This book is the outcome of the National Seminar on “Displacement, Environment and Tribal life as a Human Right Perspective” organized by the Department of Anthropology, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwa-Vidyalaya, Maharashtra in collaboration with the Indian Council of Social Science Research in April 2016. It contains nine selected papers from the concerned expert to understand the impact of a development projects on tribal life from a human rights perspective.

In the past ten years or so, displacement by development projects has gone on almost untamed under the globalization pressures to meet the demand for land from local and increasingly foreign investors. Focusing on India, this book looks at the complex issue of resettling people who are displaced for the sake of development. The book discusses how the affected farming communities are fiercely opposing the development projects that often leave them worse off than before, and how this conflict is a matter of serious concern for the planners, as it could discourage potential capital inflows and put India’s growth trajectory into jeopardy. It analyses the challenge of protecting the interests of farmers, and at the same time ensuring that these issues do not hinder the path of development. The book goes on to highlight the emerging approaches to resettlement that promise a more equitable development outcome. A timely analysis of displacement and resettlement, this book has an appeal beyond South Asian Studies alone. It is of interest to policy makers, planners, administrators, and scholars in the field of resettlement and development studies.

A crucial issue that confronts development in South Asia is how to build a better life for people displaced by infrastructure development projects. This book comprises recent displacement and resettlement case studies conducted by eight anthropologists in South Asia. Each contributor wrote around the key theme of the book: Is involuntary resettlement a development opportunity for those displaced by development interventions? In this book, "resettlement" carries a broader meaning to include physical and economic displacement, restricted access to public land such as forests and parks, relocation, income rehabilitation, and self-relocation. The book demonstrates that despite significant progress in national policies, laws, and regulations, their application still requires more commitment, adequate resources, and better supervision.

This book explores tribal land alienation problems in India and tribal agitation against land encroachment and alienation. It discusses India’s tribal land problem and explains how despite legislation to protect tribal lands, the problem has not been resolved since neither the letter nor the spirit of the law has been implemented. Due to continuous land encroachment and alienation by outsiders, the negligence of the revenue administration and the apathy of the central and state government, the situation concerning tribal land in the country have became precarious. In this context, the book highlights the process of land estrangement among the tribes and the related movements, focusing on the Narayanpatna land movement in the Koraput district of Odisha. It argues that land remains a central issue that is extremely important for tribes as it directly affects their life, livelihood, freedom and development, and that the cultural attachment of tribes and their views regarding the idea of ‘place’ (land) furnishes crucial perspectives in understanding the politics of collective resistance. It also discusses the politicization of group identity and material interest against the outside authority as the basis of the unrest among the tribes, and when the grudges of the people are hardened due to insensitivity and tyranny, the extent of tribal resistance escalates, leading to conflict between the state and its own people. Given its scope, this book is a valuable resource for students and research scholars, as well as for policymakers and anyone interested in Indian democracy and development in general, and tribal problems, issues and politics in particular.

This study describes and analyses the new social movements that have arisen in India over the past two decades, in particular the anti-caste movement (of both the untouchables and the lower-middle castes), the women's liberation movement, the farmers' movement (centred on struggles arising out of their integration into a state-controlled capitalist market), and the environmental movements (opposition to destructive development, including resistance to big dam projects and the search for alternatives). Rooted in participant observation, it focuses on the ideologies and self-understanding of the movements themselves. The central themes of this book are the origin of movements in the socio-economic contradictions of post-independence India; their effect on political developments, in particular the disintegration of Congress hegemony; their relation to "traditional Marxist" theory and Communist practice; and their groping toward a synthesis of theory and practice that constitutes a new social vision distinct from traditional Marxism.

This book offers a multidimensional comparative analysis of two large groups of the world's displaced populations : resettlers uprooted by development and refugees fleeing military conflicts or natural calamities. The authors explore common central issues: the condition of being "displaced," the risks of impoverishment and destitu-tion, the rights and entitlements of those uprooted, and, most important, the means of reconstruction of their livelihoods. (Adapté de l'Introduction).

The American West, blessed with an abundance of earth and sky but cursed with a scarcity of life's most fundamental need, has long dreamed of harnessing all its rivers to produce unlimited wealth and power. In Rivers of Empire, award-winning historian Donald Worster tells the story of this dream and its outcome. He shows how, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Mormons were the first attempting to make that dream a reality, damming and diverting rivers to irrigate their land. He follows this intriguing history through the 1930s, when the federal government built hundreds of dams on every major western river, thereby laying the foundation for the cities and farms, money and power of today's West. Yet while these cities have become paradigms of modern American urban centers, and the farms successful high-tech enterprises, Worster reminds us that the costs have been extremely high. Along with the wealth has come massive ecological damage, a redistribution of power to bureaucratic and economic elites, and a class conflict still on the upswing. As a result, the future of this "hydraulic West" is increasingly uncertain, as water continues to be a scarce resource, inadequate to the demand, and declining in quality.

This book explores the issue of development-induced resettlement, with a particular emphasis on the humanitarian, legal, and social aspects of this problem. Today, so-called 'development-induced displacement and resettlement' (DIDR) is one of the dominant causes of internal spatial mobility worldwide. Each year over 15 million people are forced to abandon their homes to make space for economic development infrastructure. The construction of dams and irrigation projects, the expansion of communication networks, urbanization and re-urbanization, the extraction and transportation of mineral resources, forced evictions in urban areas, and population redistribution schemes count among the many possible causes.Terminski aims to present the issue of development-caused displacement as a highly diverse, global social problem occurring in all regions of the world. As a human rights issue it poses a challenge to public international law and to institutions providing humanitarian assistance. A significant part of this book is devoted to the current dynamics of development-caused resettlement in Europe, which has been neglected in the academic literature so far.