The everyday politics of India's "land wars" in rural eastern India

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2616366
AutoresKenneth Bo Nielsen (0000-0002-6318-6039, University of Bergen [email protected], autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen2016
Número75
Páginas105-118
Fecha de publicación2016-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFocaal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0920-1297 • E-ISSN: 1558-5263
EditorialBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/fcl.2016.750108
OpenAlexW2410578334
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas19

The large-scale transfer of land from rural communities to private corporations has become a defining feature of India's development trajectory. These land transfers have given rise to a multitude of new "land wars" as dispossessed groups have struggled to retain their land. Yet while much has been written about the political economy of development that underpins this new form of dispossession, the ways in which those threatened with dispossession have sought to mobilize have to a lesser extent been subject to close ethnographic scrutiny. This article argues that an "everyday politics" perspective can enhance our understanding of India's new land wars, using a case from Singur as the starting point. The agenda is twofold. I show how everyday life domains and sociopolitical relations pertaining to caste, class, gender, and party political loyalty were crucial to the making of the Singur movement and its politics. Second, by analyzing the movement in processual terms, I show how struggles over land can be home to a multitude of political meanings and aspirations as participants seek to use new political forums to resculpt everyday sociopolitical relations

Caste · Everyday life · Multitude · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scrutiny · Sociology · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Land Rights and Reforms · Law