Who We Are
The word Krishan is closely related to the word, Krishok meaning farmers. It originates from the ancient root word “Kris”, Keris or Kirich (Bangla and Sanskrit) meaning a form of knife. I believe that the Kr indo-european root word (Kora, Kormo, kara etc) are all related indicating hand, action, and then tilling one of the most ancient Karma. In later times we have heard the tern Krishan, Kishan along with Mazdoor as terms indicating respectively land-tiller and factory or industrial workers. We want to eulogise and celebrate such work both ancient and modern in Krishan Foundation and in Krishan Times.
I set up Krishan in the early days of this century. We had started the century with optimism and promise. But it soon degenerated into instability and chaos. I have started from the earliest days of my life to stand besides working people and to find creativity in them. Profiling poor people and tagging them with the negativity of pessimism and despair is oblivious to the inherent optimism and creativity of people who might be encountering resource-poor state now but has the organismic force to become a productive member of the society. Krishan is all about having trust and faith in the inherent potential of the toiling masses. Krishan is about seeing the world through the lenses of struggle mixed with optimism and reconstructing the world through this process of struggle-oriented analyses.
Krishan is also about understanding the material world in its entirety and seamlessly and not being compartmentalised into reductionist disciplines. A Krishanian, if I am allowed this terminology would know chemistry, physics, economics, biology and see their connections in the context of human and biological welfare. A Krishanian would also like art, poetry, music and the deep history of human body and psyche.
Finally a Krishanian would be one to find solutions; for the biosphere, climate, human affairs and would seek by their dynamism to create a new world of possibilities. A Krishanian would always be for equality, diversity, acceptance and a future of dynamic discoveries and developments, locally and globally.