Reflecting on Ekta Parishad --- Past,
Present and Future
July 9, 2014
Rural youth in
India have never had an opportunity to look at their own lives and to analyze
why they are in so much poverty and encircled by what appears to be intractable
problems. Poverty did not allow them to go to school and as non-schooled
children have not had opportunities to use their brain and to think broadly on
issues other than surviving. They have always been engaged in manual labour for
making a basic living. They have been forced to accept all kinds of humiliation
as they have not had any support structures and thus they have had no courage
to stand up against the oppressors. They have always lived in fear. Fear
of the oppressor, fear of Government Officials, fear of so-called educated
people and so forth means that they have not been able to advance. This fear and hunger have been the two sides
of the problem with which young people have had to live.
Back in the 1970s
some voluntary organizations like Prayog, Gandhi Ashram and other organizations
have played a role in breaking this chain of fear by bringing young people into
training camps. Young people who were only using their physical strength to
survive, suddenly found a new world around them and they began to discuss their
life situation. In these camps, they started acting out their suffering through
theater, songs, slogans and dialogue. A new consciousness arose wherein they
were more confident and courageous. A new world of friendship and solidarity
emerged around them and this new reality made them different kind of people. They
became fearless and decided to fight oppression and poverty nonviolently.
One hundred young
people coming together in youth camps became common practice. These youth camps
were held in very simple settings and the campers shared all the responsibility
to run these camps. The organizations were responsible for collecting food
grains, feeding the campers and accommodating the campers.
The impact of these camps was beyond our imagination. These
young people went back to their villages with a different set of understanding
and capacity and thus they were able to challenge oppression of various kinds
that they had been facing for generations.
Bringing women into
the youth camps was not an easy task. On one hand there was their reservation of
mixing with male members, and on the other, there was control coming from the
society making it difficult for women to attend. Therefore it was not easy
initially to get an equal number of women to participate. Even if they did come
their learning process was much slower than the male participants. It took
years of work before women started coming in larger numbers. With fewer outside opportunities women participants
began to move much faster and took up leadership in their communities. Wherever
women were leaders, the organization was stronger and adopted change. Along
with this the society also began to change its attitude towards women. People are
no longer critical of women for attending youth camps. For both women and men
travel together on bicycles, and people have no problem in accepting women as
leaders and working under them. What we see today in many villages is the
result of leadership provided by women. The Government officials who refused to
listen to women initially are now most willing to attend to their grievances.
The success of this
grassroots leadership model attracted many organizations in India and the
demand came from different states to take up similar trainings in various states.
So the organizational format moved from Madhya Pradesh to Bihar, UP, Jharkhand,
Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Tamilnadu Kerala, Rajasthan and so forth. In course of
time this form of organizing became accepted at the national level as a mass movement,
which protected the livelihood resources of marginalized people.
But all of this was
not without reaction. The young leaders who returned to the villages raised
many uncomfortable issues: corruption in the bureaucracy, caste and class discrimination,
mafias using alcohol to control community life, bonded labor and child labor as
a form of exploitation, the oppression of women, the unequal distribution of
land and resources among the poor people, and so forth. All of these issues
raised by poor people created ripples and this impacted the society. The
reaction was beyond imagination. Officials called us anti-nationals, the media
projected the organization as rabble-rousers, and the feudal landlords wanted
to drive us out of their area. The activists of the organization were attacked,
and some were put into prison, some got killed; it became challenging almost
everyday.
This was the time
when some of us came together to shape the organization under the name of Ekta
Parishad. It was becoming clear that as individual groups it would be difficult
to withstand constant retaliation. Only by creating a forum was the
organization able to survive and this ongoing struggle began to change peoples’
lives. Over time Ekta Parishad became a well-known organization nationally and
internationally. It had a lot of people whose spiritedness get the organization
going, but there were others that were resisting the role being played in the society.
As a Gandhian organization, the principal of transformative action was
maintained in spite of all the challenges. Ekta Parishad activists were
continuously trained to respect others even those that were resisting them.
Looking back on the
history of EP, one can say that it achieved a lot in terms of building a “bottom
up” organization and a leadership model. It was also able to follow the same
process at the international level and create a international solidarity
network.
Now when thousands of
people are marching on the road for many days with very limited resources
covering thousands of kilometers by way of footmarch to mobilize public opinion,
then people know that the result of years of work to build leaders and an organization
was genuinely ‘bottom-up’.
What is the future
of this organization? In my opinion we have lived and worked for the last 25 years.
I want to see this organization going on for another twenty-five years, that
means, another generation. I want to see the organization not only growing but
also changing with the times. We have addressed problem from at the local to
national level. Now this is the time for us to give some attention to the
international level and galvanize the forces that create more space for the
marginalized communities. In a world where marginalization is becoming a major
problem for millions of people, it is important to take responsibility and
address the situation. Jai Jagat 2020 is a step in this direction. Moving out
of national boundaries to explore partners at the global level, in order to act
together for a better world, is the vision of the campaign. In a world, which
is becoming more and more violent including economic violence, we have to take
up the responsibility of bringing the agenda of nonviolence to as many groups
and individuals as possible. In a world where profit making is the main pillar
of development, we need to bring forward a new development discourse. We know that
Ekta Parishad is not a big organization to take on such a huge responsibility
and that only through international solidarity can headway be made. We in Ekta
Parishad are open to join and collaborate with all positive processes in this direction.
We want to make our humble contribution to make the world a better place for
coming generations.
We don’t want to do
it at the cost of our work in India. We want to use this an opportunity to
deepen and expand our own work in India as well. India has 650 districts and Ekta Parishad is
only in 150 districts. Youth camps and leadership development will be taken up
across the country in the next six years. Deepening and widening the engagement
of the marginalized in India so that individual actions can be scaled up to the
national level and work to change policies, while changing the situation
locally is the challenge ahead. Creating greater space for women at the grassroots
level through leadership is an essential condition of the work. While
criticizing the global economy we feel the responsibility to work for
strengthening the local nonviolent economy. It is also important to promote the
concept of nonviolence as a theory and practice.
The above-mentioned
challenges can be met only if there is also resource mobilization from urban
Indians and international communities. Of course the major part of the
resources come from local people and their need to solve their life related
problems. Solidarity support is seen as additional. Our international friends
have shown how a minimum of international support in terms of human and
financial resources along with lobbying and campaigning has advanced the work
hitherto. I am sure we will continue to receive the same level of support in
the coming years as well. Educating the urban middle class Indians and enlisting
their support in the process of changing the situation of India is also an
urgent agenda.
Many of us who are
giving leadership to EP may not be there in 25 years time. A new brand of
leadership will emerge and they will direct the organization in a more creative
and progressive way. We believe this vision and work will also continue.
Resisting the destruction in today’s society means that we are compelled to
create a more harmonious and just development and a culture of politics that is
ethical and nonviolent.
Rajagopal.P.V
