This paper discusses the neglected history and evolution of women’s self-help groups in India, highlighting the contrasting political and philosophical influences that have shaped them, including feminist, trade-unionist, voluntarist, co-operativist, and neoliberalist perspectives. It traces the journey of these groups, from their initial formation to their current state of neoliberal co-option, and discusses possible ways of reclamation. The paper also examines the histroy and institutional dynamics involved in coining the name by which they are officially referred- ‘self-help groups’ (SHGs), and its political and ontological implications, suggesting that it erases women’s subjectivities and limits alternative ways of organizing, while imposing Western colonialist imaginations of change and development. We discuss the ways in which the co-option of these groups constrains their transformative potential, drawing on the concepts of Slavoj Žižek and Jacques Lacan. Additionally, we use postcolonial feminist theory and related literature to contextualize critiques of entrepreneurship as it relates to women’s self-help groups in India. We discuss a case study of a federation of women’s self-help groups in Eastern India and its unequal exploitative relationship with powerful organizational actors which emerged through field-based research and in-depth qualitative interviews which the first author carried out with women involved in these groups. We highlight the discontent and resistance among women in these groups regarding their exploitation by such powerful actors. We suggest ways to reimagine the women’s self-help groups and towards reclaiming their potential for transformation.
