The Economics and Politics of Resettlement in India

Chapter 11

Transhumant Pastoralists to Sedentary Farmers

Joy Dasgupta

Introduction

Modern-day notions of development virtually always entail a cost–benefit scenario in some way or the other. In most such cases, the costs are primarily in the form of displacement, either in physical terms or that of resource use and/or access. Displacement in many cases primarily affects the more marginalized communities for whom adjusting to a new lifestyle or joining the so-called mainstream is a painful and often traumatic experience. In most developing countries the urge to develop in industrial and infrastructural terms has meant substantial displacement, along with meagre efforts to mitigate and lessen the burden of displacement. In fact, the phenomenon ...