Oskarsson, Patrik
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Research article2020Peer reviewedOpen access
Nielsen, Kenneth Bo; Sareen, Siddharth; Oskarsson, Patrik
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.
Land wars; caste; power; land grabbing; dispossession
Journal of Contemporary Asia
2020, Volume: 50, number: 5, pages: 684-695
Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Human Geography
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2020.1728780
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/104718