The non-governmental development organization (NGO) sector in India has seen unprecedented growth in the recent past. A whole range of NGOs are not just ‘demanding’ development from the state but also ‘delivering’ development in the Indian countryside. While popular interest in the role of the non-governmental development sector is growing, it is not complemented by ethnographic studies which explain how local NGOs evolve and change over time. What happens when grassroots NGOs expand their capacities, resources and power to consolidate their position in the development regime? This article addresses these questions on the basis of the organizational life history of a local NGO in the desert state of Rajasthan. Based on new data on NGO practices in the arena of natural resource development over a span of four decades, the author argues that grassroots organizations working without the constraints of tight budgeting schedules and time-plans do alter local power relations and caste-based discriminations, and have the potential to end exploitative relations of patronage. But in their quest of delivering development services ‘professionally’ and rapidly, they face the challenge of increasing the bureaucratization of the organizational structure and functioning, and the creation of new relations of patronage that serves the purpose of NGO self-preservation.
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