“What is civil society? Present a note on civil society engagement with science and technology policy in India.” (2019)
What civil society is
Civil society is the sphere of voluntary association between family, market and state. It includes NGOs, movements, trade unions, professional bodies and science forums.
- G. W. F. Hegel (Philosophy of Right, 1820) placed it between family and state as the arena of particular interests.
- Antonio Gramsci saw it as the terrain on which consent and hegemony are contested.
Its defining features are voluntary membership, independence from the state and a public purpose.
Engagement with S&T policy in India
Under Nehru, science and technology (S&T) policy was made by the state and its experts, as in the Scientific Policy Resolution, 1958. Civil society has since entered the field in four ways.
1. Taking science to the people. The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP), founded in 1962, spread science in Malayalam. It opposed the Silent Valley hydel project on ecological grounds, and the valley became a national park in 1984. The Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha of 1987 led to the formation of the All India People’s Science Network in 1988.
2. Contesting technological risk. After the Bhopal gas disaster of 1984, survivors’ organisations challenged how hazardous industry was regulated. In 2010 the government held public consultations on Bt brinjal in seven cities, attended by about 8,000 people. It then imposed a moratorium on the crop in February 2010. Ulrich Beck (Risk Society, 1986) explains this pattern: technological risk politicises science and gives rise to “sub-politics” outside parliament.
3. Patents and access to knowledge. People’s science and health networks campaigned over the global patent rules (TRIPS) and the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005. In Novartis v. Union of India (2013), where the Cancer Patients Aid Association was among the opponents, the Supreme Court upheld Section 3(d), which bars patents on minor changes to existing drugs. The Honey Bee Network gained recognition for farmers’ and artisans’ inventions.
4. Digital policy and consultation. The Save the Internet campaign sent over a million emails to the telecom regulator (TRAI), which banned differential pricing of data in 2016. The draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, 2020 was prepared through consultations with more than 40,000 stakeholders.
Assessment
- Gains: policy shifts from a purely expert model towards what Shiv Visvanathan calls cognitive justice, meaning respect for different kinds of knowledge.
- Limits: consultation is often a formality, and expert bodies still decide. Some campaigns slide into anti-science populism, and tighter foreign-funding rules have narrowed advocacy.
Conclusion
Indian civil society has turned S&T policy from a closed expert domain into a public question of risk, access and justice. The next step is to build public participation into science policy as a regular feature while keeping evidence at its centre.