Civil Society In India Research Articles

Civil Society in India Complimenting the Government Initiatives – An Overview

The Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) is poorly understood, since the term employed to describe it lacks clarity. In the present article the author has examined the role of Civil Society in India complimenting the government initiatives. Lester and Anheier (1992) reviewed different ways of defining the Non-Governmental Organisation. They defined the NGO as a group of organisations which were formally established. The basic structure of the Non-Profit organisations was non-governmental, self-governed, voluntary and non-Profit activities. The three basic categories of the NGOs' roles were partners, catalysts, and implementers. NGOs typically support government efforts, though occasionally they have attempted to introduce reforms. The government relies on or supported NGOs to carry out specific tasks in various contexts, such as the nation and the State. Nearly all nations have NGOs, but their structures and standards varied depending on where they operate. The emergence of NGOs varies in each nation. The way NGOs had been operating lately has also drawn criticism. Politicians criticized NGOs' expanding influence and substantial financial resources (Lewis, 2010). NGOs are adaptable, creative, and effective at providing essential services and reducing poverty. At a lower cost than governments, they could reach isolated and poor populations. They are able to determine the genuine local needs, promote participation, and disseminate the necessary development technology. There were several opportunities for NGOs to revive their humanitarian efforts (Khandpekar, 2016). NGOs are vital to the success of development efforts in reaching the population. NGOs mostly concentrated on health care and education between the years1950 and 1960. Later, they have begun concentrating on initiatives aimed at reducing poverty and developing activities for the underprivileged. The growth of NGOs and the services they provide are directly impacted by state policy in India.

The Role of Civil Society in India and Afghanistan: A Comparative Perspective

This paper compares civil society’s role in the past two decades in India and Afghanistan. To give a more detailed examination of civil society organisations’ (CSOs) role, the authors examine and contrast civil society’s composition, interaction with the government, civic challenges and the latest changes. In addition to conceptual clarity, they use Michael Edwards’ work as a theoretical foundation, which is ideal because it pertains to both countries. Despite the similarities in their approaches, there are important differences in how both states frame the need for greater involvement of civil society actors. The authors also find significant differences in the following: (1) the treatment of civil society by state actors, (2) the composition of CSOs varies significantly between the two countries due to different national traditions and institutional relationships and (3) the status of CSOs/non-governmental organisations has also changed significantly in recent years in both settings. They use these and other findings to assess civil society’s ability to play economic, political and social roles, as proposed by Edwards in civil society. They discover significant differences in the political and social functions emerging. This comparison should help researchers structure subsequent scholarly studies of the role of CSO and guide practitioners working in the sector.

‘Kill Two Million of Them’: Institutionalised Hate Speech, Impunity and 21st Century Atrocities in India

Abstract Hate speech and incitement have been instrumental in atrocity crimes that have occurred in India, even prior to its independence. These atrocities include targeted killings of minorities based on religious and ethnic identity, and demonstrate persistent features of systematic, orchestrated violence that is fuelled by a Hindu nationalist ideology. This ideology is routinely promulgated at the highest levels of political leadership. This article traces both the historical and institutional character of hate speech and incitement in India to understand its repeated manifestation over time. Through case studies of recent violence, it considers the implications of new legal developments, technology and the covid-19 pandemic on the character and dynamic of hate speech, incitement and atrocity violence in India. It considers key reforms and areas for accountability on which the international community could engage the government and civil society in India on the issue of hate speech and incitement to promote atrocity prevention at the domestic level.

State, citizenship and gender-variant communities in India

ABSTRACT Though persons belonging to gender-variant communities (GVCs) were a part of the Indian culture for thousands of years, new modalities were introduced to outlaw them under colonial rule. Post-independence, GVCs were subjected to progressive laws in theory; yet the colonial legal framework was largely retained in practice. Despite their significant presence in the public sphere, GVCs struggled for decades to acquire cognitive visibility and citizenship rights. Even the civil society in India at large overlooked their entitlement to sexual identity until the late 1990s. This paper, based on field and documentary data, uncovers the struggles of GVCs to claim citizenship rights in India. Beginning with the tradition of ‘cultural family’ under Gharana, the trajectory relegated them first to ‘illegal’ citizens under colonial rule and subsequently to ‘captive’ citizens in post-Independent India. Their positioning as ‘stranded’ citizens even after passing the new law in 2019 also challenges their potential as ‘monitorial citizens’.

