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Working Group: Uma Shankari (Convener), Sunil Sahasrabudhey, Rahul Goswami, Veena Joshi

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The intention behind this session is to explore the knowledge dimension and knowledge implications of these movements, rather than a description of their history and evolution. What is the world view that informs the movement? In what way has it added to our collective knowledge or brought a new perspective, a new way of viewing the world?  How have people’s movements impacted the conventional ways of development and governance?  These are some of the questions we expect to be explored in the session.

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Some of the questions for discussion are indicated as follows:

  • The new Farmers Movement agitating on the borders of Delhi in 2020 produced leaders from within the farmers in a way asserting that the farming community has its own knowledge basis and is an agency of change. On this basis it had rejected the Government proposal to constitute an “expert committee” to look into the advantages and disadvantages of the new three laws for agriculture sector. It also refused to allow concentration of capital and corporate capture and demanded distributed power in society.What are the special insights it brings to the collective knowledge of our country?  
  • There is today greater appreciation about knowledge embedded in traditional agriculture, for its bio-diversity and for its symbiotic and circular relationship between climate, soil, traditional seeds, crops and livestock. How can it meet the challenges of feeding and other needs of the country?
  • The Jal, jangal, zameen movement is a movement for control of natural resources by local people/communities. This movement is especially strong in adivasi regions. They have pointed towards local knowledge/wisdom and the importance of community in preserving the natural resources.
  • The Dalit movement challenges the authority and veracity of scriptures, as well as the ideological basis of the Indian National Movement. It maintains that knowledge cannot be discriminatory by birth, everybody is knowledgeable and everybody ought to have access to whatever he/she aspires to learn.
  • The Women's movement questions all such knowledge that is not enriched by women's experience. A concept of Feminist Epistemology has taken shape. Women's demand of equality is in fact putting forward the idea that women's experience needs to be equally factored into all knowledge and understanding.The LGBTQ movement has added another new dimension to the gender categories and experience.
  •  India's services sector is now the largest when measured against employment. What has been the impact of this change on workers' rights and working conditions? What is its connection to rising consumption and climate change? How has the emergence of the virtual knowledge affected the ordinary lives of the citizen?
  • Peoples movements often have an uneasy relationship - a ‘creative tension’ - with India’s past and its traditions. While they appreciate the knowledge and wisdom embedded in the philosophies and local practices, they refuse to accept the feudal, hierarchical and the patriarchal structures/principles/practices of traditional societies, and often adopt the modern idioms, such as, equality, fraternity, justice, democracy, and sustainability. They are also keenly aware of the powers of the state to suppress them and have been demanding the democratic right to raise their voices when faced with oppression. Is there a scope for integrating the positives from the Indian tradition with modern democratic principles?

 

The statements above are only indicative. We look forward to participation of persons representing different social movements to deliberate on the knowledge questions and implications of their movements.

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