Gandhian Thought in Seva Mandir

Ajay Mehta () and Suraj Jacob ()
Additional contact information
Ajay Mehta: Vidya Bhawan Society
Suraj Jacob: Azim Premji University

A chapter in Social Entrepreneurship and Gandhian Thoughts in the Post-COVID World, 2023, pp 233-248 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter recounts the vision and experience of Seva Mandir, an NGO based in southern Rajasthan. Seva Mandir’s practice is inspired by Gandhian thought and practice. At its core is the idea of communities of care—local people coming together to take responsibility for the local ecological and cultural commons, thereby organically leading to justice and sustainable, equitable development. Such work is difficult, takes time, and involves acknowledging and addressing the internal contradictions in communities exposed to individuated, dependency-laden “benefits” from the developmental state and from unbridled economic growth. The chapter shows the potential of Seva Mandir’s path of insisting on local democracy (of social relations) and autonomous capacity for self-governance (swaraj) for attaining meaningful development. The chapter also explores the importance and challenges of building institutions and institutional cultures that embed and embody these values. In the case of Seva Mandir, early on a culture of dialogue, reflexivity and care took root and was nurtured by inspiring leaders at different levels of organizational hierarchy and especially at the grassroots. The chapter suggests that this too is a key element of Gandhian practice.

Keywords: Seva Mandir; Grassroots democracy; Self-reliance; Trusteeship; Constructive work; Gandhi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:isbchp:978-981-99-4008-0_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789819940080

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-99-4008-0_11

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in India Studies in Business and Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().