Chapter Four

Deeentralised Planning for Development

In this chapter, the focus would be on exploring the evolution and concepts such as
decentralisation, planning and developmen t. From the context in the earlier chapters, here
the process would be to give an overview to these tenns. A Marxist perspective in tenns
of an overview would also be attempted here. Tcnns such as decentralisation, planning
and development are in much use today but, they have a historical, ideological and
political basis as well.

I) Evolution of Development Paradigms

Development paradigms have been a source of debate since 1945. In the initial stages, the
idea of 'development' emanated from the premise of those from the 'top'; a centralized
forn! of top to bottom approach. This was also interspaced with the notion of' modernity'.
The approach was to modernize the people who were 'not developed'. This outlook was
tinged with power and elitist connotations; a notion that talked of the rich helping the
poor, the 'first world helping the third world'. This approach was tenned as the
Modernisation Paradigm. The work that illustrated the modernisation approach was
proposed by Daniel Lerner in the "passing of Traditional Society" in 1958, a very
influential work that assigned a very important role to a top to bottom approach (Ramos
and Schramm, 1989: 12). Lerner identified four critical variables that he said summarized
the development process: urbanization leading to increased literacy which in tum affects
mass media exposure resulting in greater economic and political participation. This is a
simple linear process but Lerner's most important hypothesis has to do with the nature of
the 'modem individual' who is characterized by an ability to accommodate to change with
a high degree of empathy (Ramos and Schramm, 1989). According to Lerner, people in
traditional societies could expand their empathy by exposure to the mass media which in
effect meant that mass media, in the third world, had the potential of bringing about
modernization into isolated traditional communities and replacing the structure of life,
values and behaviour which one sees in the western world (MeIkote, 1991). The wholc~

89 i
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approach up (0 the 60's was that the media would make indigenous' audiences react
favorably to opening up to the world and to the principles of market economy. "The
desired changes (developmental) were connected to a vertical, elitist, relationship in
which the "s(rong" were "helping" and "weak" to be seduced by the blessings of science
and technology, which were perceived as being exclusively western "inventors" (Habib,
1993:65).

In the 1970's, it became abundantly clear that the socio-economic scenano had
diminished the promise of development (Habib, 1993: 65-66). New approaches were
thus broached upon primarily because this diminishment of the promise of the
Modernisation paradigm. There was then, a progressive reflection on the "state of
development" achieved up to the 60's wherein the situation of the very poor had only but
deteriorated. From this state of realisation evolved another paradigm called the
Dependency Paradigm. From the 70's the stress was on (i) equity in distribution of
information and other benefits of development (ii) active participation of people at the
grassroots (iii) Independence of local communities to tailor development projects to their
own objectives and (iv) integration of the old and new ideas, the traditional and modem
systems suited to the needs of a community (Melkote, 1991: 225-226).

Paulo Freire's views in the 60's and 70's also challenged critically commonly accepted
notions of communication in the development process 32 • He condemned traditional
literacy training as authoritarian in which the teachers "deposit" the set of values of the
rich in the poor, who can later "cash in" on those "deposits" for material goods given to
them as reward for passivity (Beltran, 1989). Genuine communication, he said is a tree
dialogue; actively sharing and reconstructing experience; for education is the creative
discovery of the world, not transmission of knowledge from the powerful to the
powerless. Freire, in effect, proposed 'conscientisation' as a democratic method for
people to gain collective awareness of natural and social realities, a method that is based
on non-directed discussion of individual and cultural problems in small cultural circles,
stimulated only by 'generative words' selected from the people's 'minimum thematic
universe' (Beltran, 1989: 16). This would, in tum show the exploited that society is

3::!lnformation, communications and the campaign process were seen as vita] categories in tbe process of
developmenl.

90
changeable (Beltran, 1989). The interrelation of Freire's ideas to the process of
development education is evident (Beltran, 1989: 16). For example, Freire regarded the
transplantation of the agricultural extension program of the United States as opposite to
true educational practice because it came with the assumption that it came from the "seat
of wisdom to the scat of ignorance" (Beltran, 1989: 16).

In summation, the two paradigms on communication and development come through an

evolutionary process during the last five decades - the Modernisation Paradigm and the
Dependency Paradigm. The Modernisation Paradigm spelled out development as a
spontaneous, un i-linear and irreversible process which in tum implied functional
specialisation (Servaes, 1996: 83). In this, development was to be stimulated by external,
endogenous factors and by internal measures geared towards supporting modem sectors
and modernising traditional sectors (Servaes, 1996: 83). In the Dependency Paradigm, the
whole development process was towards the philosophy of disassociation from the world
market in goal of self-reliance as the most important perceived obstacle to development
are external to the underdeveloped nation (Servaes, 1996). None of these 'paradigms'
explained the dismal record of economic and social development in the third world. For
instance, by 1980, after two UN "Development Decades", the developing countries had
accumulated a foreign debt of nearly $440 billion, a figure that was only $68 billion in
1971 (Beltran, 1989: 12). Three fourths of the world population accounted for only 20
per cent of the wodd's gross product, and Asia, Africa and Latin America, which were
net exporters of food grains before the second world war are regions constantly affected
by major famines today (Beltran, 1989: J 2). Also, it is not just a question of external
'.:A

exploitation or scarcity of J'esources but also that of unequal distribution '0'[ reso~rces
within the third world (Beltran, J 989).

