Industrialising Rural India: Land, policy and resistance (Routledge Studies of the Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development)

Rapid industrialisation is promoted by many as the most feasible way of rejuvenating 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 indigenous 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 unfold today as India seeks to accelerate 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. Combining 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 challenges in India. This cutting-edge interdisciplinary work will be of interest to scholars working on industrial development and land questions in India and South Asia alongside those with an interest in sociology , political science and development research. Cover 1 Title 6 Copyright 7 Contents 8 List of illustrations 10 List of contributors 11 Acknowledgements 12 PART I Introduction 14 1 Industrialising rural India 16 PART II Policy evolution 32 2 'The dog that didn't bark' (very loudly) – large-scale development projects with little protest in Nehru's India 34 3 From state-led development to embedded neoliberalism: India's industrial and social policies in comparative perspective 53 4 'Should the son of a farmer always remain a farmer?' The ambivalence of industrialisation and resistance in West Bengal 76 PART III Governing nature and society 96 5 Coal as national development in India: transforming landscapes and social relations in the quest for energy security 98 6 A different story of coal: the power of power in Northeast India 120 7 The nature of bauxite mining and Adivasi livelihoods in the industrialisation of Eastern India 136 8 Resource extraction in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum: the continuing marginalisation of Adivasi livelihoods despite decentralisation 153 PART IV The ambiguity of resistance 172 9 Rural industry, the Forest Rights Act, and the performance(s) of proof 174 10 'We will need a passport to enter the site': envisioning land, industrialisation, and the state in Goa 192 Index 205 Land, policy and resistance