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Abstract
This article assesses whether civil society promotes democratization, as has been argued implicitly or explicitly in the political discourse, following the publication of Putnam's Making Democracy Work. The theorists of “third-wave” transitology have advocated civil society as the indispensable instrument for the survival and sustenance of democracy. This article, however, argues that civil society is not necessarily a democratic force. It may or may not have positive implications in regard to democratization and the functioning of democracy. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the tribal-dominated south Rajasthan, this article analyses the case of Rajasthan Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (RVKP), a Hindu(tva)-oriented non-governmental organization (NGO), to demonstrate how civil society could also be anti-democratic. It shows that by utilizing development as a medium of entry, the RVKP has not only successfully presented itself as a counter-force against the “threatening others”, such as Muslims and Christians but also mobilized electoral support for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In return, the BJP-led state government has provided economic, political and legal support to the RVKP and facilitated the Hindutva politics at the grassroots level. The article concludes that in the context of Rajasthan, a conservative state has collaborated with an exclusivist civil society organization – the consequence of which has not just been the spread of violence and demonization of religious minorities but also a serious undermining of cultural pluralism and democratic values of Indian society.
Acknowledgements
This paper is derived from the author's PhD thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. The author would like to thank Prof. Vedi R. Hadiz (Murdoch University), Prof. Martin Fuchs (Max-Weber-Kolleg) and the anonymous referees for their insightful comments and suggestions, which helped improve the structure and arguments of the paper.
Notes on contributor
Sarbeswar Sahoo is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India, and is Alexander von Humboldt Post-doctoral Fellow at the Max-Weber-Kolleg, University of Erfurt, Germany.
Notes
1. Since 1974 the numbers of democratic political systems have increased more than three times – from 39 to 120 as of January 2000. Currently there are 115 electoral democracies in the World (http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=1310, accessed 5 October 2011).
2. Putnam, Making Democracy Work.
3. Harriss, Depoliticizing Development, 2.
4. See Berman, “Civil Society and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic”; Krishna, Active Social Capital.
5. Mosse, “Collective Action, Common Property, and Social Capital in South India,” 714.
6. See Harriss, Depoliticizing Development.
7. Krishna, Active Social Capital, 439.
8. Comaroff and Comaroff, Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa, 2.
9. Ghosh, “NGOs, Civil Society and Social Reconstruction in Contemporary India,” 229–30; Zaidi,, “NGO Failure and the Need to Bring Back the State,” 261.
10. Ghosh, “NGOs, Civil Society and Social Reconstruction in Contemporary India,” 234.
11. Parekh, “A Political Audit of Independent India,” 703; Ray and Katzenstein, Social Movement in India, 9.
12. Ghosh, “NGOs, Civil Society and Social Reconstruction in Contemporary India”; Zaidi “NGO Failure and the Need to Bring Back the State.”
13. Hadiz, “Reorganizing Political Power in Indonesia,” 597.
14. Carothers and Barndt, “Civil Society”; Kumar, “Civil Society.”
15. See Fukuyama, “Social Capital, Civil Society and Development,” 11.
16. Dettke, “Foreword,” x.
17. Beteille, “Citizenship, State and Civil Society”; Kaviraj, “In Search of Civil Society.”
18. According to the Word Value Survey data, in 1991 only 13% of all Indians belonged to a secondary organization, which is the lowest when compared to other democracies of the world such as Iceland (90%), Sweden (85%), the Netherlands (84%), the USA (71%), the former West Germany (67%), Mexico (36%), Argentina (24%), and others. See Chhibber, Democracy without Associations, 17.
19. Gillan and Biyanwila, “Revitalizing Trade Unions as Civil Society Actors in India,” 428–9.
20. Baviskar, “NGOs and Civil Society in India,” 7.
21. Ghosh, “NGOs, Civil Society and Social Reconstruction in Contemporary India,” 229–30.
22. For a critique of the sequence theory, see Carothers, “The ‘Sequencing’ Fallacy.”
23. Haynes, “Religion and Democratizations,” 1045.
24. Giddens, Runaway Worlds.
25. Rueschemeyer, Stephens and Stephens, Capitalist Development and Democracy, 7.
26. Hardiman, “Christian Therapy,” 144.
27. Interview in Baghpura on 26 November 2006.
28. Savarkar, “Excerpts from Hindutva,” 67.
29. Ibid., 69.
30. Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 2; Hansen, The Saffron Wave, 11.
