Abstract
This chapter explores situated views about what constitutes a good life, describing key terms related to development and empowerment as they are locally used and explained. The concepts of “moving forward” rather than “being backward” are understood and described differently in mainstream society than at Lakshmi Ashram. Alternative values promoted and lived out at Lakshmi Ashram include high thinking, self-confidence or self-sufficiency, and collaboration or community. The stories and aims of Kumauni young women demonstrate their negotiation of the various discourses and their actions, despite limitations, to take hold of future opportunities, influenced by the village and Ashram communities of which they are a part and by the changing world around them. At the Ashram, the focus is more on internal than external empowerment and development.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Notes
- 1.
Aage barhna or moving forward was often used in contexts where Americans might talk about “getting ahead,” a concept that seems much more competitive in comparison. Perhaps this less competitive wording relates to the atmosphere of community and collaboration described later in the chapter.
- 2.
The Hindi word for both “read” and “study” is paRhna. Sometimes the two English words are used interchangeably.
- 3.
In India, the term “community” sometimes carries connotations of “communal” violence and separation of people along religious or caste lines. I use it in a broader, positive sense to describe the mutual support and interdependence that keeps people together.
Bibliography
Devi, S. (1948, December 20). Suryoday [Sunrise]. Suuryoday, 1.
Klenk, R. M. (1999). Educating activists: Gender, modernity, and development in North India. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Washington.
Klenk, R. M. (2004). ‘Who is the developed woman?’: Women as a category of development discourse, Kumaon, India. Development and Change, 35(1), 57–78.
Klenk, R. M. (2010). Educating activists: Development and gender in the making of modern Gandhians. Plymouth: Lexington Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Groff, C. (2018). Empowerment, Moving Forward, and Alternative Values in Education. In: The Ecology of Language in Multilingual India. Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51961-0_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51961-0_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-51960-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-51961-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)