THE MULTIPLE FACES OF CIVIL SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN RAJASTHAN, INDIA SARBESWAR SAHOO (M.Phil., Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of writing this thesis, I have benefited from several people and institutions. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and thanks to my supervisor A/P Vedi R. Hadiz for his unremitting support, wise counsel and concern for my welfare. He is an outstanding supervisor; and without his assistance this thesis in its present form would not have been possible. My heartfelt thanks also go to two former members of my thesis committee, Prof. Peter Reeves and the late A/P Ananda Rajah, for their interests in my research. This research owes much to Seva Mandir, Astha Sansthan and Rajasthan Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (RVKP), who allowed me to observe their activities, visit their worksites, and speak to their beneficiaries, providing critical perspectives on the politics of development in tribal regions of Rajasthan. I would like to thank Ajay S. Mehta, Neelima Khetan, Anita Bhatia, S.N. Bhise, Narendra Jain, Kripasankar Joshi, Vikram S. Sisodia, Sahid Khan, Sripal Ji, Dassora Ji, Leela Shankar Ji and others at Seva Mandir; Ashwani Paliwal, R.D.Vyas, Ginny Shrivastava, Ramesh Paliwal, Bishnu Ji (librarian), Nanalal Ji, Harmi Bai, Shiv K. Acharya, Lahar Singh, and others at Astha Sansthan; and Roop Singh Bhil, Radhika Laddha, Ambalal Sanadhya, Jagdish Patidar, Bharat Ji (Kolyari), Mithalal Ji, Shankar Ji, Vinod Ji and others at the RVKP for their cooperation and support. My greatest thanks to Bharat Ji (a RVKP volunteer in Kolyari) and to Dharmendra Ji (a BJP activist in Jhadol) for putting me in touch with people and providing valuable information, without which the research on the RVKP would have been very difficult. Besides, I also wish to extend a special thanks to the countless villagers, and the many interviewees, informants and organizations who generously shared their experiences, times, and thoughts with me. i Research for this thesis was carried out with support from the National University of Singapore Research Scholarship. The Asia Research Institute at NUS provided the fieldwork support, which made it possible for me to spend six months in Rajasthan. Besides, a three month Guest-PhD position at the Institute of Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark gave me a wonderful opportunity to share my post- fieldwork disorganized thoughts before a distinguished group of scholars. Suggestions from James Scott, Christian Lund, Ravinder Kaur and fellow graduate students during my presentation at Roskilde were immensely helpful in modifying parts of the thesis. At NUS, I am deeply grateful to Prof. Chua Beng-Huat, A/P Vineeta Sinha, Dr. Anne Raffin, Dr. Eric Thompson, Prof. Bryan Turner, Dr. Sreekumar, A/P Lien Kwen Fee, and A/P Habibul Haque Khondker for their kind help and guidance. I would like to thank A/P Hing Ai-Yun for her encouragement and support; and to A/P Tong Chee Kiong and A/P Maribeth Erb for their help as Chair of the Graduate Committee at different times. I also owe a special thanks to A/P Rahul Mukherji and Dr. Rajesh Rai at the South Asian Studies Programme, and to Prof. D. Parthasarathy at the Asia Research Institute for their comments on parts of this thesis. I would also like to thank all the secretaries in the Sociology department, who have always been very helpful. My special thanks to Raja for all her assistance without which I would have been administratively handicapped. In Rajasthan, I have been benefited from discussions with Prof. Sanjay Lodha, Prof. Arun Chaturvedi, Dr. Velaram Meena, Prof. P.C. Jain, and Prof. Hemendra Chandalia. I wish to extend a special thanks to Prof. Naresh Bhargava for acquainting me with the political history of Mewar and also for his critical guidance that helped me learn a lot about Rajasthan. Thanks also to Sharma Ji at the Tribal Research Institute Library in ii Udaipur for all his help with the books. Added to these, I have also been immensely benefited from the numerous discussions over dinner and tea at Love Nest and Mehtab Sadan with Connie Smith, Pankaj Raina, Aletha Schelby, Marjolaine Geze, Marjanneke Vijge, Sapna Pareek, Jonathan Galtan, Kimberly Gilmour, Kati Boswell, Seth Mossinger, Maria Gray and Tania Hill. Critical questions from Marjolaine and Connie have always forced me to rethink many of my assumptions and arguments. Thanks to them all. At NUS, friends have sustained me through the writing of the thesis. When the going got tough and lonesome, I was fortunate to receive words of encouragement from a number of friends, most notably Taberez A. Neyazi, Seuty Sabur, Saiful Islam, Lou Antolihao, Sim Hee Juat, Kamaludeen Nasir, Sujay