NAYI DISHAYEIN

Winter School on Interrogating ‘Development’ 

19th to 30th December, 2026

Most countries in the world seem to have adopted a similar ‘development’ model. We in India are also following suit. Like everyone else, we too are aiming to be a predominantly urban, fossil fuel-based, industrial technology-intensive consumer economy and society of the Euro-American variety. 

A careful look, however, reveals that the adoption of this model in India, more explicitly and aggressively since the 1990s, has resulted in very different outcomes for various groups. On one end, we find glittering malls making available high-end consumer brands and goods, state-of-the-art cars, booming air travel, dazzling gated apartment complexes, a dozen sports leagues on TV, and much more.
However, there is a not-so-glittery side to this story. The top 10% of countrymen hold over 75% of the country’s wealth and 57% of the total income! Consequently, most of the ‘glitter’ mentioned earlier is accessible only to the top 10% of India. The other 90% struggle to make ends meet, often living right next to the dazzling apartment complexes in slums with no water, sanitation, or housing to speak of. Most rural India continues to depend on agriculture, which provides meager incomes. There has been an alarming dearth of well-paying, non-agricultural jobs in urban or rural India.  Little wonder that youth unemployment is 42% for graduates under 25, the highest in the last 40 years (PLFS 2021-22).

We need not argue here about the state of air, water, and soil, and the rising waste dumps across the country resulting from our model of ‘development’ and living. This model of ‘development’ has also pushed the cities to encroach upon the land, water, and other resources of the rural areas for mineral extraction, power generation, cement-steel production, and connectivity via roads and airports. It is evident that this is a model of development for a few, at the cost of many.

The usual defense of the propagators of this model is that if we do not ‘develop’ in this way, there is no way we will be able to eradicate the poverty rampant in our country. However, the report card on poverty removal, job generation, ecological balance, or reducing deprivations due to caste, class, and gender continues to be abysmal!

How does one make sense of this huge gap between the promise of ‘development’ and its actual delivery? Why does it not work for all? Does it even work for a few? Because it is also well known that the lives of the ‘haves’ are often devoid of meaning, belongingness, and fulfillment!

If the fallacies are so blatantly in our faces, what compels us to push down this road with even more gusto?

Why do we never hear a politician or mainstream economist talk about human well-being? Of things that really matter to us, like education, health, clean air, and water, rather than a constant refrain of increasing the GDP?

What theories of economics legitimize this model of development? Where did it come from, and why have we adopted it so wholeheartedly?

About the Program

Sambhaavnaa Institute has been organizing a participatory, reflective, and perspective-building program called Nayi Dishayein that interrogates ‘development’ and seeks to understand its history and origins, its workings, and its ramifications on people and the planet.

In this program, we invite curious young people to:

1. Critically examine the notion of development: Where did it come from? How and why have we bought into it so uncritically?
2. If it is all about economics, economic systems, and economic models, what exactly is an economy? What is our current economic system, where did that come from, and can there be other ways of organizing our economy? Can we have infinite growth on a finite planet? Can GDP be the be-all and end-all of human well-being?
3. Can we discern the root causes of growing inequality and the unequal opportunities in this model of development? Can we understand its compulsions to crush both people and the planet on its way?
4. We are, to start with, a country quite fractured along the lines of gender, caste, class, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and knowledge: Does this kind of development heal those fractures or further deepen them?
5. Finally, how have people been countering these onslaughts, if at all? What role and impact do these people’s movements have against this juggernaut? What is their contribution to a more just and sustainable society?
6. What can my role as a young individual be in all this? 

This program aims to integrate theory and practice. The 12-day campus-based component will focus on building a varied and dynamic understanding of some of the pertinent issues facing our society today. It deploys a mix of lectures, classroom discussions, exercises and presentations, field trips, theater, film/documentary screenings, songs of resistance, and the sharing of lived experiences by activists and scholars.

Who is the program for?

This program is open to anyone in the age group of 21–28 who is: 

• Seeking to engage with the above questions

• Someone who aspires to work in the development sector

• Seeking to make sense of the contradictory world we live in

• Grappling with one’s role in a humane and sustainable world.
  

Resource Person:

Himanshu Kumar: Himanshu Kumar is a Gandhian activist who, together with his wife, ran the Vanvasi Chetana Ashram in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh for 22 years. He learned the local Adivasi language (Gondi) and worked through the Ashram to help Adivasis access their rights under the law. Starting in 2005, during the murderous Salwa Judum campaigns of vigilante groups against the Adivasis of Bastar in Chhattisgarh, Himanshu worked to try to get villagers back to their homes, get people falsely accused out of jail, and win justice for the victims of police and vigilante crimes. His Ashram was eventually bulldozed and he was forced to move to Delhi, from where he continues to try to follow up with legal cases on the state’s treatment of the Adivasis.

Mohammad C: Mohammad is an activist and educator dedicated to social justice through community engagement and critical pedagogy. For over a decade, he has been a core facilitator at Sambhaavnaa Institute, leading workshops that bring together youth, activists, and professionals to challenge systemic inequalities. He focuses on political education and social transformation, using Theatre of the Oppressed as a participatory tool to deepen understanding and collective reflection.

Fatema C: Fatema is an educator and environmentalist with experience in political education and program coordination. She designs and facilitates workshops on gender, environment, development, and waste management, using creative and participatory methods such as Theatre of the Oppressed and experiential learning. As a writer and curriculum designer, she is deeply committed to using education as a tool for social and environmental transformation.

Language: This program will be conducted in English and Hindi. Basic proficiency in both is required. (Speaking either English or Hindi is sufficient, but the ability to understand both is essential.)

Contribution to the Program: We request participants to contribute an amount of Rs. 8,000 towards workshop expenses, inclusive of all onsite workshop costs: boarding, lodging, and all the materials used in the workshop. Travel will be borne by the participants.

Dates: 19th – 30th December, 2026

Venue: Sambhaavnaa Institute, Kandbari, Tehsil, Palampur, District Kangra, PIN 176061, Himachal Pradesh 

To register for the workshop, please fill out this Google form.