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.


Introduction
As distinguished from remittances, diaspora philanthropy is understood as the transfer of financial resources by the diaspora with altruistic intentions of contributing to the welfare of their homeland across multiple arenas (Newland et al., 2010;Sidel, 2008). Hence, in the general literature on transnationalism, diasporic philanthropy has been celebrated as an embodiment of the diaspora's continuous engagement and connectedness with their homeland. It is seen as a social field of intense cross-border exchanges involving individuals and civil society organisations, despite and beyond the nation-states. Such exchanges and the practices and identities of the participating denizens of the diaspora are deemed counter-narratives to nations, with the potential for unsettling totalising nationalist boundaries, visions and subjectivities (Appadurai, 1997). Transnationalism from below, as a field created and maintained by the bi-/multifocal transnational subjects, has been not only appreciated for exceeding the imposing and restricting structures of the nationstate system but also seen as a site of dense nostalgia, love for the homeland and intense networks that crisscross the world into innumerable microterritorialities (Portes, 1996;Smith & Guarnizo, 2006;Upadhya et al., 2018).
Taking into consideration the case of Indian Punjab, this paper complicates the idea of diasporic philanthropy as essentially progressive, demotic and monophonic, to underscore it as a field of diverse players, interests and signifiers. This paper draws these upon the authors' ethnographic observations from a village with a history of substantial diaspora philanthropic investments-hence representing a mature case in this regard-between 2009 and 2017. This is augmented by the analysis of policy and media reports from Punjab in the past two decades. This paper presents 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 Punjab state is deeply implicated in the homeland ties of the diaspora. In addition, attempts are made to formalise 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 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.

Historical Context to Diaspora Philanthropy in Punjab
Punjab is one of the most out-migratory states in India. Dating back to the colonial period, Britain, Canada and the United States have been the major destinations of migrants from Punjab to the extent that these three destinations together account for three quarters of Punjabi emigrants (Tatla, 1999). The bulk of outmigration was from the doaba region-the land lying between Rivers Sutlej and Beaswith the rural doaba region being swept by a 'migration fever' from the early 1960s onwards (Ballard, 1994;Tatla, 1999). The region-often referred to as the migration belt of Punjab-is known for the presence of philanthropic investments by its diaspora, particularly in the rural parts of the doaba region. Although such investments have a long history, they have started receiving scholarly attention only recently, in association with the recent discourse of 'migration and development' (Raghuram, 2009). Writings on the Punjabi experience celebrate the 'private spending on public good' by the diaspora and foreground it as a testimony of their bifocal living and the deep connection with the homeland (Dusenbery & Tatla, 2009). Dusenbery (2010) analyses Sikh diaspora philosophy as a practice underpinned by religious traditions urging daan (selfless giving) and seva (service), which are blended with Punjabi traditions of sardari (patronage) and izzat (honour/prestigedisplay of wealth), such that it becomes difficult to disentangle altruism from selfinterest. There is a near-agreement in the literature that diaspora investments have significantly contributed to the socio-economic development of Punjab, including its contribution to the Green Revolution in Punjab (Tatla, 1999). It is also true that the spontaneous, non-planned and largely unorganised contributions that characterised the earlier diaspora philanthropy in Punjab have taken an increasingly organised form recently through home town/village and biraderi associations in the host locations and religion-based organisations and village/town welfare associations in the homeland (Lacroix, 2011;Varghese & Rajan, 2010). Furthermore, tendencies of contributing predominantly to religious places, erecting memorial gates and arranging spectacular events, such as festivals and sporting competitions, have eventually given way to investments in human development and village amenities through setting up or supporting educational institutions, dispensaries, hospitals, crematoriums, sports stadiums, street lights, sanitation and clean drinking water projects. The urge for improving their places of origin and making them model villages/towns stands out in diaspora narratives as the moving spirit behind these contributions. However, except for a few studies (Taylor & Singh, 2013;Walton-Roberts, 2005), attempts to analyse the politics of such spending, mediating structures, discontents and anxieties it engenders among the diaspora and local society; diverse purposes it serves and diverse constituencies it addresses; local participation/initiatives and anxieties about sustainability are limited.

