Community Building

Written by Suvro Sanyal.

The Indian sub-continent has been intimately connected with Bahá’í history right from the Faith’s inception. Sa’id-i-Hind from the subcontinent was one of the first persons to become a follower of The Báb (the Forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh). There were many others like him from India who were successful in recognising the divine attainment of the Báb during His brief lifespan. During the ministry of the Báb, the light of His teachings reached villages and towns of India such as Bombay (now Mumbai), Hyderabad, Jaunpur, Rampur and Palampur.

The teachings of Bahá’u’lláh were first brought to India in 1872 by Jamal Effendi, a Persian nobleman, who travelled throughout the subcontinent. His visits took him from Rampur and Lucknow in the North, to Calcutta and Rangoon in the East to Baroda and Bombay in the West and finally to Madras and Colombo in the South. He relentlessly had introduced Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings of unity and fellowship to all he met, from Nawabs, Princes, and Colonial Administrators to the common citizens. Contrary to prevailing social norms, he mingled with people of all communities and backgrounds – across social strata, caste, and religious belief.

By the turn of the century, there were small Bahá’í communities in Bombay, Delhi, Pune, and Hyderabad. The Bahá’ís of the subcontinent had their first elected national body for administering the affairs of the steadily growing Bahá’í communities in 1923.

In the early decades of the twentieth century when the Bahá’í community of India reckoned popularity, the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh gradually started to come to the attention of the leaders and thinkers of those time.

Mahatma Gandhi after his interactions with several Bahá’ís, proclaimed: “The Bahá’í Faith is a solace to humankind.” Similarly, Rabindranath Tagore who met many eminent Bahá’ís referred to Bahá’u’lláh as “the latest Prophet to come out of Asia,” whose “message is of great importance for the progress of civilisation”.

In the 1960’s and 70’s, the preachings of Bahá’u’lláh began to be shared with the masses in India, especially the rural peoples. The recognition of the value of the teachings of the Faith was often spontaneous in the hearts of people who encountered it, and hundreds of thousands of Indians saw in the teachings – a fulfillment of their own long-held aspirations of Vasudeva Kutumbakam.

Thousands began striving. applying these philosophies to address the challenges that their societies faced. Several local Bahá’í administrative bodies were elected by communities across India and they began to serve the needs of their localities. The moral education of children took on a new urgency and some educational endeavours emerged in villages across India. By the 1980s, hundreds of rural tutorial schools, as well as many larger academic schools inspired by the Bahá’í teachings, had come into existence, as well as projects in the areas of agriculture, vocational and teacher training, literacy, environmental stewardship, women’s empowerment, and health.

The construction of the Bahá’í House of Worship in New Delhi provided what was probably the most widely recognised symbol of the kind of transformation Bahá’u’lláh has envisioned for the human heart and society. The lotus-shaped design reflects the conviction that a new and better world can flower out of even the direst conditions. It also serves as a symbol of unity, since its inauguration in 1985, an average of ten thousand people a day from all religious, racial or national backgrounds come together under its dome in silent with the sole purpose of worshiping a common Creator.

As the Bahá’í community in India prospered, it started to play an increasingly prominent role in the life of society. In the increasing number of national spaces, the Bahá’í contributions to shape and advance thinking on areas such as communal harmony, gender equality, education, equality of women and men, governance and development became highly valued.

Today, the Bahá’ís of India are spreaded throughout the country across all cultural, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds. They are dedicated to serve their nation by joining with their compatriots in building communities that embody unity and justice, that are free of all forms of prejudices, where women and men serve society together shoulder to shoulder as equals, where children and youth receive the best of both spiritual and scientific education, and where the community’s devotional life protects it from harmful social forces.

Culture – Encompassing Community Building over the Decades –

Community Building, the process of people making and doing themselves—is critical for power building. Creating culture with others builds social bonds, shared identity, a sense of agency, an attachment to place, and other critical capacities that serve as a foundation for community power.

