NGO-NGOs & Structural Change

NGOs and
Structural Change

One of the beginnings of non-party political process around late sixties and early seventies centered on radicalised student youth, especially from Christian organisations like the AICUF and YCS in Southern and Western India. Influenced by the liberation theology that emanated from Latin America, Christian youth along with others from Student Unions, Social Service Leagues and NSS formed themselves into Action Groups, known as Community Action Groups or Social Action Groups. Shashi Pandey described them as, “local groups and people-oriented organizations which engage in politics by incorporating indigenous ideas”. By rephrasing and opposing the mainstream model of economic growth and top-down management based on western ideas, the main ingredients of the counter-model were justice (distribution and decentralized participation of the rural poor), indigenous values, and mass politics.” (Shashi Ranjan Pandey, Community Action for Social Justice: Grassroots Organisations in India, Sage Publications, New Delhi. 1991. p.231. [B.Q40.P62].)

These action groups were not able to operate within the earlier institutions like missions, trade unions and mass organisations. They also needed a legal identity to enable them to receive funds. The most chosen form of institution was the Society or Association formed under the Societies’ Registration Act. While different strands spawned different types of institutions, they were legally identified with the earlier welfare and charity institutions, which were called NGOs (Strictly speaking, the term NGOs denotes organisa-tions outside government, undertaking services which people expected government to deliver).

Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educationist, developed a method called Conscientisation for raising political consciousness of the oppressed with a view to spurring them on to revolutionary action. Freire used his skills in adult learning. He used analysis of vocabulary of actual problems to teach literacy, as well as pose problems and initiate dialogue. concepts and issues were codified (abstracted) and decodified (interpreted and reconstructed) in discussion and local action.

Freire’s was one of the success stories, which was part of the radicalisation of the Latin American Church. He thus became the natural guru of the Christian youth, who were radicalised in the seventies, and moving away from traditional social service under the missions. Freire did not attempt to construct a theory of social change. Thus some groups adapted the method as a means for class mobilisation from a Marxist point of view. Over time however, the methods seems to have gained ascendancy over objectives. In fact the early incorporation of advanced management concepts like Group Dynamics, into NGO work was a logical result of using group laboratory techniques in mobilisation work.

Adapted from Glynis D’Souza, Marxist Reflections on the thought of Paulo Freire. Vistas. Unpublished. [R.Q20.617].

References
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Penguin Books, England. 1970. [B.Q60.F1].
Paulo Friere, Education, Liberation and the Church. 1973. [R.NOO.21].

ACTION GROUP TO POLITICAL PARTY?

… As activist groups have no political image to further, which every party has, and as activists themselves have no political ambitions, the activist groups are ideally suited to take on the responsibility of developing the critical consciousness of the dependent groups. The activist groups should not have any illusions about playing the role of the left parties. They cannot. Their contribution to the development of the revolutionary movement of the dependent groups is limited to preparatory work only i.e. preparing the dependent groups which is vital to the ultimate success of the movement. For only when the dependent groups are developed to the point where they feel the need to politicise the movement will they feel the necessity of having their own political party.

1. The politics of the dominant groups cannot permit the development of the dependent
     groups as it is aimed at perpetuating a socio-economic system created by the dominant
     groups to further their own interests.
2. The politics of development necessarily means the politics of the dependent groups.
3. Though there are left parties that exist to further the interests of the dependent groups,
      their positions are compromised as they have to function within constraints established
      by the politics of the dominant groups.
4. Unless the consciousness of the dependent groups is developed to a point where they can
      support a revolutionary party the left parties cannot be revolutionary, they can only be
      adventurists.
5. The left parties have not made a determined effort to develop the critical consciousness
      of the dependent groups, nor are they at the present equipped to do so.
6. Activist groups have come into existence to undertake the educational work necessary to
     develop the consciousness of the dependent groups.
7. When the consciousness of the dependent groups is developed the need for a political party
       to lead their movement will become evident to them. At that time they will either accept the
       leadership of an existing left party or create a new revolutionary party.
8. Only then will the politics of the dependent groups become viable.

Taken from
Development of the Dependent Groups in the Context of the Politics of the Dominant Groups: The Role of Activist Groups in Young India Project Action Group, Papers On Development And Rural Poverty: Young India Project, Penukonda. 1988. p57. [B.K02.Y60B/Y3M].

The student bodies engaged in relief work in drought and floods hit areas, moved beyond relief and rehabilitation to community organisation and self-reliance of local communities through collective efforts that would eventually provide a groundswell for people’s conscientisation, empowerment, and finally, liberation. While VISTAS in Maharashtra and Association for the Rural Poor in Tamil Nadu, took up ‘conscientisation’ programme, that came to mean mass organisation, in Andhra Pradesh, where the Naxalite has popularised the concept of ‘Sangham’, the institutional base for organisation became the Sangham. CROSS, based in Hyderabad took this model in a big way, and inspired and spawned many other organisations that worked along the lines of the Sangham model.

Another set of NGOs who were avowedly Marxist, but did not belong to political parties, set mass-mobilisation as their agenda. Early examples of these were Agricultural Development and Training Society and PRAXIS in Karnataka, Young India Project in Andhra Pradesh and Jan Sangati Kendra in West Bengal. They saw their role as “developing the politics of dependent groups”. (see box)

Further readings
DL Sheth, Potentialities of Action Groups for a New Politics for the Future: Towards a New Politics of Tranformation. An adaptation of article titled ‘Movements in Seminar’, October 1982, by Indian Social Institute Documentation Centre. [R.Q40.687].

Dunu Roy, Between Dogma and Debate: The Problem of Communication between Groups and Individuals engaged in Social Development and Change. February, 1982. Study sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi. A mimeograph. [R.Q40.682].

J John, A Critique of Action Groups: A Marxist Point of View. Marxist review. August, 1992. [R.Q40.686].

Documentation Collective, Of Action and Groups. Background papers on Action Groups. Build, Bombay. 1982.
[R.Q40.638]. A critical look at the action groups and distinguishing between class mobilisation and peoples’ movements as promoted by the NPPFs.

Ajit Muricken, Action Groups: Agents of Change for revolutions? Background papers on Action Groups. BUILD 1982. [R.Q40.638]. Discusses and evaluates the model of Community Organisation.

Desmond D’Abreo, Turning the Tide of Injustice. Margaret D’Abreo, Mangalore. 1991. [B.Q12.D63]. A reader on Liberation Theology and the situation in India.

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