The State and Diaspora Philanthropy
Although a distinction has been drawn between 'transnationalism from above', namely that of states and corporations, and 'transnationalism from below', namely that of people (Smith & Guarnizo, 2006) as a concept and as a field of research, transnationalism privileges people-to-people contacts across national borders as its distinctive component, calling for explorations on multi-sited lives and ethnoscapes. However, in the case of Punjab, the subnational state is an important player since it not only creates institutions to formalise the otherwise informal philanthropic investments but also engenders discourses to reinforce the homeland ties of the diaspora in new ways. 1 As the resources being invested in rural Punjab for philanthropy and rural infrastructure development by diasporic Punjabis became significant, the Government of Punjab (GoP) brought into effect the 'NRI-GoP Rural Infrastructure Development Fund' in the early 21st century to incentivise and strengthen such flows into the state. The 'Plan Scheme NRI 2.35' was a result of this initiative, which created a model of contributing 50% of matching grants by the GoP for all village development programmes initiated by the non-resident Indians (NRIs, as the diaspora is often referred to in Punjab) and their NGOs. In 2008, the Department of NRI Affairs of Punjab expanded the scheme by renaming it 'Plan Scheme NRI-1', with an intention of providing an 'enabling and facilitating platform' for overseas Punjabi contribution to the development of their villages, by stipulating 75% matching grants by the GoP for all rural and urban development programmes initiated by NRIs or NRI NGOs (Department of NRI Affairs, n.d.-a). The scheme, under the rubric 'Mera Pind Mera Shehar' (meaning my village, my town), sought to 'ensure full participation of the NRIs and NRI NGOs into the village infrastructure development activities' (Department of NRI Affairs, n.d.-b). This scheme has been quickly institutionalised, and a high-level committee called the Punjab NRI Committee for Development (PUNRICD) headed by the Chief Secretary of Punjab was constituted in 2005 to promote and implement the scheme. In due course, undertakings under the ambit of the scheme have also been expanded-not restricted just to hospitals, libraries, drinking water, sewerage disposal, public latrines, street lights and sports stadiums, but included all projects that would be beneficial to people, with an aim of contributing to the 'overall benefit of the general masses and overall community development of the area' (Department of NRI Affairs, n.d.-b). 2 This scheme also ensures the ownership of public properties by the respective villages, and a village development committee (VDC) formed in individual villages is made responsible not only for the implementation of the project but also for the maintenance of the built infrastructure.
The modalities set by the GoP for the 'Plan Scheme NRI 2.35' not only governmentalised philanthropic flows from the diaspora but also gave the GoP control over village development schemes initiated by NRIs. All projects under the scheme are required to obtain prior approval from the Higher Power Committee (PUNRICD). 3 Every project application should come through the District NRI Committee for Development (DINRICD) headed by the Deputy Commissioner of the respective district, who-with the help of specifically empaneled civil/public health/construction engineers-assesses the viability of the project and examines its detailed estimates. Upon clearance of the project by the PUNRICD, the Commissioner of NRI Affairs transfers the funds, that is, government share, to the respective Deputy Commissioner. It is also decided that to ensure full ownership and subsequent responsibility for maintenance of the infrastructure, the projects should be implemented by NRIs or NRI NGOs through VDCs. A panel of certified engineers, maintained by the respective Deputy Commissioner, to provide technical assistance to the PUNRICD and the DINRICD wherever required. Subsequently, the government share has been brought back to a maximum of 50% of the total estimated cost, and the PUNRICD is given the power to decide the quantum of the matching grant to be given to any project. According to the set modality, NRIs/NGOs/VDCs have to start spending for the project; only after they have spent 25% of the total cost out of their share, they can apply for 25% of the government share. The former has to spend the rest of their share in the third stage to obtain the remaining government share. The Department of NRI Affairs also retains its prerogative to inspect the standard, quality and progress of any ongoing project and its accounts, as and when it decides, apart from levying 3% of the total cost of the project as administrative charges (Department of NRI Affairs, n.d.-b).
