Land Dispossession and Everyday Politics in Rural Eastern India

Kenneth Bo Nielsen

Description

An important empirical and ethnographic contribution to the anthropological understanding of the localized dynamics of India’s new land wars

Over the past decade India has witnessed a number of new land wars that have centred crucially on the often forcible transfer of land from small farmers or indigenous groups to private companies. Among these many localized and dispersed land conflicts, 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’ is about the movement of Singur’s unwilling farmers to retain and reclaim their farmland. The book analyses the practical, representational and political work that the unwilling farmers engaged in as they have sought to mobilize public opinion; represent and justify their claims to land to a larger public; forge useful political alliances; engage and manoeuvre the legal system; navigate internal differences and discrepant interests; and simply keep the movement together on the ground. How did Singur’s unwilling farmers frame their movement to save the farmland? Which notions of development and justice did they draw on? How did they navigate everyday social cleavages and conflicts along the lines of caste, class and gender? Who led, who followed, and who was silenced? By engaging these questions through the prism of everyday politics, ‘Land Dispossession and Everyday Politics in Rural Eastern India’ makes an important empirical and ethnographic contribution to the still-limited anthropological understanding of the localized dynamics of India’s new land wars.

List of Tables; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; Chapter 1: Situating Singur; Chapter 2: Land, Identity, and the Politics of Representation; Chapter 3: Law, Judicialisation and the Politics of Waiting; Chapter 4: Class, Caste and Community; Chapter 5: Gendered Mobilisation: Women as Activists and Symbols; Chapter 6: Activist Leadership; Chapter 7: Ma, Mati, Manush - Mamata; Conclusion; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Rural
• Sociology
• Rural area
• Social sciences
• Campagne

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 22 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783087495
• Langue: English

Extrait

Land Dispossession and Everyday Politics in Rural Eastern India
Land Dispossession and Everyday Politics in Rural Eastern India
Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2018
by ANTHEM PRESS
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or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
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© Kenneth Bo Nielsen 2018

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
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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: Nielsen, Kenneth Bo, author.
Title: Land dispossession and everyday politics in rural Eastern India / Kenneth Bo Nielsen.
Description: London; New York, NY: Anthem Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017058323 | ISBN 9781783087471 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Land tenure – India – Singur. | Land use, Rural – India – Singur. | Farmers – Political activity – India – Singur. | Agriculture and state – India – Singur. | Protest movements – India – Singur. | Singur (India) – Social conditions.
Classification: LCC HD880.S56 N54 2018 | DDC 333.3/15414–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017058323

ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-747-1 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-747-1 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
List of Tables

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations
Introduction Chapter One Situating Singur Chapter Two Land, Identity and the Politics of Representation Chapter Three Law, Judicialization and the Politics of Waiting Chapter Four Class, Caste and Community Chapter Five Gendered Mobilization: Women as Activists and Symbols Chapter Six Activist Leadership Chapter Seven Ma, Mati, Manush – Mamata Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
TABLES
1.1 ‘Compensation’ payable to land losers in Singur

