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Affairs Of ISI

30 January, 2008 04:27:01 Veera Vaishnava

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"You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising budget is big enough."
- Ed Rollins

Introduction

The Indian Social Institute (ISI) was founded by Jesuits in 1951 in India1, the same research institute that mentored Angana Chatterji of CIIS - California Institute of Integral Studies. The vision and mission of ISI is to deal with the "challenges of nation building and a new emerging social order of independent India"2 . The other Jesuit institute in India is "Behavioral Science Center", a ".. secular development organization" in Gujarat3. These two institutes are among many of the parent institute "Institute for Social and Development Studies"4. The parent institute's mission statement is:

"In accordance to these aims, the Institute for Social and Development Studies strives for a way of proceeding that
critically examines and scientifically analyses social problems and concepts in social policy in an interdisciplinary manner (including ethical and theological reflection)
focuses on the reform of social and cultural structure
develops a global way of thinking (East-West and North-South relations)
raises public awareness and stimulates political engagement and response
works to influence thought and action within the Church"

In plain speak, ISI is an institute set up to play politics. Politics after all is the art of gaining power (or be "king makers") and it is a process and a method of making decisions for groups of people. However, people (most of them) make practically all their decisions unconsciously and automatically (as prodded by charismatic leaders, mentors, media, and plain sophists & liars) and are not typically aware of the mental steps or thought processes they go through (or are guided through) in making a decision. But, what are these decisions and how they want to guide people is a question every Indian citizen must ponder over.

"Alice Through the Looking Glass" - Lewis Carroll's classic - begins with Alice who is bored and stuck inside on a snowy day, playing with her kitten, and pining for adventure. She contemplates the mirror above the fireplace mantel and tries to imagine the "looking glass world" she might discover if only she could step through to the other side. Alice succeeded and discovered that things were not as they seemed, although it was a dream. Unfortunately, in the case of Indian society, the mirror happens to be the "utopian social world" as it appears, and when stepped through however, it is not a dream.

This article is an effort to see through such a looking glass only to see how ISI - among many such entities - has gone about fishing in the troubled social waters territory in independent India and its support in engineering the social order to their liking - as their mission dictates. After all, the institute's and its partners' activism and networking - with the communists, social engineers, separatists and terrorists in the name of "developing" a "secular" India - is all about transforming their vision and mission into action, and they claim they just facilitate and work as a "supportive centre"2. Unfortunately in this case, it is not a dream.

Reflection(s) in the Mirror - Evolving ISI

From ISI's website: "The Institute was conceived by the founders as a national resource centre for voluntary sectors, NGOs, people's movement and all those engaged in similar activities and organizational work. Hence, ever since its conception the Institute has been functioning as a supportive centre."
"The Indian Social Institute was founded in 1951 to work for social justice, particularly among industrial workers and agricultural laborers. The Institute engages in research, publication and consultancy, oriented toward helping poor sectors realize their rights and organize. IS1 Documentation Centre is a program of the Indian Social Institute". 5
While the incessant din about advocacy and their fight for justice, equality and liberty, on of the scholars of ISI is an expert in Ancient Indian Astrology as well. The same author publishes about Integrated Water Supply projects in Zimbabwe! 6,7
ISI becomes an NGO: "Catholics in India are delighted that the Indian Social Institute (ISI), prestigious institute for research in social studies run by Jesuit Fathers in Delhi, has obtained the status of Non Government Organisation accredited to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. As an NGO the ISI may take part in debates by the Council, it may be charged with special research and offer opinions to the Council, it will take part in meetings of the International Labour Organisation."8
The Committee on NGOs recommended five NGOs for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) with the UN, rejected the application for status of one NGO, and deferred 24 others.

Method to the Madness - Jesuits Affairs

In 1539, Ignatius founded a new order "Soldiers of Christ" and secured papal approval. It served as the basis for the later constitutions published at his death, by which Jesuits have been governed ever since. Ignatius was elected as general of the order and remained its leader, with headquarters in Rome, until his death. Ignatius's great interests have been the foreign missions and the education of youth. Many schools were opened in Europe during his lifetime, and missions were begun in Japan, India and Brazil.

