The Land Question in India

The Land Question in India PDF Author: Anthony P. D'Costa
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192510924
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
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.

The Land Question in India

The Land Question in India PDF Author: Anthony P. D'Costa
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192510924
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

The Land Question in Neoliberal India

The Land Question in Neoliberal India PDF Author: Varsha Bhagat-Ganguly
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000077918
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
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.

The Land Question in India

The Land Question in India PDF Author: Anthony P. D'Costa
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198792441
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Examines the centrality of land in contemporary development discourse in India and the role of the state in the dispossession of land from peasants and tribal communities. It looks at land acquisition processes, their legal and ethical implications, and the regional diversity of acquisition experiences in India.

Suburban Land Question

Suburban Land Question PDF Author: Richard Harris
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 144262695X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
The purpose of The Suburban Land Question is to identify the common elements of land development in suburban regions around the world.

Dispossession Without Development

Dispossession Without Development PDF Author: Michael Levien
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190859156
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Winner of the 2019 Global and Transnational Sociology Best Book Award, American Sociological Association Winner of the 2019 Political Economy of World System (PEWS) Distinguished Book Award, American Sociological Association Received Honorable Mention for the 2019 Asia/Transnational Book Award, American Sociological Association Since the mid-2000s, India has been beset by widespread farmer protests against land dispossession. Dispossession Without Development demonstrates that beneath these conflicts lay a profound shift in regimes of dispossession. While the postcolonial Indian state dispossessed land mostly for public-sector industry and infrastructure, since the 1990s state governments have become land brokers for private real estate capital. Using the case of a village in Rajasthan that was dispossessed for a private Special Economic Zone, the book ethnographically illustrates the exclusionary trajectory of capitalism driving dispossession in contemporary India. Taking us into the lives of diverse villagers in "Rajpura," the book meticulously documents the destruction of agricultural livelihoods, the marginalization of rural labor, the spatial uneveness of infrastructure provision, and the dramatic consequences of real estate speculation for social inequality and village politics. Illuminating the structural underpinnings of land struggles in contemporary India, this book will resonate in any place where "land grabs" have fueled conflict in recent years.

The Making of Land and the Making of India

The Making of Land and the Making of India PDF Author: Nikita Sud
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019099262X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
What is land and how is it made? In this path-breaking study of sites in western, eastern, and southern India, Nikita Sud argues that land is not simply the solid surface of the earth. It is best understood as a materially and conceptually dynamic realm, intimately tied to the social. As such, land transitions across porous registers of territory, property, authority, the sacred, history and memory, and contested access and exclusion. While states, markets, and politics in post-liberalization India try to make land suitable for 'growth' and 'development', the relationship between the soil and institutions is never straightforward. A state attempting to order a layered topography is frequently stretched into shadowy domains of informality and unsanctioned practices. A market may be advanced, but remains precariously embedded in sociality. Politics could challenge the land-making of the state and markets. It may also effect compromises. Attempts at constructing a durable landed order thus reveal our own (dis)orders. In attempting to 'make' the land, Sud's intriguing study shows how the land simultaneously 'makes' us.

A Field of One's Own

A Field of One's Own PDF Author: Bina Agarwal
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521429269
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
An analysis of gender and property throughout South Asia which argues that the most important economic factor affecting women is the gender gap in command over property.

Land Alienation and Politics of Tribal Exploitation in India

Land Alienation and Politics of Tribal Exploitation in India PDF Author: Suratha Kumar Malik
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811553823
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
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.

Cultivating Knowledge

Cultivating Knowledge PDF Author: Andrew Flachs
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816539634
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
A single seed is more than just the promise of a plant. In rural south India, seeds represent diverging paths toward a sustainable livelihood. Development programs and global agribusiness promote genetically modified seeds and organic certification as a path toward more sustainable cotton production, but these solutions mask a complex web of economic, social, political, and ecological issues that may have consequences as dire as death. In Cultivating Knowledge anthropologist Andrew Flachs shows how rural farmers come to plant genetically modified or certified organic cotton, sometimes during moments of agrarian crisis. Interweaving ethnographic detail, discussions of ecological knowledge, and deep history, Flachs uncovers the unintended consequences of new technologies, which offer great benefits to some—but at others’ expense. Flachs shows that farmers do not make simple cost-benefit analyses when evaluating new technologies and options. Their evaluation of development is a complex and shifting calculation of social meaning, performance, economics, and personal aspiration. Only by understanding this complicated nexus can we begin to understand sustainable agriculture. By comparing the experiences of farmers engaged with these mutually exclusive visions for the future of agriculture, Cultivating Knowledge investigates the human responses to global agrarian change. It illuminates the local impact of global changes: the slow, persistent dangers of pesticides, inequalities in rural life, the aspirations of people who grow fibers sent around the world, the place of ecological knowledge in modern agriculture, and even the complex threat of suicide. It all begins with a seed.

Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement – A Global Assessment for Sustainable Development

Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement – A Global Assessment for Sustainable Development PDF Author: Ephraim Nkonya
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319191683
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 695

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Book Description
This volume deals with land degradation, which is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries and is stretching to about 30% of the total global land area. About three billion people reside in these degraded lands. However, the impact of land degradation is especially severe on livelihoods of the poor who heavily depend on natural resources. The annual global cost of land degradation due to land use and cover change (LUCC) and lower cropland and rangeland productivity is estimated to be about 300 billion USD. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for the largest share (22%) of the total global cost of land degradation. Only about 38% of the cost of land degradation due to LUCC - which accounts for 78% of the US$300 billion loss – is borne by land users and the remaining share (62%) is borne by consumers of ecosystem services off the farm. The results in this volume indicate that reversing land degradation trends makes both economic sense, and has multiple social and environmental benefits. On average, one US dollar investment into restoration of degraded land returns five US dollars. The findings of the country case studies call for increased investments into the rehabilitation and restoration of degraded lands, including through such institutional and policy measures as strengthening community participation for sustainable land management, enhancing government effectiveness and rule of law, improving access to markets and rural services, and securing land tenure. The assessment in this volume has been conducted at a time when there is an elevated interest in private land investments and when global efforts to achieve sustainable development objectives have intensified. In this regard, the results of this volume can contribute significantly to the ongoing policy debate and efforts to design strategies for achieving sustainable development goals and related efforts to address land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.