Abstract
The edited book carried out with a special focus on politics and land acquisition has parry attention from the possibilities of market-oriented methodologies that are becoming relevant because of the booming land markets. During the recent years, the land has affected constituent decisions and political fortunes and stays one of the most difficult confronting the nation. It aims to nudge the discussion towards a better understanding of the complementary strengths of state and market-led approaches to the many problems of land in rural and urban India. Featuring original essays from leading analysts, this book looks at the agrarian crisis and urbanisation, laws and policies, displacement and compensation, factories and housing, cooperation and conflict, and other vital issues affecting land at the regional and national levels. These numerous lines of enquiry make this book a critical and objective commentary on contemporary India and its continuous economic, socio-political and legal struggles with the land.
The book consists of three parts with twelve articles or chapters relating to different issues of land and public policy. The first part, titled ‘The challenge of land’ argues that land reform was one of the most unique things on the large and difficult plan of the newly independent Indian country. The more important and significant policy/action by the independent Indian state on land were acquisition rather than reform. The independent Indian state policies on land were fundamentally contradictory. It gave land with one hand and took land with the other. It also analyses the parliamentary discussions on land and most combative issue on land acquisition in India.
The second part, titled ‘A variety of land markets’ contends that the cost of land rise comes from a mismatch between supply and demand. The supply is more or less fixed, whereas the demand from all the parties is increasing. The land was consistently a significant status, its status value probably increased further with the shortage. In addition, rising income and wealth inequality enabled India’s upper class and proto-upper-class families to drive up prices for everyone else. This new price regime is a new condition and seems to be not a bubble but rather an auxiliary change. The third part, titled ‘A range of land policies’ underlined that India’s new land markets, particularly their extraordinary costs are starting to create various institutional, network and individual reactions. When the national level response felt was an old style, over–inclusive, paternalistic and purely political new acquisition law to be clear to the market changes that were occurring, then the neighbouring and territorial governments are by and large more innovative and versatile.
Part I: The Challenge of Land
Chapter 1 in this volume titled as ‘Land, poverty and displacement: The Indian melody’ by Abhirup Sarkar observes that to reduce poverty, there is a serious necessity of increasing the availability of food in India. To increase productivity, it is necessary to build large irrigation facilities, which are likely to displace people and increase poverty. The chapter argues that large irrigation projects in the past have led to massive displacement of the poor and have actually increased poverty. The other way out is industrialisation which gives work to the poor in the urban segment, which would expand their capacity to purchase food from the universal market The author opined that in a vastly populated country like India, land emerges as a major constraint to development and removal of poverty and it requires more research.
In chapter 2, Subrata K. Mitra examined various reform measures implemented such as abolishing zamindari, tenancy reform, land ceiling laws and the policy tools especially the green revolution that was used in India’s post-independence period. With regard to agriculture, India, like other developing countries has had access to the innovations of the high yielding variety (HYY), which made the breakthrough in food production possible in the 1960s. However, poverty still persists and the dilemma between the need for rapid growth and the imperative of social equity still marks the process of development in India.
Third chapter titled ‘Debating land: The Indian parliament and the question of the land’ by Ronojoy Sen examined the long arc of the discussion on land starting with the constituent assembly to the amendments proposed and subsequent parliamentary interventions, including the right to fair compensation and transparency in land acquisition, rehabilitation, and the resettlement act (LARR) passed in 2013. Ironically, the curtailing of the state’s power to procure land with institutionalisation of safeguards on land ownership in recent years has also been done in the name of farmers.
The fourth chapter follows the Land acquisition in India. The political economy of changing the law’ by Sanjoy Chakravorty made an attempt to answer whether the Indian state seriously mishandling past land acquisitions is well established. The contention is that the Indian state will continue to mishandle future land acquisitions. The content is presented in three parts. The first part is findings from 60 years of land acquisitions and conversions, the second part provide details on the new land acquisition law and its economic challenges, and the third part highlight about political economy.
Part II: A Variety of Land Markets
Chapter 5 in this volume titled ‘How the market mechanism can be utilised in land acquisition’ is sorted out in five sections. The first section deals with the status of land market and the challenges, and the second section focusses on the case of Sanand in Gujarat. The third section explained the case of Foshan, a new town in Guangdong province, China. The fourth section of the chapter deals with the significance of land markets and the fifth section focuses on the role of local innovative practices and markets in improving the performance of land acquisition in India and China.
The sixth chapter written by Sojin Shin, titled ‘Land making and industry making in Tamil Nadu’ focused on the higher level of land acquisition and the state’s land management in Tamil Nadu. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the political economy in managing lands for industrialisation in Tamil Nadu. The second part focused on how the state and society bargain over land conflicts where large scale investment projects are involved. A case study in a village of Thiruvallur district is also additionally introduced.
Chapter 7 titled ‘Unpacking the double movement: Contentious land acquisition in India’ examined with empirical evidence on the protest against land acquisition in the states of Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. The chapter examined the Polanyian conception of the double movement and its implications for understanding land acquisition. It also analysed the contestations against land acquisition in India to highlight the farmers’ articulated grievances and the state’s responses. It is also outlined some explanations that link the character of the protests to pre-existing ties with the market, state and politics. Chapter 8 provides insights on the locational politics by focusing on the Khed SEZ, located in the western region of Maharashtra. The author distinguishes the nuanced types of land transformation in Khed, where no securing occurred and among different issues, shows how station relations are being recalibrated because of the land market.
Part III: A Range of Land policies
Chapter 9 examined structural, regulatory and information-driven distortions, and their negative consequences on developing credit market land of India. The authors argue that one of the main reasons for the vitality of developed national economies is their policy structure that transforms a dead asset like land into live capital. There are major issues that operate at the local urban scale and have serious implications for urban planning and development. Kala Seetharam Sridhar discussed in chapter 10 about urban land issues and rent control with two case studies using rare ward level data in Bangalore and Mumbai. The research in this chapter shows that attempts by India’s policymakers to fix problems with housing affordability may be futile unless the underlying causes of the housing scarcity are addressed.
Subhomoy Bhattacharjee discussed in chapter 11 about a core paradox on land in India—that state actions themselves create new problems and unleash a range of negative reactions at the scale of both marginal farms and large land blocks that are Government owned. Chapter 12 titled ‘Land in India: Meddling in muddled markets’ written by Amitendu Palit focussed on the serious challenges of converting agriculture land to non-agricultural use, especially after the passage of the new acquisition law (LARR). The author concludes that the law has unreasonable impacts mainly by making the state an even bigger player and thereby a major hindrance to the development of a well-functioning land market in India.
In this book, all the authors contributed good quality work relating to critical contemporary issues pertaining to socio-economic, political and legal struggles with land. The readers can comfortably study the different issues with case studies relating to several contemporary issues of land.