Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) is a grassroots movement based in Rajasthan, India, known for pioneering practices of direct democracy through public assemblies and collective accountability. It organizes rural workers and peasants to exercise popular power through participatory decision-making, social audits, and community deliberation.
| Creation date | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Democracy, Rights, Social justice |
| Context | Rural |
| Typology | Grassroot group |
| Languages | Hindi, English |
| Thematics | Radical Democracy |
Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan emerged in the early 1990s among landless workers and small farmers confronting corruption, wage theft, and exclusion from state decision-making. Rather than acting through political parties or NGOs, MKSS built its legitimacy through open village assemblies where community members collectively analyzed public records and confronted authorities.
A central practice developed by MKSS is the jan sunwai (public hearing), a form of popular assembly where villagers collectively audit public spending, question officials, and reach shared conclusions in front of the community. These assemblies function as spaces of direct democracy, reversing traditional power relations and asserting popular sovereignty outside formal state institutions.
MKSS played a decisive role in the struggle for the Right to Information in India, while continuing to practice autonomous grassroots governance at the local level. Its ongoing activity demonstrates how radical democracy can be institutionalized through popular assemblies that directly exercise power rather than merely demand representation.