Abstract

Bauxite mineral projects in central India have in recent years generated conflicts over both the physical environment and equitable development for very vulnerable people. In one such project, a joint venture between the state government of Andhra Pradesh and a private investor, attempts are currently being made to open up land constitutionally reserved for India's Scheduled Tribes. The final outcome, though still uncertain, depends not only on the relative material resources of the opposing parties, but on a drawn-out process of contestation where the discursive resistance to tribal land dispossession has strong historical roots and many active supporters. Thus, for the project's promoters, their advantage rests on their ability to create confusion via superior access to, and control over, information, rather than relying on their direct authority.

Keywords

Dispossession; land rights; adivasi; bauxite mining; Scheduled Areas; opposition activism; information control; confusion

Published in

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies
2013, Volume: 36, number: 2, pages: 199-212
Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Associated SLU-program

Forest
Agricultural landscape


UKÄ Subject classification

Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2012.739597

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/79598