The place where the seed was found: Auroville, Pondicherry
What we think, what we feel, and what we imagine manifest in what we become, what we attract and what we can create respectively. This is not only what nature tells, but also what philosophers say. One of the founders of University of Democracy Foundation, Dr G Abbaiah, happened to attend Auroville Literature Festival, Pondicherry, during 25-27, August 2023, to enhance the understanding of our culture and society. He has already developed interest in the subject of democracy, and he wanted to expose himself to different opportunities of learning like Auroville Literature Festival.
The serendipity has played its role to connect Dr G Abbaiah with Dr K Krishna Mohan, Professor of Psychology, and Dr K Rukmini, Professor of English during the literature festival. The trio had discussion on the working of our democracy and the service delivery of our democracy. Dr K Krishna Mohan, and Dr K Rukmini resonated with the ideas of Dr G Abbaiah to work on democracy to create a better democracy which is more serviceable to the people. Dr K Krishna Mohan suggested and floated the idea of having an institutional platform to carry on working on democracy and spread the idea in the society. Their suggestion has resulted in the creation of the civil society and the think tank with the name of University of Democracy Foundation on 10.10.2023, in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India.
What is envisioned is what is possible in reality. Something continues to be impossible until the birth of an idea or a challenger to change the status quo. A system working well reveals the presence of truth in it. A system not working well becomes answerable to the greatest virtue of humanism, the truth.
Realizing an egalitarian society through a better democracy is not a utopia, if all the wisdom in the society can unite for a common and noble cause of a society for happy and harmonious human living.
A problem in a system is like a mother for a solution. The solution search in the system of democracy shall be holistic such that the solution shall not lead to another problem. The solution shall be explored by being open to new thinking and ideation. If the approach of thinking out of box is not giving solution, the approach of thinking from a different box shall be welcomed.
University of Democracy Foundation embraces the challenge to bridge the gap between theory and the practice in democracy. It promotes creating solutions for the challenges in democracy by exploring new thinking, new ideation, untried ideas, challenging conventional wisdom, thinking from different boxes, disruptive ideation, and technology assisted ideation.
The practice of democracy has given birth to many challenges over the time. The challenges are noticeable and unnoticeable. The prominently noticeable challenges are money power in elections, social divisions on the lines of political parties, vote bank politics of different types, criminality in politics, role of religion and cast in mobilizing voters, corruption, political vendetta, hegemony of majority and other conceivable problems. The irony is that these challenges precipitated over the time in spite of electoral reforms, political reforms, institutional reforms and other efforts by thinkers and civil societies. The unnoticeable challenges are corollary or consequential in nature and the same can be figured out by doing systemic research on the societal impacts of the practice of democracy.
The planet earth has created a fertile environment for the birth of humanity. The succession of governance — from primitive forms to tribal leadership, religious leadership, oligarchy, dictatorship, and kingdom — to the latest form of democracy symbolizes betterment, more justice, more logic, more inclusivity and more truth.
University of Democracy Foundation stands for embracing leadership to figure out the presence or absence of truth in democracy — if democracy is doubted in delivering its philosophy of governance of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Constituted based on the statutory guidelines in the trust deed.
| Name of Trust Member | Designation |
|---|---|
| Dr K Krishna Mohan | Mentor |
| Dr G Abbaiah | Chairman |
| Dr Alapati Srinivas | Secretary |
| Sri B Murali Krishnaiah | Treasurer |
| Sri B Venkatramaiah | Member |
| Sri G Shiva Kumar | Member |
Experts, intellectuals, and leaders united by a common vision of a better democracy.
| S.No | Name | Affiliation / Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dr K Krishna Mohan | USA |
| 2 | Sri B Rama Mohan Rao | FDR |
| 3 | Dr P Subba Rao | STEP |
| 4 | Dr A Krishna Mohan | JNTUK |
| 5 | Dr M Kumara Swamy | JNTUK |
| 6 | Dr BR Doraswamy Naick | JNTUK |
| 7 | Sri Raghu Ram | JNTUK |
| 8 | Dr Vamshi | Pydah College |
| 9 | Sri Vidya Sagar | Rotary |
| 10 | Sri Raju | TPT |
| 11 | Sri Suresh Perugu | Hyderabad |
| 12 | Sri Ram | Psychologist, Hyderabad |
| 13 | Sri Sam | Skill Gym, Hyderabad |
| 14 | Ms Lavanya | Skill Gym, Hyderabad |
| 15 | Sri Basha | Polytechnic |
| 16 | Dr Nagalingeswar | Kurnool |
| 17 | Dr Keshavachandra | Anantapur |
| 18 | Sri Ramana | Anantapur |
| 19 | Sri Subba Rao | Ideal College |
| 20 | Sri Reddieh | ISRO |
| 21 | Sri Gagarin | Bangalore |
| 22 | Sri Vishnuvardhan Raju | Hyderabad |
All the stake holders of democracy who are willing to share their best ideas for improving the working of our democracy are invited to be the members of the project.
Regd. No: BK IV : 100/2023 | Income Tax Exemptions: 12A, 80G
D.No: 2-10-7/1, Madhava Nagar, Kakinada – 533003, Andhra Pradesh, India