The Political Economy of Conflict between Indigenous Communities and Dominant Societies: Adivasis, Maoist Insurgents and the State in the Central Indian Tribal Belt

Kennedy, JJ

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2781722

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(243 reference statements)

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“…PESA specifically confers special powers to Gram Sabha and has ‘the power to prevent alienation of land in the Scheduled Areas and to take appropriate action to restore any unlawfully alienated land of a Scheduled Tribe’. Kennedy (2013, pp. 169–170) based an empirical study finds that, ‘the tribal population in the region were, in many ways, relatively well off’.…”

Section: Data Sources and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Governance in Fifth Schedule Areas: A Critical Analysis of Chhattisgarh State

Veeresha

2021

Journal of Land and Rural Studies

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The governance of land is central to the political economy of development. In India, The schedule areas are demarcated primarily for the development of adivasis who are officially classified as Scheduled Tribes (STs)/and protection of culture through special legal and administrative provisions in the form of fifth and sixth schedule. The article aims to understand and analyse the land governance in the areas of Fifth Schedule with specific reference to the Chhattisgarh State. It explores the role of Governor in preventing the land alienation. The main data sources include the agriculture census, diversion of forest land for the development projects including the mining along with cases of PESA and FRA using a process tracing methodology. The gradual decline in the size of average land holdings indicates the failure of land governance. There is a need to clear the legal ambiguity between the provisions of Fifth Schedule with particular reference to the role of Governor to establish peace and good governance.

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Section: Data Sources and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Governance in Fifth Schedule Areas: A Critical Analysis of Chhattisgarh State

Veeresha

2021

Journal of Land and Rural Studies

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“…There is no indication that the insurgent leaders have gained financially from their participation in the insurgency. 75 For the past three or four decades they have slept in rudimentary camps in the jungle or moved between safe houses in urban areas. This is a far cry from the manner in which we might expect mafia godfathers or organized crime bosses to live.…”

Section: Bandits or State Builders?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gangsters or Gandhians? The Political Sociology of the Maoist Insurgency in India

Kennedy

2014

India Review

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IntroductionThe character of the Indian state has changed remarkably as a result of the economic reforms that were initiated in the early 1990s. This has been described as an "elite revolt" against the constraints of the dirigiste state by an alliance of business groups and the urban middle classes. 1 At the same time Maoist insurgents have expanded the areas in which they operate and increased the intensity of their operations, particularly in central and eastern states such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Orissa. 2 In recent years, representatives of the Indian state have made remarkable claims about the strength of the insurgents: former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the insurgency as "the single biggest internal-security challenge ever faced by our country"; 3 according to P. Chidambaram, the erstwhile Union Minister of Home Affairs, the insurgents are "active" in 223 of India's 626 districts; 4 and his ministry claimed that the insurgents "call the shots" in 40,000 square kilometers of Indian territory-an area the size of Switzerland. 5 While such statements are very effective at grabbing the attention of interested observers, they leave many unanswered questions. Lay terms such as insurgent activity and calling the shots are used as if it is clear what they mean when, in fact, it is not. Such phrases are, as Durkheim puts it, "a tangle of vague impressions, prejudices, and emotions." 6 This article combines a variety of concepts from political sociology with evidence from newspaper reports, 7 insurgent and state documents, and ethnographic studies in order to analyze the nature of Maoist activities. There are two sections. The first aims to move beyond the prevailing Manichean understanding of the Maoist insurgency in India, which either portrays the insurgents as either gangsters or Gandhians. We show that both insurgent violence and fundraising serve, on the whole, the collective interests of the state building enterprise-that is, to consolidate insurgent control in their base areas-rather than the private interests of individual insurgents. The second section seeks to understand the interaction between the Maoist state builders and the Indian state. It argues that the insurgents undermine and fragment the state's monopoly of the means of violence and administration in areas where they operate: in some areas the Indian state is totally absent, while in others the state forms alliances with the insurgents in order to maintain the semblance of a sovereign and democratic ruler.

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The Socioeconomic Determinants of Natural Resource Conflict: Minerals and Maoist Insurgency in India

Kennedy

2014

Society & Natural Resources

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This article analyzes a unique district-level data set to demonstrate that mineral abundance increased the probably of Maoist insurgency in India over the past three decades. Nevertheless, we show that this finding must be qualified in two respects. First, mineral abundance has a much stronger effect on the probability of insurgency after the liberalization of the mining sector in the mid-1990s, which precipitated the rapid expansion of mining and related activities. Second, mineral abundance has a much stronger effect on the probability of insurgency in the central Indian tribal belt, where communities have strong symbolic and material links with nature. Our analysis contributes to the broader debate on resource conflicts-which is largely informed by cross-national statistical analyses. It suggests that abundant natural resources do not mechanically increase the probability of insurgency. Rather, economic policy and social structure play a crucial but overlooked role in mediating this relationship.

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The Political Economy of Conflict between Indigenous Communities and Dominant Societies: Adivasis, Maoist Insurgents and the State in the Central Indian Tribal Belt

Cited by 3 publications

References 68 publications

Land Governance in Fifth Schedule Areas: A Critical Analysis of Chhattisgarh State

Land Governance in Fifth Schedule Areas: A Critical Analysis of Chhattisgarh State

Gangsters or Gandhians? The Political Sociology of the Maoist Insurgency in India

The Socioeconomic Determinants of Natural Resource Conflict: Minerals and Maoist Insurgency in India

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