The Politics of Caste in India’s New Land Wars

Abstract

In this article we introduce the special issue through framing the debate on the role of caste in India's current land wars. We draw attention to how caste consistently mediates land transfers in present day India by pre-empting, undermining, or fuelling processes of social contestation, as well as the ways in which land claims in turn shape realigned or reimagined caste identities. Based on this, we make three main arguments. The first and most obvious one is that in contemporary conflicts over land, caste matters in evolving ways that deserve attention. Second, we argue that caste and land are recursively linked categories that are produced and reproduced in continuous interaction, even as multi-scalar political economies (re)shape them. And third, that different registers of caste are articulated by different social groups in more or less overt ways as they stake often competing claims to land.

Unfolding the Enigma of Dispossession in India: An Analysis of the Discourse on Land Grabbing

“…The reasons for caste to be an underexplored category in land grabbing literature are attributed to shifting research paradigms, to the violence that routinely accompanies land acquisition and tendency that caste as a category is almost redundant, according to Nielsen et al (2020). They mention few studies by Das (2020), Roohi (2020), Kabra (2020) and Agarwal and Levien (2020), which focus on how caste inequalities perpetuate land dispossession.…”

Caste, Environment Justice, and Intersectionality of Dalit–Black Ecologies

“…Infrastructure, real estate, industrialization, and mining have led to new forms of dispossession, displacement, and resistance, where the loss is much greater for Dalits. Recent research shows the prominent role of caste in India's contemporary "land wars, " as caste remains fi rmly entrenched in various land struggles (Nielsen et al 2020). Dalits have also asserted their right to water by questioning various tenets of Hindu religion, caste, culture, institutions, and practices, which have prevented them from accessing water due to entrenched notions of untouchability, impurity, and pollutants.…”

India’s Evolving Neoliberal Regime of Dispossession: From the Anti-SEZ Movement to the Farm Law Protests

“…The movement also mobilised a considerable number of peasant women, who often marched at the forefront of rallies and took part in agitations. Yet these alliances across castes, classes and genders proved difficult to maintain over time, as the poor, the low-castes and women came to feel excluded and marginalised within movement structures (Nielsen, 2015(Nielsen, , 2018Nielsen et al, 2020). Haryana, where the anti-SEZ movement was strong, is an illustrative case in point.…”