Changing face of social activism
Sushant Kulkarni
Sunday, April 04, 2010 AT 12:00 AM (IST)
Activist-writer Dr Anil Awachat has been associated with many social
movements striving for a positive 'change' in the outlook of people
and policy-makers. Known for his diverse interests and his
contributions to de-addiction campaign, Awachat talks to Sushant
Kulkarni analysing the phase social activism is passing through
Can you describe to us the emergence of the progressive socialist
movements in Maharashtra in 1970s?
We label them as movements when we look back at them today. Initially,
those began with a bunch of people taking up some social issues for
studies. For example, we went to Bihar for studying social issues in
the 70s. For instance, Yuvak Kranti Dal (Yukrand) was formed out of
some like-minded people coming together. I have also closely seen the
Dalit Panther Movement picking up momentum at the same time. These
streams started flowing even in areas like Vidarbha and Marathwada.
One of the important reasons was our anger towards mainstream politics
and politicians. Even the 'socialists' of that era had unfortunately
entered the dirty stream of politics.
Our activities were result of we getting fed up with romanticism,
detachment for real problems and nostalgia of these socialist leaders.
Even the Republicans, who by then had tied up with the Congress
politically, had failed in representing Dalits' aspirations.
Anti-establishment movement had even picked up in literature also in
the same era.
These movements seem to have lost the force around early 1990s. What
exactly went wrong at that time?
India heartily embraced globalisation and liberalisation in the
beginning of 90s. This badly hampered the labour movements. Even the
outside force that was inspiring these movements, the Soviet Russia,
collapsed. We forgot that conditions in Western world and those here
were different. We needed different strategies and technologies for
our problems, not the copies of western world.
Today, I do not see the discontent that was driving these movements.
The discontent is about individual progress, 'how will I earn more
money?' or 'how will I go to US?' Who will think beyond this? Thus the
force behind these movements, youth, got detached from them.
Where are these movements today?
People then realised that blanket solutions given by mass movements
were not working. Even the morchas, dharanas had started turning
violent. The present day form is that of activists handling specific
issues and providing logical, scientific and 'Indian' solutions to
problems.
Examples like Abhay and Rani Bang working for community health, the
Amate family working on leprosy and for tribal issues, Muktangan on
de-addiction and other social issues regarding addictions.
Point is when movements cannot relate to problems of common human
beings, they fail. Sometimes it happens with environmental movements
if they address the symptom and not the cause, they fail.
Taking a clue from this, have the present day movements failed to
relate to the people who are immersed in the systems these movements
are opposing?
It is not the movements that have failed. It is us who have. Moreover,
you cannot put all the people in the same category. There is a huge
gap between the rich and the poor of the day, and it is growing. These
movements need to address problems of all them. Both rich and poor.
Even the media, which need to communicate and discuss these issues,
are part of the capitalist system. We get the newspaper almost for
free but reality is that it's run on advertisements. This situation is
not at all conducive for proper communication of the messages that
these movements want to send across.
How can we evaluate contribution of these movements?
In some of the cases, the movements may not have been successful in
achieving their goals but their effects are definitely penetrating.
The Narmada Bachao Andolan led by Medha Patkar may not have been
successful in a conventional sense but their repercussions are
definitely here. It has inspired people from Konkan to stand against
illegal mining. This is also one of the successes of these movements.
The transformations that Anna Hazare could bring to Ralegaon Siddhi,
may not have been replicated as it is everywhere but the Right to
Information Act did get important inputs from this movement. Isn't
that success?
You might not have many examples like SEARCH (Society for Education
Action and Research in Community Health) all over but that model did
change the way we look at community health. That I feel is success.
You talked about new generation not getting attracted towards these
movements? Is the present education system responsible for this?
The content of the education that is imparted may not have changed
that much. The way things are looked at and taught have painfully
turned marks oriented. Question is, are we working on correcting this?
We rarely look at these movements as processes and start evaluating
them. The processes take time to give tangible results. Education is
one such process.
When I started working for Muktangan, the satisfaction that I got was
missing when I was working with mass movements earlier. The young
generation needs to understand that the satisfaction and joy one gets
by working for people is an asset for lifetime.
There is one more thing. Such specific issue-based movements lead to
bigger issues in the later stages. Today's generation needs to
understand this. From movement against addiction of alcohol, a
movement against alcohol making from grains arises. This is real
learning.
What does history of these movements teach us?
One of the most important lessons is that we have to learn from what
we do. Another thing is inclusion of affected people in the process of
their own growth. This will provide these movement a real sense.
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