This book is the outcome of the National Seminar on “Displacement, Environment and Tribal life as a Human Right Perspective” organized by the Department of Anthropology, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwa-Vidyalaya, Maharashtra in collaboration with the Indian Council of Social Science Research in April 2016. It contains nine selected papers from the concerned expert to understand the impact of a development projects on tribal life from a human rights perspective.
In the past ten years or so, displacement by development projects has gone on almost untamed under the globalization pressures to meet the demand for land from local and increasingly foreign investors. Focusing on India, this book looks at the complex issue of resettling people who are displaced for the sake of development. The book discusses how the affected farming communities are fiercely opposing the development projects that often leave them worse off than before, and how this conflict is a matter of serious concern for the planners, as it could discourage potential capital inflows and put India’s growth trajectory into jeopardy. It analyses the challenge of protecting the interests of farmers, and at the same time ensuring that these issues do not hinder the path of development. The book goes on to highlight the emerging approaches to resettlement that promise a more equitable development outcome. A timely analysis of displacement and resettlement, this book has an appeal beyond South Asian Studies alone. It is of interest to policy makers, planners, administrators, and scholars in the field of resettlement and development studies.
Studies on displacement and rehabilitation have occupied centre stage in the contemporary discourse on development issues. The primary concern of these studies revolved around the issues of economic vs social cost, the local antagonism towards big dams, the policy of the state on displacement and rehabilitation and the macro-level evaluation of large dams. They either condemned, in an emotional way, the Government's insensitivity towards the alarming issue of displacement or highlighted the immediate effect of dislocation. Most of these studies treated the displaced peopel as homogeneous entity ingnoring thereby the cultural variations. Such a trend threw little light on the intricate relationship between social life and displacement. Anthropological studies on the impact of dislocation and resettlemtn on the social structure of the displaced community, especially focussing on the process of change, have rarely been undertaken. By incisiverly analysing the impact of displacement and rehabilitation on the social structure of the Paraja, a hill tribe of highland Orissa, this bok has gone beyond the traditional framework of understanding displacement and involuntary resettlement.
A history of the historyless, and the marginalization of adivasi voices. A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India is a path-breaking book that explores the current status of adivasi women in the four states of eastern India with high percentages of adivasis--Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. Debasree De engages with the recent paradigm of 'development and displacement' and adivasi women's marginalization and cultural silencing. The findings in the book are based on extensive field surveys in teagardens, stone crushing sites, brick kilns and construction industries. Further, the book provides new material on the extremist villages of Jangal Mahal, Koraput, Malkangiri and Niyamgiri Hills. Linking tribe and gender, the author elaborates how forest economy is women's economy; forcible eviction by multinationals for new industries has led to severe displacement and poverty, apart from intensification of witch hunting and trafficking of girls.
This book explores the issue of development-induced resettlement, with a particular emphasis on the humanitarian, legal, and social aspects of this problem. Today, so-called 'development-induced displacement and resettlement' (DIDR) is one of the dominant causes of internal spatial mobility worldwide. Each year over 15 million people are forced to abandon their homes to make space for economic development infrastructure. The construction of dams and irrigation projects, the expansion of communication networks, urbanization and re-urbanization, the extraction and transportation of mineral resources, forced evictions in urban areas, and population redistribution schemes count among the many possible causes.Terminski aims to present the issue of development-caused displacement as a highly diverse, global social problem occurring in all regions of the world. As a human rights issue it poses a challenge to public international law and to institutions providing humanitarian assistance. A significant part of this book is devoted to the current dynamics of development-caused resettlement in Europe, which has been neglected in the academic literature so far.
This book explores tribal land alienation problems in India and tribal agitation against land encroachment and alienation. It discusses India’s tribal land problem and explains how despite legislation to protect tribal lands, the problem has not been resolved since neither the letter nor the spirit of the law has been implemented. Due to continuous land encroachment and alienation by outsiders, the negligence of the revenue administration and the apathy of the central and state government, the situation concerning tribal land in the country have became precarious. In this context, the book highlights the process of land estrangement among the tribes and the related movements, focusing on the Narayanpatna land movement in the Koraput district of Odisha. It argues that land remains a central issue that is extremely important for tribes as it directly affects their life, livelihood, freedom and development, and that the cultural attachment of tribes and their views regarding the idea of ‘place’ (land) furnishes crucial perspectives in understanding the politics of collective resistance. It also discusses the politicization of group identity and material interest against the outside authority as the basis of the unrest among the tribes, and when the grudges of the people are hardened due to insensitivity and tyranny, the extent of tribal resistance escalates, leading to conflict between the state and its own people. Given its scope, this book is a valuable resource for students and research scholars, as well as for policymakers and anyone interested in Indian democracy and development in general, and tribal problems, issues and politics in particular.
A crucial issue that confronts development in South Asia is how to build a better life for people displaced by infrastructure development projects. This book comprises recent displacement and resettlement case studies conducted by eight anthropologists in South Asia. Each contributor wrote around the key theme of the book: Is involuntary resettlement a development opportunity for those displaced by development interventions? In this book, "resettlement" carries a broader meaning to include physical and economic displacement, restricted access to public land such as forests and parks, relocation, income rehabilitation, and self-relocation. The book demonstrates that despite significant progress in national policies, laws, and regulations, their application still requires more commitment, adequate resources, and better supervision.
A collection of oral histories that reveal the loss of cultural continuity, identity, shifts in family responsibilities, gender roles and fractured relationships between generations that are just some of the challenges people face as they attempt to rebuild lives and communities.
As multilateral agencies, social movements, and state authorities worldwide struggle to cope with the effects of large-scale development projects, the problem of displacement remains unresolved. This volume seeks to address displacement as a broad and multilayered phenomenon. A series of illustrative case studies drawn from around the globe provide causal accounts of why and how displacement occurs, what its effects on communities, ecosystems, and economies look like, and the normative or ethical positions held by key actors involved. Contributors offer economic, political, and cultural analyses, as well as extensive ethnographic field research, to present a picture of displacement that illustrates the depth and the breadth of the issue.
