The 16th East India Debates
(hosted by the Athenaeum, The Society for Debating and Global Awareness at The Assam Valley School)
Motto of the society: ‘vis consolii expers mole ruit sua’ meaning ‘brute force bereft of wisdom falls to ruin by its own weight’.
The Assam Valley School successfully hosted the 16th edition of the East India Debates from the 15th to the 17th of September, 2021. Twenty teams participated from twelve states from around the country. There were a total of forty-five debates which happened over three days with eighty speakers participating in these debates. We had sixty highly qualified judges from various professional backgrounds. The debates were strong, convincing and each participant spoke eloquently to defend her / his stance. There were riveting motions from all genres of debating; from political, philosophical and ethical contexts. Some of the more interesting topics were, ‘This house believes that fatherhood is a game changer for gender equity’, ‘organisations must be under strict obligation as to the lower and upper limit any worker can be paid’ and ‘billionaires are being irrational for investing in space exploration’. The AVS team did extremely well for themselves and got to the Semi Finals where they put up an excellent fight against Welham Boys’. The ‘finals’ was between St. James School, Kolkata and Welham Boys’ School, Dehradun; the former emerging winners after a nail-biting fight. The three days were filled with thought provoking arguments, highly intellectual exchanges and overall; a great representation of the quality of debate students are performing these days. It must be mentioned that the East India Debates was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic and this was the first time it was held on a virtual platform. Kudos to the AVS teachers and students for they worked hard as a well-coordinated team, planning and executing the entire competition to see it to fruition.
