Against NGOs, by Manjari Mahajan
Non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, are frequently understood to be platforms for community action, citizen activism, as well as curbs on the excessive reach of the state into society. New School professor Nidhi Srinivas challenges this common perception in his new book, Against NGOS: A Critical Perspective on Civil Society, Management and Development. I chaired a panel on March 30th at the India China Institute (where I am co-director) to discuss this remarkable book. Professor Srinivas argued that NGOs have become the exemplary vehicle for technocratic and neoliberal logics as they encourage citizens to be entrepreneurs, governments to be efficient corporations, and communities to be social infrastructure for markets. He conceptualized the current moment historically, noting that NGOs have perpetuated ideas about the lack of legitimacy of government, which has only further fragmented the state.
In his comments, panelist Alf Nilsen, who is Professor Of Sociology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, considered how we should think about the work of critique in the context of emerging authoritarian populism around the world. He reflected on contemporary politics in India and a range of other countries where governments are increasingly intolerant of dissent. In such situations, how do we think of critiquing entities such as NGOs, when we know that they are increasingly the object of brutal attack by the state? Suchitra Vijayan, a writer and activist based in New York City, discussed how we can escape defeatism and a politics of despair by exploring better ways to write stories. In his concluding remarks, Srinivas suggested we not equate NGOs with civil society, with the latter representing a better repository and resource for salutary democratic action.