The Role of Civil Societies in South Asia: Advocacy, Resistance, and Change

Across South Asia, some of the most important work in democracy, human rights, and poverty reduction happens outside government offices and corporate boardrooms. It happens in village councils, microcredit groups, detainee support networks, and grassroots campaigns led by ordinary citizens. This space between the state, the market, and the family is what scholars call civil society. From Afghanistan to the Maldives, civil society organisations have become a powerful force shaping how the region governs itself, protects the vulnerable, and pushes for change. Understanding how they operate tells us a great deal about how democracy actually functions in the region.

What is civil society and why it matters in South Asia 🔗

Civil society refers to the network of voluntary organisations and associations that operate independently of the government and the market. This includes non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community groups, labour unions, faith-based organisations, professional associations, and advocacy networks. People come together in these spaces to pursue shared interests and advance common goals without state direction or the profit motive driving private business.

In South Asia, civil society has emerged as a powerful counterweight to government authority, corporate influence, and entrenched social hierarchies. The region’s democracies are often young, sometimes fragile, and occasionally under threat. In such contexts, civil society organisations do more than simply deliver services. They hold governments to account, advocate for democratic reform, fight corruption, protect human rights, and foster democratic participation. Their role becomes especially crucial precisely where formal institutions are weak.

What makes civil society in this region so distinctive is its diversity. Women’s organisations, Dalit rights groups, indigenous alliances, and human rights networks have all expanded the democratic conversation and challenged power structures that had gone unquestioned for generations. To understand this clearly, it helps to look at three concrete examples from across the region.

Advocacy: Cooperation for Peace and Unity in Afghanistan 🔗

In a country torn by decades of conflict, building peace from the ground up is one of the hardest tasks imaginable. The Cooperation for Peace and Unity (CPAU) took on exactly this challenge. Founded in 1996, CPAU is an Afghan-led non-profit and the first locally led research and peacebuilding organisation in the country. Its work shows how civil society can function even in the most difficult political environments.

Peacebuilding through local councils 🔗

CPAU’s approach was rooted in working with communities rather than imposing solutions from outside. Over time, the organisation implemented more than 400 projects across over 26 provinces, conducted research, ran peace education programmes, and worked with around 10,000 local councils or shuras. These councils handled the ordinary disputes that, left unresolved, could escalate into violence in a volatile setting.

One example illustrates this well. CPAU supported a local peace council that resolved everyday conflicts, from marital problems to unpaid debts, before they could spiral into larger violence. Crucially, these councils were built on inclusive membership open to all ethnicities and genders, including people who had previously been excluded from such decision-making. This is advocacy in its quietest and most practical form: changing how communities settle disagreements and who gets a seat at the table.

Change: Grameen Bank in Bangladesh 🔗

Sometimes the most powerful form of social change is economic. The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh is one of the most famous examples anywhere in the world of how a civil society initiative can transform millions of lives. It began with a simple but radical idea: that poor people are creditworthy and that credit itself is a fundamental right.

The microcredit model 🔗

The bank grew out of the work of economist Muhammad Yunus, who founded it as a means of providing small loans to poor individuals, an approach known as microcredit. The Grameen model, developed in the 1970s, is built around small groups of borrowers who meet regularly. Instead of demanding traditional collateral, the system uses peer support and group accountability to encourage repayment. Loans are granted in stages, and the trust built within the group replaces the security a conventional bank would normally require.

The results were striking. Yunus was a strong advocate of micro-credit, arguing that only collateral-free credit, made available especially to poor women, could meaningfully alleviate poverty. The vast majority of borrowers were women, which gave them access to income, autonomy, and greater standing in their communities. In 2006, the impact of this work was recognised globally when the Grameen Bank and Yunus were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.

The phrase “development from below” captures something essential about civil society. Change does not always have to be driven by the state or by large international institutions. It can begin with citizens organising to solve a problem that formal systems had ignored.

Resistance: the Maldivian Democracy Network 🔗

The third example shows civil society in its most defiant form: standing up for human rights even when doing so carries serious risk. The Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN) emerged during a period of political turbulence and became one of the most important voices for democratic reform in the island nation.

