Cooperatives as Alternative Form of Organization for CSR Effectiveness: Insights from Rabindranath Tagore

Increasing thrust on sustainability has pervaded every form of organization today including business. Active involvement and participation in community activities is no more considered an act of traditional philanthropy but an integral and significant part of the business model and operations for inclusive growth of the multiple stakeholder constituencies along with the organization. This also throws challenges to modern organizations to look for alternative forms and redefined priorities beyond the confines of single-pointed pursuit of profits and economic growth. The present article primarily engages in this search for ‘the other’ form of organization in the pioneering initiative for rural regeneration by the Nobel Laureate poet and philosopher from India Rabindranath Tagore at Sriniketan, in the district of Birbhum in West Bengal. Sriniketan was a novel venture to uplift the neglected village and bridge the gap between the urban and the rural milieu. In this regard, this article will undertake a detailed study of Tagore’s twin objectives—first, to educate the villagers in self-dependence and second, to gift the villagers a complete life. It will also attempt to uphold the ideal of village welfare as envisioned by Tagore through people-centric education with the help of local and global experts. The article explores through a qualitative study of Tagore’s Sriniketan, a rural development project directed towards sustainability in viewing the spirit of cooperatives as an alternative form of organization. It will also finally highlight on how modern organizations can draw lessons on sustainability from Tagore’s cooperative movement for creative and effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) interventions.