JI) Decentralisation, Social Capital and Development

In the post J980s scenario, the existing paradigms came to an 'impasse' because of the
vast structural (class) divides. It was then that institutions such as the World Bank, IMF
and USAID started actively promoting, financing and evaluating decentralisation

91
experiments for development (Isaac and Franke, 2004:231 )33. There was so much
impetus to these experiments that by 1994, 63 of 75 'developing countries' with
populations over five million had embarked on 'some form of transfer to local units of
governments' (Isaac and Franke, 2004:231). What is to be noted is that these
decentralisation projects were all sponsored by the World Bank, IMF and USAID; was
concentrated within the developing countries and implemented in a big way stal1ing in
thel980's (Isaac and Franke, 2004).

Decentralisation as a concept towards development has becn touted by financial

institutions and non-governmental organisations for a long time but the scale in which
this was carried out has been massive since the 19805 (See Petras, 1999 b, and Haniss,
2001). One of the key words for the decentralisation process adopted in the Kerala
context is the 'harnessing of social capital' and Putnam's book on governance in Italy is
seen as a benchmark (see Isaac and Franke, 2004). This word 'social capital' has been
invented and reinvented several times since the beginning of the 20th century (Harriss,
2001). In recent times, this word has come to symbolise in a major way, the prevailing
'development discourse' including that of the decentralisation experiments. The idea of
social capital has been theorized by many but the attention has been focused on the work
of Coleman who believed that one can best build up social theory from a model of
individual behaviour-the axiom that individuals seek to max imize the realisation of their
interests (Haniss, 200 I :6). This tends to 'skate around the problem of how interests are
defined and it is a style of sociology that is attractive to nco-liberal economists who work
on the same model of human behaviour (Harriss, 2001 :6).

Putnam's work on regional/local 'decentralised' governments in Italy was also a major

impetus to the idea of social capital as a tool for social change. This too has been a major
influence in the Peoples' Plan Programme as can be seen in Isaac and Franke's34 (2004)
work. Putnam's work attempted to demonstrate statistically that both variations in
government performance and levels of socio-economic development are most strongly

J3 Isaac and Franke (2004) is the book which is seen as the 'document' for the Peoples' Plan Programme.
Thomas Isaac, the present Finance Minister of Kerala was the main resource person behind the Peoples'
Plan in terms of the planning and Implementation Process of the Peoples' Plan Programme. However, the
larger vision behind the programme remains with the LDF government in Kerala and EMS Namboodripad.
34 See pages 35-36 in Isaac and Franke's work on the Peoples' Plan Programme.

92
explained by 'civic engagement', measured in tenns of the extent and type of political
participation, newspaper readership, and density of voluntary associations of different
types (Harriss, 200 I). The idea of civic engagement as put forwarded by Putnam can be
alternated with terms such as 'civii society' or 'social capital'. Essentially what has come
to be accepted is that social capital is understood as primarily 'membership in groups' or
'voluntary associations' which in tum is a critical condition for economic development
and good governance (Harriss, 2001). These ideas of 'decentraliscd local development'
seems appropriate but there are points of concern. For instance, the concept of social
capital is by itself very fluid for severe class, race, caste and gender inequalities arc a
feature of this and local 'volunteer' organi sations of people at the grassroots are in many
cases, nol necessarily democratically representative organisations and might be attractive
because they appear to offer the possibility of a 'kind of democracy' through 'popular
participation' (Harriss, 2001). If this approach is taken without the inconveniences of
contestational politics and the conflict of values and ideas, it is then that the idea of
depolitizising comes through (Harriss, 2001 :9-10).

The early history of community development projects m India is an example in this

regard. If one examines the practices of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) applied in
India, anthropologist David Mosse has shown that in many circumstances, they can create
arenas in which locally powerful people can project their agendas (see Harriss, 2004 and
Ostman, 1989). Apart from locally powerful people projecting their agendas, it can hold
true for larger economic, political and social institu1ions pushing their agendas through
this process. For instance, one aspect of these development programmes stresses upon
building ties between the relatively weak and relatively powerful people' in positions of
influence in fonnal organisations' (banks, agriculture extension offices, police) (Harriss,
2001). This suggestion however is severely flawed as it does not take into account the
context of power and class relations (Harriss, 2001). On the contrary to the belief that
forging such associations' helps in the process of development, evidence exists to show
how 'linking social capital' between the poor and, say the police, actually contributes to
the reproduction of oppression and of poverty in India (Harriss, 2001: 12). Moreover, the
intention of forging such links to institutions such as banks (micro finance) could also be
in aid to tap resources from rural bodies to aid further expansion of private capital. Hence

93
one could infer that 'local institutions' may be lUost effective at enforcing co-operative
action when there is a concelied political will and agenda towards local distribution of
assets in a more equal manner (Harriss, 200 I).

III) A Marxist Perspective to Planning, Decentralisation and Development

Fundamentally, the reference to planning in Marxist theory comes when Engels stated the
need 'towards the replacement orthe anarchy of social production by a socially planned
rcgulation of production in accordance with the needs both of society as a whole and of
each individual' (cited in Devine, 2000: 165). However, the main thrust of the debate has
been with regard to whether the efficient alroeation ofresoul'ces could be achieved in the
absence of markets and prices for means of production. It has also been demonstrated that
it was possible to combine public ownership of the means of production with
decentralized decision making through the use of 'accounting prices'; meaning that these
prices would be sct by a central planning board, not by the market and would be varied
until planned supply and demand were equal (Devine, 2000: 166). This approach of using
market mechanism to demonstrate that an economy based on public ownership could
arrive at an allocation of resources with the same efliciency properties as one based upon
private ownership has been debated within Marxist approaches to planning and
development. For instance, Dobb (1974)35 argued that economic planning is desirable
precisely because it enables outcomes that differ from those produced by operation of
market forces. From this perspective, the essence of economic planning is that it makes
possible the co-ordination of interdependent decisions before they are implemented
(Devine, 2000). Unlike in the market scenario, in a socialist planning process, major
investments bringing about non-marginal changes can be planned together and
coordinated in advance before resources are committed.