Philanthropic leaders and others working for progressive social change have increasingly focused on culture. This growing interest in culture comes from a dual understanding that achieving systemic, lasting change requires a shift on a cultural level—our worldviews, lifestyles, norms, social relations, and values—and that cultural strategies and methods can help catalyse and accelerate change.

Proportionate Investment in cultural work that supports community power building is particularly lacking at large in our country. While some grassroots organisations and organisers do integrate culture into their efforts, the potential to build power in under-resourced and marginalised communities by harnessing culture is not well understood or supported by sponsors.

This is a missed opportunity for two reasons. First, robust people-powered movements have proven highly effective at achieving transformational social, political, and economic change. Second, grassroots cultural strategies can catalyse and enhance community power in significant ways.

This article describes some of the essential features and functions of culture as it relates to community power building.

(The author’s intention is to help sponsors, and practitioners who are engaged in community power-building work see how cultural strategies might support and amplify their efforts. In addition, the author hopes to encourage sponsors who support cultural strategy to see community power building as a critical lever for change.)

In a community building context, two aspects of culture are significantly important.

First, culture as a narrative: Narrative strategy is an important tactic, but not everything meaningful or real — let alone visionary, subversive, or not yet manifest—can be expressed in narrative form. Moreover, in certain organising contexts, narrative methods may not be the most appropriate, such as when stories trigger trauma, amplify power dynamics, or highlight divisions, or when a language barrier exists. For example, the foundation of Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL) in the Gujarat state of India.

Second, culture as a participation or participatory culture: Creating culture with others builds social bonds, shared identity, a sense of agency, an attachment to place, and other critical capacities that serve as a foundation for community power. For people who have been structurally disempowered, this can be transformative. 

AMUL uses community art-making activities as “an antidote to disempowerment.” According to its founder Dr. Verghese Kurien, “The arts are transformative because they help people see themselves and tap into their own potential for creation. The arts help people realise ‘I can.’” Transforming people from “consumers of democracy to agents within it” is a primary goal of power-building work. Participating in shared cultural activities builds relationships and a sense of agency that can be carried into other settings.

Building a “WE” –

Building community power is a long-term work that requires stable, resilient, and accountable organisations to nurture and channel people’s energy and will toward a strategic change. Organisations that most effectively build and channel power do three things well:

Build a “we” by fostering authentic relationships and a sense of collective identity among community members, across lines of difference.

Develop visionary and distributed leadership by helping people cultivate a shared understanding of the root causes of their conditions and a vision for their desired future.

Build new worlds by helping make alternatives tangible and visible. Grassroots cultural practice can support efforts in all three areas.

Effective movements galvanise people around a common purpose and a sense of collective identity, or a shared sense of “WE.” Power-building organisations use relational organising to foster and sustain deep, mutually accountable connections with and among community members so that people stick together when challenges arise, or in moments when strategies must evolve. The “social infrastructure” built through organising not only enables communities to fight for future change but also directly and immediately improves people’s health and well-being.

Participatory cultural activities create contexts for forging deep interpersonal connections and a sense of belonging to place and to a larger “we.” This “social cohesion” includes “bonding” between people who share a common identity and “bridging” between people across areas of perceived difference.

These reckonings had envisaged the emergence of a community known as the Chandernagore Central Jagadhatri Puja Committee in 1956. Initially, the committee was formed to monitor the Jagadhatri Puja organised in the erstwhile French Colony in the state of West Bengal in India, but due to its fervency & vehemence over the period of time, The Chandernagore Central Jagadhatri Puja Committee (CCJPC) has been catapulted towards an effective Community Builder, helping in establishing the residents fondly known as “Chandannagar-ian” towards a disciplined community.

Mavericknews30 has launched a series of articles on community building, sharing insights and success stories. Stay tuned for the next article as we explore how to create stronger, more connected communities!

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