[Anthropgrad] South Asia Seminar Series

[Patrick Kilby]

South Asia Seminar Series

2.00 pm

Seminar Room A, August 20 2008

150 years of NGO work in India: a history of harmony and hostility;
conflict and compliance

Patrick Kilby, Coordinator, Master of Applied Anthropology and
Participatory Development (MAAPD) Program

Non-governmental organisations in India have a rich and vibrant history,
but one which has been characterised by a fluid relationship with the
state and state instrumentalities. Over the past 150 years the Indian
governments, both colonial and post-colonial, have played a key role in
the shaping Indian NGOs in terms of how they function in society, and
their often fraught relationships with the state. Likewise at key times
in India's history NGOs themselves have played a part in shaping the
State. Generally, though, Indian NGOs are reluctant to admit that the
state determines both the scope and nature of the work that they can
undertake, and to some extent their structural forms?but like it or not
the relationship with the state is a defining feature of Indian NGOs.
This paper will examine this history and its relations to broader NGO
discourse, in the light of current change to NGO regulation in India,
and examine the implications for NGO practice in India.