Looks at the nuances of land and resource politics and summarizes the long-standing land acquisition and mining debate.

This book derives from research and fieldwork in the rural and tribal hinterland of India, particularly in the mineral rich states. It looks at the nuances of land and resource politics and summarizes the long-standing land acquisition and mining debate. It discusses the relevant theoretical arguments from inter-disciplinary perspectives and develops an argument through the case study of Singrauli, a region in Madhya Pradesh in India, that has seen various 'regimes of dispossession' in the last six decades in India. It looks at the legal and policy arguments around right to property, 'fair' compensation, public purpose and the resource curse debate, and at contested 'spaces' (left wing extremism) and resource-capital relationships.

""Deals with the issues at the intersecting domains of economics and politics"--Provided by publisher"--

The need to understand regional variation in politics and political economy, and how these have contributed to different developmental outcomes across various parts of India, remains pressing. It was suggested in the early 1960s that in India the central government was largely under the control of a national capitalist class, while the states were dominated by landed interests. Does such a formulation hold ground today? With increasing political mobilization among lower classes and castes and the diffusion of economic power to the state level after the reforms, how can variation in regional development be characterized? This volume aims to answer these questions by studying aspects of macro-economy, land, labour and employment from a variety of analytical and disciplinary perspectives. It offers rich analyses of economic growth viewed through the lenses of caste, regional politics and public investment, while also looking at long-term trends in employment and wages in the public sector, and the consequences of legal and policy reform.

This book discusses the nuances of corridor development in India and its implications on land acquisition and displacement. It explores the complexities of land related conflicts and its socio-economic impacts on people’s lives. Examining the evolution of a few corridors of national importance like the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, Yamuna Expressway, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, and Pune-Mumbai Expressway, the volume provides a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of corridor development and regional growth. The book discusses how policies relating to land acquisition result in political, economic, legal and psychological hardships. The authors, using primary and secondary data, assess the socio-economic implications of land-acquisition on agriculture, employment, environment, demography, and land utilization along the regions touching these corridors. The work further discusses sustainable interventions in land acquisition practices to ensure equity of land and resources for vulnerable communities. The book will be useful for students and researchers of public policy, development studies, economics, urban and regional development studies and sociology. It will also be of interest to academicians, regional planners, and those working in the field of land development, resettlement and rehabilitation.

Over the past decade India has witnessed a number of land wars that have centred crucially on the often forcible transfer of land from small farmers or indigenous groups to private companies. Among these, the land war that erupted in Singur, West Bengal, in 2006, went on to make national headlines and become paradigmatic of many of the challenges and social conflicts that arise when a state-led policy of swiftly transferring land to private sector companies encounters resistance on the ground. Land Dispossession and Everyday Politics in Rural Eastern India analyses the movement by Singur’s so-called unwilling farmers to retain and reclaim their farmland. By foregrounding the everyday politics of popular mobilization, the book sheds new light on the movement’s internal politics as well as on contentious issues rooted in everyday caste, class and gender relations.

Compulsory land acquisition and involuntary displacement of communities for a larger public purpose captures the tension of development in the modern state, with the need to balance the interests of the majority while protecting the rights of the minority. In India, informal estimates of involuntary resettlement are estimated to be around 50 million people over the last five decades, and three-fourths of those displaced still face an uncertain future. Growing public concern over the long-term consequences of this has led to greater scrutiny of the rehabilitation and resettlement process, particularly for large development projects. This book examines a number of new policy formulations put in place at both the central and state levels, looking at land acquisition procedures and norms for rehabilitation and resettlement of communities. The book combines a theoretical analysis of the proposed regulatory framework with detailed case studies that examine the application of these norms in specific geographic contexts across the country. It brings together contributory analysis by some of the country’s most engaged administrators, academics, and activists in the field, and is a useful contribution to Development Studies.

This book discusses development and land acquisitions in India and analyzes a conceptual framework based on “paradox of values” and “plural value of land.” The research links the issue of valuation to its roots in classic economic theory and to its individual perception. The project offers an insightful perspective on current challenges of urbanization and development in the Global South, where land use regimes are in a highly dynamic transition to allow for urban amenities, housing and industrial land. The author concludes with a derived scheme or framework that addresses various potentials to better address values of land during land acquisition. It is an ideal book for anyone interested in land markets, land appraisal and land economics and land acquisition in the Global South.

This volume takes a fresh look at the land question in India. Instead of re-engaging in the rich transition debate in which the transformation of agriculture is seen as a necessary historical step to usher in dynamic capitalist (or socialist) development, this collection critically examines the centrality of land in contemporary development discourse in India. Consequently, the focus is on the role of the state in pushing a process of dispossession of peasants through direct expropriation for developmental purposes such as acquisition of land by (local) states for infrastructure development and to support accumulation strategies of private business through industrialization. Land in India is sought for non-agricultural purposes such as purchasing land to reduce risk and real estate development. Land is also central to tribal communities (adivasis), whose livelihoods depend on it and on a moral economy that is independent of any price-driven markets. Adivasis tend to hold on to such property, not as individual owners for profit, but for collective security and to protect a way of life. Thus land, notwithstanding its role in the accumulation process, has been, and continues to be, a turbulent arena in which classes, castes, and communities are in conflict with each other, with the state, and with capital, jockeying to determine the terms and conditions of land transactions or their prevention, through both market and non-market mechanisms. The volume goes beyond the traditional political economy of the agrarian transition question, and deals with, inter alia, distributional conflicts arising from acquisition of land by the state for capital accumulation on the one hand and its commodification on the other. It provides new analytical insights into the land acquisition processes, their legal-institutional and ethical implications, and the multifaceted regional diversity of acquisition experiences in India.

This book examines the land question in neoliberal India based on a cohesive framework focusing on socio-legal and judicial interactions in a point of departure from the political-economy approach to land issues. It sheds light on several complex aspects of land matters in India and evolves a critical and multi-dimensional discourse by mapping out exchanges between social and political actors, the State, elites, citizenry, and the legal battle or judicial interpretations on land as right to property. Based on the themes of socio-legal policy and perspective on ‘land’ on the one hand and jurisprudence on the land question on the other, the volume discusses topics such as conclusive land titling; urban land governance; governance of forest land; land-leasing practices, policies, and interventions from the perspective of women; land acquisition policies and laws; how land matters interface with environmental issues; and judicial debates on ‘compensation’ against land acquisitions. It covers a wide range of case studies from all over India by bringing together specialists from across backgrounds. Comprehensive and topical, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of development studies, political studies, law, sociology, political economy, and public policy, as well as to professionals in NGOs, civil society organisations, think tanks, planning and public administration, lawyers, civil services and training institutes, and judicial and forest academies. Those working on rural and urban land issues in India, land management, land governance, environmental laws and governance, property rights, resource conflicts, social work, and rural development will find this book to be of special interest.