| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In India the presence of a large number of non-government organisations (NGOs) is often seen to attest to the strength of its civil society. It is claimed that NGOs' close links with marginalised people can aid in the representation of the poor, thereby strengthening democratic processes in accordance with pluralist conceptions of civil society.1 Sangeeta Kamat's analysis of NGOs in India challenges this perspective. Using a Gramscian approach to civil society, she shows how NGOs can be agents in the securing of a consensus of the marginalised over unequal social and economic structures.2 It is therefore important to analyse the discrepancy between NGOs' normative and actual roles in civil society processes to understand democracy and development in India more generally.
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