Economic and Political Weekly

Land Acquisition and Compensation

What Really Happened in Singur?

Vol - XLVIII No. 21, May 25, 2013 | Maitreesh Ghatak, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee, and Anusha Nath

Special Articles

This paper reports results of a household survey in 12 Singur villages, six in which lands were acquired for the Tata car factory, and six neighbouring villages, with random sampling of households within each village. The results show that (a) the size of plots acquired were non-negligible; (b) the majority of those affected were marginal landowners engaged in cultivation; (c) the government's compensation offers were approximately equal to the reported market values of acquired plots on average, but the inability of the official land records to distinguish between plots of heterogeneous quality meant that a substantial fraction of farmers were under-compensated relative to market values; (d) those under-compensated were significantly more likely to refuse the compensation offers, as were those whose livelihoods were more dependent on agriculture; (e) incomes and durable consumption of affected owners and tenants grew slower between 2005 and 2010 compared with unaffected owners and tenants; (f) earnings of affected workers fell faster than unaffected workers. Therefore, land acquisition resulted in substantial economic hardship for large sections of the rural population, for many of whom compensation offered was inadequate.

The Importance of Zakia Jafri's Protest Petition

Vol - XLVIII No. 21, May 25, 2013 | Teesta Setalvad

Commentary

The protest petition filed by Zakia Jafri against the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team report, which absolved Narendra Modi of all responsibility for the 2002 killings in Gujarat, is an important step towards justice for all the victims. This article recapitulates the long and diffi cult battle for justice through the courts and exposes the complicity of the SIT in protecting Modi from his crimes.

Web Exclusives Pakistan Election 2013: More Rejection, Less Election Humeira Iqtidar, Kamal Munir Not since the 1970 election have the people of Pakistan turned out in such great numbers to vote. Two differences are notable, however. First, while in 1970 they voted the Pakistan People’s Party to power, this time, they came out in droves... Read more	Debating DU / Web Exclusives Liberal Education: The Road Not Taken Gautam Bhan The proposed Foundation Courses promise a well rounded liberal education with enhanced employability and the ability to meet national challenges, but their rigid structure and poor content breaks this promise. Read more
Debating DU / Web Exclusives Delhi University’s Undergraduate Programme Notes from the Archives Neeti Nair This article draws on archival material from the records of the University of Delhi to recount the last major change in its undergraduate programme in 1943 when the present three year BA course was introduced replacing the two year intermediate... Read more	Web Exclusives The Defeat of Saffron in Karnataka Shivasundar With the debacle of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Karnataka 2013 assembly elections, the Congress takes over the reins of the state. Blatant corruption, aggressive Hindutva and factionalism has led to the demise of the saffron party in the... Read more
Web Exclusives Pakistan Elections: Democracy, Dichotomies, and Shades of Grey Beena Sarwar The recent elections in Pakistan show that the country is finally on the right track notwithstanding the rigging, the violence and the brutal prevention of women from voting in some areas by representatives of all the political parties. The huge... Read more	Web Exclusives Refashioning the Breast Modern Medicine and Dispensable Female Body Parts G Arunima Expressing unease with the celebration of Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy, this article argues that the medical industry has played a masterstroke by casting the mastectomy debate in terms of an older “rights discourse” of... Read more
Debating DU / Web Exclusives From Democratic Autonomy to Authoritarian Sovereignty Pradip Kumar Datta, Udaya Kumar Delhi University’s academic reforms reveal the dangers of a new style of administration emerging in Indian universities that replaces multi-level autonomous academic deliberation with centralised sovereign decision making. Read more	Debating DU / Web Exclusives Citizen-Students and the University Sanjay Kumar The proposed 4-year undergraduate degree programme of the Delhi University is being pushed through in undue haste without adequate debate and public discussion. The special emphasis on Foundation and Integrating Mind, Body and Heart courses,... Read more
Editorials Pakistan Wins The defeat of the military and the fundamentalists is unprecedented. Read more	Editorials Desperate for Justice One year on, the Maruti workers continue to be punished for demanding their rights. Read more
Insight An Unholy Festival Sanjay Tiwari In a number of Indian festivals, the rituals and practices alienate different sections of society and even exploit them. Such is the case with the Holi elebrations in Charthari village in Uttar Pradesh where the dalits and women bear the brunt of... Read more	Commentary The Class Question in the Growth and Equity Debate V Upadhyay A relationship of economic growth with income distribution and poverty reduction has been well researched. This article explores the role played by the balance of class power, the nature of the governance regime, and the policy framework to... Read more
Special Articles Farmer Suicides in India Durkheim’s Types B B Mohanty This article makes an attempt to examine how far Durkheim's types explain farmer suicides in India and suggests that they correspond to two of his types - egoism and anomie. Agrarian changes having considerably lowered the level of economic... Read more	Commentary Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) A V Rajwade Thatcher's impact on Britain can still be felt. A leader with clear, if divisive, convictions, her rule has transformed Britain. Ironically, for someone who ruled with such imperialist nostalgia, her policies have led to the economic and... Read more
Commentary The Financial Sector in Budget 2013 M K Datar A discussion of the announcements pertaining to the financial sector in Budget 2013. Read more	Editorials Blood Garments The Bangladesh tragedy exposes the callousness of the garment business. Read more
Book Reviews En Route to Development Avadhoot Nadkarni A Critical Decade: Policies for India's Development edited by Rajeev Malhotra (New Delhi: OUP), 2012; pp 454, Rs 695. Read more	Book Reviews Hill Stations, Tea Gardens and Tropical Disease Kalinga Tudor Silva Contagion and Enclaves: Tropical Medicine in Colonial India by Nandini Bhattacharya (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press), 2012; pp 219, $99.95 (cloth). Read more

Vol - XLVIII No. 21
May 25, 2013

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Review of Women's Studies: May 4, 2013
This edition focuses on the relations between caste and gender and explores the intersectionalities involved. It includes articles exploring the politics of feminism and dalit activism located in urban spaces, in working class sites, through labour, “traditional” rituals, issues of honour and inter-caste marriage.

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Swadeshi in the Time of Nations
A set of five articles revisit themes from Sumit Sarkar’s book, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal and find resonances across time and space for both the themes the book raised as well as for the politics and ideologies of the movement it studied.

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