Voluntary Work as Countervailing Power

Voluntary Work as Countervailing Power Bharat Jhunjhunwala The Framework ONE common feature of the series of the three articles that appeared in the EPW in February 1984 by Rajni Kothari, D L Sheth and Harsh Sethi was their perception that although the voluntary work movement was significant, it lacked a theoretical framework in which to understand its role, Kothari calls it a "theoretical lag"' and Sheth mentions that they "suffer from the absence of a relevant theory of transformation".2 This note is an attempt to make some suggestions towards such a theoretical framework.