By Aswathi Prakash 

The Kshetra team was recently (March 2023) at NALSAR to deliver an elective course (Conflict Transformation through the Dialogic Method) of 16 hours in 8 sessions to the students of NALSAR. The student participants were drawn from the 2nd to 5th year of the BA LLB (Honours) degree. We also had collaborated with the NALSAR Legal Aid Cell to deliver a one day workshop on the Dialogic Method (DM) to Anganwadi workers and Paralegal volunteers of two villages the legal aid cell supported.  

Personally, I was very eager to see what it was like to deliver the DM to law students. I had heard a lot about our previous engagement with NLSIU, from before I had joined Kshetra, and was enthralled by all the anecdotes and memories my colleagues had to share. All of them, be it internal discussion or engagements with the students, had so many layers. Some of our important concepts were refined from the learnings the team had carried back from NLSIU. I wanted to experience all of it first hand – the joys, the challenges, the learnings – and so was very much looking forward to our trip to Hyderabad. 

A Journey…In more ways than one 

The journey itself began on an exciting, even stressful note: The entire team nearly missed our flight, having overlooked the fact that the departure had been advanced by 30 minutes! We ended up being the last people to board the plane, and, if not for two of our more diligent colleagues, we would have reached the gate in our own sweet time, probably compelling the flight to take off without us.  

By the time we reached Hyderabad, the stress had given way completely to eagerness, all the more for the lush, sprawling campus that was NALSAR. The greenery left us looking forward to waking up to a glorious morning, at the end of a tired day’s travel. For my own part, I was still wary of how well we were going to be received by the students, whose first response, I supposed, to anything new was to hypercritically analyse it. 

It was also a challenge, I realised as we dove into the first few day’s sessions, to stop the students from impersonalizing cases and analysing them with pre-existing (default) parameters of right and wrong. From there, the next step involved getting them to shift to uncovering layers of the problem with no preconceived notions/ with an open mind and solely with the objective of understanding the problem, towards crafting sustainable solutions. Indeed, it was actually pointed out by one of the students in the seminar course as well that as lawyers they are often taught to be critical of everything but never taught how to create! 

Shifting Gears 

Over the weekend, we took a break from interacting with law students, to offer a one-day DM workshop in Telugu for a group of Anganwadi workers and paralegal volunteers. The idea was to introduce these participants to the DM as something that would aid their day to day work, considering most of their work involved navigating conflict spaces of varying degrees. We had decided to keep the language as simple and as accessible as possible, so that the practicality of the framework was not lost in all the terminology – an approach we have followed successfully with similar audiences, previously.  

I had always wanted to engage with those working closely with the grassroots, as I strongly believe that nothing can replace the insights that one can get from working on the ground, and so was super-excited about the workshop – despite the fact that I could neither understand nor speak a word of Telugu!  

But perhaps, that was the most exciting part, that beyond the language barrier, I was able to sense the emotions and energies of the participants, of their enjoyment and engagement with the DM. The sense of community and sisterhood, particularly amongst the Anganwadi workers, was nothing short of magical. Each one of them had each other’s back while pushing them to participate in activities and volunteer for games. All the participants enjoyed themselves thoroughly and the excitement and vigour with which they were approaching each game/activity was palpable. They saw great value in what we were offering and were already getting into the groove of applying it by the end of the workshop.  

Come Monday, it was back to continuing the engagement with students. This second innings was particularly enjoyable, for the way the students took great interest in understanding the DM framework and how it worked. They had what felt like a million questions during every session. The best part, in my opinion, was that for every question that came up, there were answers from the students too! 

Before we knew it, the whole engagement was done, and I was left feeling as though it ended too soon. I think we were just getting to know each other a little bit and I had really enjoyed engaging with the students in the sessions (as freaked out as I was) and was looking forward to what each day was going to bring in the classroom. But I was also satisfied, particularly given our last sessions, which involve role plays that require participants to apply DM to a problem situation. Seeing the students immerse themselves completely into the characters and apply DM throughout, restarting when they found themselves moving away from the method – all of it was heartwarming to watch.   

Learnings (or, how I became a student!) 

The takeaways from this experience spanned a range of things – from delivery tricks to reflections on fundamentals.  

First, I found myself thinking that with certain audiences, particularly those who have been trained to deal with issues at hand a certain way, before they are able to internalise DM, we need to provide them the space and time to unlearn their “defaults”. This can take some time and, as facilitators, we will not only have to be patient with the audience, but also think of how to more effectively design our deliveries to sync with existing approaches that participants may already have. 

On a related note vis-a-vis delivery, I also noted that designing time and space for peer-learning – for example, something as simple as letting the participants in the group respond to any questions their peers may have would be more effective. This would not only let us have a peek into how far they have gotten the concepts but also triggers fruitful discussions amongst them.  

 
As far as the one-day workshop went, engaging with those working on the grassroots is also a good litmus test/reality check for us to gauge the accessibility of our concepts and terms. The responses we receive at gatherings like these not only help validate our framework but give us the much needed reassurance and confidence in what we are delivering.  

In this case, though, I took away much more than reassurance – I realised that we don’t necessarily need words to connect to people. Sometimes it’s just a matter of knowing and acknowledging our shared humanity. At the end of the day, everybody wants to feel heard. If one is able to push a bit through the initial hesitations, everybody is willing, even happy, to share. All they need is a patient and safe space to be heard and sometimes as facilitators, holding space comes as part of our job. 

Most of all though, what I learnt from this entire experience was that people can surprise you in ways that you least expect them to, when given the chance. Your greatest cynics may turn out to be your greatest allies, and people who may look like they couldn’t care less may end up being the ones that pose questions that push open multiple tabs and thought loops in your head. 

There and Back Again! 

It was with many such tabs and thought loops that I boarded the flight home (on time, this time), ruminating about how much food for thought each of our engagements leave us with and how the journey of internalising DM and its practice is different for each individual. 

Till next time, NALSAR! I look forward to seeing you again soon.