Pagdandi Fellowship – Call for Applications

Dear friends,

Today the way our knowledge system is set up, it is possible for a city bred person to go through school and then higher education followed by a doctorate in a subject like economics from the most reputable institutions in India and abroad, and subsequently become influential in policy making — without having interacted with a farmer or an artisan, a pastoralist, an adivasi or a construction worker. In fact, such has been the journey of many at the highest levels of policy making and academic discourse.

India today has many worlds of knowledge, which often do not speak to one another. One is the world many of us have been part of, represented by the Universities of the world – Harvard and MIT, Oxbridge down to the IITs, DU and Ashoka in India. Then there are those of the Sufi saints and the Bhakti poets, of the wandering scholar-minstrels who learned from the everyday life of people and took knowledge from village to village, of the craftsmen who produced the rock cut temples and the pashmina shawl, of the farmers who have cultivated the land, of the adivasis who have lived with the mountains, forests and rivers.

What would education be like if it drew from this plurality of worlds? It is with this idea that this year we are offering the first edition of the Pagdandi Fellowship, a six month higher learning program. The deadline for applications is 30th April. Please see the link below to know more:

https://pagdandi.substack.com/p/pagdandi-fellowship-2025-26

If you know young people between 20 and 30 who are curious about the world and are looking beyond conventional learning, do let them know about this program and help us spread the word.

Our programs are offered as gifts. We put together the resources to organise these programs from gifts given by those who wish to see such programs running. If you think that we need spaces for dialogue and learning of this kind, you may consider contributing towards organising this Fellowship. To know our details and for more information please reply to us or email us at [email protected].