Alternatives in development : local politics and NGOs in China and India

This book deals with the dynamics of local-level politics in China and India. China introduced new policies to restructure local politics in 1978. In place of communes, civil society organizations and cooperatives were introduced in villages. More changes came about with the introduction of the Organic Law of the Villagers' Committees of the People's Republic of China in 1998. The new local power structure includes state-sponsored institutions like Villagers Committees and the traditional civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-government organizations (NGOs). As in China, local politics in India undergoes considerable changes during the last few decades. Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) were reformed in 1992 with a constitutional amendment act. CSOs and NGOs were allowed to function. Against this background, the present book is undertaken with the objectives first, to present two different models of local politics and second, to compare the two, finally to focus on the two different models of development. This book will interest scholars of rural governance, rural transformation, and the role of the grassroots CSOs and NGOs in shaping development program and growth in the two large countries in Asia. Liyiyu is Professor of Public Administration and currently Director, Comparative Research Centre, School of Law and Politics, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, China. She has published several books and articles including Rural Civil Society and Rural Development in China: Case Studies (2006), A Comparative Study on Chinese Traditional Administrative Culture Models (2010), and A Comparative Study of Social Governance in China and India (2016). Abhijit Dasgupta formerly a Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He has published several papers on agrarian relations in West Bengal and Bangladesh, population displacement, and affirmative action with reference to the minorities in South Asia. He is Author of Growth with Equity: the New Technology and Agrarian Change in Bengal (1998); Displacement and Exile: The State-Refugee Relations in India (2016) and Co-editor of the following books: Minorities and the State: Changing Social and Political Landscape of Bengal (2011) and Family and Kinship among Muslims in Bengal (2021) Acknowledgements 5 Contents 7 About the Authors 10 Abbreviations 11 List of Illustrations 12 List of Maps 13 List of Tables 14 1 Introduction 15 References 33 2 Civil Society Organizations in China 35 Traditional Rural Folk Organizations 37 Rural Civil Society Organizations: Ideal Types 38 Charity 43 Public Affairs Management and Organization 49 Folk Religious Organizations 51 The Influence of Confucian Ideology on the Civil Society Organizations 55 The Weakening of the Square Class or Rural Elites 57 Clans and Networks 59 Tradition and Continuity 63 References 65 3 Transformations of the Civil Society Organizations 66 Re-Induction of the Rural NGOs 77 The Agglomeration of Social Capital 79 More on Rural Social Organizations 81 Wenzhen: A Clan Foundation 82 Association for the Aged (AFA) 93 Trust and Consanguinity in the Countryside 106 Interests and Territorial Relations 108 References 112 4 Civil Society Organizations and the State 114 Traditional and New Rural Social Organizations Vis-À-Vis the State 114 Responses to the State Intervention 117 Recent Trends 120 New Cooperatives 121 Comparing Two Types of Social Organizations 123 References 129 5 Local Power Structure in an Indian State 130 New Panchayats and Politics in North Bengal 134 Panchayats and the New Development Agenda 146 Changing Local Politics 147 Coalition Politics: The Hidden Alliances 152 Women in Panchayats 155 Factions 158 New Elites 166 Dalits and Local Power Structure 168 Local Politics and the Minority Community 172 Alternatives in Development 177 References 180 6 Civil Society Organizations in West Bengal 183 NGOs in India in the Wake of Independence 184 Historical Context: NGOs in Bengal 186 Ngoization and Its Critiques 188 Current Scenario 191 References 199 7 Conclusions 201 References 209 Glossary 211 Glossary of Chinese Terms 211 Glossary of Indian Words 212 Appendix A 214 Appendix B 222 Appendix C 229 References 234 Index 241