Apart from attempts to maximise diaspora Punjabi contribution to philanthropydriven development and formalise it through the framework of 'Plan Scheme NRI 2.35', of late the GoP has come up with many services specifically aimed at overseas Punjabis to promote and strengthen their bonds with the homeland. Besides establishing the Department of NRI Affairs in 2002, which is in charge of issues related to overseas Punjabis, the GoP has also established NRI police stations and fast-track courts for adjudicating NRI cases and supported the NRI Sabha. Initially, NRI police stations were opened in six places (Jalandhar, SBS Nargar-Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Ludhiana and Moga), whose jurisdictions covered the respective districts to address the grievances of the overseas Punjabis, especially property disputes with relatives and neighbours, which are widespread (Varghese & Thakur, 2015). Today, Punjab has as many as 15 dedicated NRI police stations, the new additions being Ludhiana Rural, Amritsar, Jalandhar Rural, SAS Nagar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Bathinda, Sangrur and Patiala. The Punjab Police Department has a dedicated NRI wing headed by a senior police officer in the ADGP rank. A fast-track NRI court is set up in Jalandhar for the speedy adjudication of cases related to overseas Punjabis, and the new government in Punjab has proposed to establish five more such courts in Bathinda, Nawanshahr, Patiala, Hoshiarpur and Moga (Tribune News Service, 2022). The NRI Sabha, an NGO of non-resident Punjabis (NRPs) established in 1998 with more than 20,000 registered members, has been supported by the GoP in redressing their grievances and ensuring their welfare. 4 The GoP also constituted the Punjab State Commission for NRIs, 'with a view to protect and safeguard the interests of NRIs in the state of Punjab, and to recommend remedial measures for their welfare' through the Punjab State Commission for Non-Resident Indians Act of 2011 (Punjab State Commission for NRIs, n.d.).
Such attempts by the GoP fundamentally leverage the subnational identity and ethnic solidarity of Punjabis across the world. The sentimental and emotional affinity of Punjabis to their homeland and their enthusiasm for its progress are invoked and employed to garner resources for the development of their ancestral places and keep them deeply attached to the state. In addition, religious bonds of the Sikhs with Punjab as the spiritual homeland of Sikhism are brought to the fore. It is also important to note that after the separatist Khalistan movement, which was expressively supported economically and ideologically by the sections of Punjabi diaspora (Tatla, 1999), it became imperative for the state to discourage diaspora financing for subversive activities and channel it in ways it found more productive, such as the developmental needs of the state. By articulating and reinforcing a distinct Punjabi cultural identity beyond the territorial confines of the subnation into a global Punjabi identity, the GoP has attempted to encourage more philanthropic investments in their ancestral locations. The state has been visibly looking to diaspora resources for their legitimacy in the context of growing demands for development.
Launched in 2004, the 'Plan Scheme NRI 1' did not make any spectacular progress. However, the attempts on the part of the subnational state to formalise and governmentalise the otherwise private initiatives of the diaspora in the guise of encouraging it, though initially received by the diaspora with enthusiasm, soon lost their momentum. NRIs, on their part-notwithstanding the generational changes undergone by the diaspora and the resultant decline of emotional bonds and interest of the new generation to their ancestral land-squarely transferred the blame onto the government, stating that schemes, such as 'Plan Scheme NRI 1', did not work and only dissuaded them from investing in philanthropic projects by creating governmental technicalities, approvals and hurdles on their way. The Village Life Improvement Foundation (VLIF) and the Indo-Canadian Village Improvement Trust, two prominent NRI NGOs in Punjab that have undertaken many village development projects, have either cut down their involvement or even given up announced projects. Neither has undertaken any new projects since 2014. 5 The projects now being run under the scheme are mostly initiated by VDCs, which seek financial help from the diaspora for implementing such projects, saving the latter from the red tape of obtaining approvals, meeting technical requirements and gaining matching grants.
Contrary to the expectation of the subnational state, the NRP interest seems to have declined to such an extent that, in 2015, the GoP conceded that efforts to promote diaspora investment and partnership in development projects had not translated into anticipated success (Singh, 2015).
Attempts to bring diaspora philanthropy to untouched or marginally impacted areas by such philanthropic flows have also been so far unimpressive. Nonetheless, the GoP is attempting to diversify its efforts to attract diaspora investment for development by initiating new programmes-a rural development scheme that creates space for NRIs to help their native village and 'Friends of Punjab Mukh Mantri Garima Gram Yojana' have recently been launched, as well as a new scheme enabling the diaspora to contribute to the public health system of Punjab (Department of NRI Affairs, n.d.-c).

