Nicolas Jaoul

Abstract

The “empowerment” approach to development adopted by international institutions has recently enabled the Indian Dalit movement to avail itself of western funds. This case study of a network of Dalit NGOs in Uttar Pradesh highlights how these funds are being used and to what political effect. It shows that in such a previously politicized context, politicized actors of the NGOization process actively defend a radical agenda that links up caste, class and gender, while pursuing under the label of women’s empowerment a pre-existing trend of mobilization of the rural poor. Their political work, however, requires tactical adjustments so as to fit exacting and costly norms of management imposed by funding agencies. While pointing to certain radical experiments that show the political resilience of the Dalit movement in spite of a depoliticizing pattern of ‘professionalization’, this article also highlights the economic precariousness encountered by the activists.

Keywords

Social movements, NGOization, India, Dalits, Ambedkarism, empowerment, political ethnography, women’s participation

From: Critical Sociology 2018 44 (4-5)

Editor: Wang Yi