Searching “civility” of the “uncivil”: mapping the theoretical understanding of civil society and its research in India

ABSTRACT A majority of the existing narratives on studying civil society in India are flooded with empirical findings, without much emphasis on theoretical understanding of the subject. Thus, the article tries to provide a historical overview of the development of notion of civil society and its research in “uncivil” Indian tradition from different dominant theoretical angles in the field. After finding their limitations, the study attempts to provide an alternative understanding of emergence of civil society in colonial India. It also aims to explore, how the lineage of traditional inform civic assocciationalism combined with modern institutionalized associational space gave birth to liberal-minded individuals and the conscious public in colonial India. Moreover, the present research further reveals that how civic awareness inculcated among the marginal’s along with the educated Indian middle class and how interactions between the state, society, and religion helped in development of spirit of civility among individuals, awareness among the public and voice of protest among community in “uncivil” colonial India which was unique from its western counterpart both in the process of formation and the forms of manifestations.

A Brief Review of Meira Paibi: A Women’s Movement in Manipur

The Meira Paibi (Also popularly known as Women torch bearers) used torch as a weapon to fight against social injustice of various forms in Manipur. Every woman in Manipur becomes Meira Paibi during difficult situation which directly affects the communities. In pre and post-independence period of India, various women organizations played a pivotal role fighting against social injustice in the society. One such group is Meira Paibai formed from the one of largest population in Manipur. In 1904 and 1939 elderly women in the age group of 50-70 years came together in forming Meira Paibai group and they were also called as “IMAS” meaning mothers in Manipuri. But in post-independence all age group women were involved in Meira Paibai organization. The origin of civil society in India can be traced back to Vedic periods and consisted mainly of men in those movements. On the contrary in Manipur it was led by the women against various issues such as injustice done by British government, Manipur maharaja economic policies in pre-independence and against social and administrative problems in the post-independence era. This movement should be role model to every woman to know their responsibilities and their contribution in developmental process. As rightly told by UNICEF; The Manipur story indicates that active participation by women in public affairs can and does contribute to better conditions for children and society at large.

The Curious Case of Pm Cares Fund: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Suppression of Civil Society in India

In 2013, India became the first country in the world to make corporate expenditure mandatory on CSR-related activities. An amendment to the Companies Act in 2013 made it mandatory for companies with a net worth of over INR 5 billion, or net profit of INR 50 million or more, to spend 2% of their net profits spanning 3 years, as a part of CSR compliances in the areas of education, poverty alleviation, combating hunger and gender inequality. In the same year, the CEO of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs asserted that civil society and corporate institutions must work in tandem to further the CSR agenda. However, as soon as civil society started entering the political sphere and criticizing the governmental policies, they were met with a crackdown, and a trend wherein the corporate and state worked in tandem was seen instead. This has been seen in the pandemic. Civil society continues to do the groundwork despite a severe crunch in corporate funding while civil space continues to be repressed. According to an India Today report, NGOs outperformed state governments in 13 states in providing humanitarian relief in the form of free meals. In Gujarat, 93% of the people surveyed were fed by NGOs. NGOs also provided people with shelter in addition to providing meals. Despite this groundwork, the attack on social activists continues to take place, and a nexus of the state and corporate is visible, wherein civil society has been sidelined and even suppressed. This paper analyses how civil society has been sidelined despite its contributions to the pandemic, while big companies fulfill their obligations by donating to the PM cares fund instead. It analyses the structure and organization of the fund, and also analyses how businesses have faced 'soft coercion' into donating towards the fund.

Involvement of Civil Society in India's Polio Eradication Program: Lessons Learned.

