Under our ongoing partnership with Pondicherry University (the official MoU was signed in August 2023), we have launched a new post-graduate course on ‘Social Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo’.

Much hard work by Dr. Beloo Mehra, Senior Academic Mentor and Renaissance Editor, went into designing this semester-length course and submitting it for official approval by the Board of Studies and other academic bodies at the university. Dr. Richa Tiwari, Chair of Sri Aurobindo at Pondicherry University was instrumental in coordinating all the official approvals for the course.

The orientation session of the course happened on November 23, 2023. About 50 students, primarily from Sociology department and some from a few other departments, have registered for the paper which is an elective open for students from all departments and programmes at the university.

Dr. Beloo Mehra is currently teaching the course at the university, 2 to 3 times per week.

Course description:

This course is designed to acquaint students with the fundamentals of Sri Aurobindo’s theory of social development and its continuing significance and relevance. Sociological thinkers across the world seem to agree that the present crisis concerning individuals, communities, states, and nations can be adequately addressed only with an evolution of consciousness in the humanity. Beginning with an exploration of a deeper view of the relation between individual and society, the course examines the inner evolutionary processes behind the external progress of the societies, the various stages they go through as they evolve from a loosely-formed organic collectivity to a more organised and complex collectivity. Finally, the necessity and significance of the deeper subjective and psychological bases of further evolution in the individual and societies are considered.