However, economic planning has also been associated with the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe. Its distinctive form was shaped by objectives of rapid industrialisation for rapid
economic growth and regional development but it co-existed with repression and

J5 Dobb, Maurice (1974), "Some Historical Retlections on Planning and the Market", in Abramsky, C (cd);
Essays in honour ofE H Carr (cited from Devine, 2000).

94
inefficiency (Devine, 2000). It was a highly centralized administrative command system
based on annual plans that consisted of binding targets for every enterprise which in tum
turned out to be unsustainable (Devine, 2000). It was here that the Chinese experience
was different. Observing these characteristics in the Soviet experience of planning, the
Chinese planners emphasised that moulding the political characteristic of a class and the
system was first priority in setting the pace for development, which is as important as the
material basis of the system (Suyin, 1976: 122). In this approach, public opinion and
social action have a definite relation. One example in this regard would be with regard to
land reform and agriculture post 1956 (Burchett and Alley, 1976). The focus was not just
on attempting to bring equality at the base level but it was also accompanied with raiSing
political consciousness through campaigns and mobilisation (Suyin, 1973). The land
reform movement of 1949-52 was a class struggle, an educative process, an abolition of
feudal landlordism and the beginning of collectivization in agriculture (Suyin, 1973).
Land refonn began the process of releasing the productive force of the rural regions, first
by abolishing the inhibitory factors, excessive rents, usury, oppression and landlord
banditry (Suyin, 1973). However, redistribution of land per se docs not necessarily lead
to increased output and this was seen in the initial stages of the collectivisation drive; but
it was recognised that only collectivisation would make possible the conditions under
which the feudal peasant would become an educated, literate, scientifically minded man;
the counterpart of an educated, literate, technical factory worker (Suyin, 1973:45-49).

In 1958, it was stated by Chinese planners that collectivisation and the commune
included people of all trades and professions; and the commune would be the unit which
would take over all local government organisatio~s. A decentralised, flexible and yet
solidly interwoven social and economic pattern and capable of modification came into
existence (Suyin, 1973:51). After the initial attempts at decentralisation through
communes, the decisive breakthrough came in 1956, when private ownership of land,
implements and draught animals was relinquished (Burchett and Alley, 1976). This could
take place only because, firstly, the poor and the lower-middle peasants constituted
overwhelming majority of the co-operative members; secondly, they had hardly any
property and their chief contribution being their labour; and thirdly, their political
consciousness had been raised greatly during the previous years and they were thus able

95
to voice their opinions and were more political (Burchett and Alley, 1976:20). As a result
of the combined action at the base as well as towards political transformation, by the late
1960s and early 1970s, over 600 million out of 750 million people lived in communes;
the estimates of the number of eommunes being in the range of about 50,000 (Burchett
and Alley, 1976:33; see also Myrdal and Kessle, 1970). The act of the communes and
collcctivisation for decentralised development led to results from 1956 onwards. FOI

instance, irrigation, in 1950 counted at 45 million acres and by 1957 it covered 70 million
acres (Suyin, 1973). By 1973, the total cultivated area rose to 280 million acres but the
emphasis remained not just in increasing the cropland area but also increasing yield per
acre (Suyin, 1973 :57)36. The sentiment that governed the entire planning process was to
resist the strongly entrenched bureaueracy and 'planning from below with political
consciousnesses' was the motto. What is significant in the Chinese experience of
planning was that the state plan was not initiated under a team of economists but by
farmers and workers (Burchett and Alley, 1976: 191). Computers were used at the top, but
only to coUate the production estimates which were supplied from the village and factory
floor levels and to integrate all these' with overall requirements (Burchett and Alley,
1976:191i7 . In this planning of 'bottom up', full play was given to creative initiatives
and the results of scientific experiments at the base and every commune had its unit
responsible for scientific cxperimentation (Burchett and Alley, 1976: 191).

In theory most communes were controlled (in the sense of being responsible to a higher
authority) by the county revolutionary committee, but, in practice, the commune, which is
not a state unit of ownership, but a co-operative, had autonomy in its financial affairs
(Wheelwright and McFarlane, 1973:132). Even though the act of decentralisation took
place at all levcls, these structures were designated as autonomous as they retain cd links
to the total state structure; so in an essence the communes were something like 50,000
slates within a state (Burchett and Alley, 1976:33). The links to the state was organised
under the tax system wherc excess revenue was deposited with the central government

36For further statistics see also Mobo Gao, 1999, Robinson, 1969 and Wheelwright and McFarlane, 1973
J7With regard to the validity of these 5t.tistie., Mobo Gao, 1999 shows that these statistics of the period
1949-1975 conform 10 the ups and downs that the Chinese economy went through. The crisis years of
1959-61 was when the economy wellt through a slump and there on production figures rose. See also
Wheelwright and McFarlane, 1973.

96
who in turn would distribute it to the deficit areas; this policy was reversed after the
restoration of capitalism under the Deng era where in the provinces were allowed to keep
their surpluses for further development of capital (see Chai, 1995). However, in terms of
a historical assessment, the Chinese way of planning has to be reassessed for their overall
achievements as well as their failures. Available inferences point out to the fact that this
approach was a remarkable experience in terms of the transfonnation that it achieved; in
comparison to what China was when the revolution happened in 1949 (Suyin, 1973:57).

