Social capital: local participation

[Sanjeev Sabhlok <sabhlok@almaak.usc.edu>]

Had a little time to browse thro' some earlier mail of 2 weeks ago that I
virtually skipped as I was attempting to figure out how to moderate it. So
I'm going to touch upon some earlier mail, which new members might have to
find out references from the archives:

On 6th Jul, Charu wrote:
> 
> It is always inspiring to see the power of the concerted action
> of people acting together to make something happen that would not be
> possible if they remained isolated individuals. I can't help drawing
> parallels with the neighborhood organized Ram-Lila shows I
> watched as a kid growing up in Delhi. My favorites were the very
> small affairs that were so much fun precisely because they were
> not slick and well funded- the actors kept forgetting their lines
> and would improvise in ways that kept to the spirit as in one
> intense confrontational scene between Lakshman and Meghnad where
> they forgot their lines and ended up hurling insults at each other
> in not-so-classical language while Sita collapsed in giggles.
> Sort of like Shakespeare in rap ;^D.
> 
> My Point: There still are privately funded grass roots
> institutions and functions that have not been seized by our
> self-appointed rulers, and they offer hope that the people can
> create, take back, and own these institutions.

The issue here is of participation by people in their own society - and as
one of the anonymous postings described in detail (Kerala vs. Italy), the
whole package is called "social capital," and societies with higher levels
of social capital do better, ceteris paribus, both in economic
development and in quality of life. 

India is full of such local get-togethers in the villages, and to that
extent people of India do feel that they 'own' India and that India is
something special - at a local level. I know that we have a huge number of
religious occasions

	(see: http://www.qqq.com/india/januari.html, for example)

but that is not what I was refering to.

My specific concern was with these nationalistic occasions. Maybe we
should encourage the people to organize these celebrations on their own.
Even the 'official' celebrations can be completely privately organized.
The government could simply provide the necessary security. I can see of
course, the problems of heterogeneity immediately coming into the picture
and people not being able to agree on anything, virtually, in such a
situation. 

Well, I guess we have a stalemate here: I don't know how to implement the
thought I had. So I have nothing to propose on this topic for the
manifesto, as such. 

If someone else thinks of this as an important enough topic, and knows how
to implement this successfully, then we might continue with this, or else,
simply let this topic fizzle out.

SS


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