SKMS Code of Conduct

You are a researcher, a writer, a maker of documentary films, or another kind of scholar, artist, or scientist, and you want to work with Sangtin Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (SKMS)?

We welcome you with an open heart.

SKMS has emerged and grown from thick and strong bonds. Before you begin your journey with this Sangathan and before we trust one another to take our first steps together, the saathis or members of Sangathan would like to form a basic understanding with you to build a continuous clarity about what we expect from one another. In fact, we hope to begin a long-term relationship where the mutual exchange of information, understandings, and energies can happen in such a way that we can become one another’s support in fighting against the inequalities faced by the exploited and the Dalit people in our society.

If you want to learn about the work of SKMS, the Sangathan can help you gain access to pamphlets, newspaper articles, issues of Sangathan’s newspaper (‘Hamara Safar’), and essays and reports prepared by researchers. SKMS’s foundational values and principles have been concerned with the politics of knowledge making and documentation which shape our relationships and realities not only at the national and global scales but also at the local and intimate levels. From the very beginning, our Sangathan’s journey has sought to change the unjust landscape of knowledge and power and you can get a sense of this work from two books –Sangtin Yatra: Saat Zingiyon Mein Lipta Nari Vimarsh and Ek Aur Neemsaar: Sangtin Atmamanthan aur Andolan. The key points of these books are also available in books and articles in English. Before we begin to walk together, we ask that you familiarize yourself with the issues and debates documented in these books so that you can understand and respect the principles that constitute our foundation.

SKMS is a shared platform of several thousand Dalit and exploited farmers and laborers where all the saathis work together to fight for the rights and dignity of those who have been pushed to the margins. The Sangathan works through collective discussion and planning that is based on shared analysis and understandings. No plan or idea is implemented until it is discussed in kshetriya baithaks—or area-wise meetings–and there is general agreement among saathis in the villages on a given matter. After this agreement is achieved, saathis work together to mobilize that idea on the ground. In such a collective process, there are always ups and downs and an open debate about those turbulences always teaches us something significant. Everyone who wants to learn from the Sangathan should be prepared to move with the collective processes of the Sangathan.

When someone who lives far away from the villages of Sitapur expresses a desire to work with us, the first question that comes to our minds is: Whose journey would this be? Only of that person who seeks to learn something from us and then share some critical insights with the world or with the people who work in their field? Or, will the SKMS saathis be equal partners in this journey so that everyone who joins in will have something useful to learn? We would like to avoid scenarios where researchers come, undertake their study, and leave. They get their degrees or publications without confronting the issue of what would be gained by the people in the villages who set aside tasks associated with their everyday lives in order to provide researchers with the information and facts they need.

A consideration of these realities have led us to articulate some principles, rules, and conditions, which we have listed below. The word ‘scholars’ here refers to all those who want to spend time with us to study, write, create, understand, or analyze things in relation to their research, writing, filmmaking, and other similar work. We recognize that the circumstances, contexts, and objectives of each study can vary, so this is a flexible document in which changes will be made as needed.

Scholars should share their goals with the district-level team that represents SKMS, and they should also share where and among whom the outcomes of the study will be shared so that SKMS saathis can offer their suggestions and serve as consultants.

• Scholars should consider seriously all the suggestions received from SKMS, revise and refine their objectives and questions accordingly, and share them again with the saathis. In case of disagreements, it is important to discuss them as well. While it is not necessary to enforce consensus, it is important that the disagreements be discussed and systematically noted in the study.
• Many a time, scholars assume that saathis at the village-level will not be able to understand difficult aspects of the study. Rather than make such assumptions, scholars should share the toughest aspects of their study with the saathis so that all can develop their understanding on those issues. During the course of the study, scholars and the Sangathan should have open discussions on what understandings saathis are gaining from the study and its processes, and what the scholars are learning from the saathis. How is the study helping to develop the analysis on both sides? Is the study further enabling the saathis and their work? If not, what steps can be taken to help the study move in that direction?
• If the scholar can provide monetary assistance or other forms of resources, then it is important that the Sangathan be involved in determining how that help should reach the Sangathan.
• When scholars stay in the homes of saathis and can pay for their own living, food, or other expenses, then the Sangathan must be informed about this so that decisions can be taken accordingly.
• Saathis should receive just credit for their contributions in the work that scholars create in the form of information, publications, films, etc. There should be a prior mutual understanding about where and how saathis’ labor will be acknowledged in the work. There should be a continuous clarity among all with regard to the place saathis will get in the reports and documents that emerge from the study.
• The information, publications, or films etc. emerging from the study should become the basis for some kind of meaningful initiative that can benefit saathis in their own lives and struggles.
• Scholars should contribute whatever new understandings, information, and resources they can to the emerging needs of SKMS from time to time so that the work of the Sangathan can gain strength while also giving saathis the opportunities to deepen their understandings and analyses.
• Scholars should deploy their contacts in international, national, and regional circles to help build connections and relationships of the Sangathan. Scholars should help to create such materials as papers, posters, newspapers, websites, plays, songs, and documents in accordance with their own abilities and the needs of the Sangathan.
• English has symbolized a particular kind of dominance in the lives of our saathis. Therefore, if scholars know Hindi, they should try to avoid the use of spoken English in ways that might make saathis feel excluded from the conversations. If two people working with SKMS who speak English also know Hindi, they should avoid talking before the other saathis in English about anything that they do not wish to discuss openly before everyone. Otherwise saathis feel disrespected and this encourages misunderstandings and mistrust.
• SKMS should receive at least two copies of whatever is being written or created – first in the draft form and then in the final form.

Thank you for reading this with care.