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I went to a most interesting talk last week at the Hull Medical Society – the last of the programme before the summer break. The guest speaker was Lord Parek of Kingston upon Hull. The title of the talk:

“A perceived conversation between Mahatma Gandhi and Osama bin Laden,”

had been set last year, before the death of Osama bin Laden yet if anything, it made the audience more interested to hear Lord Parek speak.

He opened his talk by explaining the similarities between the two men – both were well educated (partly in the UK) and came from wealthy families, both were highly religious and political and turned their back on the family wealth. Both of them saw a threat from outside nations – for Gandhi it was the British rule in India, for bin Laden – the Americans and both spent some time trying to address this threat from outside their native countries, Gandhi having spent time in South Africa, bin Laden in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

However, both took a completely different position on how to deal with the threat they faced. Gandhi chose non-violence and bin Laden chose terrorism.

Why? Well that was the basis of his talk and you could have heard a pin drop during the hour that diminished all too quickly.

A sign under a statue of Gandhi in the center of Wellington, New Zealand - revealing one of Gandhi's 5 teachings to bring about world peace

Lord Parek, a philosopher by profession, seeks to explore the reasons for this in a perceived correspondence between the two men, beginning with bin Laden writing to Gandhi, explaining the reasons for his actions. You can read a sample of the letters on The Gandhi Foundation website. A longer version can be found in “The Stranger’s Religion: Fascination and Fear” edited by Anna Lannstrom.

This technique of ‘narrative role play’ provides a creative way of exploring topics. Richard Millwood reminded me the other day, that we have used it at Ultralab (particularly led by Gill Roberts) in planning new technological interventions, by staff taking on the characters of some of the leading thinkers that have shaped our pedagogical approach, whilst exploring the possibilities of the intervention – for example, Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey, Carl Rogers, Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner. See one such poster invitation to staff below:

Image courtesy of Gill Roberts, 2003

Tags:   conceptual · creativity · narrativeNo Comments