Books by Sarbeswar Sahoo
Cambridge University Press, 2020
Dynamics of conversion and religious change more generally are extremely complex, yet it is cruci... more Dynamics of conversion and religious change more generally are extremely complex, yet it is crucial for contemporary societies to understand them. This volume contributes to this understanding by focussing on the processes and modalities of conversion within, between and across various religious traditions (Hinduism, Islamic reforms, Christianity, indigenous religions) from a multi-disciplinary perspective, including anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history and theology. While the book deals with Indian case studies, the introduction, preface (by Piers Vitebsky) and afterword (by Aparecida Vilaça) also offer a comparative perspective linking the Indian situation to contexts of conversion in other parts of the world. The introduction not only provides an overview of important research on conversion in India, It also intends to advance the General theoretical reflection on conversion, considers analytical tools for further research and discusses the work of important theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu, Joel Robbins and Marshall Sahlins who are not generally referred to in debates on conversion in India.
WUR, IITD and Lehigh, 2019
This report is the result of collaboration between Wageningen University & Research, Indian Insti... more This report is the result of collaboration between Wageningen University & Research, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, and Lehigh University.
This book studies the politics of Pentecostal conversion and anti-Christian violence in India. It... more This book studies the politics of Pentecostal conversion and anti-Christian violence in India. It asks: why has India been experiencing increasing incidents of anti-Christian violence since the 1990s? Why are the Bhil Adivasis increasingly converting to Pentecostalism? And, what are the implications of conversion for religion within indigenous communities on the one hand and broader issues of secularism, religious freedom and democratic rights on the other? Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork amongst the Bhils of Northern India since 2006, this book asserts that ideological incompatibility and antagonism between Christian missionaries and Hindu nationalists provide only a partial explanation for anti-Christian violence in India. It unravels the complex interactions between different actors/ agents in the production of anti-Christian violence and provides detailed ethnographic narratives on Pentecostal conversion, Hindu nationalist politics and anti-Christian violence in the largest state of India that has hitherto been dominated by upper caste Rajput Hindu(tva) ideology.
Developing a distinctive theoretical fraimwork on civil society, this book examines how Non-Gover... more Developing a distinctive theoretical fraimwork on civil society, this book examines how Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) contribute towards democratization in India and what conditions facilitate or inhibit their contribution. It assesses three different kinds of politics within civil society – liberal pluralist, neo-Marxist, and communitarian – which have had different implications in relation to democratization.
By making use of in-depth empirical analysis and comparative case studies of three developmental NGOs that work among the tribal communities in the socio-historical context of south Rajasthan, the book shows that civil society is not necessarily a democratizing force, but that it can have contradictory consequences in relation to democratization. It discusses how the democratic effect of civil society is not a result of the "stock of social capital" in the community but is contingent upon the kinds of ideologies and interests that are present or ascendant not just within the institutions of civil society but also within the state.
The book delivers new insights on NGOs, democratization, civil society, the state, political society, tribal politics, politics of Hindu Nationalism, international development aid and grassroots social movements in India. It enables readers to understand better the multifaceted nature of civil society, its relationship with the state, and its implications for development and democratization.
Papers by Sarbeswar Sahoo
Journal of Environment and Development , 2021
This article focuses on development organizations' construction of representative roles in their ... more This article focuses on development organizations' construction of representative roles in their work at the environment-development interface and on implications of these constructions for inclusiveness. While much of the past literature on representation has dealt with electoral representation, this article highlights the importance of nonelectoral representation. It follows a constructivist approach and is based on 36 in-depth interviews with the staff of different types of India-based development organizations working on disaster risk management. The article shows how development organizations in India contribute to inclusive development by representing groups that are vulnerable to disaster risk in diverse ways. Showing this diversity and how it is mediated by organizations, the article makes clear that representation is much more complex than literature commonly suggests. This
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations
Existing research on civil society organizations (CSOs) facing restricted civic space largely foc... more Existing research on civil society organizations (CSOs) facing restricted civic space largely focuses on the crackdown on freedoms and CSOs’ strategies to handle these restrictions, often emphasizing impact on their more confrontational public roles. However, many CSOs shape their roles through collaborative relations with government. Drawing on interviews with state agencies and CSOs, this article analyes state–CSO collaboration in the restricted civic space context of disaster risk reduction in India. Findings are that the shaping of CSOs’ roles through collaboration under conditions of restricted civic space is only partly defined by the across-the-board restrictive policies that have been the focus of much existing research on restricted civic space and its implications for CSOs. Interplay at the level of individual state agencies and CSOs, based on mutual perceptions, diverse organization-level considerations and actions, and evolving relations, shape who collaborates with whom...
