Land Rights in India Policies, movements and challenges [Hardcover]

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 peoples 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 peoples 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.

List of abbreviations. List of tables. Foreword. Acknowledgements.1.Introduction Varsha Bhagat-Ganguly Part 1: Issues of Land Dependents  2.If we have land, we would be human: The implications of landlessness in a Bihar village Anand Chakravarti  3.Reconfiguring ideas of land, river and forest in the context of the Indira Sagar Polavaram National Project on the Godavari R Umamaheshwari  4.Politics of Commons: Power relations and intersecting gender, caste and tribe contestations in Rajasthan Soma Parthasarthy  5. Is there no alternative?: Land laws and tribals rights in OrissaVidhya Das  6. Examining nature and composition of land lease arrangements in India: Exploratory analysisR Vijay and Y Sreenló9