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Introduction
In this classic piece of social change literature by the Sri Lankan social scientist
GVS DeSilva (1928 1986) he outlines the idea of countervailing power and
peoples self-development. This he called Peoples Power. The piece
was written towards the end of his working life during a period in which he devoted his
time and energy to the task of setting in action processes of change to confront the
social relations of production in the Sri Lankan countryside. His chosen instrument for
this purpose was the Participatory Institute for Development Alternatives PIDA
founded in August 1980 and in whose formation and early years he played a leading
role. In this article he and his co-workers at PIDA reflect upon the early results of
their countervailing power interventions in which the possibility of the poor and the
deprived organising themselves in the societal space available to them to fight for their
own interests is described.
At PIDA we look at development in fundamental humanistic terms as a process of overall
development of the people and their potential. Bringing out the creativity and the
potential of the people is the means as well as the end of development. People are the subjects
and not mere objects or targets of development.
There are several important aspects to such a humanistic view of development.
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | Development cannot be delivered to the people as a package from outside. It is
essentially an endogenous process, which stems from the heart of each
society. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | Development can acquire its full meaning only if rooted at the local level
and in the praxis of each primary community. Development is first and foremost lived by
the people where they are, where they work and live, that is in the first instance at the
local level. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | No development model can be universal. In fact the richness of development consists in
its variety and plurality of patterns deeply ingrained in the
culture and tradition of each society. Attempts at uniformity and universalism are
mechanistic and alienate people. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | Self-reliance, participation and countervailing power are central
components in the development process as conceived by PIDA social activists. The three
concepts are a unity, an integrated whole. Self-reliance is not to be confused with the
narrow concepts of autarchy and self-sufficiency. It is rather an autonomous capacity to
take decisions affecting ones livelihood and to choose ones course of
development uninhibited by external influences. It is a re-appropriation of mans
control over his livelihood and environment hitherto alienated to others. It is a process
of self-assertion. It aims at breaking away from dominantdependent relationships and
forging relationships on an equal footing. Participation as a central democratic value is
organically linked with the assertion of self-reliance, for it denotes that people acting
through their own free-will take decisions pertaining to their lives. Participation
requires organised efforts to increase control over resources and institutions on the part
of people who have hitherto been excluded from such control. Liberation from domination
and exploitation requires that people build up and exercise a measure of counter power to
the dominant interests in the society. Power dominates. Countervailing power liberates. |
A process of development as envisaged above, requires that people (the disadvantaged,
oppressed and the poor) investigate, analyse and understand the socio-economic reality of
their environment, in particular the forces, which create poverty and oppression and build
up the confidence and capacity through organised efforts to contend with such forces.
Conscientisation (critical awareness of the reality, perception of the possibility of
changing the reality and building up the capacity for such change) assumes a central place
in the development process. Conscientisation leads directly to organisation and action to
break away from dependency links (dominantdependent relationships). Each action is
followed by reflection and analysis thereby improving the actions and moreover, creating
space for further action. Peoples praxis (a progressive action reflection
rhythm) is set in motion. Liberation from forces of domination releases creative energies
of the people; the dormant productive forces are activated. A process of capital
accumulation based initially on own resources, technological improvements, production and
productivity improvements, enhanced resource utilisation is set in motion. People embark
upon a self-reliant development process, which at each stage is determined by the people
themselves through a progressive interplay of action and reflection and not defined for
them from above.
PIDA works primarily with the rural poor in Sri Lanka. An important point of departure
for PIDAs work is that rural communities are not homogeneous entities. Existence of
contradictions among different social groups having conflicting (rather than harmonious)
interests is a fundamental fact of village life. In general, the basic social structure in
a village is characterised by the existence of dominant interests (such as
traderscummoneylenders, landowners, rural elite groups and even rural
bureaucrats) who benefit from the status quo, and the majority consisting of the small and
marginal farmers, other peasants, landless workers, and rural artisans who live in
poverty. In this context most rural institutions and so called neutral interventions in
rural areas by governments as well as voluntary agencies get adjusted to the dynamics of
these contradictions and end up benefiting the dominant interests and perpetuating the
status quo.
While there is a conflict of interest between different classes and groups in rural
society, they are also mutually dependent on one another. These relationships are however
asymmetrical in form and assume a dominantdependent character and an unequal
dependency relationship. The small commodity producers (whether small farmers or rural
artisans), for example, lose a considerable portion of their income (economic surplus) to
money lenders, traders, landowners, elite groups and the bureaucrats through exorbitant
interest rates, a combination of low prices and high input prices (lower terms of trade),
high land rents, corruption and other ways. The drain on economic surplus through
dependency links (dominantdependent relationship) creates a process of
impoverishment, suppresses the rural productive forces, and keeps the productive forces,
and the productivity of the rural economy at a low level of equilibrium.