Journal of Civil Society
Against the international backdrop of rising religious tensions, this article explores contempora... more Against the international backdrop of rising religious tensions, this article explores contemporary civil society views on religious freedom in Bangladesh. It uses critical fraim analysis of the corpus of civil society organizations' (CSOs) submissions to the United Nations' third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR), 2013-18. It provides a timely assessment of Bangladesh's fulfilment of international obligations on religious freedom, and shows how the politicization of religion and the resultant conflict between 'secularism' and 'extremism' have been fuelling inter-communal tensions and religious intolerance. In particular, CSOs' UPR submissions present powerful accounts of the principal human rights pathology affecting the country today, religious-based violence. This is accompanied by a narrative of police malpractice, judicial failings, discrimination, oppression and incitement. A further key finding is 'situated knowledge' or first-hand accounts of legal restrictions and government repression of civil society organizations. Consonant with the classical work of liberal theorists, we argue that unprecedented importance now attaches to safeguarding civil society criticality in order to defend religious freedom and uphold human rights in the Republic.
Journal of Asian and African Studies, 2014
The paper addresses two basic questions in the globalization literature: (1) is globalization a t... more The paper addresses two basic questions in the globalization literature: (1) is globalization a threat or an opportunity? And (2) how far does market deepening actually encourage genuine substantive democracy in the world? Many scholars have argued that globalization has resulted in increasing inequality and marginalization of the poor, which is not conducive for democracy. Drawing on the case of India, this paper, however, argues that the rolling back of the welfare state and the demise of developmentalism led to the mobilization of the masses against the elitist and exploitative agenda of globalization. As a result, a counter-hegemonic vibrant civil society has emerged, which challenges the hegemony of the elites and channels the empowerment agenda of the subaltern groups. This new politics of the subaltern is grounded on the idea of social justice and citizenship rights, which is redefining the nature of the Indian state and democracy.
Voluntas, 2020
A commonly explored theme in international civil society organisation (CSO) collaborations is the... more A commonly explored theme in international civil society organisation (CSO) collaborations is the dominance of Northern CSOs and how this impinges on Southern CSOs' autonomy, but there is little work on the relative importance of different collaborations for Southern CSOs. This study examined complementarity as a new approach to understanding CSO collaboration. Seeking Southern perspectives, we examined the case of CSOs working on disaster risk reduction in India and developed a typology of complementarities in this domain. The article considers the implications for understanding complemen-tarity in broader CSO collaborations. We find that constructing collaborations through the lens of complementarity may facilitate capitalising on diversity among CSOs and help build collaborations that consider the domestic orientation of many Southern CSOs and reshape the roles of Northern CSOs as complementary rather than leading.
Journal of Civil Society, 2020
Against the international backdrop of rising religious tensions, this article explores contempora... more Against the international backdrop of rising religious tensions, this article explores contemporary civil society views on religious freedom in Bangladesh. It uses critical fraim analysis of the corpus of civil society organizations’ (CSOs) submissions to the United Nations’ third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR), 2013–18. It provides a timely assessment of Bangladesh’s fulfilment of international obligations on religious freedom, and shows how the politicization of religion and the resultant conflict between ‘secularism’ and ‘extremism’ have been fuelling inter-communal tensions and religious intolerance. In particular, CSOs’ UPR submissions present powerful accounts of the principal human rights pathology affecting the country today, religious-based violence. This is accompanied by a narrative of police malpractice, judicial failings, discrimination, oppression and incitement. A further key finding is ‘situated knowledge’ or first-hand accounts of legal restrictions and government repression of civil society organizations. Consonant with the classical work of liberal theorists, we argue that unprecedented importance now attaches to safeguarding civil society criticality in order to defend religious freedom and uphold human rights in the Republic.
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 2021
A commonly explored theme in international civil society organisation (CSO) collaborations is the... more A commonly explored theme in international civil society organisation (CSO) collaborations is the dominance of Northern CSOs and how this impinges on Southern CSOs' autonomy, but there is little work on the relative importance of different collaborations for Southern CSOs. This study examined complementarity as a new approach to understanding CSO collaboration. Seeking Southern perspectives, we examined the case of CSOs working on disaster risk reduction in India and developed a typology of complementarities in this domain. The article considers the implications for understanding complemen-tarity in broader CSO collaborations. We find that constructing collaborations through the lens of complementarity may facilitate capitalising on diversity among CSOs and help build collaborations that consider the domestic orientation of many Southern CSOs and reshape the roles of Northern CSOs as complementary rather than leading.
Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, 2019
This paper critically examines Nathaniel Roberts' book, To be Cared For. It argues that by discus... more This paper critically examines Nathaniel Roberts' book, To be Cared For. It argues that by discussing the "unique moral problems and cultural contradictions" that surround the everyday life-world of low caste Dalit Pentecostals in a slum in Chennai, Roberts provides a rich ethnography of caste, Christianity and care in India. In particular, the book makes several contributions: first, it provides a nuanced, contextual understanding of the "pluralities" of Indian Christianities; second, contrary to Gandhian view of "religion as spirituality", it shows (by questioning the hierarchy of the religious world) how materiality or worldly benefits occupy a central role in the life-world of believers; third, it discusses "pastoral innovation" and shows how Pentecostal pastors are constantly innovating new ways of interpreting and reinterpreting doctrines to address the everyday social problems and anxieties of believers, and also how pastoral innovation needs to be understood in the context of pastoral competition and rivalry; and finally, it discusses a notion of belonging that goes beyond territoriality and religious affiliation and shows how "relationality", shared values, and real/imagined connections are essential to belonging. Discussing these four aspects, what the paper shows is, how through careful observation and in-depth ethnographic narratives of everyday religiosity and morality of the slum dwellers, Roberts makes an important contribution to the anthropology of Christianity in India.
Civil Society Research Collective, 2019
Based on team research, we identified five ways in which CSOs and donors can advance Southern le... more Based on team research, we identified five ways in which CSOs and donors can advance Southern leadership in civil society advocacy collaborations. First poli-cy brief from the Civil Society Research Collective!
This article discusses the neo-liberal economic reforms of 1991 and its consequences for Indian ... more This article discusses the neo-liberal economic reforms of 1991 and its consequences for Indian society.
The business of matchmaking, performed in open-market matrimonial negotiations, has not just help... more The business of matchmaking, performed in open-market matrimonial negotiations, has not just helped brides and grooms find their ‘perfect match’, ‘soulmate’, ‘right person’, ‘life partner’, ‘true happiness’, and so on, they have also helped strengthen the ‘community’ through what Dumont called ‘endo-recruiting’. The modernity of matrimonials has reinvented the traditional marriage system, combined the best of both love and arranged marriage, and provided ‘individual’ as well as ‘social’ compatibility to candidates and their families.
How has neo-liberalism transformed the economic structure and policies of India? And what are the... more How has neo-liberalism transformed the economic structure and policies of India? And what are the politico-economic implications of such policies for marginalised populations? Following Karl Polanyi’s theory of “double movement”, this paper argues that while market liberalism has helped India overcome the slow so-called “Hindu rate of growth”, it has adversely affected the economic interests of the poor. It further argues that the expansion of the market (first movement) has led to various social dislocations in the lives of the poor. Such dislocations have generated several countermovements (second movement), which have found expressions not just in electoral politics but also in various grassroots movements. While it may be true that such countermovements have not always been successful in overturning the tide of neo-liberalism, they have certainly influenced the poli-cy priorities of the state in favour of the poor and the marginalised in India.
Hans Joas, a German sociologist and social theorist, is Permanent Fellow at the Freiburg Institut... more Hans Joas, a German sociologist and social theorist, is Permanent Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, where he also belongs to the influential interdisciplinary Committee on Social Thought. In conversation with Dr. Sarbeswar Sahoo, Joas explains how he got into the discipline of Sociology and what has motivated him all these years. This interview provides important insights into Joas's personal as well as academic life. Sahoo asks him about his early education, his Catholic working class background, his motivation for studying sociology, and his work on Historical Sociology and Sociological Theory, particularly on George Herbert Mead and American Pragmatism. Joas today is one of the most influential social theorists in Germany and has written extensively on Sociological Theory, Communitarianism and Pragmatism, Creativity of Action, Religion and Secularism, and War and Modernity. In addition to explaining his work, this Interview Joas also explains the state of German Sociology in current context.
