Industrialising Rural India: Land, Policy and Resistance PDF
Preview Industrialising Rural India: Land, Policy and Resistance
This crisply edited volume addresses compelling questions concerning the trans- formation of India’s economy: Why does development-induced displacement generate differing levels – and types – of political resistance? To what extent have so- called ‘tribal’ communities been able to realize new rights accorded to them? How have India’s grassroots democratic institutions, and its diverse array of social move- ments, responded to the challenges posed by ‘extractive’ industries, particularly mining? Some chapters address contemporary cases and confine themselves to a single region; others are broader in scope, temporally or geographically. Though diverse in their perspectives and preoccupations, the authors share one indispensible trait: they probe ambiguities, rather than wishing them away. Rob Jenkins, Professor of Political Science, Hunter College & The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), USA The fast growing economy in India is somewhat of a paradox. The growth is in the service sector and in the building industry, not in manufacture, not in mineral pro- duction. Conscious of this, the Indian State and Corporate Capital now try to exploit every possible natural resource for their industrial production and exports. For long the need for state land expropriation was beyond questioning. Now it is increasingly contested by people threatened by loss of land and forest. With educa- tion and political practicing of citizens’ democratic rights, and with laws to protect forest people, people now increasingly fight back with all possible means, legal, political, non-violent or even violent. India’s democracy is deepening and broad- ening bit by bit but not without many obstacles. This book gives a balanced account of ground realities in many concrete case studies. It helps us to grasp the odds of a sustainable development and not just dev- astating destruction of human lives and of nature. Staffan Lindberg, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Lund University, Sweden India’s quest to industrialize has been a fraught one. This collection of essays by a new generation of scholarship ably captures the complicated plots and troubling narratives about popular resistance, dispossession, displacement, Special Economic Zones and the consequences of extractive industries. Industrialization, however, as the editors are keen to remind us, also announces new beginnings and debates for democracy, liveli- hoods and alternative imaginations over what constitutes meaningful development. Critiques and challenges are not without hope. This is a very significant contribution, refreshing, seminal, empirically rich and tells us, above all else, that environmental politics and the everyday worlds of the disempowered give us a full ring side view into how neo-liberal economic growth uncurls on the ground. Rohan D’Souza, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, Japan. Author of Drowned and Dammed: Colonial Capitalism and Flood Control in Eastern India (2006) As the slogan of ‘Make in India’ is amplified across the country, it sets in motion fresh waves of land alienation, cultural dispossession and ecological devastation. Industrialising Rural India offers a close and nuanced analysis of these processes, placing them within the nation’s long engagement with capital-intensive develop- ment and its current quest for global power. Attentive to the diversity of temporal and spatial trajectories, this important collection helps us understand the complex- ities of state-led capitalism and appreciate all the more the resistance it encounters on the ground. Recommended reading for everyone interested in Indian political economy and ecology. Amita Baviskar, Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, India Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group http://tayiordndfrancis.com Industrialising Rural India Rapid industrialisation is promoted by many as the most feasible way of rejuve- nating the Indian economy, and as a way of generating employment on a large scale. At the same time, the transfer of land from rural communities and indi- genous groups for industrial parks, mining, or Special Economic Zones has emerged as perhaps the most explosive issue in India over the past decade. Industrialising Rural India sheds light on crucial political and social dynamics that are unfolding today as India seeks to accelerate its industrial growth. The volume examines key aspects that are implicated in current processes of industrialisation in rural India, including the evolution of industrial and related policies; the contested role of land transfers, dispossession, and the destruction of the natural resource base more generally; and the popular resistance against industrial projects, extractive industries and Special Economic Zones. Combin- ing the work of scholars long established in their respective fields with the refreshing approach of younger scholars, Industrialising Rural India seeks to chart new ways in the study of contemporary industrialisation and its associated chal- lenges in India. Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology at the University of Bergen, Norway. Patrik Oskarsson is a Researcher at the Department of Rural and Urban Devel- opment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden. Routledge Studies of the Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development African Artisanal Mining from the Inside Out Access, norms and power in Congo’s gold sector Sarah Geenan Mountain Movers Mining, sustainability and the agents of change Daniel M. Franks Responsible Mining Key concepts for industry integrity Sara Bice Mining in Latin America Critical approaches to the new extraction Edited by Kalowatie Deonandan and Michael L. Dougherty Industrialising Rural India Land, policy and resistance Edited by Kenneth Bo Nielsen and Patrik Oskarsson www.routledge.com/series/REISD Industrialising Rural India Land, policy and resistance Edited by Kenneth Bo Nielsen and Patrik Oskarsson First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Kenneth Bo Nielsen and Patrik Oskarsson selection and editorial matter, individual chapters, the contributors The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing- in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Names: Oskarsson, Patrik, editor. | Nielsen, Kenneth Bo, editor. Title: Industrialising rural India : land, policy and resistance / edited by Patrik Oskarsson and Kenneth Bo Nielsen. Description: London ; New York : Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016016526| ISBN 9781138936713 (hbk) | ISBN 9781315676678 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Rural development–India. | Industrialization–India. | Land use, Rural–India. Classification: LCC HN690.Z9 C655327 2017 | DDC 307.1/4120954–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016016526 ISBN: 978-1-138-93671-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-67667-8 (ebk) Typeset in Goudy by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear Contents List of illustrations ix List of contributors x Acknowledgements xi PART I Introduction 1 1 Industrialising rural India 3 PATRIK OSKARSSON AND KENNETH BO NIELSEN PART II Policy evolution 19 2 ‘The dog that didn’t bark’ (very loudly) – large- scale development projects with little protest in Nehru’s India 21 JøRGEN DIGE PEDERSEN 3 From state- led development to embedded neoliberalism: India’s industrial and social policies in comparative perspective 40 STEIN SUNDSTøL ERIKSEN 4 ‘Should the son of a farmer always remain a farmer?’ The ambivalence of industrialisation and resistance in West Bengal 63 SARASIJ MAJUMDER AND KENNETH BO NIELSEN viii Contents PART III Governing nature and society 83 5 Coal as national development in India: transforming landscapes and social relations in the quest for energy security 85 KUNTALA LAHIRI- DUTT 6 A different story of coal: the power of power in Northeast India 107 BENGT G. KARLSSON 7 The nature of bauxite mining and Adivasi livelihoods in the industrialisation of Eastern India 123 PATRIK OSKARSSON 8 Resource extraction in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum: the continuing marginalisation of Adivasi livelihoods despite decentralisation 140 SIDDHARTH SAREEN PART IV The ambiguity of resistance 159 9 Rural industry, the Forest Rights Act, and the performance(s) of proof 161 PRAKRUTI RAMESH 10 ‘We will need a passport to enter the site’: envisioning land, industrialisation, and the state in Goa 179 HEATHER PLUMRIDGE BEDI Index 192 Illustrations Figure 6.1 Mural in the town of Margherita in upper Assam 107 Tables 3.1 Economic growth in India 45 3.2 Structure of output (percentage share in GDP) 45 3.3 Product market regulation in India: an international comparison 48 3.4 India’s economic freedom, 1970–2008 49 3.5 Trends in social sector expenditure (SSE) of central and state governments combined, as share of GDP 51 3.6 Social protection expenditure for selected low and middle- income countries of the Asia Pacific for 2009 (as percentage of GDP) 52 5.1 Production of coal in four economies, 2014 (million tonnes) 95 5.2 Labour in diverse coal worlds in India (2014) 98
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