The Jesuits became a major force in the counter reformation. The 16th-century reformation that arose was largely in answer to the protestant reformation. It is also called the Catholic Reformation. Although the Roman Catholic reformers shared the protestants' revulsion at the corrupt conditions in the church, there was present none of the tradition breaking that characterized protestantism. The counter reformation was led by conservative forces whose aim was both to reform the church and to secure the its traditions against the innovations of protestant theology and against the more liberalizing effects of the Renaissance.

After the world wars, and after the First Vatican council, a second council (Vatican II) was called by the Pope John XXIII and continued under Paul VI to call for Christian renewal and re-unity. Its announced purpose was spiritual renewal of the church and reconsideration of the position of the church in the modern world. Another obvious feature was the diversity of national and cultural origins shown among those who attended from all over the world9. Aggiornamento is one operative word used, to mean a spirit of change, openness, open-mindedness and modernity. The rival operative word used was ressourcement which meant a return to earlier sources, traditions and symbols of the early Church.

In the third world however, strong cultural differences between various regions and language groups and thorny issues driven by political, social, and economic changes in various places, complicated the task mandated to the Catholic Church by the Second Vatican Council.

On one hand, the challenges in the western world were over dealing with arguments over the morality of nuclear arms, artificial birth control, abortion, the ordination of women, celibacy in the clergy and divorce. On the other hand, the concerns and challenges of the flocks in the third world, as Archbishop Charles Vandame of Chad explained, are "cultural revolution, war, famine, thirst". It is in this context, Pedro Arrupe, then general superior of the Society of Jesus, set out to implement the decrees of the Jesuits' Thirty-second General Congregation of 1974-1975. Of special concern here is Decree 5, entitled "The Work of Inculturation of the Faith and Promotion of Christian Life".

Inculturation is the incarnation of Christian life and of the Christian message in a particular cultural context, in such a way that this experience not only finds expression through elements proper to the culture in question, but becomes a principle that animates, directs and unifies the culture, transforming and remaking it so as to bring about "a new creation."10

Definitions generally emphasize the goals of inculturation, such as the rooting of Christianity in diverse cultures, the transformation of cultures in light of the Gospel, the evangelization of every aspect of the individual and societal life of a people, the naturalizing of the church in every culture. In working toward such goals, authentic inculturation will respect the native genius and character of each culture.

Thus, four major visible efforts came about after this church reformation and in answer to Pope's clarion call to harvest the souls, especially of the third world, which Vatican feels its future lies as it is dying in the developed world (Church attendance & priests). They are:
Inculturation: The direct result of inculturation efforts is that the flock end up in conflicting identities. Hence the need to get into redefining identities and dabble in identity politics; It can only be done by
Diluting the notions of indigenous cultures, and nationality to make the ground ripe for Christendom as every cultural system is recast in "Christian Context", this leads comparative theologies, social & cultural anthropologies to understand how the other cultural systems "tick" and also explain Pluralism & Multiculturalism in the Christian context. The next logical step, is to involve in
Inter-religious dialog, to soften the infiltration and inculturation methods. Target segments of groups and saw them off, but in the beginning these only serve the intellectuals, theologians or spiritual leaders. To satisfy the potential laity inculturation methods also mandate social work and taking up "popular" issues such as;
Education, Human Rights, Women's rights, Environmentalism, Famine, Refugees, Dams, and other soft seemingly apolitical issues but pregnant with opportunities for evangelization; and monopolize this area.

Looking Glass & The other side

Social movements do typically evolve, as ISI is no exception to it, based on the activists' identities and ideologies, and the previous experiences of the movements. The identities of activists themselves are shaped either by their own prior experiences - collective or individual - such as natural social-structural, religious or cultural changes in post-independence era or manufactured/steered by social engineers. There is no dearth of social engineers who want either a Red revolution or the ones wanting to Christianize the social order. With NGOs becoming surrogates to nation states in international diplomacy and asymmetric warfare of propaganda to mould public opinion, it has become ever more difficult to analyze such movements and how serious a threat they pose to India and its social fabric.

The important ingredients for a successful movement directly related to the amount of social resources available and the type of support garnered/provided. The resource mobilization theory stresses that social movements maintain vitality by having well managed organizations that know how to capitalize on discontent of any kind and that have the ability to mobilize resources to fight for their causes. At the same time, these cannot afford to alienate the "key" moderates or middle class, who have the luxury and the itch to do anything to feel good - such as throw money at charities or parrot oft-repeated politically correct, hip statements.

