Building viabilities: youth social action in the Indian Himalayas

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the social action of young people in the north Indian village of Bemni, drawing on field research over a 20 year period. We argue that a cohort of young people in Bemni in the period 2004–2014 tended to focus on key issues of survival in their social action, what they often termed ‘lifelines’, related especially to infrastructure and schooling. A second cohort of young people involved in social action between 2015 and 2022 combined this focus with a concentration on issues of social inequality and ethical questions of how to sustain the social, environmental and spiritual/cultural fabric of their village. Building viability in this context involves simultaneously ‘thinking in’ to reflect on core issues of survival and ‘thinking out’ to consider how to integrate this quest for survival in relation to broader ethical concerns about society and cultural/spiritual practice.