Factionalism and Conflicting Visions in Diaspora Philanthropy
A closer look at many philanthropic investments that the diaspora has made in rural Punjab reveals numerous political commitments at work, much beyond the often projected unmediated and resolute love for their respective ancestral villages. The philanthropic aid flows along the tracks laid down by religion and caste, to the extent of fuelling competition between different pattis (colonies) in the villages, and a large proportion of it is being spent on constructing religious structures such as gurudwaras (Rajan & Varghese, 2012;Singh & Singh, 2019;Taylor et al., 2007). Diaspora philanthropy has been seen as an exemplary case of what Waldinger and Fitzgerald (2004) have called 'long-distance particularism' as diaspora networks generate a multiplicity of 'imagined communities', organised along different often conflicting principles. The contingency of such investments and their outcomes also depend significantly on factionalism within the diaspora. This factionalism has its roots in the political divisions of Punjab and in the diaspora, with a constant and deep interplay between politics in the homeland and overseas and developments in one site influencing the other (Bentz & Guyot, 2021). Case studies of four philanthropic projects in a single village have been used in this paper to demonstrate this point.
Bilga, located to the south of Jalandar city, is one of the biggest administrative villages in Punjab, and it has now grown to a small town, largely as a result of the investments its diaspora have made in their ancestral village. It assumes importance in Sikh history as a place visited by Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru and the first Sikh Guru to be martyred, who stayed there for two days during the time of his wedding in the neighbouring village of Mau Sahib in the late 16th century. The Mata Gangaji gurdwara, named after Guru Arjan Dev's wife, located at the centre of the village, preserves the clothes and other articles left by the Guru during his sojourn in the village, attracting Sikh devotees from across the world. Bilga is also considered a village of freedom fighters, having produced nearly 90 freedom fighters, including the Ghadarite revolutionary Baba Bhagat Singh, who breathed his last in 2009 in England. Bilga's overseas connections through migration, thus, date back to colonial times, if not earlier, and it is one of the villages in the doaba region boasting the highest number of families with members living abroad.
The accomplishments of the village/town in diaspora philanthropy are well known among the Punjabi diaspora. This comprises a wide range of investments, from memorial gates and sports activities to a general hospital, established with an approximate investment of `500 million. Its history of participation in the Ghadar movement, progressive thinking, commitment to leftist politics and a secular orientation has arguably influenced numerous philanthropic efforts of the diaspora in Bilga, especially educational and healthcare ventures in the village. However, Ghadari Sikh emigrants were not the first to establish a school in the village. Rather, it was the Hindu diaspora of Bilga who established the first school through philanthropy.
The Sheela Rani Tangri Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) Public School was established in 1995 after the death of Sheela Rani Tangri to realise her dream of seeing the area develop as a centre of education. The core of this philanthropic faction was the seven sons of Sheela Tangri, an influential family in which all but one had emigrated to England or Canada. On the initiative of Mr Ashwani Tangri, an NRI based in Canada, and his wife Neena, one of the policymakers of the Conservative Party of Canada, the school was established in a rented house and four rooms in the Sri Pipli Sahib Gurudwara. The brothers purchased two acres of land for `1.5 million, shared equally among them to erect a purpose-built school building which was completed in 1998. A further 200,000-300,000 rupees was raised from the overseas diaspora, for the basic school infrastructure, but significantly, they also managed to mobilise substantial local donations from within the Hindu colony of Bilga. They affiliated the school with the DAV Public Schools System to gain respect and achieve higher standards. The now late Mr Asok Tangri, the brother who remained in India and acted as the local linchpin for the school trust, explained that the family did not want to run the school privately because 'there would have been no gesture of charity then. It was not a business for us.' The school has around 50 teachers and more than 1,300 students, running from nursery to plus two in more than 40 sections, and the school management is in the process of buying more land in view of its expansion plans.
