Paper short abstract:

Parallel to development projects run by the state, local actors promote their own version of development in tribal Jharkhand. This paper shall explore how three initiatives strategically use the term development, while merging it with the practice of a redefined tradition.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses differing approaches to development in tribal Jharkhand, based on recent fieldwork by two independent researchers.

The first section will focus on development through local actors, who, in Sahlins' (1992) sense of development, promote culture and develop it on a "bigger and better scale". Two groups are especially active in this field: The Santal Writers Association, who relates development directly to literacy; and All India Sarna Dhorom, another group with similar aims, but whose emphasis is on religion. In their statements and behaviour, its members merge tradition and development, condemning certain old practices as "underdeveloped", while redefining culture on their own terms. As these internal perspectives on development differ from the external, e.g. state run development programmes, it is relevant to examine the relations between the two. How do the above-mentioned local actors position themselves in regard to the state's discourse? Which conflicts arise in the interactions between the state, the activists and the population not involved in any of these development projects?

The second section will examine the relationship between local and hegemonic narratives of development through the work of the Sangh Parivar's Vanavasi Kalyan Kendra in Jharkhand. It will explore the role of internal and external actors, and the motivations of Sangh workers and beneficiaries of their projects. In particular, this section will focus on how these complex relationships are played out through the attempts of the VKK to create 'alternative publics' on the ground,inside of which notions of development are linked to the transformation of everyday religious practices.