Book: The Political Economy of Land Acquisition in India

[Barun]

The Political Economy of Land Acquisition in India: How a Village Stops Being One

by Dhanmanjiri Sathe

Palgrave Macmillan (2017) 

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789811053252 

Dhanmanjiri Sathe is Professor at the Savitribai Phule Pune University, Maharashtra, India. She was also a Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and has been a visiting faculty at the Goettingen University, Germany.

This book examines key issues concerning land acquisition, and puts forward policy suggestions. Land acquisition is one of the most important issues besetting India’s political economy today. There have been many conflicts surrounding acquisitions; but there have been ample peaceful acquisitions, too. Growth in any economy requires more land.  Hence in India too, in the future more and more land will be required for the purposes of infrastructure expansion, industrialization, urbanization etc.

The book also examines a number of broader policy issues in the context of land reforms and shows how a successful resolution of the land acquisition matter is vital to attaining a high rate of growth. Using a case study method, the book examines the process of land acquisition in detail and its implications for farmers. It finds that the development of acquired land leads to higher growth and higher employment; and it also leads to improvements for the dalits (the backward class people). Benefits in terms of higher revenues for the government are also observed. It argues that, if the acquisition process is properly executed, those farmers who lose land will not oppose acquisition but will instead become partners in the process of growth.

Prof Sathe says that one of major result in the book ---

"It is not that the farmers do not want to sell their land per se; if the 'compensation package ' is good enough then they will be happy to sell the land that they own. I reach these results based on a case study of village Maan which is close to Pune city, Maharashtra, India.   In this book, I also look at some issues like the impact of land acquisition on the dalits, which have been under-researched up till now."

"The last chapter in the book argues for a need for a shift in paradigm i.e. move away from Primitive Accumulation and Accumulation by Dispossession and pitches for a need to look at issues like land acquisition in new ways."