'Wir nennen uns nicht gerne Geber'

Since the 1990s international development cooperation has witnessed immense shifts in its structural setup, ones that have been fueled specifically by the increasing activity of so-called "new donors" such as India, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Venezuela. Countries belonging to this heterogeneous group of new donors are all from the Global South, mostly former colonies and some still recipients of development aid. India is one such both new donor and recipient country. The Indian government has, however, recently begun to highlight and strengthen particularly its role as donor country. The significance of India as a new donor not only lies in the structural reconfiguration that it is bringing about, but also in the accompanying pluralization of development discourses - which are of great interest due to the interrelations of discourses and power. The traditional power relations in North-South development cooperation are characterized by asymmetrical and racialized structures. These are intensified and reproduced by the contemporary development discourses. This article discusses whether the new Indian development discourse provides a different - and possibly more equal - development discourse, and howfar this new donor narrative might influence the global debate. Based on these assumptions, the Indian development discourse is exemplified through an analysis of the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) program.
ASIEN: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia, Nr. 138 (2016): ASIEN (Januar)