Paper short abstract:

This study makes an attempt to analyze how development politics of NGOs in an underdeveloped region like Bundelkhand in northern India can be a function of their space in existing social power hierarchy.

Paper long abstract:

This study is an attempt to understand how development politics of NGOs in an undeveloped region can be a function of their place in the social power hierarchy. For this purpose, the northern Indian region of Bundelkhand is being analyzed. Bundelkhand is an economically underdeveloped and draught-prone region located in the north of the India. The region also suffers from deep-rooted social hierarchies of caste. Unlike the other underdeveloped areas of India where questions of economic development, political representation, and concerns of social equality have been the primary agenda of NGOs development politics, in Bundelkhand, the NGOs have confined their development politics largely to the questions of economic distribution of state resources while restraining from the concerns of the social inequalities. The study attempts to argue that a major reason of this is the social character of the leadership of various NGOs. People belonging to the social and economically dominant castes like Brahmins and Other Backward Castes have been 'running' most of the NGOs of the region. Therefore, the development agenda of these NGOs is also oriented towards raising issues which are largely the concerns of the dominant and powerful sections than of the poor and backward groups. Consequently, despite having a large number of NGOs and increasing state expenditure on welfare, the region continues to suffer from chronic poverty, migration, poor human development and increasing farmers' suicides.

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