.India achieved the title of a polio-free country in March 2014 after a prolonged battle with the poliovirus that threatened millions of children and paralyzed scores of them. Although there has been considerable documentation of the technical strategies applied over the years, not enough has been written on the other warfront that had opened, namely, the battle between the people and the polio eradication program. This article describes the immense people-driven challenges to the polio program and the need for tailor-made and novel responses. This is when the U.S. Agency for International Development–funded CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP)/India stepped in and started work in 1999. The project, a consortium of CORE Group member international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local NGOs, formed a bridge between communities and the government program. This article describes how CGPP/India listened to the families and communities who refused to participate in the polio eradication program and then strategically addressed their concerns. These lessons from India can benefit other public health priorities that require civil society involvement, as most public health efforts do.

The Retreat to Method: the Aftermath of Elite Concession to Civil Society in India and Mexico

The literature on democratic accountability assumes that alternative institutions can make state practices more transparent and thus enhance accountability. In this paper, we problematize the celebration of alternative institutions by comparing the cases of Mexico and India. Why, we ask, given the popular support for a caste census and a rights-based approach to poverty alleviation in India and Mexico, respectively, did these initiatives lose steam soon after political elites conceded to civil society demands? In answer, we argue that alternative institutions may become conduits to undercut accountability under the guise of expertise through a mechanism that we call the “retreat to method,” in which political elites channel substantive public debate into abstruse disputes over methodology. As the task of measuring poverty and caste retreats into backrooms, vertical accountability between the state and civil society in our two cases has weakened. Horizontal accountability mechanisms—in which one arm of the state (e.g., the bureaucracy) provides checks and balances on another (e.g., the legislature)—may be exploited to undercut vertical accountability in cases where expertise is valued over democratic deliberation.

Islamism and Civil Society in India

There are many theses about Islamism being evolved in response to the changes in world politics. Recently, the ‘transformation’ thesis that explains how Islamism changed over time in the Indian context has been making rounds. This article investigates the state of Islamism in India, taking into account the inner-self of the phenomenon instead of its external perception, drawing primarily on Maududi’s writings and the Jamaat-e-Islami of India’s current literature. Taking Islamism as a movement in the domain of civil society that also possesses a discursive arena, that is, a public sphere, this article nuances the relationship between the civil society and Islamism. It argues that the Jamaat-e-Islami of India has adopted a bottom-up approach to broaden its reach in civil society. To this end, the party is contesting mainstream representations, offering oppositional counter-discourses and engaging with the public sphere and representing an emerging counterpublic that is challenging the hegemonic structures of the state as well as of the mainstream Muslim community. Hence, the article posits that Islamism has not undergone transformation on an ideological terrain.

The Central Monitoring System And Privacy: Analysing What We Know So Far

State-run surveillance is as old as the ages, but the wired state of our lives has put it in the spotlight more now than perhaps ever before. Our communication and data can often be veritable repositories of all that we are, and many governments today have the technological means to give them relatively easy access to most of our private data. Civil society around the world has therefore naturally expressed concern over the increasing scope of State surveillance. The Central Monitoring System (hereafter, “CMS”) is a new technology for State surveillance in India, and is in the nascent stages of implementation. It was in 2009, amidst the first hints of information from government sources about this new technology that concern began to arise in civil society in India about the impact of the new form of surveillance on private data and communication. This paper, based on an analysis of the little and scattered official information available on the CMS, discusses, from a privacy viewpoint, the extent to which the CMS is likely to change the landscape of State surveillance in India from what it is today. A tentative evaluation is also made of whether the CMS looks likely to achieve the security-privacy balance, followed by certain suggestions that may help in achieving such a balance.

Silencing the Opposition: The State v. Civil Society in India's Ganges River Basin

India's Ganges River has suffered from massive amounts of pollution for decades, and despite numerous attempts, the Indian government has failed to clean up this historic water resource. This governance failure prompted the growth of civil society groups whose stated purposes included the mitigation of Ganges pollution and the empowerment of community-based solutions. These types of groups, however, have not found sustained success in alleviating Ganges pollution, despite their compatibility with the constitutional decentralization of Indian water policy. A case study of one of these civil society organizations, the Sankat Mochan Foundation (SMF), serves as a first step in assessing the efficacy of this community-based approach to Ganges pollution mitigation. From a broader perspective, the story of the SMF speaks to the difficulties inherent in environmental policy decentralization and to the struggles of norm creation and diffusion across societies. Indeed, this case is particularly instructive, as it exposes potential vulnerabilities in the literature regarding the role of civil society groups as norm entrepreneurs. Rather than allow for the democratization of water policy, as called for by the Indian constitution, the case of the SMF suggests the Indian government has entrenched centralization to the point of diffusing civil society opposition and ultimately compromising the overall impact of its resistance.

