Mukti Ashram is a rehabilitation center in north India that works with ex-child
laborer boys. Fieldwork completed at the ashram in 1997-98 centered around the
issue of the organization's attempt to enact social change through the
engineering of community within the ashram's walls. Several fundamental
processes that contribute to this goal have been identified: the construction and
presentation of personal narratives which are ideally encased in a common
structure; the encompassment of heterogeneity through careful focus on a
singular point of commonality; and, the creation of national and transnational
ties of horizontal solidarity, literal and "imagined." The nature of the activists'
intervention, which becomes codified in the dominant ethos of the institution,
presents an internal contradiction that is essentially unresolvable. It is found that
power is always to some extent fought using those same tools of the powerful.
Though in this case their goal of empowering the boys is to some extent
compromised, such attempts still constitute a positive influence. Mukti
Ashram's example demonstrates both the constraints and opportunities that may
be met by organizations that work with subjugated groups. / Graduation date: 2000
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/28322 |
| Date | 07 June 1999 |
| Creators | Henderson, Laura A. (Laura Ann) |
| Contributors | Khanna, Sunil |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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