Abstract
This chapter, mainly drawing upon the multiple rounds of field surveys by the author, seeks to address the land question with reference to two cases of land acquisition in western Uttar Pradesh. Specifically, it deals with the roles of stakeholders in the land question: farmers, political parties, civil society organizations, builders/entrepreneurs/corporate groups and the state. It argues that the notion of land during the neoliberal or post-green revolution period has changed. Unlike in the earlier period, now the farmers no longer feel emotionally or culturally attached to the land. They are no longer interested in farming or sticking to land. A farmer does not mind selling land provided he is given fair price and compensation, and the land is acquired with his consent.
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Notes
- 1.
In western UP, the poorer sections—Dalits and MBC marginal farmers and landless classes—depend on the land of the landowning classes for dual purposes: cutting grass from the fields to use as fodder for their cattle and for defecation in the fields. This dependence has social and political repercussions which are disadvantageous to the poorer classes (for details see Singh 1992, chapter IV).
- 2.
Even the BJP governments which did not involve in a big way to acquire land (except initial attempts by the Kalyan Singh government) did not remain unaffected by the reform agenda (see Pai 2005).
- 3.
The economic reforms in India have passed through three generations: the first was related to efforts to liberalize macroeconomic policy environment; the second was related to creation of institutions for regulating a market economy; and the third is about the facilitation of global presence for India’s largest private sector firms and rapid enhancement of physical infrastructure within which such firms operate (Jenkins 2004). The SEZ belongs to the third generation of reforms.
- 4.
Economy of UP can be divided into four stages of development: (a) Period I (1951–1975)—period of economic stagnation; (b) Period II (1975–1990)—period of accelerated growth (green revolution phase); (c) Period III (1990–2002)—period of deceleration; (d) Period IV (2002–2007)—period of slow recovery source (Singh 2009).
- 5.
Nidhi Nath Srinivas and Manmohan Rai “Sugar Cos Hope for Sweeter Sops: Expect the new Samajwadi Party government to revive UP’s old pro-industry investment policy”, The Economic Times, March 7, 2012.
- 6.
This point has been amply mentioned in the advertisements issued by the Department of Information, Government of Uttar Pradesh, published by the Government of Uttar Pradesh on different occasions from 2007 to 2008. The Centre sought to impose conditions on the state governments through the Eleventh Finance Commission (EFC) (see Jha and Das 2007, pp. 318–319).
- 7.
These situations included an agreement between Mayawati government and leader of the first phase of the agitation, Ram Babu Kathailya (Bajna agitation); Rahul Gandhi’s Yatra in the villages affected by the land acquisition and rally in Aligarh; the central government’s response; and the judicial response.
- 8.
In an instance of personal loyalty to Mayawati and influence of her brother on decision process, Mayawati allotted land to Jaypee Group considered close to her after having promised to allot land in Bundelkhand region to Tata (see Kohli 2012, p. 175).
- 9.
The data here is provided on the basis of my field work in villages near Tappal block of the Khair Tehsil of Aligarh district. It, however, needs to be noted that media gives conflicting reports. One report mentions that township spreads to two districts—Gautam Buddh Nagar and Bulandshahr covering 131 villages of Gautam Buddh Nagar and 40 villages of Bulandshahr (Arvind Singh Bisht, “Green row over e-way town: Township Marked for Industry, Marketed For Housing” The Times of India, October 24, 2011). It does not mention the villages near Tappal in Aligarh district. In fact, Tappal was a precursor to the Bhatta-Parsaul agitation.
- 10.
See Purusharth Aradhak “Jaypee pulls out of Ganga e-way project”, The Times of India, January 13, 2012.
- 11.
Davesh K. Pandey, “IT team unearths ‘large chest’ at liquor baron’s mall: Ponty Chadha’s financial transactions under the scanner for four months”, The Hindu, February 2, 2012.
- 12.
The Supreme Court verdict (Shahberi and Patwari villages cases discussed later) quashing the decision of the UP government to convert the purpose of land into construction of houses, and directing the builders to return land to the farmers, affected 14 projects of 11 builders in Greater Noida area: Eco Village (Supertech), Leisure Valley, La Residentia, Ultra Homes (Amrapali), Wellentia (Wellentia), Arden (Arhant), Estate (Nirala), Sampoornam (Ajay Enterprises), Mayfair Garden (Supercity), Neo Town (Patel) and Gayatri Aura (Gayatri).
- 13.
The visit to the site was shocking to me. Indeed, I had the notion that some construction of infrastructure might have been going on there. But except the wall, there was no sight of anything which could indicate that this land was acquired. It gave the look of a well-cultivated land in any village of western UP full of green wheat crop awaiting to be harvested after two months, as well as green fodder. I was told that cultivation of land was resumed after the court ordered the return of land to the farmers if they paid back the amount of compensation, which they had got for the sale of the land. It is to be noted that even the farmers who did not pay back the compensation had also started cultivation.
- 14.
Purnima S. Tripathi “Mayawati in Double Trouble”, Purnima Tripathi, Frontline, September 14–27, 2002, Vol. 19, No. 19.
- 15.
I visited the Behera Khurd village on March 16, 2012. In Behera Khurd village the villagers faced problem of water supply which was cut off due to occupation of 500 acres land for Reliance Mega Power Project. V.P. Singh flagged off Mukti Sangharsh Yatra against the injustice to the farmers and threatened to launch a movement on December 12, 2006 (The Hindu, Dec. 8, 2006).
- 16.
The discussion on this point is based on interviews of seven politicians and one farmer (hailing from Bajna, who also participated in the Tappal agitation), conducted in Mathura on September 4–5, 2010: Shyam Sunder Verma, MLA BSP dated September 4; Rajkumar Sharma Vice President BSP Mathura Dist, dated September 4; Amit Srivastava, Congress leader Mathura September 4; Jagat Kumar Singh, a farmer from Bajna (village of centre of agitation), September 4; Puran Prakash, RLD MLA from Mathura district, September 4; Pradeep Mathur, Congress MLA, Mathura, September 5; Thakur Kishore Singh, President Samajwadi Party, Mathura, September 5.
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Singh, J. (2020). Contextualizing Land Question in a Green Revolution Area: Agrarian Transformation and Politics in Western Uttar Pradesh. In: Mishra, D., Nayak, P. (eds) Land and Livelihoods in Neoliberal India. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3511-6_4
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