These asymmetrical relationships also create dependency attitudes among the rural poor;
mental attitudes and value systems are created to legitimise the dependency relationships
and the existing social structure. Moreover, the poor themselves are not a homogeneous
category, being divided on caste and many other issues. They also compete with each other
for the limited economic opportunities in the village. These factors, namely dependency
attitudes and disunity, inhibit the poor from taking initiatives to improve their lot, and
tend to make them non-innovative, non-problem solving, and non-experimental and acquiesce
to the status quo. This in turn reinforces and stabilises the asymmetrical dependency
relationships, and a vicious circle of dependency and poverty is created. This explains
why it is difficult if not impossible, for the process of self-reliant rural development
to be a spontaneously generated process. A catalytic intervention is, more often than not,
a necessary initial input in the mobilisation, and conscientisation of the rural poor for
organised action to achieve self-reliant development.
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Brief Overview of PIDAs Work
PIDAs role is essentially a catalytic one of intervening in rural communities to
assist the rural poor to investigate, analyse, and understand the socio-economic reality
of their environment, in particular, the poverty generating forces. The essential task of
PIDA is to facilitate the mobilisation, conscientisation, and organisation of the rural
poor. For this purpose, PIDA currently has a trained cadre of 15 action researchers, and a
few more are undergoing training in the field. PIDA will remain essentially small, with a
maximum of not more than about 20 action researchers, to facilitate its operation as a
collective non-hierarchical group. All action researchers withdraw from the field for a
period of about 3 to 4 days each month to meet together and reflect on their work and to
expose the work of each to the group as a whole. In these monthly action-reflection
exercises, actions are continually being reviewed, evaluated and improved upon. As a
collective body, all decisions are taken by the group as a whole through consensus, and
all operational/organisational work is carried out by the action researchers working in
rotation. An atmosphere conducive to collective deliberation has been created, action
researchers live together as a group to facilitate interaction and dialogue when they meet
monthly for reflection sessions. The organisation is run with minimal overheads, without
administrative staff or vehicles. PIDA does not maintain an office or any office staff; it
has only a simple home to hold its meetings and where action researchers and any
visitors could stay.
Currently PIDA workers are operating in a diversified range of rural communities, which
include small farmers of different types (those with/without irrigation facilities,
highland/paddy cultivators, cash crop producing/subsistence farmers, old/new settlers, and
squatters or encroachers on state lands), marginal farmers (living partly by cultivation
and partly by casual wage labour), landless labour, small fishermen, rural artisans, and
women cottage industry workers.
The initial phase of PIDAs intervention in a community is to stimulate the poor
to get together and to inquire why they are poor. PIDA workers will investigate and
analyse with the people the poverty generating forces operating in the immediate
environment. In the case of the small commodity producers (small farmers or rural
artisans), for example, these investigations and analysis have often focussed on the
magnitude of the income (economic surplus) lost to moneylenders, traders, landowners, and
others through dependency relations. The extent of the surplus drain is often quantified
using simple arithmetic for each producer as well as for the producing community in the
village. Such calculations often reveal that the small village producer does not even
realise one half of the market value of the produce because of dependency relations. The
village trader-cum-moneylender supplies credit to the small producer at exorbitant
interest rates (generally in the range of 200 to 250 percent per annum), and with the
credit supply there is often a commitment on the part of the producer to sell his produce
to the same trader, buy his inputs and consumer goods from the same trader, thereby
creating further avenues to extract surplus from the producer. Such pre-capitalist
relations are a fetter on the development of rural productivity. Initially people will
begin to relate their poverty to forces in the local space; gradually, however they would
begin to relate their immediate experiences to the wider social structures to which they
are less exposed.
In this way, the interaction between the PIDA worker and the community of rural poor
sparks off a certain chemistry. The accumulated knowledge and experiences of the community
is integrated with the analytical tools supplied by the PIDA worker, which generates a
process of scientific enquiry among the poor. People move from a sensory perception of
their poverty and fatalistic beliefs and attitudes about their abilities, to a conceptual
and analytical framework in their deliberations on poverty, and to realise that it is
within their power to change reality. People are now stimulated to explore what they could
do to counter the impoverishment process. Small producers, for example, would begin to
explore what means are available within their power to retain the economic surplus they
are producing. A process of experimentation on alternative possibilities, a trail and
error process, may be initiated. Often the first action is to build up a small savings
fund and to achieve a measure of group strength and economic staying power. Each action is
followed by reflection and analysis, so that the next step could be improved. With each
action, people gain the confidence in their ability to change reality. Perception of the
possibility of changing the immediate reality leads to the emergence of peoples
organisations whose structure and operations are defined by the people themselves based on
their own experiences and to suit their specific needs.
This process leads to the emergence of internal cadres and catalytic skills within the
organised peoples groups. At this point, PIDA workers would gradually withdraw from
the scene allowing the people to carry out their work on their own. This, however, is not
a total withdrawal. The PIDA worker would begin to devote more of their time to the
multiplication of the process in new villages and to arrange periodical interactions among
different peoples groups within a given locality so that people could share their
different experiences and learn from each other.
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Some Results of PIDAs
Intervention
Organised peoples groups emerging out of PIDAs intervention have achieved
significant gains in improving their livelihood.