One of the ways that went into supplementing the planning process was the campaign
towards mass mobilization. No system or government in the recent past has carried out
mass campaigns as the People's Republic of China. One estimate is that from 1950 to
1978 there were 74 mass campaigns on the national level (Liu, 1981: 199-223). They
belonged to different categories. First, there were campaigns of class struggle in the
1950's, each of these were campaigns designed to launch anew institution in China (such
as Land Reform of 1950). Second, there were mass campaigns of denunciation of purged
political figures such as Liu Shaochi during the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution
(GPCR). Third, there were numerous campaigns espccially two decades preceding
Mao's death in 1976, of studying political ideology be it Mao's thought or Marxism
Leninism. Fourth, there were campaigns of emulation; the objects of such campaigns had
been, in various times, model workers, soldiers, students or cadres. Fifth, there were
campaigns designed to familiarize the public with a new policy such as the National
Constitution of 1954 or Agricultural Coopcratisation of 1953. Finally since 1949, there
have been campaigns of information about, say, marriage laws, mass sanitation (1952),
birth control (1956-57) and anti-smoking and preservation of forests campaign (Liu,
1981 ).

The whole rationale of the campaigns was that the policies of the party have to be
through mass mobilisation, information be converted into the thought of the people as
well as seek peoples' point of view from the bottom up (see Liu, 1981). This is to be
done primarily, through mobilisational work in the countryside as well as the urban areas.
The urban factor came much later with the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution
(GPDCR). The organisational factor of Chinese campaigns had first, the establishment of
an ad hoc organisation. This was done to ensure the importance of the campaign (the

97
realisation), to ensure thoroughness in execution, in the sense that establishment of such
organisations could circumvent the inertia of regular bureaucracy. The second stage was
the training of a number of activists, beginning with the recruitment of the right people
with the motivation to go in for mobilisational work. After this is dOlle, an experimental
area is chosen and there is a "eky point application". For example, in the campaign
against Schistosomiasis or Snail fever in .1955 after preliminary survey and propaganda
work done in Shanghai, two out of ten infected countries were selected as focal points for
"decisive attack" (Liu, 1981). Chinese leaders divided the implementation of a campaign
into two, the "point phase" and the "plane phase". After a campaign is accomplished
well in 'key points', then the whole 'plane (country, province or nation) is activated in a
sweeping manner. In the whole campaign, all facets employed are mobilised at a mass
level. The positive aspects of the campaigns in the People's Republic of China, is the
emphasis on personal participation in persuasion campaigns. An example would be for
local foresiry campaigns wherein heavy users of forests were persuaded to be volunteer
propagandists for prevention of forest fires. Thus, the persuaded were transformed into
persuaders. The most remarkable aspect of the Chinese campaigns was that, that as soon
as a decision was taken by the leadership, officials could quickly mobilise a large nuinber
of activists, drawing people from all institutions who after being given a briefing, were
dispatched to every comer to disseminate messages. At times, there were failures too.
The failure of the birth control programme in Wenzhou was largely due to the lack of
credibility of the enforcer, (the party cadres there) (Liu, 198J). Similarly at times, in the
use of small groups there was 'routinisation"; that is, overuse; so much so that peop.le
became detached from the whole process (Liu, 1981).

The main political feature of these campaigns and the planning process was the
advocating of the principle of 'moral incentives'. This was unique to the Chinese Marxist
experience. In the erstwhile Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (post Lenin), it was taken
Jor granted that the spur of the collectivist is 'insufficient' to build a socialist society and
the stress was to realise industrialisation through the use of the management techniques
and material stimuli associated with advanced technology originally developed by
capitalism (Wheelwright and McFarlane, 1973: 148). Such views were opposed in China
as a tendency towards re-establishment ofCapitaJism. This is where moral incentives as a

98
concept to be inculcated came into being in lieu of material incentives. The Water
Conservation Campaign was built on moral rather than material incentives; the idea of
sharing things in common, irrespective of the individual's contribution made progress in
communes (Wheelwright and McFarlane, 1973: 149). From the standpoint of economics
and planning, this has been justified on many counts; basicaJly it is a firm denial of an
assumption that the growth of the economy is simply a function of physical investment
and technical progress; here in, it was stressed that there is a missing link in this
equation- human motivation (Wheelwright and McFarlane, 1973: 149). The strategy was
to focus on the promotion of human factor in economic development.

The crux of the matter was that the motivations of self-interest and material gain which
are the driving force of the capitalist system cannot be applied to a socialist system of
planning and if they are, then a basic contradiction results, caused by a continued
coexistence of motivation based on individual material advancement, operating within
the framework of collectivist ethos and institutions (Wheelwright and McFarlane,
1973: 132). This makes sense especially in economically backward countries, of the
emergence of a great gulf between senior elite groups of specialists and political leaders,
and the mass of peasants. At a philosophical level, this approach is to discover why the
masses have lost power to direct their own lives in society. The use of moral incentives is
an essentially practical way of getting people to take a more active part in deciding how
their material creations are to be used, and how to arrange their social lives without
subordinating the mass to the elite (Wheelwright and McFarlane, 1973: 155). Moral rules
develop when the usual rules of living break down, or where individuals and societies are
left on their own to structure actions deemed proper; however, the main belief is that "the
ability of forms of life to adapt to a great variety of conditions, frequently under the
greatest handicaps, in order to survive, grow and function, suggests a mode of creativity"
(Wheelwright and McFarlane, J 973:1 55). Underlying all of this is the role of political
(Marxist) consciousness which is crucial, to prevent the restoration of the old order.
Although there is some clear directions in which the planning process may be applied to
the economy, the Marxist perspective needs a closer study as it also concerns the basis on
which the myriads on which motivation or incentives are constIucted; so what this may
imply is that it is up to the people to learn a certain way of reasoning things out, and a

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way of fitting their activities with society's goals (Wheelwright and McFarlane,
1973: 163).