For, a movement's strength is determined to a greater extent by the ability to mobilize resources and support from all sectors of society. Further the resource mobilization theory also dictates support that is needed from "outside" organizations beyond merely expanding social territory. Thus, we can look at any social movement and its success or failure by analyzing three distinct stages. ISI is one of the organizations that has matured into a true "support center" that caters to and co-ordinates activities in all three spheres as the reader can see.

The advertising budget - charities, social services, conferences with academics, etc - come from all the three phases. Internationally, involvement in seemingly apolitical and humane (but a cash magnet besides self promotion and holiday jaunts) liberal activities such as of "human rights", "peace activism", "development", "Social Justice", does pay off quite handsomely.

Thus the ideology, and identity of the activists and organizers are critical to understand how social movements create shared meanings, develop effective strategies, and reach agreements about obtainable goals towards the purpose of Inculturation. In today's globalized world it behooves one to tackle this problem through analyses of micro (local) , intermediate (national), and macro (international) levels of their connections and collaborations rather than looking at purely conceptual or journalistic levels. The expanding social territory and actions alone should give one empirical evidence and pointers to their goals and purposes. In other words if the inculturation is the mission, the linking of mission to actions is the strategy of a Jesuit NGO that operates in three domains - Micro, Intermediate and Macro.

Some Micro & Macro Events - Identity/Religious/Minority/Separatist Politics

"Fr Hector D'Souza, Provincial of South Asia, entrusted the coordination of the relief and rehabilitation work to the Social Action Secretariat of South Asia (JESA) and to New Delhi's Indian Social Institute (ISI). JESA and ISI are promoters and active members of the South Asian Peoples Initiatives (SAPI) network, a platform of local and national peoples and civil society organisations with members spread all over Sri Lanka and Southern India".11
Dalits, Assertion for Identity12,13
Center for Religious Freedom14
Dalit Christians: The mission states "Dalits whose homeland is India were made refugees in their own land by the aggressive invasion of the Aryans. Dalits who had maintained their own unique culture and heritage were robbed by the intruders." The contribution of ISI here is in three papers one of them is by the founder of ISI "Fernandes, Walter. The Emerging Dalit Identity: The Re-Assertion of the Subalterns. Delhi: Indian Social Institute, 1996. 15
Finally, a cook book or "Resources for Secular action" and here again is ISI with "Anandhi S. Contending Identities, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi 1995" and "R.Heredia, Edward Mathais (Ed.) Secularism and Liberation, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi 1995"16.
R.Vashum, Ph.D. (DU) is a Social Anthropologist. His interest areas are among others social structure and social change, social movements, human rights and methodology in social sciences. Some of his publications include, Nagas' Right to Self-Determination: An Anthropological-Historical Perspective, Foreword by Prof. B.K. Roy Burman, Mittal Publications, New Delhi, 2000; Indo-Naga Conflict: Problem and Resolution, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, 2001. Some of his co-edited books are- State, Development and Identity in South Asia: A Search for Alternative Paradigms, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi (2002); Extraordinary Laws in India: A Reader for Understanding Legislations Endangering Civil Liberties, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi (2002). 17
In 2002, under Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, a session under Mr. Vashum who then as become Convenor of Naga Peoples Forum, Delhi, Editor, Naga Journal of Indigenous Affairs, appears Dr. Fernandes the Former Director of the Programme for Tribal Studies, Indian Social Institute who now is with North Eastern Social Research Centre.18
From the Communist Party of India (Marxists), "Among the Christian groups, one of the most impressive in terms of effort and planning is that of the Indian Social Institute which is a catholic center (not surprisingly run by Jesuits). It has the ISI Training Centre and an ISI Documentation Centre in Bangalore. It is this complex that nurtures, funds, and guides and coordinates a network of around 25 action groups in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. These can be broadly termed the catholic-based action groups. It conducts a three-month training course for activists of the action groups, which has a distinct 'left' orientation."19
"A Jesuit social analyst says the July 5 attack on the disputed Ayodhya religious site "appears" more an act of "Hindu terrorism" than Islamic terrorism in view of India's current sociopolitical context. Father Jimmy Dabhi, director of Jesuit-run Indian Social Institute, told UCA News in a written note that he condemned the attack "on the destroyed Babri Mosque."20

Some Intermediate Events - Targets: "Moderates", "Liberals", "Tree Huggers" & "Candle Kissers"

