ABSTRACT
Establishing a democracy in a country with such massive poverty and profound social, economic and regional inequality has been an enormous challenge. As evidence of intensifying market and government failure accumulated in recent decades, civil society began playing an increasingly important role in India. This chapter seeks to answer the following questions: Can civil society be seen as an agent of social transformation in India today? In what form and under what circumstances can the answer to this question be given in the affirmative? In order to answer these questions, this chapter attempts to:
Enunciate a theoretical framework within which we can understand the role of civil society
Carefully differentiate empirically the different strands within civil society in India today
