ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the practical operation of the concept of seva or service in one local instance in the 1950s, in order to understand how the politics of seva, the effort to establish hierarchical status of the Koya tribes, tribal land ownership, welfare and development worked on the ground. It deals with reconstructing a political biography of Swami Balananda, an exemplary sevak who founded a Ramakrishna Ashram and a cooperative society called the Poverty Relief Service. The chapter describes how the Poverty Relief Service (PRS) was started and did significant charitable work for the Kondareddi tribe at Perantapalle and focuses on the PRS initiative to establish an agricultural cooperative for the Koya tribe in the village of Suravaram undertaken a decade later. It explores the way in which the Swami’s moral authority and leadership, i.e., hegemony, functioned in that historical period. The chapter explains the linkages between his voluntary organisation and the beginnings of State-led development planning and administration.
