28 JUNE 2023   

The experience with cooperatives globally has been rather mixed. While in socialist systems, cooperatives became state-led initiatives losing their autonomy, in the capitalist economy despite their business successes, cooperatives remained as mere instruments of market forces failing to make a major impact on the fundamental challenges afflicting the system like growing inequality, violence, alienation and environmental decay. In both the systems the role of cooperatives remained merely instrumental which stymied the realization of their higher potential as an alternative way of organizing human society and life. The experience with cooperatives in India as a mixed-economy which has been moving towards capitalism is no different. The need for an alternative system persists given the acuteness of the prevailing socio-economic challenges which even threaten human existence. In this regard, cooperatives as higher forms of organization surely hold potential. In India, currently an expert committee is framing a new policy for cooperatives to establish a cooperative-based-economy based on the slogan sahakar-se-samriddhi. Creating a cooperative-based economy or society no doubt is desirable but unless cooperatives are made to emerge in a more integrated way with newer methods for organizing and governing them, they may continue to suffer as in the past. This lecture critically examines issues pertaining to cooperatives using both relevant theoretical and empirical analysis.

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