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | Organised small producer groups have successfully retrieved the
economic surplus, which they have lost through dependency relations. Significant
gains have been wrested from local level exploiters. As a result, substantial income
improvements, in some cases as much as one-hundred percent increases, have been achieved
by small producers. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | The ability to retain the economic surplus has created a powerful incentive to
increase production by greater utilisation of available resources, through
productivity improvements, adoption of improved technologies, cultivation of new crops,
and improved access to governmental delivery systems. The productive forces, hitherto
suppressed by dependency relations, have been released. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | All groups have set apart a portion of their enhanced incomes into a group fund.
This collective fund has enhanced the staying power of the people to withstand crises and
has provided funds to meet emergency family needs (such as illnesses and deaths).
Moreover, an investment process has been set in motion using largely peoples own
resources and supplemented by credit from outside sources. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | Many groups have diversified their group actions by taking initiatives to
provide own health services (by the creation of health funds and obtaining training for a
member of the group in primary health care a kind of barefoot doctor), and
to organise cultural and social activities. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | People have created their own organisations, which are
non-hierarchical and informal in character. Almost all groups have preferred to
remain small in size (generally not more than 25 neighbourhood families). Being small,
they are able to operate as collective entities without creating formal offices and
delegating the work to a group of office bearers. Self-management is a characteristic
feature in all groups. Members form into small teams to undertake work in rotation. Groups
meet regularly often on a definite day (evening) of the week, reflect on the actions
initiated, undertake further social and economic investigations, and decide on new
actions. Actions are being internally evaluated by the group itself. In this way, a
process of peoples praxis, i.e. an action-reflection spiral has been set in
motion. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | A measure of self-respect and self-confidence has been introduced into the
peoples lives. By acquiring a measure of control over their immediate
environment, people have been able to gain confidence in their ability to change the
reality. People are no longer passive and non-experimental. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | Organised groups have succeeded, in varying degrees, to operate as a
countervailing power to the local power structures. They have improved their
bargaining power vis-à-vis traders, input suppliers, elite groups, and the bureaucracy.
Enhanced bargaining power coupled with greater receiving capacity have enabled the groups
to improve their access to governmental services. The process has not been entirely
conflict free. Peoples groups have had to meet opposition and acts of sabotage
emanating from the dominant interests. In most instances, these conflicts have been either
effectively overcome or have only led to temporary set backs; they have not been effective
in weakening the peoples initiatives. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | After a point, the organised groups have felt a need to spread the process to
other villages thereby breaking the isolation of the original groups. When such
new groups come up, interactions have taken place among the groups in the locality. Such
inter-group interactions to share experience and to learn from each others actions
have become regular features in some village clusters. |
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Issues for the Future
PIDAs experience is that there is always some political and economic space to
initiate a process of self-reliant development at the grassroots (village) level.
Moreover, such space does not remain static but expands with each successful action. For
one thing, peoples confidence in their ability to change the reality is enhanced,
and for another, improvement in the economic status of the people and the creation of
group funds enhances the peoples capacity to undertake further actions. Moreover,
when a number of peoples groups emerge in a locality, the isolation is broken down,
inter-group interaction takes place, and linkages are forged among groups providing a
further source of encouragement and strength. PIDAs experiences in working with a
variety of poor groups reveal that a process of mobilisation, conscientisation, and
organisation can be initiated under different economic and social conditions and the
development process is replicable. These are very interesting and useful results in
themselves; peoples initiatives have been liberated (within limits of course) and a
degree of countervailing power to local power structures has been built up.
What are the prospects of such grassroots initiatives expanding beyond the local level
to become a countervailing power at the national level? How far are grass root
micro-processes capable of ultimately expanding into national macro-level movements? How
far do grass root initiatives represent the first glimpse of a new liberated society?
These questions take us to an arena where a single organisation such as PIDA acting alone
can do little. There is a need to build a network of linkages within a country, among
grass root organisations as well as with friendly organisations, institutions, and
groups, so that a protective cover is available for a wider movement arising from grass
root initiatives.
Grass root initiatives are still a very controversial animal in many countries. Often
they have been looked upon with suspicion and sometimes they have been interpreted as subversive
moves of some kind. They often run the risk of either co-option or repression. Hence grass
root initiatives need legitimacy and recognition if they are to move away from the
marginal place, which they currently occupy into the mainstream of social life. They have
to be recognised as effective methods of reaching the poor and of fostering participation
which is a basic human right. A government committed to another development and to
participation as a basic human right, could go a long way in creating the necessary
political climate for grass root initiatives to expand into wider social movements. But
such political environments are getting increasingly scarce in the world.
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"Participation requires organised efforts to increase
control over resources and institutions on the part of people who have hitherto been
excluded from such control.
Liberation from domination and exploitation requires that people build up and
exercise a measure of counter power to the dominant interests in the society."
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Source:
The Collected Writings of G V S De Silva: The Alternatives - Socialism or Barbarism,
Edited by Charles Abeysekera, Social Scientists Association, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1988,
pp289 - 300
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