The potential of civil society in affecting the state and citizens’ lives is beginning to be recognised all over the state; at the same time it is also being increasing realised that governance is not the sole responsibility of the government. Hence in the promotion of “good governance” civil society can play an important role in reforming the state in the badly governed countries and through interrogation and collaboration can help promote democracy, rule of law and social justice. It is in this context that the Global Comparative Research Study on Civil society and Governance, co-ordinated at the IDS, Sussex is attempting to trace the interface between civil society and governance in twenty two countries across the world.
India is one of the countries where the study is being carried out. The Society for Participatory Research in Asia, New Delhi is coordinating the study in India. A National Advisory Committee consisting of persons from academia, government, NGOs and the Ford Foundation is constituted to provide guidance to the study. Dr.Bishnu Mohapatra, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi is appointed as an advisor to the study. While the study follows the broad parameters given by the IDS, we have located the study in India from the vantage point of the marginalised.
We have attempted to focus on some of the important issues and concerns of the poor and marginalised sections in three selective governance areas of public policy, accountability, and local governance and with the help of selected case studies explore the role civil society actors can play towards the promotion of good governance.
This synthesis report is divided into six chapters. Chapter one provides a conceptual understanding of the twin terms – civil society and governance. Chapter two traces the history of civil society in India. It gives an account of the collective assertions both in the colonial period and in post- independence times. In chapter three, a broad mapping of the civil society in India is attempted. It takes associational life as the basic principle and categorises civil society initiatives accordingly. In chapter four, we locate the study in the Indian context. The chapter contains the objectives of the study, the methodology, research questions, and the criteria adopted for the selection of the cases studies.
Chapter five contains the analysis of the case studies. It has three sections: section one addresses the inclusion of interests of the marginalised in public policy, implementations of policies and reform of the oppressive policies; in section two, civil society interventions in making the state accountable are analysed; and in sections three, an analysis of civil society interventions in the arena of local governance is provided. In the concluding chapter we summarise the findings from the empirical investigation to draw a set of propositions and raise some conceptual and analytical issues.
The synthesis report is a preliminary attempt to capture the nuances of the interface between civil society and governance in contemporary India. Following comments from the co-ordinators at IDS, National Advisory Committee members, dissemination workshops which will take place between August and October 2000 in India and the meeting of the researchers at Amsterdam in September 2000, the report will be further refined and published. This report therefore, is to be treated as a draft report and we invite comments which will help us in revising it. A set of practical implications of the study will be drawn following the dissemination workshops.
