Description
This paper looks at the experiences of Indian and other South Asian members of Amnesty International during the 1970s. These individuals were keen to locate their activism within the broader project of Amnesty, yet they also had a number of different visions as to how that project could best be pursued in their particular part of the world. This paper explores why these individuals saw Amnesty’s vision of worldmaking as aligned with their own, how they navigated relationships with the rest of the organisation – particularly its western, Europe-based leadership – and specifically how they navigated the rules and conventions of the organisation in their efforts to make Amnesty international. Keeping in mind the entanglements between the rise of NGOs and the decolonisation process, this paper also considers how South Asian actors experienced and tackled these legacies in their efforts to build a common project. Ultimately this paper seeks to open conversations about how social movements can create solidarities, shared visions and functioning structures across borders, both social, historical, political, economic and physical, which is the aim of the larger project that this example arises from.
