Statement of Purpose for Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Finland

This is not the place to discuss programmes but let me close with a remark that connects to my diagnosis above and with a few notes on the current tasks of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam as I see them.

The centre-left needs, as stressed above, to challenge the neo-liberal hegemony in ‘high politics’, especially transnationally. But it can do so successfully only if (i) it does not restrict itself to ‘reactive’, transnational political struggle and (ii) if it recognises that the current neo-liberal hegemony is rooted in a deep cultural hegemony. In the present world, ‘the American Dream’, the dream of getting a ticket to consumer paradise, has captured the hearts and minds of people across the globe. In this sense, the defeat of centre-left politics for justice, peace and democracy of our times in its many varieties is, at heart, a cultural defeat. I stress this again: the comprehensive and deep political changes that are required today can only come together with changes in cultural vision and aspiration. Correct responses and answers will be different in different contexts and different parts of the globe. We will not find all the right answers overnight. Peaceful cultural change involves deep collective learning processes and must be slow. It took centuries for the modern West to acquire its hegemonic force. It is a relatively new discovery that this cultural form has come to a point at which a choice has become inevitable between striving above all for growth for the rich, which will lead to a new cultural form, ‘cynical modernity’ and striving for ethical universalism, which will lead, in various forms and with many varieties, to modernities (or post-modernities) of solidarity. The needs of our times are truly gigantic and pressing. Nevertheless, it would be unrealistic and dangerous to expect that the cultural and political changes that our new cultural predicament necessitates could be achieved within just one or two generations.

Regardless of how accurate the nuthshell diagnosis of the times I have suggested is, one thing seems clear. The only way to a different, more plural, ecologically realistic and more humane cultural order comes through long processes of democratic negotiation, struggle and service. The work ahead can only be achieved through real participation by very large numbers of people. Success will not come easily. But I suppose few of us thought that human life would ever be easy. And there is good news as well. We do not know the ways of history. But it seems to me realistic today to think that even quite minimal democratic advances can, due to the monstrosity and precariousness of the present structures of power, have very powerful effects.

Can Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam add anything to this struggle? That, of course, is a question to be decided through real work. I close with some remarks that give an idea of the kind of work I think Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam could advance.

• Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam grows partly out of discussions and political co-operation between South Asian and Nordic activists that have endured for more than decade. The initiative has therefore an inherent inter-cultural aspect. Nevertheless, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is not designed only or primarily to promote international activities. While we recognise the huge relevance of international and transnational politics, many of us think that most political work today still needs to reach the levels where most citizens meet and are active, i.e. the local and national levels. These basic starting-points should help avoid both national or local parochialism and the eurocentrism and dominance of the experiential basis of the frequent travellers that is so typical of many international and transnational political initiatives, old and new.

• Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is not a campaign organisation, nor a body that tries to advance its own political programme or ideology. It strives to serve as a forum for understanding and bridge-building. To this end, it will be useful if Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam can be used as a forum to negotiate differences and recreate solidarity through debate over issues that are strategically divisive between people and organisations of the centre-left working on similar themes. But I also see a role for Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam in re-forging links between various sectors of the centre-left that at times have been close but have now drifted apart. One example might be the links between the academic centre-left and parties and movements, another might be the links between cultural workers and activists in parties and movements with a more immediately political identity.

• Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam intends, with all modesty, to be one of many groups and initiatives that support and contribute to the World Social Forum process. It should not be seen as seeking to compete with it, be it at the national, regional or international level.

• Despite its intellectual profile and dialogic focus, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam should be acutely aware of the need not only for discussion and debate, but also for two other equally necessary dimensions of democratic politics. One is service: only by understanding our work as selfless service for what Gandhi called Daridranarayan (the last person), not as struggle for power and influence can we accomplish the unity of means and ends that is essential to all truly democratic politics. The other is resistance: to achieve democratic change, we must remember, it is often not sufficient to have good ideas and good arguments that win massive support. Often necessary change can only be achieved after the powerful have been challenged with all means of non-violent struggle and resistance.

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