Volunteering: The art of going beyond the self


John Samuel


Volunteering is a distinct human characteristic. Human beings have a distinct ability to create, to communicate through evolved language, and to relate to each other with a set of basic values and principles. This distinct human creativity, communication and sense of community is what gives rise to art, science, literature, history and even politics. The history of social change is the history of how individuals and groups of individuals in different societies negotiated between the self and the other. Volunteering is a socio-psychological bridge connecting the self and the individual consciousness to the collective consciousness of the community. Volunteering is, on the one hand, an expression of the free will of an individual and on the other, an expression of a certain set of values imbibed from society -- values that enable an individual to locate herself or himself in relation to others.



The negotiation of the self with the other can happen at various levels: at the level of the individual, the self and other partners, the self and other members of the community, the self and nature, and the self and the supernatural. At a societal level, such negotiations of individuals or communities with others, or even one nation-state with another, can have implicit or explicit negotiations of power relationships. At the societal level, volunteering is a much more complex process, with ethical, cultural and political connotations. But volunteering as the art of going beyond the self is a key element in all such individual, social and political negotiations.

Volunteering could either be a conscious or unconscious act. Almost every human being unconsciously volunteers in some way almost every day. In one way or another, human beings try to help each other, because that is one of the social norms imbibed by everyone. Such unconscious acts of volunteering are a very crucial strand in the formation and survival of various processes of socio-cultural institutionalisation -- from family and kinship to diverse community formations. The conscious act of volunteering is often defined by a set of socially and culturally-evolved values. So when someone gives for charity or feeds the hungry, or helps an unknown person find her way, all these acts are defined by a set of socially evolved values.

In the most basic sense, the act of going beyond the self can be seen in the relationship between a mother and child, often the most unconditional human relationship. In one sense, it is a biological necessity because human babies need relatively more long-term care to survive. In the beginning, a mother may consider her child an extension of herself. However, in the course of time, as the sense of self of the child unfolds, this relationship becomes one of defining one's sense of belonging in relation to the other. One can find a link between the first evidence of a spiritual search for belonging and the early notion of the Mother Goddess and fertility cults in almost all early religious traditions. The idea of the Mother thus goes beyond the biological to a social, cultural and spiritual connectivity to the other. It is the fountainhead of a variety of relationships that serve as the umbilical cord between nature and humankind. That is how the notion of Mother Earth becomes part of our collective memory. And that is probably how and why volunteering came to be considered a human virtue.

The socio-psychological need of every human being for a sense of belonging in relation to the other forms the basis of volunteering. The need for a sense of belonging also arises from the need for emotional well-being and for a socio-cultural identity. This need also propels human beings to go beyond the self to reach out to people, nature and even the supernatural. For the quest for the other -- beyond the visible, beyond the physical -- is at the root of the spiritual urge. The spiritual urge represents the eternal quest of human beings for the ideal other. This unending and unfulfilled need of human beings to mould their sense of belonging to people, culture, nature and the divine is the mother of creativity, communication and community. Creativity, communication and communities happen only when there is a fundamental sense of volunteering among human beings. The spiritual urge and volunteering are two sides of the same coin; two sides of the search for the other, to derive a sense of belonging and meaning for oneself by going beyond the self. While the spiritual urge seeks the eternal, benevolent, omnipotent and omnipresent other, volunteering seeks out the other within one's own socio-cultural and ethical milieu. By volunteering, human beings seek to touch, feel and smell the other to derive a sense of meaning, belonging and identity in their own lives. Thus, in many ethical and religious traditions, spiritualism and volunteering are inherently related to each other.


Volunteering and voluntarism

Though often used interchangeably, there is a substantial and subtle difference between volunteering and voluntarism. Volunteering is a value-based and function-oriented human characteristic, and voluntarism is a relatively more institutionalised set of principles and practices to serve the people at large. While the intentions and impact of volunteering can differ from person to person, there is a constant basic element of going beyond oneself.. Voluntarism is an evolved social process institutionalised over a period of time through various religious, ethical and political traditions.

So while volunteering will always essentially be about going beyond the self, the character of voluntarism will keep changing in consonance with dominant ethical and ideological power relationships. That is why the sense, spirit and purpose of voluntarism among the members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevek Sangh (RSS) is different from that of the ultra-leftist groups. That is why there are different streams of voluntarism within the broad arena of social and political action and human development. Voluntarism as a social practice seems to be relevant only in relation to a socio-political perspective or ethical tradition. Voluntarism seems to be a corollary set of practices that derives its meaning from dominant worldviews and prevailing power relationships within society. Planned, organised and purposeful volunteering may give rise to a stream of voluntarism over a period of time. Volunteering thus precedes voluntarism. One could say that voluntarism is institutionalised volunteering. Voluntarism cannot be effective or meaningful without a strong undercurrent of volunteering. But volunteering can exist without voluntarism.