The DAV Public Schools System is a renowned non-governmental educational organisation in India and is based on the ideals of the religious and social reformer Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824-1883), a scholar of the Vedas who is best known for establishing the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. This system, whose origin dates back to 1886, manages more than 700 schools across India, with overseas branches in Nepal, Fiji, Mauritius and Pakistan. The Sheela Rani Tangri DAV School accordingly retains the aspects of this Hindu religious orientation. Academic sessions are began with a havan (home) ceremony, the Sanskritic ritual of making offerings into a consecrated fire. However, in our conversation with the school management, they insisted that the defining characteristic of the school was that they provide secular modern education. While the Tangri Hindu faction shared Congress (Indian National Congress) leanings, in 1997 a rival school, the Akal Academy, was established with the support of the Jat Sikh emigrants of the village, particularly those affiliated with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Party and the Sikh ethnonationalist movement. Mr Asok Tangri confessed that the Akal Academy gave 'tough competition' to them in their efforts at fundraising. Indeed, he explained that it was the Akal Academy that made them expand the school beyond its modest beginnings in a rented house. He and the principal of the school had planned to go abroad to raise funds for the school but changed their mind as the Akal Academy had made widespread collection among the Bilga diaspora.
Similar to the DAV school, the Akal Academy is part of a chain. There are 129 Akal Academies across Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. They were established under the authority of Sant Baba Attar Singh Ji Mastuanawale (1866-1927 and his follower Sant Baba Teja Singh Ji (1877-1965. The story recounted in school publications is that Sant Attar Singh wished for 101 such academies to be established-the figure of 101 being an auspicious number. The Akal Academies are currently managed under the auspices of the Kalgidhar Society, a charitable trust that administers numerous other projects, including a university, hospitals, old-age homes and a home for widows and destitute women.
The Bilga Akal Academy has around 60 teachers and more than 1,100 students and imparts education from kindergarten to plus two. In 1997, Sardar Gian Singh, a prominent NRI from Bilga based in Australia, donated 17 acres of land and mobilised 10 million rupees for building the Akal Academy. Similar to the DAV School, the Akal Academy management stressed to us the high quality of the modern English-medium education they provide; they too are recognised by the Central Board of Secondary Education. The Akal Academy provides a more rigorous religious education than the DAV School, with a gurudwara on the campus and religious instructions covering thrice-daily prayers and Sikh history along with standard modern subjects.
The two schools vie for students in Bilga and its environs and espouse radically different visions for social reform. While Mrs Kaur, the principal of the Akal Academy, said that 'supporting rural education' was one of the aims of the Academy at Bilga, she quickly added that 'preserving Sikhism' was the primary motive, as she saw Sikhism declining in the context of 'increasing westernisation' and 'loss of religious values'. However, the principal of the DAV school insisted on the properly secularist credentials of the school, unlike the Akal Academy, which was 'interested only in Sikhism'. He also underlined the high quality of the English-medium education provided at the DAV school, for which the DAV system is acclaimed.
The Ghadari emigrants, with their non-religious orientation and communist affiliations, are another philanthropic faction extending from Bilga. Mr Paramjit Singh (pseudonym), a founding life member of the Bilga Hospital Trust, asserted that the Akal Academy was being run by 'Sikh fundamentalists'. Clearly distancing himself from the initiative, he reported that those among the diaspora who are contributing to the Akal Academy are 'fanatic Sikhs'. To him, it was an essential backward consciousness among NRIs that allowed them to fund such institutions, which put religion ahead of education and generate rivalry among communities. As he explained: Last week I fought with [my friend], he is in favour of Akal Academies. I said to him that 'you force children to wear religious dress, you force the girls to wear turbans, you are imposing fundamentalism on them.' I argued with him, 'if you keep the education at the back and the religion in front, they will surely be lagging behind in education'.
By contrast, Mr Paramjit Sigh appreciated the secular credentials of the DAV Public Schools: [The DAV schools] are Hindus basically. But I still prefer them in the matter of secularism in comparison to Akal Academies. There is a person who is opening these types of fanatic institutions in Punjab and in reaping profits from them. He is exploiting the ignorance of Jat Sikhs. He is the head of Akal Academies in Delhi. He is fooling us…NRIs are becoming fools as they have only worked abroad, they didn't get the education, they are still backward.
