King Mufasa is dead, Prince Simba is nowhere to be found. The jungle is set in gloom; herds, prides, clusters of, animals small and big, are struggling, unable to come together. They succumb to the evil brother Scar who uses the treacherous hyenas and takes over their beloved Kingdom.

The animals had always lived in peace and prosperity, true compliant followers of a great King. But in the enablement of Mufasa, the Kingdom was disabled. Now, with the King gone, their world order has collapsed. Meanwhile, Simba grows up in a safe space outside of Pride Rock and returns from his sabbatical to defeat Scar. The pride finds their King again, the animals are happy, and they live happily ever after.

Long Live the King

In good times and bad, we yearn for heroes who slay dragons, do the un-doable to win or save the world. Whether institutions or individuals, the strong-alpha-scaled -successful catch our fancy and make us believe in the power of excellence and superior resilience. They give us hope and associated ambition. If they could do it, we too, can… Can’t we?

Our storytelling is flawed, focussed on the rise of the messiah, the protagonist saving the hapless junta who post-climax sing praises of the great warrior. We see her growth, we see them rise, and we dance with joy living happily ever after under the shadow of their greatness.

In my opinion, however, while we need leaders, heroes, and brave hearts to lead victories and transformations, growth of any kind – be it the growth of an idea into a revolution, or that of a poorer, newly free country turning into the world’s largest democracy – cannot be credited just to a few good men.

Growth is the result of many ordinary regular women, men, people, doing the ordinary well for the larger good. Growth is participatory, growth is in the together.

In a kingdom where growth is for all, beyond just the king and his pride, the entire kingdom prospers, not just the King.

76 years post-Independence, India has much to be proud of. We had gained our independence through a bloodless mass revolution that saw women and men of diverse backgrounds come together.

Our polio eradication drive is a brilliant success story of how government machinery can work for its people. We have the fastest digital penetration, most complex railway network, have rolled out INR 200 crores of vaccines within 547 days and look poised for growth in the future as we had only perhaps, imagined. All brilliant examples of collaborations at the highest levels, where stakeholders participated and were empowered to do what needed to be done.

We are also a country that saw a record wealth increase in a COVID struck year with a new billionaire every week.

In the same year 230 million Indians fell below the national minimum wage poverty line.

The world inequality report ranked India as one of the most unequal countries in the world.

Only 3% of India’s workforce is estimated to be skilled, one-third of India’s children are stunted, female employment in India has plummeted to 9%, and the United Nations has estimated that 28% of India’s population is poor in 2019 – the pre-COVID era.

There is much to ponder about here. Why prosperity for a few does not naturally extend to enabling welfare for more? Enabling growth and prosperity needs to be deliberate and designed. By empowering institutions and people to lead for themselves instead of being trapped in dependencies.

In the absence of this deliberate action, we create an inequitable world of haves and have-nots.

We create a world where those who could have participated in growth are becoming victims of it. When opportunities of employment, agency, access to higher education are unavailable to 28% of the citizens in a country, how can a nation grow to its full potential?

A nation, an economy, is only as strong as its weakest citizens. Until we focus on enabling access for people who are moving into poverty, our victories will not be enough to support our societal needs.

And that is why the development sector of this country plays a critical role. Serving people where governments find it difficult to operate, they help bridge the last mile access gap enabling welfare to reach where it would otherwise have been difficult.

Ten years ago, when I walked into the EdelGive office, it was just a beautiful young idea wanting to bridge the gap of resources between the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds.

The beauty was not in its lofty ideals alone. It was in the fact that the mission was deeply ingrained with steadfast values.

From its inception, EdelGive supported social causes across the length and breadth of India.

It looked for great projects but always aimed to understand the context first. What is the culture like, what are the problems faced there, how to ensure people-participation - were only some of the questions that our philosophy drove us to absorb and act upon. The variances of cultures, the impact of social norms on the success of a project, intersectionality, inclusion, diversity… - I’ve learnt it from the EdelGive model of growing together.

I saw the power of collectivising the disadvantaged. Bringing them together to take risks and mitigate them - together. And the huge impact it can have to better lives.

Through the Self-Help Groups of Ibtada, Rajasthan; The Joint Liability Groups of Mann Deshi; The Farmers Collective of Vrutti - brilliant examples of collective structures at the last mile. Through people-led movements that grew from ideas to massive propellers for change: - Flavia Agnes, Anshu Gupta, Ashif Shaikh, Sujata Khandekar, and so many change agents, who not only changed mindsets, but they also enabled an environment where more leaders and more institutions could thrive beyond their leadership.

If Mufasa left, the tribe would not fall to a Scar.

India benefits from the efforts of the 100,000 small to mid-sized NGOs, much beyond the 100-odd solutions that have managed to scale. These wonderful smaller organisations struggle for funding while working relentlessly with people at the first mile, often in difficult geographies.

GROW was launched with the principle of enabling a more democratic and open space for these organisations to access core financial support coupled with relevant capacity building.

Launched as a pan-India program, it is designed as a sector-agnostic programme, with equal representation of 25 NGOs from each zone of the country.

We challenged the definition of scale as popularly celebrated. Scale cannot be limited to one organisation or solution growing mammoth-size, serving all the poor by itself.

No. That is not scale, that is monopoly.

Scale can also be a large, enabling structure that hosts several small solutions, giving a space to collectivise, leverage learnings from each other, and also co-learn. Scale can be designed for collective action and impact. And a collective is a group of diverse individuals, organisations and ecosystems that come together for a purpose. It does not mean that all in a collective are equally capacitated, experienced, sized or capable. It means there is space for difference to function together, where difference becomes an advantage, not a concern.

When growth is collective, the nation prospers, when it is limited to a few, inequality thrives, and core tenants of a healthy society get strained.

King Mufasa is dead, Prince Simba is nowhere to be found.

The Jungle is set in gloom; herds, prides, clusters of animals small and big, are struggling and unable to come together. They succumb to the evil brother Scar who uses the treacherous hyenas and takes over their beloved kingdom.

This is a kingdom where inhabitants live in peace and prosperity, but had been preparing for a day when all would not be well. With the King gone, the wolves decided they will stand guard, the elephants created the plan of defence, owls created the war strategy, monkeys created the alert system, while the lions went about ensuring the throne is protected. By the time Simba returned from his sabbatical to save his jungle, Scar was already defeated, and the community of animals lived happily till the next challenge came their way.

Long Live the Jungle.

There will never be a dearth of Scars in our lives. People or situations threatening to pulldown decades of effort. In my opinion, we need many more Mufasas, because Scar or no Scar, the work must go on.

The pandemic broke what was fractured and fractured what was weak. Each one of us has stories of pain, grief, loss and resilience as we overcame individual and professional challenges. But here we are on the other side of a story that has still not ended. We have seen what still seems unbelievable and endured what we never thought we will.

No one hero, leader, institution, individual or messiah can save us. We, the people, need to help ourselves, join the dots, march ahead and do this together. Much is said about strong leaders, audacious individuals, and large centres of excellence. In a country like India, while the heroes are welcome, the strength lies in the hands of her people.