Angana Chatterjee is the Associate Professor in Social and Cultural Anthropology of California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco and has recently joined the Board. She also serves as the Director of Research, Asia Forest Network, University of California. With over 17 years of work experience on development issues in India and abroad, she has undertaken extensive research in Orissa. As a primary Co-ordinator in SIDA project She has worked on capacity building for public forestlands in Orissa; also worked with Planning Commission, Indian Institute of Public Administration, Indian Social Institute and various other International Organisations working on Development and Environment. She holds specialization in the areas of social change, environmental management, livelihood, development planning and policy assessment, gender and social rights, applied and action research. Published extensively, she also serves on the Board of Directors of Earth Island Institute and International Rivers Network.21
In 2004, when world bank decided to loan $550M for new dams, it was opposed and rejected by 20 odd NGOs saying "We reject the World Bank Country Assistance Strategy. It does not represent the interests of the Indian population as expressed in the recent elections. The CAS deliberately ignores that the electorate rejected the World Bank policies of privatization and liberalization when it voted out governments in the three Indian states that closely followed World Bank policies in the past." One among the 20 NGOs is Indian Social Institute and the signatory is Dr. Prakash Louis of ISI. The position of these NGOs is supported by none other than "International Rivers Network".22

Conclusion

The institute's political activities have come under scrutiny and was given a show cause notice by Government of India to which ISI responded: "Indian Social Institute is an institute of research, training and advocacy. Its primary focus is on dalits, tribals, women and other marginalised communities. As an institute of human concern, it responds to the emerging concerns of society in collaboration with like minded people and organisations."

"We, in the Institute, are dismayed by the show cause notice issued to us by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The said notice alleged that 'in the run up to the ongoing general elections, your association has been associated with the release of certain advertisements in the press and with certain documents the contents of which are in the nature of comments of a political nature'. The Institute totally denies the charges. "23. But then again, isn't that the mission of the institute?

We are entering an era where society is beginning to be exposed to the idea that patterns of human relationships can be understood as networks. Once a society views itself as a reflection of that network, however imperfect and approximate it may be, this knowledge acts as a catalyst in evolution of the structure. This is the key in shaping of a society - within and without. It is also a big business, apart from a massive social engineering theater. Social networks are maps of social territory and are very valuable for individuals, institutes, social/cultural anthropologists, politicians, proselytizers, who navigate this territory. The same territory is used to either break or make a society. A purposeful activism - social/cultural etc - to be fruitful needs forever-expanding social territory. The massive advantage that institutes and academics have in expanding such territory is in their ability to cross the institutional boundaries by collaboration or networking.

Thus, the twin threats to India, other than Marxists/Naxalites, ironically with identical acronyms are, Pakistan's "Soldiers of Mohammad" run by the murderous Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, and a "publishing" institute and a NGO run by the "Soldiers of Christ - Jesuit priests" run by the Indian Social Institute (ISI). The list of micro/macro and intermediate events is deliberate, for there are far too many and unfathomable amount of links and collaborative networks among these groups. The key to remember is the social landscape is being engineered with a definite intention of altering India as we know it, and turn it into another Korea or African countries. The need of the hour is not just an academic engagement but raising the awareness of citizens, devise a qualitative framework to analyze the impact, and developing tools from micro to intermediate to macro level to counter such insidious schemes.

It is imperative that citizens of confident and resurgent India participate in the great political debate for themselves24 and not let institutes representing foreign nations trying to take our souls or academics or corrupt politicians and most of all "Missionaries" decide the country's fate.

References

[1] http://www.hfph.mwn.de/igp/sjsocinsengl.htm

[2] http://www.isisdelhi.org

[3] http://www.angelfire.com/hi/NGOBSC/

[4] http://www.hfph.mwn.de/igp/vis-e.htm

[5] http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/HumanRights/0510.pdf

[6] http://www.anotherbookshop.com/book.php?products_id=0415110297

[7] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/drivers_urb_change/urb_infrastructure/Appropriate_Technology.htm

[8] http://www.fides.org/eng/news/2004/0405/25_2441.html

[9] http://www.answers.com/topic/second-vatican-council

[10] Letter to the Society of Jesus, 1978 - Jesuits

[11] http://www.sjweb.info/sjs/articles/HL2005-01Tsunami ENG.htm

[12] http://www.ambedkar.org/impdocs/Sisc.htm