Dr.M.Nadarajah is a quintessential social activist,a crusader of environmental protection,an outstanding social scientist and a brilliant documentary maker.He spent his entire life working in the interconnected issues of social change,development,urbanism,environmentalism,sustainabilty and spirituality.A serious student of Marxism, Nadarajah found the class-reductionist perspective of historical materialism inadequate in addressing various issues related to culture ,ethnicity,gender,ecology,etc .Based on his extensive and in-depth research ,he formulated a "non-workerist model of historical materialism",and the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)awarded Nadarajah PhD for his thesis. His work was published as a critically acclaimed book" Culture,Gender,Ecology:Beyond Workerism" in 1999.Besides contributing numerous socially provocative columns in the print media in Malaysia being an Indian Malaysian,Nadarajah w is no doubtbooks on society,culture,politics,consumerism, etc,and co-edited a famous volume on Urban Crisis which was brought out by the Tokyo-based UN University.
The Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship of the NIPPON Foundation in 2005 took Dr.Nadarajah to various culturally rich and religiously diverse communities in the different countries in the Asia on his "Research Pilgrimage" to understand the urgency of global sustainabilty as the "business as usual "approach our routine daily existence hides a devastating crisis awaiting to engulf the humanity as a whole.His work has partly been consolidated in his latest volume LIVING PATHWAYS (published by Areca books) :a combination of attractive as well as thought provoking photographs of nature captured by his lens and text.The text is divided into different sections or "meditations" on the "cosmologies"of Asia to help self-introspection and social analysis by the reader.The photographs on the opposite side of the texts accentuate the intensity of the meditations.The pictures are to be LOOKED INTO and not merely looked at.There absolutely is no doubt that LIVING PATHWAYS is a classic on sustainability and spirituality to be read by all and taught to children in all schools.
A self-effacing Dr.Nadarajah has not found time to set up a family of his own.At 61 he looks forward to many unfinished tasks for accomplishing his mission.Nat (Nadarajah's friends call him so)joined the Madras School of Social Work to understand social work,but discontinued the MA course after the first year feeling disappointed with the lack of depth in social work despite my persuasion. At JNU he found the significance of "social" and since then he has been in social activism without rest.He keeps a low profile and never seeks recognition for his remarkable academic and societal contribution.I consider it a privilege of being a close associate of the great social scientist Dr. M.Nadarajah
The Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship of the NIPPON Foundation in 2005 took Dr.Nadarajah to various culturally rich and religiously diverse communities in the different countries in the Asia on his "Research Pilgrimage" to understand the urgency of global sustainabilty as the "business as usual "approach our routine daily existence hides a devastating crisis awaiting to engulf the humanity as a whole.His work has partly been consolidated in his latest volume LIVING PATHWAYS (published by Areca books) :a combination of attractive as well as thought provoking photographs of nature captured by his lens and text.The text is divided into different sections or "meditations" on the "cosmologies"of Asia to help self-introspection and social analysis by the reader.The photographs on the opposite side of the texts accentuate the intensity of the meditations.The pictures are to be LOOKED INTO and not merely looked at.There absolutely is no doubt that LIVING PATHWAYS is a classic on sustainability and spirituality to be read by all and taught to children in all schools.
A self-effacing Dr.Nadarajah has not found time to set up a family of his own.At 61 he looks forward to many unfinished tasks for accomplishing his mission.Nat (Nadarajah's friends call him so)joined the Madras School of Social Work to understand social work,but discontinued the MA course after the first year feeling disappointed with the lack of depth in social work despite my persuasion. At JNU he found the significance of "social" and since then he has been in social activism without rest.He keeps a low profile and never seeks recognition for his remarkable academic and societal contribution.I consider it a privilege of being a close associate of the great social scientist Dr. M.Nadarajah
Totally agree with your views of Nat, Professor
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