TOWARDS AN UBUNTU WORLD NEW DISCOURSES ON THE

TOWARDS AN UBUNTU WORLD NEW DISCOURSES ON THE UPSURGE OF THE COMMONS AND VISIONS OF THE FUTURE MANORANJAN MOHANTY UNIVERSITY OF DELHI, COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, INSTITUTE OF CHINESE STUDIES MMOHANTYDU@GMAIL. COM M

VISIONS OF GLOBAL FUTURE FROM GRASS-ROOTS MOVEMENTS IN GLOBAL SOUTH Resistance and affirmation characterize contemporary historical moment • new consciousness of self-determination of individuals, groups and regions, • Interlinking through solidarity actions directly or through information technology and communication • have created a new democratic environment in the history of human civilization. • articulating global futures from one’s spatial, temporal, social, cultural and political vantage points happening

DISCERNING MESSAGES FROM PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS IN INDIA AND ASIA-AFRICA-LATIN AMERICA (ASAFLA) AND ACROSS THE WORLD • National Alliance of People’s Movements A coalition of many movements in defence of Jal, zamin, jungle ( water, land forest) land, environment, habitat • Movements against displacement for mining and mining based industries – in Odisha: against POSCO Iron and steel project in Jagatsinghpur, Niyamgiri movement against Vedanta Aluminum, - successfully prevented the projects and the struggle hat failed to stop the construction and commissioning in Kalinganagar of Tata Steel Plant • Tribal people’s movement in central India both in the Maoist-led zones of armed struggle and in the form of peaceful campaigns • The democratic rights movement, the women’s movement, the construction workers movement and many forms of environment and livelihood movements

VISIONS OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL FREEDOM TRANSFORMATION AS CIVILIZATIONAL MOVEMENT • Not only political freedom • and economic growth, but • comprehensive social development and environmental preservation. • deeper civilizational dimensions entailing • newer relationships among humans and • between humans and nature. • SUSTAINABILITY AND MORE

CELEBRATIONS AND VISIONS • 2017: Bolshevik Revolution Centenary, Capital V. 1: 150, • 2018: Karl Marx 200, Nelson Mandela Centenary, • 2019: M K Gandhi 150, May Fourth Movement 100; • 2021: Centenary of CPC, Non-Cooperation Movement

RESCUE THE CONCEPT AND REDEFINE DEVELOPMENT • a process of social change which is at once: • materially productive, • socially just in terms of class, caste, ethnicity, gender, • environmentally sustainable and • a process that gives the right to the people to choose and direct the path of development.

CIVILIZATIONAL MOVEMENT • Development a part of the history of the human civilization • involving struggles for better material conditions, • for liberation from colonial domination, • struggle against class, caste, gender, race, religious and ethnic domination, • the struggles for reconnecting with nature through mutual bonding for sustainability and • struggles for new ethical principles for global interaction

SWARAJ, JIEFANG, UBUNTU NEW FRAMEWORKS FOR PEACE, FREEDOM AND GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION • Swaraj: an anti-colonial concept that grows into multidimensional freedom, • Swa – self : raj ( rule ) achieved through endless struggle for a new relationship of freedom – M K Gandhi in Hind Swaraj (1909) • pursuit of various dimensions of self-rule, selfdetermination and self-realization • self as individual, group and region

NEW DISCOURSE ON SELF BASIS OF REDISCOVERY OF DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN • Not self and other but self and self • self not an atomistic entity that liberal theory of individualism propounded and neo-liberalism has reinforced now promoting a mystique of competitive meritocracy but self as a relationship of equals who are creative beings seeking to create conditions for realizing their creative potentiality • Relationship of exploitation is to be transformed through struggle into one of relationship of free agents • Othering – a long history of the process- a strategy of subordination and exploitation by colonialism which viewed European identity as self and colonialised people as other, • also the same process was done by feudalism, capitalism, racism, Brahminism, patriarchy

JIEFANG ( LIBERATION) NOT ONLY FROM COLONIALISM BUT ALL FORMS OF DOMINATION • Liberation and ‘people’s liberation’ - theme of the Chinese Revolution- the concept of liberation and the concept of people acquired special significance • and all anti-colonial struggles in ASAFLA used the concept • Vietnam’s liberation struggle against US in 1960 s and 1970 s enlarged the global meaning of liberation which thus far was mainly national liberation, but terms such as women’s liberation, Dalit liberation, Indigenous People’s liberation, liberation of people seeking autonomy – Many Mukti Morcha ( Liberation Front) organisations came up and liberation became a common goal for all oppressed sections. • continuous process of emancipation from all kinds of domination- imperialism, hegemony, class, caste, race, gender, ethnic and conditions created by them;

UBUNTU : INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIP OF EQUALS • Ubuntu: “I am because you are”- Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu used this Zulu concept of mutual coexistence to rebuild the post-Apartheid South Africa : three elements: equality, mutual respect and dynamic transformation, • Treating each other as equals: each ethnic group, all races, religions, languages, cultures, nations in every part of the globe and all individuals deserve equal respect. This reverses the colonial, racist and Brahamanic perspective of hierarchy of civilisations; • Mutuality and interdependence – ‘I can develop only if you develop’ is the reality to be recognised • Each entity inherits positive and negative traditions which are constantly put to test, each one has to assess and critique its own and global traditions participate in the dynamic process of transformation which has to be consistent with principles of equality and mutuality.

THREE NEW RIGHTS IN THE 21 ST CENTURY TOWARDS AN UBUNTU WORLD • Rights are political affirmations through people’s struggles; thus current struggles point towards, • Right to Self ; Assertion of right of each entity- individual, group and region its civilization; decentralised, selfgovernance that creates conditions for swaraj, swaraj at every level, for every group and region and global swaraj; • Right to Earth: People’s right over the commons- Local people’s right over their resources, material and cultural and to protect it using traditional and modern knowledge and share it with the world on mutually agreed terms, a development strategy based on that which advances liberation (jiefang) of people from domination depriving people of their resources and dehumanizing them by robbing them of their dignity; • Right to History : Every group, every region has inheritance of a long civilization- its knowledge system and material and cultural evolution that struggles to establish mutuality among humans and between humans and nature, collective life, culture and sustainability thus connected in an Ubuntu World. • .

WORLD CURRENTS OF STRUGGLE OVER THESE ISSUES • People’s Movements within various countries – promoting and opposing these • Regional inter-state organizations, associations and initiatives originally set up to transform the world order caught between ‘global rebalancing’ within the present world order and ‘ global restructuring’ in response to the demands of people’s movements in their countries : BRICS going on the G-7 path or G-77 path? • Global People’s movements : World Social Forum, Network of Environmental Movements, Women’s movements, “Food Sovereignty Summit”, UN linked NGO Summits, Resistance Campaigns to global capitalism ( not captured by the term ‘Global Civil Society’ initiatives)

FACING CHALLENGES OF APPROPRIATION, FRAGMENTATION AND NEUTRALIZATION • Global Monopolies capacity to co-opt people’s movement discourse through new discourses funded by global capital – as in the case of civil society, governance, empowerment, corporate social responsibility, global philanthropy, new financing strategy, channelising movements to NGO formations and deradicalise them; • Using resources to create competition, rewards of many kinds to create hierarchies, schisms, divisions at macro and micro level- as in the civil liberty movement and • Using the counterterrorism campaigns to defame, dilute and even destroy people’s movements • Thus the task of developing new discourses on global transformation demands great determination and solidarity.