process under capitalism. As Marx notes, it is at the “abode of production” that bourgeois democratic ideals breaks down. This is explained in relation to surplus value that is fundamentally produced by the working class which is appropriated by the capitalist class that owns the means of production. The episode explains what constitutes surp...
Marxian Political Economy: Lecture 2 - Commodity
March 31, 2020 21:34 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBIn the second lecture of Marxian Political Economy, Prof. Venktesh Athreya examines Karl Marx’s analysis of the commodity and how the value of a commodity is determined in a capitalist society. A clear distinction is made between how Marx’s theory which highlighted the social relations involved in commodity production was distinct from bourgeois conceptualisation. These relations between people are mystified under capitalism as relations between things – which Marx referred to as commodity f...
Marxian Political Economy: Lecture 1 - Historical Materialism
March 29, 2020 20:23 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBIn the first lecture, Prof. Venktesh Athreya talks about Marx's approach to the study of society, which starts with the society as a whole. According to Marx, man's fundamental activity is production, which does not exist in isolation, but is essentially social production. As historical development occurs, production relations change to keep up with change, leading to contradictions with the existing production forces. The Marxist approach thus emphasises that every society is transito...