Datta, Daniel Tham, Thomas Barker, Lim Weida, Kelvin Low, Noorman Abdullah, Reiko Yamagishi, Yang Chengsheng, Sheng Sixin, Chen Baogang, Xu Minghua, Zhengyi Wang, Yang Wei, Shi Fayong, Satyen Gautam, Aaruni Bensal, Pankaj Sharma, Arun Pandit, Sona Paneerselvam, Anu Shankar, Rahul Nagadia, and others. A special thanks to Marjanneke for all her inspiring and motivational words. I am truly indebted to Prof. Anand Kumar, my M.Phil supervisor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, for his guidance and support over the last seven years. My sincere thanks go to Prof. Maitrayee Chaudhuri at JNU for having an interest in my research; and to Sharmistha Pattnaik, Manish Tiwari, Renu Vinod, and Pradeep Jena for their enormous help and support over the years. Finally, I owe special thanks to my parents, my sisters (Mami and Rina), and my brother (Diptish) for their love, affection, and care. I dedicate this thesis to my grandmother, who died a few days after I joined NUS, for her love that keeps me going. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Table of Contents iv List of Tables vi List of Abbreviations vii Summary ix 1. Introduction: The Primacy of Politics 1 1.1: Introduction 1.2: Central Argument: The Primacy of Politics 1.3: Rationale of Field Site Selection 1.4: Research Methodology: Comparative Case Study 1.5: Outline of Chapters 1.6: Significance of the Study 2. Civil Society and Democratization: Conceptual and Theoretical Perspectives 26 2.1: Introduction 2.2: Democracy and Democratization 2.3: Theoretical Perspectives on Democratization 2.4: Ideological Underpinnings of Civil Society 2.4.1: The Classical Usage 2.4.2: The Modern Usage 2.5: Civil Society: Community or Association? 2.6: Three Conceptions of Civil Society 2.6.1: Liberal Pluralist 2.6.2: Neo-Marxist 2.6.3: Communitarian 2.7: Is Civil Society a Democratic Force? 2.8: Summary and Conclusion 3. State and Civil Society in India: A Socio-Historical Analysis 62 3.1: Introduction 3.2: Civil Society in Colonial India 3.3: Civil Society in Post-Colonial India 3.3.1: The Period of Nehru (1947- 64) 3.3.2: The Regime of Indira Gandhi (1967-77) 3.3.3: The Janata Government Period (1977-79) 3.3.4: The Return of Indira Gandhi (1980-84) 3.3.5: Rajiv Gandhi and the beginning of Liberalization (1985-91) 3.3.6: Globalization and the Politics of International Aid (1991-97) 3.3.7: The BJP Rule and the “Saffronization” of Civil Society (1998-2004) 3.4: Conclusion: NGO-ification of Civil Society iv 4. Seva Mandir and “Constructive” Social Development 115 4.1: Introduction 4.2: Seva Mandir and Grassroots Development 4.3: Relationship with the State and Political Society 4.4: Organized Dependency and the Politics of Participation 4.5: Conclusion: Dependent Citizenship 5. Astha Sansthan and Welfare Rights Activism 172 5.1: Introduction 5.2: Ideological Orientation and Developmental Strategy 5.3: The Role of Astha in Grassroots Development 5.3.1: Panchayati Raj and Local Self-Governance 5.3.2: Women Development 5.3.3: Livelihood Development 5.4: Relationship with the State and Political Society 5.5: Astha and Case Studies of “Claim Making” 5.5.1: Confronting the Market Forces 5.5.2: Taking the “Sahukars” to the Court 5.5.3: Struggle against the State: Regularizing the Forest Land 5.5.4: Struggle against the State: Stopping the Dam Construction 5.6: Conclusion: Growing Citizenship from the Grassroots 6. Rajasthan Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad & the Cultural Politics of Development 221 6.1: Introduction 6.2: Making India Hindu – The “Good” Society of the Sangh 6.3: History and Ideology of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram 6.4: The RVKP and Tribal Identity 6.5: The RVKP and the Construction of “Victim-hood” 6.6: The RVKP and Tribal Development in Rajasthan 6.7: Socialization into the Politics of Hindutva 6.8: The RVKP and the Rashtra Shakti Sammelan 6.9: Relationship with the State and Political Society 6.10: Conclusion: A Non-Secular, Politically Exclusive Civil Society 7. Summary and Conclusions: The Multiple Faces of Civil Society 272 7.1: Introduction 7.2: Civil Society: A Sphere of Middle Class Activism 7.3: Civil Society and the State 7.4: Ideology, Interest and Democratization 8. Bibliography 285 9. Appendices 303 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Comparison of 1998 and 2003 Assembly Election Results in Udaipur District 11 Table 1.2: Categories of Informants in Interviews 20 Table 2.1: “Global” Associational Membership 44 Table 3.1: Party Position in Rajasthan Assembly Elections: 1952-2003 89 Table 3.2: Foreign Funding to Indian NGOs 1990-1993 100 Table 3.3: Areas of Activity and Number of Institutions 101 Table 3.4: The Evolution of Civil Society in India 105 Table 3.5: The Sangh