Exasperated with the public perception of its role, the Indian government appears keen to somehow abdicate its key sovereign function of making land available for economic development by dumping it on the private sector. This is wrong. The maintenance of up-to-date land records, the scientific identification of tracts for a shift from agricultural to non-agricultural uses and the smooth transfer of land assets are the functions of the sovereign. The...

The farmers' struggle against land acquisition only shows that from passive forms of protest they have turned to active forms of resistance. THE recent agitation by farmers in Uttar Pradesh against cropland acquisition for non-agricultural purposes is only the latest in a long series of protests by farmers and rural communities, which started a decade ago in different parts of the country and which gathered momentum over the past five...

Tribal people constitute close to 50 per cent of the population that has been displaced because of "developmental" activities. “IF you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country,” Jawaharlal Nehru has been quoted as telling the village residents to be displaced by the Hirakud dam in 1948. And so it has been for the past 64 years. People, mostly impoverished tribes, have been suffering because...

Land acquisition by steel behemoth ArcelorMittal is changing the demography of Bokaro’s hinterland. The lure of a smart compensation package being offered by the company — Rs 5 lakh per acre and jobs — has spurred villagers of Kasmar and Petarwar blocks to sell their land to family members and friends to make the most of the expected windfall. Ever since the land acquisition process started in early 2010, a number of...

Octogenarian Sita Devi was in tears when district magistrate of Gonda, Ram Bahadur, handed her the land ownership title. She was five-year-old when her family was forced into bonded labour by British forest officers posted in Gorakhpur. The family was given a piece of land for planting trees and to grow crop for its survival. They family was shifted to other place after five years for the same job. From...