Abstract

Social capital and community resilience have become increasingly important concepts for understanding how societies respond to crises such as pandemics natural disasters economic disruptions displacement and environmental emergencies. In contemporary India diverse communities have repeatedly demonstrated the importance of interpersonal relationships mutual trust collective action informal networks voluntary organisations neighbourhood associations and local institutions in responding to crises. This paper examines the relationship between social capital and community resilience with particular emphasis on lessons emerging from contemporary Indian experiences. The study adopts a qualitative research design based on secondary sources including scholarly literature institutional reports policy documents and recent research concerning disaster response public health emergencies community participation and social resilience. The analysis suggests that social capital strengthens resilience t