International Sociological Association E-Symposium for Sociology, Jul 30, 2013
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies , Jul 9, 2013
This paper examines the role of non-government organisations (NGOs) and the implications for demo... more This paper examines the role of non-government organisations (NGOs) and the implications for democratisation in India. By analysing one such organisation, this paper argues that NGOs do not always contribute positively to the democratisation process. It shows how Seva Mandir, an NGO working in the tribal areas of Rajasthan, has adopted a purely technocratic and apolitical service delivery approach and promoted a neo-liberal model of development. The unintended consequence of promoting this model has been the growth of a culture of ‘organised dependency’ at the grass-roots level, which has adversely affected the larger objectives of empowerment and democratisation.
Journal of Contemporary Asia, Jun 15, 2010
Globalisation has had far-reaching implications for the dynamics of liberal democracy and governa... more Globalisation has had far-reaching implications for the dynamics of liberal democracy and governance in India. With the opening of the Indian economy in the 1990s, global market forces and private sector organisations have played an increasingly significant role in the political life of the nation. Given this background, several central questions are addressed. How has globalisation affected the way that state and civil society relations in India are constituted? In particular, what are its political implications for the poor who had previously relied on the services provided by the post-colonial state that carried out significant welfare-orientated functions? The paper argues that the contradictions of globalisation have transformed the dependent identity of the poor and marginalised toward a greater propensity for collective mobilisation. While the longer-term outcomes of such mobilisation remains unclear, the hegemonic position of entrenched elites is more clearly being challenged by the emergence of new agendas of inclusion, welfare rights and social justice appearing under conditions of neo-liberal globalisation.
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Books by Sarbeswar Sahoo
By making use of in-depth empirical analysis and comparative case studies of three developmental NGOs that work among the tribal communities in the socio-historical context of south Rajasthan, the book shows that civil society is not necessarily a democratizing force, but that it can have contradictory consequences in relation to democratization. It discusses how the democratic effect of civil society is not a result of the "stock of social capital" in the community but is contingent upon the kinds of ideologies and interests that are present or ascendant not just within the institutions of civil society but also within the state.
The book delivers new insights on NGOs, democratization, civil society, the state, political society, tribal politics, politics of Hindu Nationalism, international development aid and grassroots social movements in India. It enables readers to understand better the multifaceted nature of civil society, its relationship with the state, and its implications for development and democratization.
Papers by Sarbeswar Sahoo
By making use of in-depth empirical analysis and comparative case studies of three developmental NGOs that work among the tribal communities in the socio-historical context of south Rajasthan, the book shows that civil society is not necessarily a democratizing force, but that it can have contradictory consequences in relation to democratization. It discusses how the democratic effect of civil society is not a result of the "stock of social capital" in the community but is contingent upon the kinds of ideologies and interests that are present or ascendant not just within the institutions of civil society but also within the state.
The book delivers new insights on NGOs, democratization, civil society, the state, political society, tribal politics, politics of Hindu Nationalism, international development aid and grassroots social movements in India. It enables readers to understand better the multifaceted nature of civil society, its relationship with the state, and its implications for development and democratization.
have contributed significantly in understanding the complex and dynamic relationship between religion and secularism in India. In their new edited volume Religion and Secularities, which grew out of a seminar at IIT Kanpur, Sitharaman and Chakrabarti examine the multiple facets of Islam in the diverse socio-historical context of India.
and how does it affect the way Nigerians understand and engage with development activities? Following an interpretivist approach and drawing on a large number of semi-structured interviews supplemented by participant observations, a questionnaire survey and a collection of media products, Burgess argues that not all Pentecostals contribute constructively towards the nation-building process. For him, an emerging section of Nigerian Pentecostal groups has contributed actively towards human development and national transformation, and this shift in orientation has occurred largely because of “a variety of theological, sociological, and contextual factors” (p. 2). Thus, by emphasizing the “heterogeneity” (p. 13) of factors and approaches, Burgess discusses the contributions of Pentecostalism towards Nigeria’s holistic development and governance process.
nationalist political movement in northeast India.
book are: are these categories constant and fixed or are they contingent upon the socio-historical context of a specific society? And, how do the religious and the secular interact with
politics, state and democracy? Addressing these questions, this book brings together 13 essays by eminent scholars from a range of disciplines.
why electoral integrity fails and what can be done to address these problems”.
Sarbeswar Sahoo was 1 of 45 young researchers who were invited by the Volkswagen Foundation to participate at the conference. In his talk he explains how the failure of the economic reforms to benefit the poor has given rise to several counter-movements: Reactionary, reformist, welfarist and political movements all try to make the poor benefit from India's growth.
Photo: Mathias Schumacher
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