Chapter 7

Dispossession of Peasants by Industrial Projects

Abhijit Guha*

Introduction

The empirical and theoretical studies on displacement through the acquisition of land by the government for development projects have so far focussed on the resulting direct and immediate adverse consequences. Most of such analytical as well as descriptive accounts draw heavily on Michael Cernea's ‘impoverishment risk model’, which broadly enumerates eight ‘risks’ or ‘dimensions’ of development-induced displacement. These are (i) landlessness, (ii) joblessness, (iii) marginalization, (iv) loss of access to common property resources, (v) increased morbidity and mortality, (vi) food insecurity, (vii) homelessness and (viii) social disarticulation (Cernea 1991). ...

Get The Economics and Politics of Resettlement in India now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.