IV) The Kerala Experience in Culture, Campaign, Planning and Decentralisation

What has been the Kerala experience in mass campaigns, decentralisation and planning?
Post its creation in 1956, Kerala has seen the contribution of a non-governmental
organisation based in Kerala, the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP). Started by a
small group of intellectuals, it has grown into a big organisation today. Even though this
organisation is independent, the ideological roots lie in the local Left Movement in the
state. Even before its birth as a separate state within the Indian union in 1956, this region
has seen a spate of social and cultural movements (as secn in Chapter three).

a) Historical Background and the Structure or the KSSP

The beginnings of the KSSP can be traced to the formation of a Science Literary Forum
in 1957, by a group of activists and science writers who had gathered in connection with
a traditional arts festival at Ottappalam in Kerala (Isaac and Ekbal, 1988: 2). The
gathering gave it a mandate to encourage science writing and to popularise science
among the masses by making it accessible to the local language, Malayalam (Zachariah
and Sooryamoorthy, 1994: 53). However, their early attempt was not able to survive for
long and a second attempt was made in 1962, this time with a larger group of dedicated
intellectuals and, popularise science under a new name the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parish ad
(Kanan, 1979:51). The earlier attempt was called the Sastra Sahitya Samiti or the
Science Literary Forum.

In the meantime, in 1965, some of the MalayaJi Scientists in Mumbai had started
considering the possibilities of producing science literature in Malayalam (Isaac and
Ekbal, 1988). Catalysts for this move were the young scientists who had just returned
from Moscow and who were part of the group of scientists who wanted to spread
scientific awareness among people (Isaac and Ekbal, 1988). The contact between these
Mumbai Scientists and the organisers of the KSSP, led to the formation of the Sastra
Sahitya Parishad (Malayalam), Mumbai, in January 1966 (Isaac and Ekbal, 1988). Thus,
in the final confluence of the fomlation of the KSSP, three distinct streams of people

100
came together (Isaac and Ekbal, 1988). The first were the social refonners who saw
science as a tool against an 'outdated past', the second, were the science writers who
were concerned about the professional problems of writing science in Malayalam, and,
saw the organisation as a means to address their problems. The third stream of people
who contributed to the formation of the KSSP were the Malayalee scientists working in
Mumbai and other parts who wanted to contribute to the science movement (Isaac and
Ekbal, 1988: 7). In tenns of formation of the concrete organisation, the 4th annual
conference at Trichur in 1967 was an important milestone in the history of the KSSP.
The conference, which included representatives from all streams, considered and
approved a constitution for the organisation and in July 1968, KSSP was registered under
the Charitable Societies Act (Isaac and Ekbal, 1988). Thus, the loosely knit science
groups evolved into a structured organisation.

In terms of organisational structure, the KSSP has a four tier structure: "Units"
functioning at the village level in an area of 10-20 sq.km; sub-regional committees
catering to about 10-15 "units"; 14 District Committees and a State Committee (KSSP
Booklet, 1995: 3). President, Vice Presidents, General Secretary, Treasurer and
Secretaries are the office bearers to which elections are held every year. Contests are
seldom held to these posts as the stress is on unanimity (KSSP Booklet, 1995). Another
unique aspect of the KSSP is that its members come trom all walks of life - engineers,
doctors, farmers, teachers, etc. And that the most predominant group of members are that
of unemployed youth (KSSP Booklet, 1995). In the leadership, teachers outnumber
everybody, in the sense that to the State Executive Committee, they contribute nearly
fifty- percent members (KSSP Booklet, ] 995). Also to be noted is that the KSSP JS

strictly not a political party in itself, but is distinctly political in actions and issues.

As far as these activities are concerned, the KSSP is involved in three types of activities:
agitative, educative and constructive, in areas like environment, health, education,
energy, literacy, drinking water, micro planning - practically in a broad sphere of human
activity (KSSP Booklet, 1995). It is the evolutionary process that has made the KSSP
involve itself in so many spheres, for, it had started of primarily as a forum for
popularising science (Zachariah and Sooryamoorthy, 1994: 55).

101
b) Some programmes of the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad

i) People's science movement

At the basic level, it is universally acknowledged that popularising science is one of the
key factors to combat irrationality (Narlikar, 1997). Irrationality and superstition cxists
in popular consciousness not just in developing countries, but among the masses in
developed countries as welL Irrationality and superstition is particularly harmful in the
developing countries because it impedes progress itself. So a major challenge faCing
science popularisers in this country is to help eradicate irrationality, which is a major
task, simply because in our country, even the highest in the land subscribe to it (Narlikar,
1997: 12). Another impeding factor is that, the bulk of scientists stay away from the
objective of science popularisation among the masses. The reasons for this lack of
participation may be their inability to talk down, some considering it to be an
infringement of their' scientific time' and others think, that they should not be doing this
job (N arlikar, 1997). It could also be due to the lack of progressive politics within many
people of science. Another spin off as a result of this is the kind of directions that
scientific work takes as a result of this lack of 'progressive polities' within people of
sCience.

