“LAW has reached its finest moments when it has freed men from the unlimited discretion of some ruler, some civil or military official, some bureaucrat. Where discretion is absolute, man has always suffered.”

When in 1951 Justice William O. Douglas of the US supreme court pronounced this test of free citizens, he was defining the concept of civil society. It comprises citizens who are not dependant on the favours of the state or its administrators. It is the state and the government which derive their powers from the citizen; not the other way around.

Civil society functions even when the state and its instruments fail to perform their duties. Kashmir has provided a vivid example of this. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s government has ceased to perform its role.

Kashmir has been paralysed not only by a curfew but also by crippling curbs on the internet and mobile phones for well over a month. However, civil society has asserted itself. Taking advantage of small, if unauthorised, breaks in the curfew, citizens rush to help one another in the provision of the necessities of life, medical aid and even education for their children.

We have a graphic description of this in a recent report by Ashiq Hussain of Hindustan Times: “The lanes and bylanes of Kaw Mohalla in the old areas of Srinagar, which have been under curfew for the past 34 days, are witnessing the joy and laughter of school-going children for the past three days. Although schools have not opened, residents have started an informal school in a community centre to help compensate children for the loss in education.”

When the state fails to do its duty, civil society steps in.

The school opens at 11am with a young commerce graduate and an arts graduate conducting classes. In the afternoon session, another set of volunteers takes over. It comprises graduates, post-graduates, and researchers. The initiative was taken by caretakers of the local mosque, the Jamia Masjid Kaw Mohalla. About 20 educated youth volunteered to help. Caretakers of four mosques in all made announcements on loudspeakers informing people of the starting of the school. The number of students crossed 300 with additions by the day.

In this, Kaw Mohalla is not alone. Some areas in Srinagar and south Kashmir also started such informal schools. One volunteer, Samaira Farooq, summed up their ethos — it was their way of contributing to the ‘cause’. The schools were part of the people’s struggle. The schools will continue even after the crisis is over to help the underprivileged to educate their children and they will spread over the entire Valley as examples of self-help.

They will illustrate the working of civil society at its best; independent of state power and keenly responsive to the people’s pressing needs while drawing their own power from the people themselves.

Walter Lippmann insightfully pointed out that democracy can succeed only if it draws sustenance from civil society and its institutions.

Addressing the University of Rochester in June 1936, he said that one of the reasons why democracy “has worked in America is that outside the government and outside the party system, there have existed independent institutions and independent men”.

“Outside the political government and the parties there have been the free churches, the free press, the free universities, and, no less important to the preservation of democracy, free men with sufficient secured property of their own, farms, factories, shops, professions, savings, which were protected by the law and not dependent upon the will of elected or appointed officials”.

Trade, business and industry constitute vital elements of civil society as in­deed do teachers, educationists and journalists.

The modern state has amassed huge powers over the lives of citizens as India’s Supreme Court once pointed out. It is “the regulator and dispenser of special services and provider of a large number of benefits, including jobs, contracts, licences, quotas, mineral rights, etc. The government pours forth wealth, money, benefits, services, contracts, quotas and licences. …

“Licences are required before one can engage in many kinds of businesses or work. The power of giving licences means power to withhold them and this gives control to the government or to the agents of government on the lives of many people. Many individuals and many more businesses enjoy largesse in the form of government contracts. These contracts often resemble subsidies.”

This makes it all the more necessary that citizens strengthen civil society and help its institutions break free from the crippling reach of state power. It is a sine qua non of democratic governance.

Amidst the clash of political parties the major ones as well as the ones which mushroom at the time of elections, the voice of civil society is unheard. In the US, there are organisations which impartially trace the lies uttered by major politicians. South Asia can do with some of these.

The writer is an author and a lawyer based in Mumbai.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2016