Civil Society and Governance in South Asia: Issues and Challenges

The formation of civil society in South Asia has been a gradual process. The states in South Asia had witnessed the evolution of civil society with the unfolding of nation building process. But it also has to face the challenges that were mostly represented and expressed in similar anxieties about territorial integration, separatist violence and other fissiparous tendencies. Given the case of most South Asian states, having shared the common colonial experience under British rule, the formation of civil society has not seen that much of uniformity and commonalities based on the past. It is largely due to their different political trajectories, which had profound influence over civil society in these respective states. Further, in case of South Asia, the growth and influence of civil society has been shaped by a variety of factors like levels of political democracy, economic development, history and culture, demographic and social composition, mobility patterns, value system and modernity. In recent years, the framework of civil society functionalism has changed in South Asia considerably under the impact of global as well as local developments. The desire to build ‘good governance’ has allowed them space in state development strategies. They also have found new avenues of interaction in areas like rural development, education, community health care, self-help group formation, promoting entrepreneurship and personality development. Civil society in South Asia now stresses for greater community involvement for competent governance and shared growth model. In the given context, the proposed chapter will try to conceptualize the theoretical underpinnings of civil society movements in South Asian countries, their growth and development.