Development Specialists and Grassroots Workers

Abstract

This chapter discusses the initiatives of an NGO (that the author shall call Gram Vikas Manch) in the field of natural resource development. The NGO is based in Udaipur district of south Rajasthan and has been active since the last four decades. What is its main agenda and how does it operate in its ‘field of action’ (Udaipur villages)? How do its developmental interventions change existing relations of power and patronage in rural communities, and create new relations of patronage? What is its relationship with other elements of the watershed development regime? These are the main analytical questions that are addressed in this chapter in order to highlight the interplay between the various actors involved in governance and control of local natural resources; to illustrate the dynamism of institutional forms and practices and to demonstrate complex processes of negotiation, cooperation and conflict in ‘community based natural resource management’ programmes led by non-governmental development organisations. The chapter presents the in-depth case study of the NGO using an organisational ‘life history’ approach. It evaluates the changing role of the NGO from demanding development to delivering development since the early 1990s, and presents narratives from some villages to highlight the micro-politics of resource management. Finally, it explains the relationship of the NGO with the wider development regime.