Doing Development or Creating Dependency? NGOs and Civil Society in India

This paper examines the role of non-government organisations (NGOs) and the implications for democratisation in India. By analysing one such organisation, this paper argues that NGOs do not always contribute positively to the democratisation process. It shows how Seva Mandir, an NGO working in the tribal areas of Rajasthan, has adopted a purely technocratic and apolitical service delivery approach and promoted a neo-liberal model of development. The unintended consequence of promoting this model has been the growth of a culture of ‘organised dependency’ at the grass-roots level, which has adversely affected the larger objectives of empowerment and democratisation.

Beyond the subaltern syndrome: Amitav Ghosh and the crisis of the bhadrasamaj

Using some of Amitav Ghosh’s influential non-fictional writings to understand his own novels, this paper problematizes Ghosh’s works in terms of the crisis of the bhadrasamaj or the middle class makers of the nation and civil society in India. Indeed, we may detect a direct line of literary and cultural descent from the two iconic figures of recent Bangla culture, Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray, to Ghosh’s complex career. But instead of a continuity, Ghosh’s works are a record of epistemic ruptures engendered by the breakdown of grand narratives of nations and the eruption of civic violence. The crisis in Tagore is a combination of private and public failures exemplified in a text such as Nashtonir, filmed so eloquently as Charulata by Ray. A similar crisis in the private and public domain is seen in Ray’s Ganashatru and Agantuk, his last works. While versions of similar crises are visible in Ghosh’s novels including The Shadow Lines, The Calcutta Chromosome, and The Hungry Tide, I argue that instead of confronting them head on as his predecessors did, Ghosh tends to be evasive, either by not allowing them fully to develop or escaping into coincidence, “doubling”, or romanticism. Does such a retreat into narratives of exodus or romanticized celebrations of failed experiments such as the Morichjhapi settlement signify a shift in both the self-confidence and the priorities of the bhadrasamaj, whose product and representative Ghosh is?

“Sister‐Groups” and Online‐Offline Linkages in Networked Collective Action: A Case Study of the Right to Information Movement in India

AbstractIn this paper, the rise of hyperlinked activist communities, and their role in organizing, coordinating and supporting offline (physical) activism, is discussed as a new form of information and communication technology (ICT)‐enabled collective action. The role of networked civil society in India is examined in the context of the movement for the right to information (RTI), which is known as freedom of information (or FOI) in some Western democracies. The paper focuses on the role of RTI‐related online discussion groups, known to each other as “sister‐groups”, and their offline networks in generating collaborations towards collective actions, at least in the short term. The study assumes significance in light of attention surrounding the highly visible, ICT‐driven anti‐corruption movement of 2011, often referred to as “India's Arab Spring”. By examining a period of comparably intense collective action in the real and virtual worlds by the RTI movement during 2006, the paper takes a step back to look at the emerging connections between ICTs and civil society in India. A thematic analysis (N=959) is conducted of the email discussion messages of the premier RTI e‐group in India, the Hum Janenge (‘We Will Know’) yahoo group, in August 2006, during which sister‐groups rallied against the federal government's proposal to amend the RTI legislation. The thematic analysis reveals the types of collective actions that materialized; the role of Hum Janenge and its sister‐groups in creating a relatively unified and coordinated RTI campaign; as well as the difficulties in sustaining collective actions, despite the connecting medium of the internet. It is found that the existence of networked online communities amplifies the abilities of activists and enables greater coordination of collective actions, rather than create any new repertoires of collective action; a finding that resonates with arguments about the role of technology as amplifier.

Political and Civil Society in India's Welfare Trajectory

In this article, a historical institutional approach is applied to study the Indian welfare trajectory. The aim is to understand which reproduction pattern possibly inhibited the constitutional call for adequate standards of living and welfare for India's citizens. Partha Chatterjee's concept of political and civil society forms a plausible reproduction mechanism, which offers a new explanation for the development of highly fragmented social policies. As a consequence of this mechanism, existing inequalities were perpetuated rather than overcome. However, the recent shift to rights-based social protection may challenge this pattern and allow for greater social policy change in the future.