Coming back to the KSSP, it has been among the pioneering organisations to contribute
to popularising of science in Kerala. As mentioned earlier, the entire rationale of the
fonl1ation of KSSP was for making science accessible to the masses. The KSSP adopted
the slogan "Science for Social Revolution" in the belief that science has a major role in
equipping people to create a social revolution (KSSP, 1993). The entire process started
with the publication of a popular science journal, Sastragathi, in 1966 (Kanan, 1979).
This was started with the view to give opportunities to college students and writers to
contribute articles on science in the popular style (Kanan, 1979). This journal was
immensely successful, so much so that the KSSP decided to cater to an even younger
generation; high school students. Towards this, the journal, Sastrakeralam, was started in
1968 and the success of Sastrakeralam, in t·urn, spurred the launch of a journal for the still
younger generation - school children (Kanan, 1979). This journal is called Eureka and is
by far, the most popular of publications of the Parishad (Kanan, 1979). It was found that

102
both Sastrakeralam and Eureka created a new awakening in the minds of the children
about science and scientific methods (KSSP, 1993). Furthermore, this opened the way
for interaction at school level to the Parishad. At this stage, lower and upper primary
school teachers started getting involved in Parishad activities and with their aid, the
KSSP started getting involved in the non-curricular activities (at the school level) (KSSP,
1993). Firstly, science clubs were established. District level liaison committees
coordinated activities of affiliated science clubs and achieved success in staging many
science exhibitions, competitions etc (KSSP, 1993). All these activities at the school
level by the KSSP led to about 1500 science clubs being formed in different schools and
also the science kit being distributed by the state government in being used effectively by
the school children (KSSP, 1993).

It was this immense success at educational institutions that led to the KSSP thinking in
tenns of larger society as a whole for popularising science (KSSP, 1984). Hencc, the
move from urban/semi-urban setting to the rural. It was then on that the slogan "Science
for Social Revolution" acquired a new meaning, where science was defincd not in its
narrow disciplinary sense but in the sense of embracing all fields of human knowledgc
(KSSP, 1984: 11). Furthermore, the concept of the Parishad about the rural science
societies was that of an independent autonomous society of villages, in other words, a
Sciencc Club for villages (KSSP, 1993)_ The perspective was that eventually these
societies should metamorphise into independent, informal village development bodies
wherein, there is control of supervising and overseeing village level development activity
(KSSP, 1993). The highly successful 'Sastra Kala .Tatha' (Science Art Procession) in
1972, can be the starting point to the mass contact rural programmes of the KSSP
(Zachariah and Sooryamoorthy, 1994). Delegates - mostly teacher, professors and
principals - from three far away points in Kerala converged in Tiruvalla and traveled all
over, stopping at several schools, colleges, public libraries, street corners to give talks on
science (Zachariah and Sooryamoorthy, 1994: 63). This was the beginning of the mass
contact programme and slogans like 'science is for the good of the people' and 'science is
wealth' began to be heard in every comer of Kerala (Zachariah and Sooryamoorthy,
1994: 63). January, 1976 is also significant in the Science Movement, for the "Science
Month' was declared and 3000 classes were conducted, mainly in the villages, in schools

]03
and libraries (Kanan, 1979). These classes of science for the rural populace was unique,
for, not only was such an endeavour being conducted for the first time in the country at
such large scale but also it was for the first time that deep rooted superstitions and
dogmas were being confronted (Kanan, 1979). These dogmas repeatedly clashed with
what the young Parishad Volunteers were telling, thus making the classes more lively.
These experiences, in tum, resulted in the demand for more such classes and the original
plan of 3000 classes was increased to 12,(J00, that to within a month (KSSP, 1993 and
Kanan, 1979). It is estimated that nearly a million rural persons attended these classes
and the number of classes conducted for volunteer-teacher ranging from one to thirty
(Kanan, 1979). The tempo created by this mass contact programme led to the fonnation
of ViI/age Science Forums (KSSP, 1993). These Forums were actively supported by the
KSSP, and, classes on a continuous basis was implemented (Kanan, 1979). 1977
witnessed another major phenomenon. A 37 day long procession was undel1aken from
the Village Science Forum in the northern most part of the state to the Southernmost part
(Kanan, 1979). This was carried out with a view to propagate the message of the
Parishad through direct contact with the people. In nearly 900 public meetings held
during the .Iatha (over 10,000 kms.) nearly five lakh people were covered (Kanan, 1979:
55). After these programmes, the KSSP developed links with the attempts to have such
endeavours elsewhere. After the initial thrust on popularising science among the masses,
the KSSP went on to other issues. The science movement initiatives of the KSSP were
taken over by the state government, for example the Science Clubs of schools and their
activities are being managed by the Education Department since 1976. After the' Science
Movement', KSSP has been involved in many agitative issues (like the Silent Valley
agitation) but the people's campaign that they are known for today is, their mobilisation
attempts in the literacy campaign.

ii) Literacy Movement

The National Literacy Mission (NLM)'s launch in 1988 set the tone for literacy
campaigns throughout the country. The motive was to impart a new sense of urgency,
seriousness and emphasis to adult education, with fixed goals, a clear time frame and a
defined target group (NLM, 1998). The Total Literacy Campaign (TLC's) emerged as a
programme strategy for the NLM. The TLC started in 1989 in ErnakuJam, was founded

104
on "the principle of wider publie participation linking elected representatives m local
bodies, district administration, educational institutions and voluntary agencies to create
an upsurge of people's participation for achieving the goal of eradicating illiteracy from
the district" (Ghosh, 1997: 3246). As a consequence and seeing the objectives, the expert
committee set up to evaluate the impact of TLC's said it was one of the best initiatives in
the post-independence era (Ghosh, 1997). The initial campaigns were successful in states
like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh (Ghosh, 1997). In most other areas
(example - Hindi heartland) there was less success in the total literacy campaign (Ghosh,
1997). This is because popular support and volunteer participation was forthcoming in
states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu but there was marked absence of people's participation
in other states (Ghosh, 1997).

