Overview

Co-operation is the opening chapter of the Maharashtra State Board (MSBSHSE) Std XI Commerce elective subject 'Co-operation', and it lays the foundation for everything that follows in Std XI and Std XII. Co-operation is not merely a topic in this subject — it is a whole way of organising economic activity, in which ordinary people of limited means voluntarily come together, on the basis of equality, to help themselves by helping one another. This idea has a special place in Maharashtra, where the co-operative movement has shaped rural life, agriculture, sugar, banking, milk, and housing more deeply than in almost any other state in India.

The word 'co-operation' comes from two Latin words — 'co' meaning 'together' and 'operari' meaning 'to work'. Put together, co-operation literally means 'to work together'. In economic life this working together takes a definite, organised form: people with a common economic need form a society, contribute capital, run it democratically (one member, one vote), and share the benefits and risks fairly among themselves, with service to members — not profit for outsiders — as the main aim.

This chapter studies co-operation in four connected parts: what co-operation means and how leading thinkers have defined it; the history of the co-operative movement — from the pioneering Rochdale weavers in England, through the growth of the movement in India, to its remarkable rise in Maharashtra; the distinctive features that set a co-operative apart from other forms of business; and the importance of co-operation in economic and social life. The Maharashtra Std XI Co-operation syllabus draws on the same universally accepted principles of co-operative organisation — voluntary and open membership, democratic control, and service over profit — that co-operative societies follow across the world, while developing them in the context of Maharashtra's own rich co-operative experience.