This essay studies the domain of politics of development constituted by the state, and attempts to plot the emergence of the voluntary sector, NGOs in particular, as a representative in this contested domain. It argues that the critique of NGOs cannot be simply directed at foreign aid, but to...

The technocratic interventions in agrarian economy, since late 1960s, have consolidated the position of large landowners and farmers in north western India, and made them prosperous. However, there was virtually no land market in this rural society up till now; land was possessed and transferred...

At various points in its career, the Indian state has deployed technologies to govern the nation. Recently the state has undertaken a number of large scale projects to install digital technology. The most controversial of these is the Unique Identity Project, which is registering the biometric,...