Then, there is also the question of what happens after a literacy campaign has been
conducted. There aTe two aspects to this, one, the possibility of relapse into illiteracy
after a certain period of the campaign, two, the inadequate acquisition· or even complete
absence of the skills of literacy among those who had been learning under the TLC's
during the last two or three years (Bannerjee, 1994: 3013). Both of these aspects are
relevant in the context of the TLC's and this is not being looked Into by the government
officials running the NLM (BanneJjee, 1994: 3013). This whole aspect is a characteristic
of the literacy campaigns in India (Saldanha, 1993). Social mobilisations, which fonn a
vital, part of the literacy campaigns makes its entry into a region without disturbing the
socio-economic structures of those regions (Saldanha, 1993: 988). In fact, literacy
campaigns at least initially take the socio-economic structures into considerations and
then undertake the campaign Without disturbing them to any great extent. The emphasis
is on participation. In essence, literacy at the initial stage lends itself, on the surface, to a
fragile consensus (Saldanha, 1993). FinaJly, the question to be answered is for what and
who is this entire exercise of mass literacy') This is in context of the entire new rational
thrust on areas like privatisation, restructuring, and ensuring globalisation (Saldanha,
1995: 1194). Meaning that, in case there is a general fall of standards of living as a result
of the new economic policies, one cannot expect literacy in itself to alleviate the situation
(Saldanha, 1995: 1194). However, one must keep in mind that the Kerala experience in
this field has been unique because it did achieve success, at least initially, fOf redr9~.
,~.L~

105
("V',': "-~J~'
Ii --:
-
~\, ... J ;;J:~
.;~.
\ ...~... ',·,.j.;ul . \10...:.:&
implementation with the active p3l1icipation of neo-literate groups (Ghosh, 1997). In
contrast, it has to be noted that the international exper.ience of successful literacy
campaigns has been usually in the context of revolutionary social transfonnation or
freedom from colonial bondage (Ghosh, 1997: 3246).

Coming back to Kerala, it was the state where the total literacy campaign took place
successfully. It was the KSSP who was persuaded to take up the total literacy campaign
by the NLM, in Kerala. The KSSP took up the task by insisting on its own method of
operation, different from the NLM guidelines. For instance, the KSSP suggested that the
number of learners should not exceed 15, even though the minimum number could be
even two as against the NLM norm of 30 (Mohana Kumar, 1993). The first district
targeted for eradication of literacy was Emakulam and the entire project was called The
Ernakulam District Total Literacy Programme (EDTLP). The first step was setting up of
committees from the municipalities and panchayats and the second stcp was a survey of
the illiterates (Mohana Kumar, 1993). The survey covered six lakh households, utilising
the services of 50,000 trained volunteers. In the EDTLP, literacy centers were located
(18,000) for 1.75 lakh learners in the district (Mohana Kumar, 1993: 2188). After the
process was over, the learners were evaluated on the nOlms prescribed by NLM and
Ernakulam was declared literate in February, 1990. The entire state's literacy campaign,
"Aksharakeralam", was on a gigantic scale: it envisaged 30 to 40 lakh learners which
required three to four lakh instructors, 2,000 to 3,000 master trainers, 1,500 to 2,000
district level resource persons, 150-260 state level key resource persons and 25 to 50 state
level guides (Mohana Kumar, 1993: 2188). The entire scale of the programme is seen
from the above figures. For the mobilisation aspect, every type of publicity was resorted
to: posters, banners, I iteracy walls, cinema slides, newspapers, radio, television all
reinforced by 'padayatras', 'kalajathas', 'song groups', 'kala melas', folk festivals and
exhibitions (Mohana Kumar, 1993: 2189). Kalajathas (processions) were particularly
organised in a large scale, thus, the entire use of nearly all forms of expression set in
motion a literacy wave through the state (Mohana Kumar, 1993). The KSSP was
involved at every step of this gigantic project, which was a great success in tenns of
mobilisation and popular mass participation. Here it is imperative to mention that the
entire KSSP experience is rooted in the historical characteristics of the state and the

106
success of KSSP fringes on that. In tenns of literacy campaign, every region has its
peculiarities and the campaign should be directed and planned in that socia-economic /
cultural context. Hence, it also follows that the Kerala model of literacy campaign cannot
be unifonnly or mechanically applied to other regions (Saldanha, 1995: 1190).