From detainee support to democratic reform 🔗

MDN began life as the Maldivian Detainee Network in 2004, formed after the mass arrest of more than 300 people and subsequent allegations of human rights violations in State custody. The arrests followed the first public demonstration calling for people’s rights and democracy in the Maldives. Working from both Male’ and Colombo, the network initially helped families of detainees identify and claim their rights under the constitution of the time.

From these origins, the organisation grew into a broad human rights body. As a non-partisan NGO aiming to promote human rights and democratic values, MDN worked on reporting, monitoring, and advocating on human rights issues, alongside running awareness workshops across the country. It is widely recognised as one of the main civil society actors that contributed to the country’s democratic reform process during those turbulent years.

The cost of resistance 🔗

The story of MDN also carries a sobering lesson. Civil society does not operate in a vacuum, and its work can provoke a strong reaction. In December 2019, the Government of the Maldives finalised a decision to ban the organisation, giving it 45 days to settle its assets. The shutdown came amid rising religious extremism and increasing targeting of human rights defenders. This reminds us that the space in which civil society operates, often called civic space, can shrink when governments choose to restrict it.

How civil society creates impact 🔗

Looking across these three cases, some common functions emerge. These functions explain why civil society is treated as a genuine pillar of democratic governance rather than a mere collection of charities.

Holding power accountable 🔗

A core function of civil society is acting as a watchdog. By monitoring government actions and exposing wrongdoing, these organisations help ensure that public officials act in the public interest. The Right to Information (RTI) movement offers a powerful example. The grassroots organisation Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, co-founded by Aruna Roy, used nonviolent demonstrations to demand the public’s right to information. What started as a local fight over wage records grew into a national campaign that played a pivotal role in drafting and advocating for the Right to Information law passed by Parliament in 2005. That law now lets citizens demand transparency from government bodies directly.

Mobilising resources and awareness 🔗

Civil society organisations channel funds, volunteers, and expertise toward problems the state cannot or will not address. The Grameen Bank mobilised capital for those who had no access to it. CPAU mobilised research, training, and community networks for peacebuilding. MDN mobilised legal knowledge and public attention around detainee rights. In each case, awareness creation went hand in hand with practical action.

Empowering citizens and building social capital 🔗

Perhaps the deepest impact is the way civil society fosters trust, cooperation, and networks among citizens. This is what scholars call social capital, and it is essential for collective action. When people learn that they can organise, demand accountability, and bring about change, democracy stops being something that happens to them and becomes something they actively shape.

Challenges and the shrinking of civic space 🔗

The story of South Asian civil society is not one of uninterrupted success. One of the most concerning trends globally is the shrinking of civic space. Governments may use restrictive laws, cut off funding, or harass activists who speak out. The banning of MDN is a stark illustration of how quickly the environment can turn hostile.

Organisations also face questions about legitimacy and dependence on foreign funding, which critics sometimes use to challenge their authenticity. Despite these constraints, civil society in the region continues to adapt and evolve, finding new ways to operate even as conditions change. Its strength lies in this resilience and in its commitment to justice, inclusion, and democratic participation.

What do you think? If civil society organisations sometimes depend on foreign funding to do their work, does that strengthen or weaken their claim to represent local voices? And in moments when a government restricts civic space, what responsibility do ordinary citizens have to defend the organisations that speak on their behalf?

References

1. https://www.idea.int/events/supporting-civil-society-protect-civic-space-south-east-asia
2. https://www.acted.org/en/partners/cooperation-for-peace-and-unity-cpau/
3. https://www.devex.com/organizations/cooperation-for-peace-and-unity-cpau-100877
4. https://www.peaceinsight.org/en/organisations/cpau/
5. https://www.britannica.com/money/Grameen-Bank
6. https://asiasociety.org/micro-credit-and-alleviating-poverty-bangladesh
7. https://archive-yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/micro-credit-pioneer-gets-nobel-peace
8. https://mvdemocracy.org/our-history/
9. https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/organization/maldivian-democracy-network-mdn
10. https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/maldivian-democracy-network-formally-banned
11. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aruna-Roy
12. https://watson.brown.edu/southasia/people/aruna-roy