The CSE strategy
Gunnar Myrdal, the famed Swedish economist, had once said to me, then a raw 24-year-old, at the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, "Books are like time bombs. If the ideas contained in them are of value, they will explode one day. It is hard to predict when that will happen."

For some unknown reason, these wonderful words uttered some 25 years ago, remained in my mind. I asked myself, "If what we are producing is time bombs, how can we shorten the fuse?" Great idea! This kind of activism can be called ‘knowledge-based activism’ but how does one operationalise it?

This was 1996 and we were in the process of producing two books – one on the growing air pollution in Indian cities, and another on India’s community-based traditions in water management. As both these books had clear messages, I thought to myself, ‘How can I actively promote the messages in these books and not wait passively for people to internalise them and then hopefully take some action?’

Our initial response was simple: Over its 15 years of work, CSE had accumulated a considerable amount of ‘social capital’—within certain key segments of the Indian society, in particular, the civil society, the political world and the media. These are important opinion makers in democratic India. Therefore, we asked: How can we bring this ‘social capital’ and our knowledge together?

When our book on air pollution, proactively titled, Slow Murder’ came out in late 1996, I requested Shri KR Narayanan, the vice-president on India, to release the book. Living, as he did, in the highly polluted environment of Central India, he understood the scourge of pollution. Also, as I had just returned from a long cancer treatment which included a horrendous bone marrow transplant, and which he had followed with great concern, he was willing to listen to any request I made. I suggested to him that the book be released not in some public hall, but at his own residence. The prestigious address for the function would ensure that we could get at least a few ministers and heads of auto companies to come and listen. The function went off like a dream. The vice-president had helped us to set the ball rolling.

In order to get the message to the public, we organized a big public meeting, which attracted over 600 people. Now the message was out. We had a powerful number: 7,500 die every year from air pollution in Delhi alone, some 21 people every day. The media gave us enormous coverage. India Today, for instance, did a cover story on air pollution.

Within a few weeks, Justice Kuldeep Singh of the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the press publicity and ordered the Delhi government to file an affidavit on how it intends to control pollution. Our message had gone home to one of the most powerful institutions of democratic India: the Supreme Court. It gave us great faith in Indian democracy. This development swept us off our feet. In 2001, just four years later. People are saying that Delhi’s air is indeed cleaner even though the city continues to add an unbelievable 200,000 vehicles every year.

All these efforts were made on an impromptu basis. We had knowledge. We had social capital. We just married the two together. But now we have a structured strategy for our knowledge-based activism:

Any campaign we start has a pre-launch phase. A team works to put together a book on an environmental problem and suggest broad contours of its solution. This pre-launch phase helps CSE understand the issue in-depth. It helps to create a tool for spreading the message. It helps us contact and network with people already active or interested in the issue. Nobody will listen to us if we do not have the confidence in what we are talking about.

This is followed by the more difficult post-launch phase. As interest in our campaign grows exponentially, campaign activities intensify rapidly.

We have to keep information flowing. Our awareness-raising work must go on. We must keep our constituency informed, key opinion-makers and decision-makers informed, and, of course, the broad public informed through our own publications and through the media. This may also include training.

Secondly, we have to develop and strengthen the network, which also means responding to the needs of its members. This can even mean a quick response to save a water harvesting structure in Rajasthan. The network is itself a big asset in dealing with such crises.

Thirdly, we have to be prepared to respond to any criticism or problems raised. This means a lot of policy research and building up of a capacity to do that. It means a lot more publications but this time on specific dimensions of the issue. We are now in a phase where we have to specialise. How does one develop an action plan to clean up the air of Delhi or any city in India? What role can water harvesting play in drought-proofing the country? How does one create a mass movement for water harvesting?

Fourthly, we must be able to respond to any scientific issues that are raised. This means building up a network of experts support the campaign and undertake scientific research, if necessary. How will water harvesting affect upstream-downstream water flows? Under what conditions will particulate traps work on buses? Anything can be thrown at us and we are accountable to provide an answer.

This is an unending phase. The team grows dramatically. Even 5-6 people often prove to be too few. Building up a culture of volunteers often helps to deal with sharp increases in humanpower. It requires people with grit and determination, skills and knowledge, and a fire in the belly. It requires great management skills. Such people are very difficult to find. You have to build them up within the organisation. It is fun and exciting—that is the big reward—but it takes the wind out of you. Illness or holidays lose their meaning. And you can do just as much work as you want depending on just how much you want to stretch yourself.

The results, however, have been deeply satisfying. We can indeed get our time bombs onto a short fuse. If we have good knowledge and good social capital (friends and well-wishers ready to cooperate with us), the combination does help to push for change. It is possible to work Indian democracy. And we try to incorporate this strategy now in all our work.