TEDxChennai - Redefining Community Impact & Social Inclusivity

Ours is a funny culture.

I say 'funny' because I'm still trying to wrap my head around how it forces us to be something that is radically different from what we really are. In our culture of rugged individualism - in which we generally feel that we dare not be honest about ourselves, even with the person in the pew next to us - we bandy around the word "community."

We apply it to almost any collection of individuals - a town, a church, a synagogue, a fraternal organisation, an apartment complex, or for that matter, a professional association - regardless of how poorly those individuals communicate with each other. If anything, it is a complete false use of the word.

And if must use the word at all, then it's up to us to use it meaningfully. We must restrict it to a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to "rejoice together, mourn together," and to "delight in each other, make others' conditions our own."

But what, then, does such a rare group look like? How does it function? What is a true definition of community, if there exists one?

I say, any group that fosters inclusivity, commitment and consensus.

Still, you may ask, how on earth can a group in which individuality is encouraged, in which individual differences flourish, routinely arrive at consensus? Even when we develop a richer language for community operations, I doubt we will ever have a formula for the consensual process. The process itself is an adventure, an excursion, that sometimes never ends. But then there is something inherently almost mystical, magical about it. It works.

Community is also a spirit - but not in the way that the familiar phrase "community spirit" is usually understood. To most of us it implies a competitive spirit, a jingoistic boosterism, such as that displayed by fans of winning football teams or the citizens of a town in which they take great pride. "Our town is better than yours" might be taken as a typical expression of community spirit. But this understanding of the spirit of community is profoundly misleading as well as dreadfully shallow. The members of a group who have achieved genuine community do take pleasure, even delight - in themselves as a collective. They know they have won something together, collectively discovered something of great value, that they are "onto something." 

“And what we will all be seeking when we decamp, and for the rest of our lives, will be large, stable communities of like-minded people, which is to say relatives. They no longer exist. The lack of them is not only the main cause, but probably the only cause of our shapeless discontent in the midst of such prosperity. We thought we could do without tribes and clans. Well, we can't.” 

TEDxChennai - We are a 'Community'

Born from the cultural curiosity rooted in city of Chennai, TEDxChennai is a heterogeneous amalgamation of souls who believe that all knowledge is connected. At TEDxChennai, our key resolve is to bring people together to seek a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world, and to inspire ideas and action for a better future for us all. Our initiatives seek to provide unexpected insights and transformative inspiration by urging our audiences to listen to people and ideas relatively outside their fields and life experiences. We connect people who value ideas and love creative conversations. Above all, TEDxChennai is about passion, laughter, beauty, ingenuity, empathy, conversations and ideas with the power of changing the world.

And, inclusion.

Why inclusion? Because the world is changing, because moral values are being re-examined as stereotypical thinking is increasingly exposed, because national and international guidance advocates inclusion and, quite simply, because any alternative seems unacceptable, if not morally flawed. 

There are some values that underpin social inclusion for us.

Everyone needs support (sometimes some of us need more support than others)

Everyone can learn (as human beings we all grow and change and make mistakes, and we are all capable of learning)

Everyone can contribute (we need to recognise, encourage and value each person’s contributions, including our own)

Everyone can communicate (not using words doesn’t mean we don’t have anything to say)

Everyone is ready (this needs no explanation).

None of us has to pass a test or meet a set of criteria before we can be included, and together we are better (we are not dreaming of a world where everyone is like us, the difference is our most important renewable resource).

“We ought to, as human beings, have the courage to seek a collective “truth” that benefits our species the most, and to accept that all of our doctrines and beliefs may just be incomplete. That we don’t know it all and that perhaps we never will. That others like us may have something to teach us, and we may have something to contribute to their communities. That communities, types of people, are divisions we’ve created for ourselves. That for all of what we know, the knowledge and wisdom that we have gathered in the few millennia may be a small fraction of what is there to be discovered, understood and applied.”

Transforming Ideas into Impact

At TEDxChennai, we believe in celebrating human inventiveness, creativity, and resourcefulness while promoting a well-intended, positively oriented mindset. And this belief reflects in our theme for the year 2019. Months ago, when we started on our hunt for our central focus for the year, we met our match - IF.

Aren’t most discoveries and inventions made in the past centuries, a by-product of the questions an inventor, an orator or an artist asked?

Questions that left them wonderstruck - “Wow, that’s a really interesting perspective!”.

Questions that piqued their curiosity - “So, it is possible.”

The world we inhabit today is one full of challenges, opportunities and contradictions where our ability to grapple with the future is grounded in our choices. We are deeply human. Ever curious and consistently evolving. Every meaningful element of human progress has happened only and only because humans have shared ideas with each other and then collaborated to turn those ideas into reality.

“IF” - this two-letter word, though terse and short has so many expectations and illustrations built around it. This ancient question is not just the theme for the year but the mindset we have collectively adopted to enrich and build this community of ours. The very expression is a catalyst in either the spoken word or intimate thought germinating enquiry and curiosity at the same time. Our resolve at TEDxChennai this year, is to explore “IF” as a space where ideas are born and eventually take shape. And in this endeavour, we are urging everyone to be a seeker of ideas by using it to question the status quo, to evolve and leave no stone unturned to explore the endless possibilities of life.

