On 25 November 2020, tens of thousands of farmers from the Indian state Punjab marched towards the capital city of New Delhi demanding the repeal of a set of laws deemed detrimental to farmers. For over a year they sat on the outskirts of the city in harsh conditions, using diverse forms of protests that were met with police violence till the national government relented to some of their demands.

The idea of community is increasingly becoming vexed in a globalised world. British author David Goodheart had very simplistically divided the people of UK into two communities; the Somewheres, those who lived close to where they were originally from, and the Anywheres who are comfortable living anywhere (Goodheart 2017). He saw Brexit as a victory of the Somewheres over the Anywheres. In a very different situation People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) saw themselves as a community, and pushed governments across the world for better treatment. There is a long tradition of community development practice globally, but the term community can mean several different things.

Community: a contested idea

Community is a powerful idea, with many people strongly feeling the ‘loss of community’ or ‘loss of identity’ in modern society and seeing rebuilding community structures as a priority for the future (Bauman 2001). It is simultaneously contested and problematic for the huge diversity in how communities are defined, what such diversity symbolises, and its loose reference in public and policy discourse.