Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: From Democracy to Sampoorn Swaraj

For a variety of political and historical reasons, internationally funded NGOs have less popular appeal and legitimacy in our society than the non-funded / non-structured movement groups. Civil society groups working among Dalits of India are under such pressures (to work for issues of local oppression, proper implementation of the policy of positive affirmation, land reforms, plight of the agricultural workers and issues of Dalit atrocities etc.) that they hardly get to link these pressing issues of identity and dignity with the larger issues of globalisation. The diversity of Indian civil society makes it imperative that the anti-globalisation perspective and struggle can flower only when there is a linking up of various social groups into a holistic democratic struggle at all levels, including the grass-root and national levels.

Northern civil society has to work out institutional mechanisms to relate to the less globalised sections of our society. In the early eighties, peasant movement ideologues like Sunil Sahastrabudhey used to emphasise a distinction between India and Bharat. Bharat refers to that section of Indian population which is either less colonised or structurally placed in a situation from where they could not access the global modern knowledge systems and networks. There is plenty of literature that clearly demonstrates that people in Bharat have not completely lost their touch yet and they lead a more wholesome life than those of us who are victims of the mad-race syndrome.

We are trying to convey two issues: first, in the bottom-up view of democracy, we need to learn the specificity and uniqueness of each entity and at every level. Second, we must not undermine the autonomy of each entity and should not mix-up the levels. But in an era of globalisation, where we all need to unite to deal with the satanic dimensions of globalisation, we need to know each other empathetically. Knowing oneself is a very difficult task and knowing the ‘other’ is yet more difficult. But to work out concretely the ideas of global solidarity we need to help each other to know ourselves without undermining our autonomies.

It is instructive to remember Gandhiji’s advice that he gave to a group of Christian workers from USA in 1936. This advice also makes it clear that Gandhiji was not a blind opponent of modern science and technology, as some sections would like to portray him:

“When Americans come and ask me what service they could render, I tell them: if you dangle your millions before us, you will make beggars of us and demoralise us. But in one thing I don’t mind being a beggar. You can ask your engineers and agricultural experts to place their services at our disposal. They must come to us not as lords and masters, but as voluntary workers”.

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