About IMA
The Indian Multiversities Alliance (IMA) is a network of individuals reimagining the university and creating new models of higher education across the Indian subcontinent. These educational visionaries are working on powerful approaches to pedagogy that explore self, community living, social justice, sustainable lifestyles, nature reconnection, alternative healing, regenerative livelihoods, and social entrepreneurship, among other areas.
These educators are committed to collaborating and co-creating to amplify their impact and unleash more possibilities for the advancement of human consciousness and the well-being of life on the planet. The IMA currently comprises more than 100+ member organizations spread across the Indian subcontinent. The Indian Multiversities Alliance is also a part of the global Ecoversities Alliance.
Our Guiding Spirit
The campuses and projects that declare themselves as a Multiversity will honour this guiding spirit:
01
People-stewarded and learner-led
Learning at Multiversity will be designed by the learners, the community and the local place, not by external experts. It will be driven by the spirit of inquiry, self-exploration, dialogue, friendship, unlearning and experimentation. There is no need to ask external authorities for permission to define our own learning spaces, processes and gurus. The ‘stewardship’ of the Multiversity’s direction and activities will be in the hands of those who constitute that particular local group and its community and promote inclusive and shared decision-making. We will value diversity of styles and approaches amongst the different Multiversity projects.
02
Putting the planet at the centre
Operating from an earth-centric cosmology, the Multiversity will be integrated in values of care for the planet, social justice and emancipation of all living beings. They will explore the possibilities of localization, human-scale systems, alive-hoods and living as a part of Nature. Multiversities will seek to rebuild a partnership with the consciousness and intelligence inherent in the natural world and regenerate and strengthen diverse local eco-systems.
03
Valuing all kinds of learning and unlearning
Multiversities will invite participants to fluidly move between the roles of a learner, a mentor, a guru, a curriculum designer, a researcher, networker, and a practitioner as they engage more deeply with the head, hands, heart and home. They honour and value wisdom, knowledge and experiences from all sources, human as well as nature, as they break the false official categories of ‘curricular’ and ‘extra-curricular’, fragmented disciplines, anthropocentrism, etc. They seek to decolonize knowledge and understanding, and to support diverse peoples' knowledge systems. They are located in the ‘real world’ – continuously impacting and impacted by live projects, problems, dreams and events. They encourage learners to celebrate and learn from their mistakes, conflict, failures, etc.
04
Committed to nurturing inner and outer shifts
Multiversities are committed to shifts from within as well as in the world, creating spiritually-anchored social action and spirituality anchored in a social context. They will focus on regenerating the Self-in-society. Multiversities support a bold experiment in creating a new story of human consciousness beyond greed, fear, hatred, over-consumption, exploitation and war. Hence principles such as interdependent self-reliance, sustainable lifestyles, creativity, gift culture, non-violence, grassroots politics, social entrepreneurship, emergence and radical collective intelligence will guide it and manifest through.
05
Learning and knowledge freely shared by all
Multiversities will challenge the paradigm of education as a commodity, business, patenting, student-debt, and copyright. The research, knowledge and learning materials generated will be under the domain of CopyLeft and belong to the community as a whole. We believe in developing more models of collaboration and sharing. We will not deny learners access to educational opportunities due to inability to pay money.