The Land Question In India

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.

On land reform in India; a Marxist viewpoint.

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.

This book examines how property rights are linked to socio-economic progress and development. It also provides a theoretical analysis, an economic/social analysis of planning, case studies of the implementation of planning and regulation instruments, practices related to law and planning, analysis of case laws in a particular segment. The interconnection between property, law and planning is a running theme throughout the book. The land question has been central to South Asian development on two counts: First, although the majority of the population relies on agriculture and allied activities their livelihood, landholding is highly skewed; second, urban planning is facing unprecedented challenges due to bourgeoning property values as well as gush of migrants to cities seeking livelihood. The response to these challenges in the form of laws and policies has been very large compared to the academic attention that is received. However, the measures emerging from planning and policies have had limited impact on the extent of the problems. This paradox calls for serious introspection and academic engagement that this book undertakes. The book further deals with the emerging discipline of planning law, which determines property value and use, and argues that regulatory issues of public policy determine the property valuation and property pricing.

The book discusses important developments emerging around the land questions in India in the context of India’s neoliberal economic development and its changing political economy. It covers many issues that have been impinging the political economy in land and livelihoods in India since the 1990s, examining the land question from diverse methodological standpoints. Most of the chapters rely on evidence generated through primary surveys in different parts of the country. The book, via its diversity of approaches and methodologies, brings out new and hitherto unexplored and/or less researched issues on the emerging land question in India. The range of issues addressed in the volume encompasses the contemporary developments in the political economy of land, land dispossession, SEZs, agrarian changes, urbanisation and the drive for the commodification of land across India. The authors also examine role of the state in promoting the capitalist transformation in India and continuities and changes emerging in the context of land liberalisation and market-friendly economic reforms.

This volume engages with the topical issue of land rights in neoliberal India. It examines government policies, laws, land governance and land reforms from the perspective of social justice and people’s response to dispossession of land. Looking beyond the dominant discourse of land acquisition and the conception of land as a commodity for economic growth, the book explores critical themes including issues of social identity, culture, livelihood and food security through a study of land reform; reviews existing land policies and legal dimensions; and discusses issues and challenges of land governance and land dependents as well as perspectives from people’s movements. Lucidly written, based on empirical research, and comprehensive in its treatment of a contentious concern, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of economics and public policy, development studies, political science, and political economy. It will also interest scholars of South Asian studies and sociology.

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