His non-religious orientation is also attested by the charitable hospital established in Bilga with diaspora resources, in which he played a major role. The Bilga General Hospital was opened in 2005 on a five-acre campus with 11,000 square metres of buildings, with 50 staff and more than 50 beds, to cater to the healthcare needs of the village. It offers a wide range of facilities and medical specialties, including round-the-clock accident and emergency care, orthopaedics, optometry, ophthalmology, dentistry, obstetrics and gynaecology, physiotherapy, general medicine, surgery, and community and preventative medicine. Health camps were regularly organised in the surrounding villages, with possible follow-ups. Among these were regular specialist eye camps, where simple eye operations, primarily cataract surgery, were performed free of charge and were sponsored by the Bilga diaspora chiefly from the UK.
The hospital was constructed by the Bilga General Hospital Charitable Trust UK, under the leadership of Mr Gian Singh and Mr Pyra Singh, both located in Birmingham and who contributed the lion's share. This trust introduced a system of 'life membership' to mobilise money for the proposed hospital and contacted members of the village's diaspora in the UK for taking life membership for a donation of £2,000, while the organising team under Mr Gian Singh Sanghera contributed £10,000 each. The hospital instituted exchange programmes with the Universities of Birmingham and Leicester, with medical and nursing students regularly visiting the hospital to have a first-hand experience of healthcare in rural India under the programme 'Birmingham comes to Bilga'. The hospital has been expanding since the time of its establishment, with new buildings and staff residencies on the campus, and new departments, space and infrastructure were proposed in 2014.
The Bilga General Hospital gets strong endorsement by its proponents through their commitment to poor and downtrodden people. It was established on a fiveacre land donated by a trust founded after Comrade Kartar Singh, a committed local communist who was also a close friend of the UK-based founding life members of the hospital, who wanted to devote the bulk of his land to a true social cause. The plaque on the memorial of Kartar Singh in the hospital premises reads, 'Comrade Kartar Singh Memorial Trust, BP, fulfilled his duty by donating this land to Bilga General Charitable Hospital Trust (UK) according to the wishes to Comrade Kartar Singh…for the service of the oppressed classes of the society. Serving the poor and downtrodden was the ideal of Comrade Kartar Singh.' In line with the communist commitments of the hospital's proponents, human welfare above caste, creed and religion is emphasised, and diaspora investments with divisive intentions directed towards particular communities are resented. Such a sense of universalism is evident in the writing inscribed on a plaque in the front courtyard of the hospital which reads, 'Bilga General Hospital built by the Global Community, for the Global Community, inaugurated by the Global Community on the 31st March 2005' (see Figure 1). The medical officer of the hospital explained it eloquently: '[a]ctually, "Global" means it doesn't belong to any religion or sect. It's for everybody. The hospital has no religion. It's beyond anybody's religion.'

Local Initiatives, Transnational Collaborations and Their Discontents
It should be emphasised that it is not only the diaspora's eulogised love for the homeland that makes such projects possible but also considerable local interest, initiative and involvement attached to most philanthropic ventures. It was the promise of land donation by the Comrade Kartar Singh Trust that set the idea of Bilga General Hospital in motion. There is a significant number of local population in the trust as its life members; initially, the fee for the local members was `10,000, substantially lesser than that of a diaspora life member, arguably to attract more local participation. The amount has now been increased to `160,000 possibly due to scores of local interest.
The 'Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Committee' of Bilga annually organises the commemoration of patriots and freedom fighters from the village, with support from the diaspora. The local society conducts annual sports events and has constructed a stadium in Bilga by reaching out to the diaspora and making them contribute to their ancestral village. Recently, the sons of Baba Bhagat Singh, who are living in the UK, have turned his ancestral house into a library and reading room in memory of their father, wherein too the initiative was taken by the local Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Committee. With the involvement of political parties and local politicians in such initiatives, money from the diaspora is generated without much difficulty. As the district president of the SAD Party told us: 'NRIs are being motivated; they are even allowed to start schools, hospitals in the name of their late fathers and late parents with their funds.' Needing political and social support for getting their things done in the homeland, the diaspora relies upon people on the ground. The SAD local secretary from another village reflected candidly, 'they cannot get their things done without our support; they contribute to our programmes and in turn we support them whenever they want it.' A mutually beneficial relationship between the diaspora and sections of the local society is apparent here. Of late, due to the emergence of quality high-speed internet and new communication technologies, village WhatsApp groups have been created, putting the village community in constant touch with its diaspora. In many villages, with the support of the diaspora, essential rural infrastructures, such as sewage systems, are being built under the initiative of VDCs without government involvement by prompting funds from the diaspora (Chaba, 2019).