31. Sinha, Against the Few; Dirks, “The Conversion of Caste.”
32. Chaube, “The Scheduled Tribes and Christianity in India,” 524.
33. Bappa Rawal, April 1997, 11–12.
34. Sunder, “Teaching to Hate,” 1607; Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 322.
35. Bappa Rawal, February 1994, 17–18.
36. RVKP Booklet, 2006, 1–3.
37. Bappa Rawal, April 2006, 17.
38. Jenkins, “Rajput Hindutva, Caste Politics, Regional Identity and Hindu Nationalism,” 104.
39. Interview in Kolyari on 25 October 2006.
40. Interview with an RVKP activist in Kolyari on 27 October 2006.
41. Mann and Mann, “Hinduisation among Western Indian Tribes.”
42. Interview with a Pastor in Baghpura on 26 November 2006.
43. Sridhar, “Communalism.”
44. Kanungo, “Hindutva's Discourse on Development,” 87.
45. Interview in Udaipur on 19 December 2006.
46. Interview in Udaipur on 18 December 2006.
47. van der Veer, “Introduction,” 12.
48. RVKP Booklet, 2006, 25.
49. Benei, “Teaching Nationalism in Maharashtra Schools,” 204–5.
50. Sarkar, “Educating the Children of the Hindu Rashtra,” 200.
51. The details about the RVKP's TB control programme in this section were collected from http://www.hinduweb.org/home/seva/vanvasi/VKARajasthan.htm (accessed 18 October 2006).
52. Interview in Kotra on 29 January 2007.
53. RVKP Booklet, 2006, 24.
54. Ibid., 25.
55. Anderson and Damle, “RSS,” 31.
56. Discussion with the head of education department of the RVKP in Udaipur on 18 December 2006.
57. RVKP Pamphlet, March 2005–February 2006.
58. See Sahoo, “Religious Violence and the ‘Developmental State’ in India,” 3–5.
59. Mudgal, “Losing a Winning Hand.”
60. See Lodha, “Rajasthan: India Shines as BJP Trounces Congress,” 5461.
61. Interview in Kotra, 20 September 2006.
62. Interview in Kotra, 19 September 2006.
63. Discussion with some BJP activists in Jhadol, 12 September 2006.
64. Thachil, “Embedded Mobilization,” 450.
65. Ibid.
66. Lodha, “Rajasthan: India Shines as BJP Trounces Congress,” 5461.
67. Jenkins, “Rajput Hindutva, Caste Politics, Regional Identity and Hindu Nationalism,” 104–7.
68. Lodha, “Rajasthan: Dissatisfaction and Poor Campaign Defeat BJP,” 23–6.
69. Ibid.
70. Lobo, “Adivasis, Hindutva and Post-Godhra Riot in Gujarat,” 4847.
71. The Hindu, 30 April 2007.
72. For a detailed discussion on anti-Christian violence in Rajasthan see Sahoo, “Religious Violence and the ‘Developmental State’ in India.”
73. http://www.islamicvoice.com/january.2002/investigation.htm (accessed 18 October 2006).
74. Ibid.
75. Juergensmeyer, Global Rebellion, 222.
76. Lobo, “Adivasis, Hindutva and Post-Godhra Riot in Gujarat,” 4845.
77. http://www.islamicvoice.com/january.2002/investigation.htm (accessed 18 October 2006).
78. Kaur, “Mythology of Communal Violence,” 19.
79. Hibbard, Religious Politics and Secular States, 170.
80. Communist Party of India Marxist, “The Scenario of the State,” 4.
81. Singh, “Rajasthan.”
82. Rajalakshmi, “A Saffron Assault.”
83. The Hindu, 13 August 2004.
84. Taneja, “Sangh Parivar on Offensive in Rajasthan.”
85. Dainik Bhaskar, 2 July 2006.
86. Dainik Bhaskar, 19 September 2006.
87. Rajalakshmi, “A Saffron Assault.”
88. http://www.worthynews.com/1622-india-rajasthan-passes-new-anti-conversion-bill (accessed 25 November 2011).
89. Fox, “Religious Causes of Discrimination against Ethno-Religious Minorities,” 425.
90. Kaur, “Mythology of Communal Violence,” 20.
91. Brass, The Production of Hindu Muslim Violence in Contemporary India.
92. Sunder, “Teaching to Hate,” 1611.