Diaspora Philanthropy in Punjab: The State, Conflicting Interests and Contested Collaborations

Taking into account the case of Indian Punjab, this paper complicates the idea of diasporic philanthropy as essentially progressive, demotic and monophonic in an attempt to underscore it as a field of diverse players, interests and signifiers. Drawing upon ethnographic observations of philanthropic networks in Punjab made by the authors between 2009 and 2017 and augmented by the analysis of policy and media reports from Punjab in the past two decades, this paper makes three interlinked arguments. First, it challenges the notion of diasporic exchanges as a one-to-one direct connection unmediated by none, by demonstrating how the state of Punjab is deeply implicated in the homeland ties of the diaspora and by formalising otherwise informal transnational philanthropic exchanges through new institutions and discourses, albeit with the often paradoxical consequence of curbing diaspora interest. Second, it argues that far from singular in their orientation towards and aspirations for the homeland, diaspora philanthropy reflects conflicting visions of development and future for home. Third, it foregrounds the waning enthusiasm of the diaspora for philanthropic investments in the face of the intractable problems of reception and questions of sustainability and the increasing involvement of local people in diaspora philanthropic endeavours, making such projects transnational collaborations for local development rather than singular diasporic initiatives of philanthropy.