| A theory of popular education remains relatively unexplored in grassroots movements. We do not yet know how popular education should interpret recent critiques of the discourse of development and developmentalist knowledge coming from the ecological and the ethno-regional movements. On the basis of a nine month-long ethnographic study of grassroots movements in Jharkhand, India, I argue that a theory of popular education should include a critique of dominant development discourse, recognize the symbolic productivity of all actors in grassroots movements and explicate a dialectical process of how these actors regenerate and critique their own knowledge.;To analyze efforts to reclaim control over land and natural resources and to regenerate ecological knowledge, I researched the history and scope of three contemporary movements in Jharkhand--an ethno-regional movement, an anti-dam movement, and various forest movements. In each movement studied, Jharkhandis regenerated and critiqued their own culture and knowledge showing the peculiar ways in which folk knowledge carries with it a long lasting logic of social change. I argue that Jharkhandi movements espouse a new notion about subaltern knowledge by contesting prevailing notions about development and ecology.;I chose Jharkhand to examine the relation between popular education and grassroots movements because Jharkhand has a long history of local protests against state management of land, forest and water resources. Jharkhandis have also waged a struggle to create a separate Jharkhand state. My theory of popular education considers how Jharkhandis resist dominant ideologies and reproduce their own identities.;The Indian state and Jharkhandis have proposed diametrically opposed paths to development based on their differing world views and conflicting economic and political interests. While the Indian state's developmental policies are based on the economy of profit, seemingly defensive and backward looking, Jharkhandi ecological movements assert an economy of provision. In other words, while the Indian state is espousing a philosophy of exploitative resource use, ecological movements are based on ecological prudence and interdependence between humans and nature. They propose a strategy of resource management which affirms a way of life more harmoniously adjusted to natural processes. |
