Civil Society Under Threat in India and the US—What Can We Learn From Each Other?
In a new piece for HistPhil, the Resource Alliance Board Chair Ingrid Srinath asks what the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s most populous democracy can learn from each other about the shrinking of civic space each each nation is experiencing.
“In India, nonprofits navigate a regulatory minefield […] Together with lack of data transparency from government agencies, this permits the discrediting of nonprofits as ineffective, inefficient, corrupt and occasionally anti-national, while obstructing the articulation of a positive narrative of the sector’s contribution. Some of this is already apparent in the U.S.—for instance, with stray, sometimes misleading data being deployed to discredit USAID, other government agencies, and philanthropy.”
We know from our work with our sector colleagues in India, on the India Fundraising Conference and more, that though increased regulation and control have caused hardship and impacted the pursuit of humanitarian missions, they have also given rise to new levels of innovation and collaboration.