Tribal dispossession through land acquisition: A study of open cast mines in West Bengal

Abstract

Since Independence the State-led development strategies like hydro-electric projects, dam constructions, mining projects have displaced and dispossessed a large number of tribals and economically marginalised rural population through the dreadful Land Acquisition Act. This gained a further momentum in the neo-liberal period. The anecdotes of tribal victimisation, continuous erosion of their rights and how they are coping in the market economy are repeatedly studied. The Raniganj coal mining region of West Bengal where few large-scale open cast mines are operational is not an exception in this regard and needs to be contextualised in a deeper socio-economic-politico context. However, this paper seeks to understand how far the deprivation of the tribals belonging to the project affected villages is integral to land acquisition.