Along with these elements of mutualism, there are also rifts at multiple levels within the diaspora and between the diaspora and local society over the running and success of philanthropic undertakings. The Bilga General Hospital is a typical example. One of the founding local life members of the trust expressed his disappointment unequivocally: '[I] am also one of the founder members. I visited UK three times for the meetings. I have attended their meetings.
[But] our dream is not fulfilled yet.' He critiqued the diaspora domination over the decisionmaking without having an intimate understanding of the ground realities: There is a problem in the management. The main fund came from the NRIs. They dominate. But they can't run this hospital by sitting there. They can't understand the social status, economic status or the culture of the people like us. They can't solve our problems. They ignore us as they have given more money. They think that they will run the hospital.
The displeasure of being ignored and sidelined stood out in his narrative. 6 The decision to appoint Professor Robert Arnott of the Birmingham Medical School as the Chairman of the Board of Governors did not go well with even a section within the core contributing diaspora. Though he appreciates Gian Singh as 'good man with noble intentions', the decision to hand over the hospital administration 'to Board of Governors consisting of only doctors led by the Birmingham Professor' did not make much sense to Paramjit Singh either. Visits of medical students and junior doctors from Birmingham and Leicester, under the 'Birmingham comes to Bilga' initiative, were not felt, by such dissenters, to have produced any positive outcomes.
They select doctors from there to come here. Now two English lady doctors have come here. Have you seen them? They are here for six months or one year… The first issue is the language problem. The patient will not be able to tell his problem, so there will not be proper diagnosis.
This founding NRI life member was also very suspicious about this move, and a lack of trust reverberated in his narrative. He confessed that the hospital has gone into the hands of 'money-minded people' and that their investment meant for the health of the poor has gone in vain. He also felt that the noble gesture of Comrade Kartar Singh donating his land has gone in vain.
I have even heard things about this doctor who is going to give this hospital to Birmingham University. He is our family doctor also. He said to me one day 'brother, we will open old age homes in Jalandhar, Ludhiana. We will open educational institutions. They get money, money for what? We have done this in the hospital; we have done that in the hospital. In this way they exploited everything. Our money has gone in vain.' Apparently, a policy change adopted by the trust in 2010 is at the root of the problem, as indicated by the then Medical Officer of the Bilga General Hospital, who is the subject of Paramjit Singh's ire. He shared his conviction that 'the hospital is on loss; a hospital cannot be run for long on charity, it has to generate at least its running cost. Whenever there is expansion or installation of new infrastructure, we can look for funds from the NRIs.' He reported that the hospital was making an annual 'loss' of almost half a million rupees in the initial years, which has been brought down to `400,000 when we met him in 2009. It was in such a context that the new Board of Governors--'composed of a group of experienced UK and Indian doctors'--has taken over with a specified task of making the hospital 'financially self-sufficient by the end of 2011', by using the hospital 'more effectively', so that future fundraising could be 'confined to development and the purchase of new equipment, vehicles and operations'. 7 In a subsequent visit in 2013, it has been reported that the hospital has started generating profits by then, though marginally, or 'at least the running cost is recovered'. However, this capitalist management principle of payment for services angers the socialist block in the trust to the extent that they have increasingly disassociated themselves from the hospital.
Sustainability was a major issue that worried Paramjit Singh: he was uncertain about what would happen to the hospital in the future. In our meeting with him, Pyara Singh, who was pivotal in establishing the hospital along with Gian Singh Sanghera, also acknowledged this uncertainty. He was more interested in the affairs of the hospital after the death of Gian Singh, visiting Bilga at regular intervals, irrespective of his age and declining health. He hoped that the new arrangement and the overall supervision from the UK, now primarily by the second generation of the founding life members, would keep it going. He saw economic self-sufficiency to be necessary, for which enterprises such as starting a nursing college attached to the hospital had been initiated. At the same time, he highlighted the difficulties in running the hospital, which he cryptically summarised as a 'caste problem' in the village and too much 'political interference'. Such issues disheartened him and punctured his dream of contributing to his ancestral village and its poor people. Paramjit Singh was angered by the fact that instead of being appreciated, the proponents are abused: 'I want appreciation at least; but they abuse us. Everybody feels happy when somebody appreciates his efforts… But now they say this hospital is a white elephant.' In addition, there was the anxiety of the first-and secondgeneration diaspora involved about the diminishing interest among the subsequent generations in the affairs of the faraway hospital. 8 It was all these tensions, practical difficulties of managing the hospital from the Midlands and the need for a strong local professional management that eventually led to the decision of handing over the day-to-day running and management of the hospital to the renowned Christian Medical College (CMC) Ludhiana in 2015. 9 In some ways, bringing an institution like CMC to serve a village, such as Bilga and its surroundings, is seen as a major achievement as it brought a campus of a major Indian medical school into the village and thereby left the hospital in safe hands. The CMC management reportedly intends to expand the hospital to serve the local population and with specialised departments, while the charity will remain in accordance with the funds being provided by a 'league of friends' of the hospital through a joint managing committee.