Immunities in the Name of ‘Liability’: A Critique on Indian Nuclear Law

This article examines the crucial questions raised by the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 regarding liability or immunity for suppliers of nuclear power plant equipments to India. While the west wanted immunity the opposition and civil society in India insisted on liability, because of disastrous experience from defective UCC pesticide plant in Bhopal killing thousands of people. Principles of product liability, strict liability and absolute liability were developed in courts of law, where the producers and operators of industrial machinery would be liable without any exception. The Parliament has codified this principle of absolute liability by enacting the Public Liability Insurance Act 1991. In contrast, the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 offers ‘immunity’ to suppliers or producers while the Government takes up responsibility of compensating the victims from public exchequer in their anxiety to invite foreign nuclear equipment suppliers. To convince resisting opposition and to get the Bill passed the UPA Coalition Government of India made some changes in law which still left some doubts and uncertainties. Another controversial provision of the Act was limiting the liability up to 300 million USD, which critics say is much less than what Indian victims got for Bhopal disaster. This is not in tune with accepted liability jurisprudence. None of the international nuclear liability conventions prescribed any cap on total liability, but only set a floor. Countries like South Korea and Sweden have set operator’s liability at 300 million SDRs, not total liability. The operator’s liability in the US is $ 11.9 billion. Agreeing for a cap on nuclear disaster from large nuclear power plants is not in the interest of nation. But the nuclear supplying nations are considering this Indian legislation as diluting immunity and impeding the transfer of nuclear power technology.

Associational culture and civic engagement in colonial Lucknow

Despite their importance in forging notions of civility, civic engagement and political participation, nineteenth century voluntary associations have received little attention in the growing body of literature on the rise and nature of civil society in India. This article explores the mutually constitutive relationship between voluntary association and middle-class formation through the example of the Jalsah-e Tahzib (est. 1868), the first voluntary society in colonial Lucknow. A cross-communal alliance of Hindus and Muslims, representing the city’s traditional service elites and new professional classes, the Jalsah provided a secular forum of discourse and action to an emerging middle class in search of self-determination and empowerment. In investigating the association’s public-sphere activities, its role as a self-styled intermediary between the colonial state and its Indian subjects and its transformation from a literary-cultural society into a politically vocal body, I argue that voluntary association afforded a space for cultural self-assertion and critical participation eminently suited to the aspirations of the new hybrid middle class. In highlighting the vernacular character of Indian associational culture, the article seeks to demonstrate how a more rigorous engagement with the vernacular archive will provide a better understanding of the social and intellectual networks that created the fabric of Indian civic life.

Lifting the Curse: Overcoming Persistent Undernutrition in India

With rapid economic growth and little progress in banishing undernutrition, India is an economic powerhouse and a nutritional weakling. This article surveys the others in this collection and concludes that such a situation represents a failure of governance at many levels. The article suggests a number of ways in which the state and civil society in India can strengthen the governance of nutrition in terms of capability, responsiveness and accountability. It also calls for more frequent data collection on nutrition service delivery and nutrition outcomes so that the state and civil society can sustain pressure on the need to improve nutrition. Finally, the outlines of a new research focus are described.

Globalization, social welfare and civil society in India

This paper seeks to analyze the effects of globalization on Indian civil society. Following a historical analysis, the paper argues that civil society during the colonial and early post-colonial period remained confined to the English educated upper-caste elites. The subaltern populations were excluded from its sphere because of the virtues of modernity and the paternalistic policies of the post-colonial state and ruling elites. The decline of the moderate state and the Congress system in the mid-1970s and the policies of globalization and the rolling-back of the welfare state in the mid-1980s transformed the state–society relationship and brought incongruous implications for civil society in India. The apparatus of the state became pluralized, and several non-governmental organizations and people's movements emerged to take up issues affecting the lives of poor and marginalized. The paper concludes that, although globalization has radicalized civil society activism and expanded its sphere over the past f...