Voluntarism and power

The emergence of many social and political institutions can be traced to volunteering and voluntarism. In fact almost all religious movements and institutions began as movements of voluntarism. This is the case with most political organisations and institutions as well. At some point in history, voluntarism can get institutionalised beyond recognition. When the proletariat becomes the politbureau, voluntarism will be displaced by domineering power structures . While voluntarism is based on the need of human beings to go beyond themselves to build a sense of belonging in relation to the other, politics is shaped by the dominant power relationship that seeks to control the other The source of power in the case of volunteering comes from the notion of power within: the power within the self to go beyond the self and to influence one's life and environment. The source of power in voluntarism comes from the notion of power with: power with the other, power with people to change society at large. The source of power in dominant political structures emerges from the notion of power over: power over the other to control and to influence. The shift in the sources of power changes the character of socio-political negotiations.

Through a process of institutionalisation, the spirit of volunteering gets transformed into the practice of voluntarism and then eventually voluntarism itself is hyper-institutionalised into structures of political domination. In this process, power is morphed from a source of inspiration to a means of domination. Unless one understands the power dimension of voluntarism, one will fail to appreciate that all dominating political ideologies -- from fascism to Stalinism - began with political movements based on voluntarism. In this sense, voluntarism produced Gandhi as well as Martin Luther King. But one should not forget that the beginning of Hitler as well as Mussolini was based on organised voluntarism; a voluntarism that capitalised on the socio-political frustration of a generation. Thus voluntarism can either give rise to liberative political transitions or to oppressive political regimes. Voluntarism should not be merely seen as something which is done by a social worker in your neighbourhood . It is a powerful social vehicle that could become either a means for positive transition or oppressive political monopoly.

Historically one can see how voluntarism has oscillated like a pendulum between institutions of religion annd institutions of State, traversing various ethical patches. Hence theology and politics become two important reference points in the history of the institutionalisation of voluntarism. In a democracy, a political worker is a volunteer and political parties are supposed to function on the basis of voluntarism. However, over a period of time, the very identity of a volunteering political worker gets subsumed into the institutionalised voluntarism of political parties and eventually into the institutionalised structures of power. The same process occurs in the case of a priest who begins as a volunteer in the service of God. In this way, voluntarism can be seen as a bridge between the individual and society. It is a crucial transitional phase between internal spirituality and external power politics.

Voluntarism as social action

Social action is the most recognised and appreciated form of voluntarism. This is because, in the arena of social action, voluntarism is supposed to be driven by strong ethical currents rather than individual interests. This is also because social action in its best legacy forms counterveiling forces of power to other dominating power structures. Hence this tradition of voluntarism is seen as the spirit behind various social initiatives for charity, justice, human rights and social justice.

Within the broad arena of social action itself, one can see voluntarism based on a more spiritual sense of the act of going beyond the self. One can also see voluntarism as dissent against injustice and dominating power structures. So the spiritual as well as political streams of voluntarism are at work within the broader arena of social action.

There is a need to understand voluntarism in the context of two ongoing processes – the institutionalisation of social action, and individualistic voluntarism. When social action itself gets increasingly institutionalised, voluntarism often becomes a vehicle of legitimation, as opposed to voluntarism based on organised participation, expression of the free will of individuals, or collective vision. In times of institutionalised social action, the underlying voluntarism gets eroded, as social action itself becomes an agent of the State or market. This is one of the most important dangers that we need to watch out for if the real spirit of voluntarism as social action is to be revitalised.

Individualistic voluntarism is another important aspect of voluntarism as social action, particulary after the '70s. While there are a number of streams of voluntarism that facilitate social action, there is an increasing individualism that is fragmenting the potential of liberative social movements. This individualism is in a sense the reaction of a generation that protested against the dominating political ideologies and structures of the 1960s. There is a paradox in the very nature of the leadership within the arena of social action in India. This paradox arises from the fact that most of the leaders believe and preach a collective social transformative politics, but they operationalise that politics in the most individualistic manner. This means that issues and movements become increasingly associated with individuals, with the result that the arena of social action becomes fragmented, and the social force of voluntarism as social action is dissipated. Such individualistic voluntarism, along with the hyper-institutionalisation of social action, raises important questions about the validity and viability of the ongoing practice of voluntarism as social action. We need to rethink the future of voluntarism as social action. Otherwise the arena of social action itself will be appropriated by the market, State and reactionary political forces.
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