It has been dubbed the Kumbh Mela of development. Over 100,000 people from all over the world rubbed shoulders on the grounds and in the sheds of an abandoned textile mill to the north of Mumbai in January 2004. They all were questioning the ills of corporate globalisation and the brutality of wars fought in their names by their governments. They came searching for answers against all kinds of oppression, exploitation and discrimination. They all believed that... another world is possible.

A Tibetan monk, Brazilian jesuit priest, a French farmer activist, a Indian dalit writer, a Korean factory worker, a Filipino sex worker, a Japanese atomic bomb victim – all kinds of races and people – meeting over scores of discussion sessions, marching, protesting, dancing, singing – all jammed into an exhilarating week.

The first, of the three Forums, in 2000 in Brasil, analyzed the current world situation. The second went about making concrete proposals. The third tried to make a strategy on how to reach the forum's goals. And now the fourth one in Mumbai…..

Many feel that the present cultural degeneration and crass-consumerism is the direct product of a fusion of feudal and capitalist values nurtured by the extreme market fetishism of globalisation. Also, the current global market mechanics seeks maximisation of profits at the cost of ecology and human life.

That has led to the anti-globalisation movement out of which the WSF was born. It is held at the same time World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which tries to spread it's mantra of globalisation to every nook and corner of the world. The heat and dust kicked up at the WSF is ruffling and challenging the suit and tie wearing heads of states and corporate empires gathered at Davos.