“Coming of age in the 1960s and the 1970s, we were witness from a distance to the Naxalite upsurge in Bengal, Bihar, and Andhra, and to the experiments of Gandhian leaders and organisations, in what was called rural reconstruction.
The massive railway strike of 1974, the JP-led youth movement, and the Internal Emergency of 1975 … we also saw the end of the Emergency….
It was a watershed in Indian politics and it generated a new optimism and energy.
Many young city-bred idealists, wanting to make a difference and seeking new direction for change, went to live in the hinterland and learn about the ‘real India’”.
In her memoir, Ilina Sen reflects on the political currents that shaped a generation of civil liberties activists in the 1960s and 1970s, including her own journey and that of her partner, Binayak Sen.
Both were members of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), having served as its office-bearers.
She describes how Gandhian, democratic-socialist, and communist political traditions in India inspired a generation of young, urban thinkers and activists who sought to reimagine their role in public life.
For some, this political commitment demanded a renunciation of middle-class comforts of city life, to move to and live in rural areas, immersing themselves in grassroots social movements and taking on leadership roles within emerging movements.
For others, like the members of the PUCL, it meant channelling their energies from the urban centres, supporting various movements using available resources to sustain and amplify movements.
Through this, a politics of allyship took shape, through creation of platforms that provided emerging movement groups visibility and voice.
Allyship is a form of the politics of amplification – a term I use to refer to the conscious, collective, and strategic practices through which relatively privileged actors work to amplify and legitimise the struggles of marginalised groups.
This politics unfolds within, and draws legitimacy from, the sanctioned processes of democratic engagement with the state.
This book explores five key dimensions of allyship as practised by civil liberties groups.
