A divided movement: urban activists, NGOs, and the fault-lines of a peasant struggle

Abstract

ABSTRACTContemporary rural social movements in South Asia are increasingly dependent on NGOs and urban civil society networks to expand their local struggle to the national and even international levels. This development has shifted the political dynamics of rural social movements in unexpected ways as NGOs and urban activists affiliated with civil society organizations have supplanted older Left oriented political parties and local elites as the primary media for funding, communication and outreach for livelihood struggles. This article analyzes the dramatic rise of the Punjab Tenants Association (hereafter AMP), the land rights movement that is resisting the Pakistan military’s policy to monetize state-owned military farmland in Punjab. The aim is to underscore the new possibilities of such a movement and highlight the contradictions that were experienced by AMP as a result of its close association with NGOs, urban activists and civil society networks.