OCLF - 2019 | How Public Speaking transformed India, and reshaped politics A speech by Priyadarshi Dutta (Interaction with students)
Description
The public speakers were actually far removed from loquacious men. They were purposeful readers and serious thinkers who were on a mission to enfranchise their countrymen. Thus they emerged as the new icons of the era that people loved and cheered. They made the audience feel empowered and responsible unlike ever before in Indian history. They were the first to espouse national interest and demand accountability from the government. Despite the fact that the British were irked with their empire of eloquence, and a section of Indians was doubtful of the effectiveness of speeches, they continued to gain traction with the masses.
Speechmaking is essentially training in thinking rather than in speaking. Raja Ram Mohan Roy pioneered analytical thinking on contemporary questions. He pondered upon judicial and revenue issues, freedom of press, rights of women and settlement of Europeans in India. He combined these with his thoughts on religious and social reforms. He expressed his ideas mostly in the form of essays, thereby becoming the precursor of prose writing in India. Oratory is critically dependent on the growth of prose. Roy thus prepared India for the great era of public speaking. He led India into a new time zone where thinkers lived in the present rather than in eternity.
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