1.2 The impact of the land acquisition in the five mouzas of the project-affected area

1.3 Population of Shantipara

1.4 Households by caste in Shantipara

1.5 Population of Nadipara

1.6 Households by caste in Nadipara

3.1 Consent status as of December 2006 as per the LF government

4.1 Frequency of household assets per 100 households in Nadipara and Shantipara
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book has grown out of my PhD research on the Singur movement, a project on which I embarked in late 2006 while working at the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) in Oslo. At SUM, special thanks go to Kristi Anne Stølen, Bente Herstad, Desmond McNeill, Kristoffer Ring, Gitte Egenberg and to the members of Dan Banik’s research group on ‘Poverty and Development’. SUM’s Research School, coordinated by Maren Aase, also provided an excellent venue for testing out new ideas.
Since this book has been a long time in the making, the list of people who have contributed to it – directly or indirectly – has grown very long, too long, alas, to reproduce here in full. Most of the chapters have been presented in draft form at conferences in Melbourne, Tromsø, Bergen, Oslo, Trondheim, Copenhagen, Århus, Amsterdam, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Uppsala, Stockholm, Lund, Zürich, Helsinki, Yale and Nottingham. I am grateful to the many conference organizers, commentators and participants who have offered valuable input and feedback along the way. I want to thank in particular Salim Lakha, Pradeep Taneja, Axel Borchgrevink, Mahesh Rangarajan, Rohan D’Souza, Anthony D’Costa, Achin Chakraborty, Uwe Skoda, G. Krishna Reddy, Dag Erik Berg, Srila Roy and Lars Eklund for giving me the opportunity to present aspects of my work at these venues. The discussion of caste benefited from a critical exchange involving Uday Chandra , Praskanva Sinharay, Sarbani Bandyopadhyay, Dwaipayan Sen, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay , Partha Chatterjee and many others. I am also grateful to Manuela Ciotti , Kristian Bjørkdal, Tanja Winther, K. Sivaramakrishnan, Harold Wilhite, Patrik Oskarsson, Michael Levien , Heather P. Bedi , M. Rajshekhar, Gordon Woodman, Sarasij Majumder and Anand Vaidya for input that has in crucial ways changed the ways in which I have looked at different aspects of the Singur movement over time.
In Oslo, the unique Oslo South Asia Symposium has provided a tremendously stimulating environment in which to present and discuss work in progress. Whenever my analyses of the Singur material developed in too outlandish a manner, the South Asia Symposium was there to remind me of the virtues of remaining committed to the devil in the ethnographic detail. Thanks especially to ‘sympers’ Pamela Price , Claus Peter Zoller, Ute Hüsken, Francesca R. Jensenius, Annika Wetlesen, Guro Aandahl, Kathinka Frøystad, Lars Martin Fosse, Guro Samuelsen, Moumita Sen, Karina Standal, Jostein Jakobsen, Anne Waldrop and Ruth Schmidt; to my PhD supervisors, Arild Engelsen Ruud and Susanne Brandtstädter; and to Lucia Michelutti and Sirpa Tenhunen. Lars Tore Flåten, Geir Heierstad and Alf Gunvald Nilsen helped make the task easier by meeting up for coffee at the right moments and by providing encouragement and critical academic input.
Thanks also to Stig Toft Madsen for introducing me to South Asia studies in the first place and for being my mentor over the past many years; to Dayabati Roy for her generous help, friendship and assistance in Kolkata; to Parthasarathi Banerjee for his kindness; to my field assistant and co-researcher Prabir Neogi for his dedicated work and perseverance; and to the team at Anthem Press for working overtime to finalize the book with me. To my hosts, friends and interlocutors in Singur a warm thanks for opening your homes to me and letting me hang around for such a long time. You will be forever in my heart. Hilde, Thomas, Mathias and ‘Maggie’, the most important people in my life – this is for you.
ABBREVIATIONS APDR Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights BDO Block development office BJP Bharatiya Janata Party BPL Below the poverty line CPI(M) Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M-L)ND Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) New Democracy CrPC Criminal procedure code DM District magistrate FIAN Food First Information and Action Network IMSE Institute for Motivating Self-Employment INR Indian rupee INTTUC Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress JD(S) Janata Dal (Secular) KRRS Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha LF Left Front MKP Majur Kranti Parishad MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly MP Member of Parliament NAPM National Alliance of People’s Movements NBA Narmada Bachao Andolan NGO Non-governmental organization NREGA National Rural Employment Guarantee Act OBC Other Backward Classes PBKJJJRC Paschim Banga Krishi Jomi Jibon Jibika Raksha Committee PBKMS Paschim Banga Khet Majur Samiti PCFS People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty PDS Party for Democratic Socialism PIL Public interest litigation RSP Revolutionary Socialist Party SABKMS Singur Akranta Bargadar Khet Majur Samiti SC Scheduled Caste SEZ Special economic zone SFI Student Federation of India SKJRC Singur Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee SSKBM Shilpi Sanskritik Karmi o Budhijibi Manch ST Scheduled tribe SUCI Socialist Unity Centre of India TMC Trinamool Congress WBHDR West Bengal Human Development Report WBIDC West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation
INTRODUCTION
On the morning of 31 August 2016, hundreds of villagers in West Bengal’s Singur area gathered in front of their televisions. After several hours of waiting in tense anticipation, the villagers burst out in jubilation. Soon, men, women and children emerged from their houses to congratulate each other as they danced, cheered and greeted their neighbours and friends with green gulal (coloured powder) and sweets.
The cause of the emotional celebration was a news flash that announced that the Supreme Court of India had just quashed a land acquisition that had taken place in Singur ten years earlier, when 997 acres of fertile farmland had been expropriated by the then-incumbent Left Front (LF) state government. Many of the local landowners – popularly called ‘unwilling farmers’ by the media because of their unwillingness to comply with the land acquisition – had mobilized to stop the land acquisition from going ahead, but to no avail. In December 2006 their farmland had been fenced, walled and handed over to the private company Tata Motors, which had built a car factory on it. The land losers, though, had not given up and had continued their movement, which eventually led to Tata Motors abandoning Singur in 2008. But their land had remained walled and inaccessible even after Tata’s departure. On this day, however, the Supreme Court had declared the land acquisition to be illegal and had ordered the state government to take possession of the land and return it to its erstwhile owners within 12 weeks. A decade after having been deprived of their land, the jubilant villag