The Courage to Be: Uday Mehta

From left to right: Roger Berkowitz, Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center; Uday Mehta, Professor of Political Science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and Zelda May Bas, author and student fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center.

(Image courtesy of Jessica Chappe.)

By Zelda May Bas

On Monday, March 30^th, the Hannah Arendt Center welcomed Professor Uday Mehta as keynote speaker for its second “Courage to Be” dinner.

Professor Mehta, distinguished Professor of Political Science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, gave a lecture on his essay “Putting Courage at the Centre: Gandhi on Civility, Society and Self–Knowledge.”

Mehta opened his presentation by exposing the common idea that courage has no prominence in politics and, more specifically, in democracy. He moved on to explore what it might mean to place courage and related notions such as a willingness to die at the center of one’s conception of an ethical life, both for individuals and collectives. For this, he looked at Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement which reveals a profound connection between courage and democracy – a courage that linked Gandhi’s ethical and political philosophy.

Putting Courage at the Centre: Gandhi on Civility, Society and Self-Knowledge - Uday Mehta from Hannah Arendt Center on Vimeo.

This was the second time Professor Mehta spoke at Bard College. We were thrilled to have him speak at the Hannah Arendt Center’s spring 2011 conference on “Lying and Politics.” In his lecture entitled “Is Lying a Political Virtue?,” he said: “For Gandhi, the devotion to truth has its analog in the high value he placed on courage, both individual and collective. Courage was a quality for which no social or political artifact could serve as substitute. As Gandhi said, ‘The path of truth is for the brave alone, never for a coward.’”

Following his well-received speech and discussion, I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Mehta. You can view it here:

An Interview with Uday Mehta from Hannah Arendt Center on Vimeo.

Please click here to read a synopsis of our first "Courage to Be" dinner.

To learn more about our "Courage to Be" program, click here.