On January 16 th -21st 2004 , the loudest and the deepest of the voices against Globalisation, the World Social Forum, was held in Mumbai. 130,000 people from all over the world gathered and shouted slogans; debated and expressed anguish; contemplated and forged alliances against war, globalization and marginalization.

They needed/deserved forms and formats other than the conventional mode of lectures. Culture@WSF, a composite scheme and infrastructure had to be evolved in order to collate and foreground the complimentary voices of political arts with all their specificity, dignity, vigour and autonomy . Majlis spearheaded the historical task in collaboration with other cultural organisations of the country.

2500 artists presented their works in WSF2004. The task of mobilising the artists, facilitating their works and designing a schedule which would enhance their political articulation and cultural plurality was enormous, to say the least. The agenda of mobilising artists in a multi-disciplinary political forum that we have been persuading through Expression, the women's cultural festival in 1990; India Sabka youth festival in 2002 and various cultural appraisal courses through 1996 to 2000 finally culminated in WSF.