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What is Civil Society ?

Civiladjective

of, pertaining to, or consisting of citizens; of citizens in their ordinary capacity,

or of the ordinary life and affairs of citizens, as distinguished from military and

ecclesiastical life and affairs.

Society - noun (plural societies)

[mass noun] the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered

community:

In the modern world the role of Civil Society is often talked about, debated, praised &

derided.. It is a term used often, but with no level of clarity. Like the mythical unicorn

most people seem to know broadly what civil society it yet few have seen it, and fewer

can put in words what it actually means.

An argument that I often have usually with other denizens who occupy cyberspace and

share similar interests is on the use of the term Civil Society. What I see, is a

number of individuals and groups with their own, varied agenda, often at odds with each

other, who are trying to work towards their own individual aims. My argument is alsothat if you want to use the term civil society then it applies to the population at large

all of us who are civilians as in. not politicians, or the army, or bureaucrats or

organisations and therefore all 1.1 billion of us are civil society. But, when the term

Civil Society is used it not to define the population at large. Rather, it signifies slightly

more focussed interest groups. So what is Civil Society ?

Civil Society if you look at the Hegelian construct is the intermediate phase between

family and State. It represents universal egoism where everyone is treated as the

means to ones own ends. This is in stark contrast to the Universal Altruism of the

state. If you read the Marxist construct, not far removed from Hegels views hardly

surprising given the influence Hegel had on Marx. Marx believed that Civil Society or

Bourgeoisie Society was often a wolf in sheeps clothing, representing the economic

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interests of the Capitalists. He believed, and I paraphrase, that the role of civil society is

such that it will push for an individual to pursue individual interests but back down when

it came to community interests. At the other end of the spectrum, Adam Smith (much

earlier) too spoke about Civil Society- but he believed that it was an exercise in private

morality seeking public approval.

Given that none of the luminaries , who define the economic/political divide had anything

nice to say about Civil Society it is quite interesting to see the space that it occupies in

the modern state. It was a term that was in active use in the 19 th and early 20 th century as a

part of academic discourse, and came into popular use post the collapse of the Soviet

Union. It is supposed to signify independent social, economic and legal institutions

outside the Government that act as a check on a hyperactive state be it authoritariandictatorship or an over governed democracy.

In India, the term Civil Society usually refers to one of two things - The first is

individuals who are slightly high profile and want to make a statement. For example,

when people go on a peace march it is referred to as civil society; when individuals go to

Naxal areas this too is referred to as civil society; when a group that believes in

cultural purity beat up girls going to pubs it is also civil society. In each of these cases

whether one agrees with them or not - it would be more appropriate to call them

citizens or interested parties, rather than civil society.

The second group that is covered by the term Civil Society is Non Governmental

Organisations or NGOs. India has a large number of NGOs. About 3.3 million of them.

That works out to a NGO per every 400 people. That is better than the ratio of doctors

(about 1 for every 2000 people); teachers (1 per five hundred people); or the police (0.9

per 1000 people). Many of the NGOs perform stellar work in their area but are they

civil society? I would think not. They are 3.3 million organizations albeit non-

governmental organizations with their own individual charter and their own agenda.

Lumping an organization that works to eradicate child labour in cities with another that

works in the area of self help groups in rural India as civil society is about as useful as

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lumping a generator manufacturer and a ITES company because they are both private

enterprises. And when one labels organisations as Civil Society one makes a

fundamental error the purpose of an organisation is to survive. The purpose that is

generally attributed to civil society is societal good.

I am not for a moment, taking away from the work, the sheer will power and the tireless

energy of either individuals or NGOs working towards bringing about societal change.

But, for me Civil Society goes beyond that.

For me Civil Society is intertwined with Civil Rights. If I had to define Civil Society it

would be a set of bodies that ensure that the promises made to the citizens of India in the

Fundamental Rights in the Constitution are upheld without any sort of religious, casteor ideological bias. These are - The Right to Equality, The Right to Liberty; The Right to

Freedom from Exploitation; the Right to Freedom of Religion; Cultural & Educational

Rights and the Right to Constitutional Remedies.

For example, the reason why the Government of India is talking about reservation in the

Private Sector is because there is no civil society organisation like ACLU in the USA

to take individual companies to task for flouting the Constitutions guarantee that there

will be Equality. The role of Civil Society is not just to lobby the Government to bring

in reservations. The role of Civil Society goes beyond that. It involves taking up cudgels

on behalf of those who have been discriminated and ensuring that Civil Rights are upheld

and Equal Opportunity comes to pass. Unfortunately, civil society has taken the easy

way out bring in legislation, without allowing components of the system time to

internalise that they have to be Equal Opportunity. Another example, the reason why

books are banned because they hurt sentiments is because there is no organisation that

will take protesting political parties to court for flouting the Constitutions promise of

Liberty. The reason why the judicial option is often discarded is because it takes for ever

for justice to be delivered. But, an effective Civil Society would work with the system

to put a cap on time taken for the judicial process.

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Civil Society would also be a set of bodies that will act as per the social circumstances of

India. My fear is that Indian civil society despite its protestations- borrows so much

of their ideas and ideology from the west that it sometimes mistakes the wood for the

trees. For example, in a country with a well established social security system, where the

rights of the child are recognised and ill treated children are taken into care, provided an

education and trained in a skill it makes sense to ban child labour. However, in a

country like India without putting in place those social security measures, to ban child

labour is to condemn the child to starvation. I am not, for a moment, advocating child

labour. What I am suggesting is the need to put in place policies that will protect the child

in the short and medium run before taking away its method of survival. Another example

would be street children. If you ask why are there street children you will be told that it is

the right of a woman to have a child. As a woman, I completely agree with that statement.However, is the right of the mother greater than the right of the child? You can have the

child but do you have the right to bring up the child on the streets or should the child

be taken into care? Is there a system in place to protect the child ? An effective civil

society would ensure that the rights of the child were protected, and the woman would

not be delivering children on the street. Civil society is not about fighting to keep people

in poverty and squalor but raising the bar in terms of life and living through constant

action and advocacy.

The Role civil society is that of a watchdog on behalf of the people on every aspect of

organised control be it the State, the Judiciary, the Police, Oligopolies, Monopolies and

the Media. It is about enabling citizen action through empowering literacy on various

fronts -be it judicial literacy, environmental literacy, political literacy or media literacy.

The role of civil society, for me, is reducing the role of Government to being a mere

facilitator, a monitor, a mediator and, where necessary, a protector. However, civil

society in India seems to be increasing the role of Government and encouraging it to

intervene more and more in our lives. The opposite of Government, for me, is not Private

Sector, but citizens. Civil Society is citizens taking back control from the state over most

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aspects of their every day life, using the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution

as a tent pole. Civil Society in India, has a long way to go before that is achieved.

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