Conclusion
The foregoing discussion demonstrates that diaspora philanthropy is not just a field of people-to-people affirmative contact alone and driven by nostalgia and unwavering love for homeland.
The state is an active player in the field, and the GoP has attempted not only to bag diasporic transnational resources for local development through a powerful invocation of the subnational identity and ethnic solidarity but also to formalise and governmentalise informal philanthropic flows. However, such statist interventions appear to have often resulted in slowing down the enthusiasm in the diaspora for philanthropic investments for home and jeopardised the status of diaspora philanthropy as an informal parallel network of welfare.
Moreover, the attributed singularity of diaspora is complicated by its particularities, factionalism, marginalities, ideologies and radically different visions of social reform and futuristic aspirations. Meanwhile, it can be observed that diasporic initiatives are giving way to transnational collaborations, with the local society taking the lead in mobilising philanthropic contributions for what the former thought as necessary rural development infrastructures.
The existing literature on diaspora philanthropy has explored the conflicts in projects due to the unequal nature of the relationship between the diaspora and the beneficiary communities, the problem of diaspora proponents setting the priorities without due consultation with local communities and refusing to relinquish control (Dekkers & Rutten, 2011;Dusenbery & Tatla, 2009;Walton-Roberts, 2004). The present study emphasises further complexity due to the political, caste and religious commitments of rival philanthropic factions and the contextualities of the subnational and the local. These experiences also point to the dampening of enthusiasm for philanthropic investments by the diaspora and foreground the historical contingencies and specific sociopolitical circumstances in which diasporic philanthropy is reproduced in Punjab today. Policies aimed to garner more diaspora philanthropic investments should be informed by the ground reality that increasing formalisation and bureaucratisation have hardly served the purpose even when the government offers partnership in planning, cost sharing and implementation.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests
2. The GoP has published a suggestive list of projects, which include projects of water management services covering the entire water circle, various village infrastructure projects, village renewable energy infrastructure, village healthcare and education infrastructure, establishment of citizen service centres with broadband connectivity for providing government and other services, creating common infrastructure for running special programmes such as controlling female feticide, adult literacy programmes, old age homes, schools for physically and mentally challenged, AIDS control, vocational training centres, provision of infrastructure for specialised job-oriented training courses, such as textile and garment manufacturing, agricultural skills and technical skills of various kinds (Plan Scheme NRI 2.35 document, GoP org.uk/BGHCT.php 8. At the same time as these worries regarding the diminishing interest among subsequent generations in the diaspora, new emigration from Punjab continues apace, building upon the existing networks and expanding them to newer locations and groups, recreating the first generation in every period cohort. Also, as recently pointed out by Bentz and Guyot (2021), the transnational political sphere is witnessing considerable overlaps between diaspora politics and immigrant politics; notwithstanding the diaspora as a heterogenerational stock, certain critical events unite the diaspora in reinventing and reifying their homeland ties and emotional bonds-the Operation Bluestar in 1984 (Tatla, 1999) and the recent farmers' movement in India (Bainiwal, 2022) are examples to be cited. 9. The CMC Ludhiana, originally known as the 'North Indian School of Medicine for Christian Women' was founded in 1894 by Dr Edith Mary Brown and a group of Scottish evangelist sisters. Assuming its present name in 1952, the CMC is one of the most reputed medical colleges in India. https://www.cmcludhiana.in/our-story/