Challenging the NGOs : women, religion, and western dialogues in India

"Development Agencies are recognising the importance of anthropology in the critical evaluation of grass roots NGOs and development practice in general. Here anthropology, development and religion are uniquely combined in a manner that has practical significance for how NGOs carry out their work. Tamsin Bradley examines the interfaces between religion, gender, anthropology and social development and focuses on the operation of grass roots Non-Governmental Organisations. She argues that these agencies need to adopt a new methodology if they are to increase efficiency. This is made clear in a series of ethnographic case studies documenting the experiences of three Rajasthani village women. This book constructs a new approach to development practice incorporating ethnographic techniques that are designed to encourage development workers to listen to the needs of those they seek to help."--Bloomsbury publishing. The image of “Third World Woman” victimhood is one that runs through discourses in Western feminism, the fields of gender and development and also the activities of NGOs. Tamsin Bradley deconstructs this through her exploration of the relationships between NGOs and the people they target, using a unique multi-disciplinary perspective that examines the interfaces between anthropology, development and religion. She argues that dominant approaches in development practice see women as a singular and weak “other”, a focus for pity and compassion, which obscures the complexities of diverse communities and the ability to respond to real needs. Bradley's extensive fieldwork, on grassroots NGOs in rural Indian Rajasthan, and their Western donor organisations, and combines it with her compelling critique of development theory and practice, which she finds often caught in a macro system unable to connect with social realities. This leads her to a new and unique methodology, one rooted in a more honest, responsive and inclusive approach to encourage development workers to listen to the needs of those they seek to help.

Tamsin Bradley examines the interfaces between religion, gender, anthropology and social development and focuses on the operation of grass roots Non-Governmental Organizations. She argues that these agencies need to adopt a new methodology if they are to increase efficiency. This is made clear in a series of ethnographic case studies documenting the experiences of three Rajasthani village women.

Examines the interfaces between religion, gender, anthropology, and social development, and focuses on the operation of grass roots non-governmental organisations. This book argues that these agencies need to adopt a fresh methodology if they are to increase efficiency I begin this chapter with an overview of the criticisms of the development discourse by a number of scholars who argue that it is a discourse founded on a hierarchy of knowledge that privileges Western thought over other cultures.