On 10 March 2019, we celebrated our sixth annual event since inception in 2009, by infusing the world-renowned TED platform with the local energy and spirit of an outstanding line-up of thought-provoking talks. The event showcased a creative symphony of inspiring talks, engaging performances and stimulating experiences, strung together with a local tune of the city of Chennai. From a hand-crafted Tamil-inspired sustainable goodie bag to an event journal designed out of recycled paper and pencil doodles, to serving the best local food flavours from the city, we realised our true dream of being a 'community'.

The stellar lineup of our speakers explored the theme 'IF' in ways that left the audience baffled and curious to learn more. Here's a gist of all those amazing ideas that were discussed:

IF schools can run without teachers //Abhijit Sinha, Educator & Founder - Project DEFY

IF hummingbirds taught us time // Anusha Shankar, NAT GEO Explorer & Ecologist

IF you seek resolution // Arshdeep Singh, Photography Prodigy

IF I wrote a letter to cinema // Balaji Maheshwar, Raskolnikov

IF death deserves dignity // Dayanidhi Maran, Mokshan

IF the next Messi is from Madras // Girish Mathrubootham, Product Superstar

IF we could civilize underwater // Jun Kamei, Biomimicry Designer & Material Scientist

IF you could live in more than one world // Kenneth Mikkelsen, Founder - Futureshifts

IF gaana leads to discussion // Madras Records, Prodigal Musicians

IF we could change the way we picture gender // Meghna Chaudhary, Co-Founder - The Irrelevant Gender Project

IF small data was bigger than big data // Prerna Mukharya, Founder - Outline India

IF buildings become intelligent // Raaghav Chenthur, Architect

IF food can decode a mystery // Sashi Chelliah, Masterchef & Prison Officer

IF mountains are calling // Sofiyum, Lepcha Folk Band

IF film-making and identity is all about harmony // Sruti Harihara Subramanian, Filmmaker

IF you're happy and you know it, clap your hands // Sujith Ravindran, Author & Humanist

IF citizenship was earned and not given // Swarna Rajagopalan, Founder - The Prajnya Trust

IF roads have a makeover // Toby McCartney, Co-Founder - Macrebur

IF poetry is circular // Yang Shih Hao, CYR Wheel Performer

Somewhere along the way of planning and strategising this event, we realised that the success of any truly community effort is only as good as the people who feel included. We came to understand that diversity works best when it includes everyone, regardless of how well represented their particular demographic may be. We learned that change comes about because folks are willing to organize, folks are willing to strategise, people that believe in something better come together and put pressure on the system so the system can do nothing but act. Hence, we decided to act. We reached out to the one particular group in our society that has largely been neglected and isolated, for more reasons than one.

Despite protections national and international wide, transgenders have been a deserted community throughout the universe. The ways in which marginalisation impacts a trans person's life are interconnected; stigma and transphobia drive isolation, poverty, violence, lack of social and economic support systems, and compromised health outcomes. This year at TEDxChennai, we decided to take one step forward in creating a socially inclusive space for them through a special volunteer initiative with a Chennai-based startup, Periferry. The entire supporting crew at the TEDxChennai main event were some highly inspiring Transgender humans (a first in Asia) serving the audience through the entire day.

“Some of the world's biggest challenges can be solved by some of the world's most marginalised communities themselves. The moment you inject information, education, and an entrepreneurial spark in a community, it gets empowered enough to inspire, build, and uplift itself.” 

The Long Road Ahead

India is projected to be the youngest nation in the world by 2020, and the 250 million people preparing to join India’s workforce by 2030, will be either its biggest asset or its biggest vulnerability. It is a truth universally acknowledged that India’s ambitious growth objectives can be realised only by harnessing the immense potential of its youth. It doesn’t matter if you’re engaged in a brand-new startup, a long-standing (and maybe entrenched) mature organisation, or anything in between. The only way to attract and retain talented, engaged, team members is to create an environment that values them, creates mutual affiliation, and offers the opportunity to solve challenging problems. And that's precisely what we are working to build - a community that becomes a haven for a culture of volunteerism offering young people the promise of solving developmental challenges while also enhancing diversity, individual skills, professional competencies, social participation and inclusion.

“Offering sanctuary is a revolutionary act; it expresses love, when others offer scorn or hate. It recognises humanity, when others deny and seek to debase it. Sanctuary says 'We' rather than 'I'. It is belonging—the building block of community.” 

Today, 'community' is a contested concept and there is a distinct lack of consistency in how it is defined and conceptualised, and yet it is a ubiquitous term that peppers everyday communication. In that respect, social inclusion gets at the heart of what it means to be human: belonging, acceptance, and recognition. Social inclusion is not just about the periphery versus the centre; it is about participating as a valued member of society. Inclusion makes the link between the well being of children, our common humanity, and the social, economic, political and cultural conditions that must exist in a just and compassionate society. We hope our baby steps in this direction are able to inspire and encourage more such communities to be born and make a difference.

As UNICEF Director, Henrietta Fore, quoted in her powerful TED Talk on how we can help young people build a better future, “a massive generation of young people is about to inherit our world, and it’s our duty to leave a legacy of hope for them — but also with them.”

Onwards and upwards!

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author and do not reflect in any way those of the professional collaborations of which she is a member.