A Man with a Mission

That is Suhas Tapaswi.  His looks are deceptive.  He looks very serious, almost intimidating at first glance.  But he is very affectionate and considerate.  He is an extremely thoughtful person, who is passionate about life, but is not obstinate about his views.  Certain names have an eternal youthfulness about them.  Suhas is one such name.  Though touching 70, Suhas is anything but old.

Suhas is a technocrat by training.  He worked with Petroleum companies, multinational, public sector and private sector.  He retired as a CEO of a big private sector company.  He is a senior citizen in the right sense of the term.  Citizens are supposed to be active in civic affairs.  Suhas has devoted his advanced years to writing, teaching and a civic movement.  He published a collection of essays, another collection of poems and a CD of lyrics written by him.  He has been teaching Management subjects for the past decade or so.

He wrote a book in 2005 on a unique NGO working in Konkan area of Maharashtra, called Matru Mandir.  The book is based on his extensive interviews, visits and observations about the various activities of this institution primarly working for the upliftment of women in the area.  What impressed him most was not so much the work itself, but the way secular, democratic and progressive values had been the driving force of this entire effort.  What was striking was that there was no religious, philanthropic or communal motivation behind these efforts.  They were founded on modern humanistic and rational values.

This appealed very much to the technocrat-poet in Suhas.  He then went on to meet 50 leaders of well known NGOs in Maharashtra.  He travelled the length and breadth of Maharashtra for this purpose.  Interviews with these 50 social entrepreneurs on the theme of Development were compiled painstakingly and published in another book written by Suhas.  The first one pointed out the path to Development while the second shows the directions of Development.

Writing these books was a monumental effort in itself.  Suhas then got inspired to bring these leaders together on one platform so that the distilled wisdom from their experiments and experience can be leveraged for bringing about fundamental changes.  Suhas saw in these varied efforts the common thread of democratic initiatives which led to strengthening of democratic foundations leading to empowerment of people.  Development in material terms such as schools, roads, hospitals and enterprises is of little consequence without the strengthening of democratic institutions.

Suhas has been untiring in his efforts to bring this central message across through various activities.  After the formation of Janasamwaad, he launched roundtables on Education reform.  More about it in the next post.

If not we, who? If not now, when?

Janasamwaad is a forum for dialogue among people who are interested in bringing about a change in themseleves and in those around them for improving basic living conditions.  It is about concrete living conditions and to the extent the focus on concrete issues is retained, this dialogue can go into abstractions.  But we have to put a limit on abstract discussions when they go into the rarified atmospheric zones.

The name Janasamwaad comes from a forum that was created in May 2009 under the coordinatorship of Shri Suhas Tapaswi at Pune.  The mission of Janasamwaad is to make Indian Democracy socially effective. The slogan of Janasamwaad is "If not we, who?  If not now, when?"  The first demand put forth by Janasamwaad is to introduce formal and scientific social education in schools and colleges.

There is a background of this demand, to which I will turn in the next post.  For the time being let me say that this social education would enable every educated Indian to take responsibility for bringing about social change in our country.  Educated Indians have a responsibility because we are the ones who are largely benefitted in material terms by all the so-called developmental efforts. 

Janasamwaad over the last year since May 2009 has brought about several discussions throughout Maharashtra to focus attention on what can be collectively done at the state level.  All technology, all development and all modernization have in India contributed to the growth of the privileged sections of the society.  Very little has trickled down to the disadvantaged sections.

There are a number of efforts being done to spread the fruits of development at the local level.  There are about 250,000 NGO's working throughout Maharashtra on specific projects. The concern here is that individual efforts at local upliftment remain focused on problem areas such as health, livelihood, education, tribal welfare and so on.  But these efforts do not generate a new action modality for social development.  People must feel empowered to come forward and change quality of politics, of governance and of administration.

So on the one hand we see technology and modernization coming into different walks of life at the superficial level and we see a ghastly deterioration in the underlying processes.  Some sections are not interested.  Those who are interested are not focused on the larger issues and do not get empowered. 

Mahatma Gandhi had called Maharashtra a beehive of social activists.  Yes there is a tremendous urge to do something among progressive sections of Maharashtra but like the bee everyone is content to do one's small bit in the belief that he or she has done something meaningful.  The larger issue of making Indian Democracy socially effective needs to be addressed urgently.

Through this blog, we hope to generate debate, discussion and dialogue to address the larger question.  Come and join us in this endeavour. 

If not we, who? 

If not now, when?