The Grantha Sala Sangam (the Library Movement) of 1945 has direct relevance to the
work of KSSP (Zachariah and Sooryamoorthy, 1994: 49-50). Its relevance is that KSSP
has benefited from the well known reading habits of Malayali that has been fostered by
the presence of reading rooms and libraries where there is access for the poor to read
(Zachariah and Sooryamoorthy, I 994). The founder of the Library Movement was
P.N.Panicker who started with a single reading room in 1945, which expanded
considerably from 1945 to 1977 when there were 4,000 rural libraries (Zachariah and
Sooryamoorthy, 1994: 50). The state government took it over in 1977, ever since which,
the entire network has floundered (Zachariah and Sooryamoorthy, 1994), but it has to be
emphasised that KSSP's success in the literacy campaign mobilisation has also to do with
the library movement and its resulting effect. The KSSP has so far been a major force in
the fields of science, literacy and is part of the All India Peoples' Science Network
(AIPSN). At present, the KSSP is also involved in the Plan Campaign where the
emphasis is on decentralised planning.

iii) Planning
The whole aspect of the entire excrclsc m planning focused (at least on paper) on
development planning from below, so that people have a say in the entire process and
contribute to a plan which is suited to their needs and ground realities. However, this has
to be seen is the context of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act (KPRA) of 1994. Decentralised
planning cannot succeed unless and until the lowest elected bodies have the power. In
that perspective, it is necessary to look at KPRA. Even though the Act provides for the
transfer of all grants in the mandatory items to the Panchayats and also approves of
transfer of all buildings, institutions etc, it does not make any earnest effort for ensuring
adequate financial resources to them (Sastry, 1995). The devolution of resources is
conditioned by the words "Subject to availability" and this provision could bc misused
(Sastry, 1995: 1910). The Act also contains many provisions that allows inspection and

l07
supervision of the working of the Panchayats which is in fact, a nullifying factor to the
autonomy and freedom of the Panchayat (Sastry, 1995: J 9 J 0). All this could in effect
negate the sprit of the Act in terms of decentralisation and autonomy. It is keeping this
aspect that one must see all attempts towards decentral.ised planning.

As far as the planning campaign goes, the Kerala State Planning Board headed by
l.S.Gulati resolved to initiate a people's plan hoping that 35 to 40% of the 9th Plan would
consist of schemes formulated and implemented from below (Isaac and Harilal, 1997: 53-
58). The Plan Campaign is on the model of the Literacy Campaign and had varied
objectives namely: elected representatives to be made responsible and equipped for new
style of work; officials in various departments reorient their outlook in order to shoulder
planning responsibilities under direction of Panchayats; expertise of non-oflicials has to
be made available to Panchayats; mass of people to be drawn from the prevailing "shell
of cynicism"; finally, mass organisations of the people to be reoriented for mobilising
their members for new development initiatives (Isaac and Harilal, 1997: 53-58). The first
stage of the campaign was identification of the needs of the people and gaps in local
development. For this, the gramsabhas in Panchayats were called and one member from
each family was asked to attend (Isaac and Harilal, 1997). Gramsabhas only convened on
holidays and squads of volunteers visited every household. Various propaganda methods
like the development quiz, Vilambara lathas (processions) and so on were adopted. Then
in the gramasabhas, a facilitator attempted to initiate discussion of local problems. In the
second stage, the Development Seminar, the solutions of the various development
problems identified earlier are arrived through discussions among people's
representatives, officials and experts (Isaac and Harilal, 1997). The discussion in the
development seminars would come about as the "Panchayat Development Report". The
seminar is expected to come only to broad conclusions I statements. In the third phase,
the task would be to convert these solutions into project proposals for which there would
be a task force (one task force for each sector) (Isaac and Harilal, 1997). The fourth
phase would be the actual formulation of the Panchayat or Municipal Plan and alier the
9th Plan allocations, the proposals of schemes for the 9th Plan can be selected from the
shelf of these projects that have been prepared (Isaac and Harilal, 1997). The final phase
of the campaign would consist of integration of the local plans at the district level, with

108
the block and jilia panchayats having their own separate plans (Isaac and Harilal, 1997).
The KSSP played a role in the planing process. The Peoples' Plan programme was
implemented during the rule of the CPM in Kerala. There have been many reflections on
whether the programme objectives that were laid out have been fulfilled or not.

In tem1S of fusing art to the campaign process, the KSSP has used many forms. The
KSSP's main forte is the traditional lathas led by beating of the traditional drum of
Kerala, the Chenda (KSSP, 1984: 26). The main emphasis in the street plays is the fusion
of tradition media with that of contemporary themes. For instance, "Ottamthulal" is often
used as a medium. Similarly, through the folk dance expression of "Kolam Thulal", the
ultimate liberation of science by the common people from the clutches of the evil forces
and vested interests is depicted. An example of such a display is the play called
"Mochanam" (liberation) wherein, the demons or kolams in the item are the forces of
coercion (police), corruption and cheating (KSSP, 1984: 28). Through such a fusion of
themes and medium (of folk arts) with its contemporary variations as expressed in street
plays, and, "the use of the human body for the inanimate setting, a variety of programmes
were developed" (KSSP, 1984: 29), These items went through their own evolutionary
stages as the latha moved from one place to another integrating with it the experience and
reactions of the people, thus, in tum, dispensed with the practice of 'separating' the artists
from the people (KSSP, 1984: 29).

What comes out from the above survey IS that the programmes of the KSSP have
contributed towards mobilisation of the people. This is commendable by itself but the
vital question that has to be asked is whether it has led to a visible change in the base or
superstructure of Kerala society, Right from the onset, the framework for KSSP's
functioning (unconsciously or otherwise) has been on the premise of social democracy.
As Saldanha (1993) states that the premise in, say a literacy campaign has been to move
in without disturbing the existing social structures. Contemporary Kerala society is an
indication to this regard. If one sees secondary data as in Chapter three, the basic
exploitatory variables of caste, class and gender remain operative in Kerala. What is the
situation in the field with regard to the decentralisation planning process may be the
question to begin with and it may provide some answers.

109