Indian Social Institute, Bangalore
Indian Social Institute, Bangalore, has been an extension service of the Jesuits in Pune, New Delhi, India, since the 1950s, working for social change in the interests of poor and underserved peoples. In 1993 it became an independent NGO and took its current name.In 1951, Jerome D'Souza, an educator and member of the Indian Constituent Assembly, founded the Indian Institute of Social Order in Pune, India, to contribute to the emergence of a new social order in post-independence India. Regional training centres were established in various parts of the country, including Bangalore.
In 1963 the Institute in Pune moved to New Delhi and in 1967 became Indian Social Institute. Extension services increased especially in the southern states around Bangalore, giving assistance to the cooperative movement and offering consultancy services for development agencies, among other programs. Trainees spent up to three months learning the process of social analysis and skills for social mobilization. Numerous action groups emerged, trained at ISI-B, such as the fisherman's movement in Kerala.
Since the 1980s the Documentation Centre of Indian Social Institute functioned out of Bangalore furnishing documentation for activists throughout India. By 1993 the need was realized to make the Indian Social Institute in Bangalore a separate NGO.
