The Knowledge Question in People’s Movements

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

The 'Peoples Movements' concept emerged in India during the 70s and 80s, when the state and political parties failed to  represent peoples' problems and address their grievances. 'Development' programmes resulted in people being thrown out of homes and livelihoods. Indigenous/traditional knowledge systems in various fields were marginalized and not recognised as knowledge,  in favour of knowledge emerging from universities and science and technology institutions. Worse, the economic value for their knowledge and work has been far lower than the value accorded to the people with “modern” education, exacerbating the inequalities in incomes and status in society. This lack of respect and dignity for people’s knowledge continues even today, in spite of several efforts going on in the country to revive/rejuvenate people’s knowledge.

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