Development, Displacement and Resistance Movement: A Study in Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex, Odisha, India

Received 19 Jan, 2024

Accepted 21 Dec, 2024

Published 12 Jan, 2025

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Neoliberal developmentalism that is occurring in Odisha, a resource-rich state in India, has resulted in involuntary displacement. Displacement is the consequence of land acquisition. Land is acquired through the use of various tactics and strategies by the state which involves the interplay of multiple actors. The land acquisition and displacement processes have multiple visible impacts which include accumulation of livelihood resources, impoverishment, marginalization, migration and use of violence which result from discontent among the local Adivasis. These discontents lead to collective mobilization and resistance to the project where multiple civil and political societies emerge and participate in the resistance movement.

The major objectives of the study are: (1) To explore the extent of land acquisition and strategies adopted for acquiring lands in Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex, (2) To describe the causes of the emergence of resistance movement in the study area, (3) To describe collective mobilization, demands and strategies of the resistance movement, and (4) To locate the roles of various civil society and political societies in the resistance movement.

The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork followed by sample surveys, interview methods, group discussions and the collection of oral histories. By employing these methods in the field site of Kalinga Nagar, the analysis focuses on how the state acts contemptuously to promote its developmental agendas.

This research was conceptually approached from the fields of developmental sociology, structural Marxism, environmental and critical sociology. The study also draws insights from the land acquisition literature, new social movement theories, intersectionality approach and Gramscian perspective. By applying Appadurai’s concept of ‘The capacity to aspire’, Chatterjee’s concepts of ‘civil society’ and ‘political society’ and Scott’s ‘patron-client politics’ this thesis answered the complex questions of development (investment) induced displacement that resulted in resistance and strategic alliance between non-Adivasi elites and corporates who believed that their interests and concerns are different from the displaced Adivasis.

The first objective explores the extent of land acquisition, the number and composition of affected and displaced people for the construction of the project in KNIC and the nature of displacement that followed. Land acquisition and displacement are complex phenomena that require the interplay of multiple actors. It explains the complex tactics and strategies of land acquisition used by the neoliberal state and corporations to facilitate the industrial project. This process favors a particular class interest by pauperizing

the common population. This chapter employed the concept of ‘Eminent Domain’ to show how the state may exercise its power over all lands within its territorial jurisdiction. This chapter sheds light on the historicity of the ‘Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement’ Act to show the instrumentality of the state laws that favor compulsory land acquisition through the principles of public purpose without giving fair compensation and rehabilitation. By providing the state-wise details of court cases, land alienation and restoration of Adivasis lands, this chapter reported that the state of Odisha shows the highest number of court cases filed against Adivasis land alienation. By employing the concept of ‘the capacity to aspire’, this chapter illustrates how the state generates a ‘will or capacity to develop’ among its citizens, which is an essential condition to begin, establish, and consolidate an industrial project. Here, the state often acts as a dominant actor not only representing a monolith structure acting from the top down but it also operating in different layers. This chapter discussed the potentialities of Kalinga Nagar as a site for industrialization and also revealed the formal and informal strategies and tactics used by the state to acquire lands from the farmer to show the extent of land acquisition and displacement in KNIC.

The next chapter of the thesis mainly deals with the second objective of the study. It explores the causes of the emergence of the resistance movement in KNIC. It expounds that the developmentalism of the Odisha state since 1991 is influenced and shaped by the wave of neoliberalism. This chapter historically looks at the factors responsible for the emergence of resistance in KNIC and describes the causes of resistance movement. This chapter also discusses about how the development logic of the state which itself causes resistance as a development manifestation also transforms the local populace into a peripheral populace and it also results in the formation of various organizations against the state developmental projects. These organizations expose the accumulative and hegemonic discourses of development. This chapter shows how these organizations reproduced the class consciousness of local Adivasis to continue the resistance.

Chapter five of this thesis is mainly concerned with the collective mobilization, demands and strategies of the resistance in KNIC. This chapter argues that exploitation-induced discontent led to collective mobilization in Kalinga Nagar. The discontent led to the formation of Bistapan Birodhi Jan Manch (BBJM) in KNIC. The BBJM was the main force behind and beyond the collective mobilization in KNIC. This chapter describes the formation of BBJM and its leaders and supporters. It also discusses about the strategies opted by BBJM to organize people to resist displacement in KNIC. This chapter also gives a brief description of the allying actors who supported BBJM in the struggle. Secondly, this chapter describes the causes behind the decline of the resistance in KNIC.

The final chapter locates the role of political and civil society in the Kalinga Nagar resistance movement. In Kalinga Nagar, there emerged many political societies on the one hand to resist displacement and on the other hand to counter the anti-displacement movement. It analyses the multiple roles of political societies in the resistance movement. It explores the emergence of political clientelism as an essential element in political society. Based on arguments put forth in the previous chapters, this chapter argues that civil society plays a limited role in the resistance movement. Civil society acts within the demarcation of the state. This chapter also talks about due to resistance movements; many political societies have emerged but not all political societies are resisting the projects; many political societies counter-resist the resistance movements.

KEY CONTRIBUTIONS

The findings of the study open new vistas for further research in the field of developmental sociology to understand the nature of state developmentalism in the resource-rich Adivasi region. This thesis contributes a better understanding of the development-induced displacement, land acquisition and resistance in the resource-rich region of Kalinga Nagar, where state-stimulated industrial projects and land acquisition have accelerated resistance and collective mobilization. It also reconstructs the accumulative practices of the state and the role of civil society and political society in the process of establishment of industrial projects, land acquisition and dislocation.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The following are a few areas identified for future research.

More empirical and longitudinal research based on political economy would help to understand the accumulative practices of the neoliberal state. A longitudinal study focusing on three actors as Naxalite, the State and the local project-affected people can help understand why the Naxalites have involvement in many resistance movements in Odisha. The question arises whether it is the true involvement of the Naxalites in the resistance movement or whether it is a state strategy to suppress a resistance movement. A longitudinal study may help to address this question. Further research is required to understand the change in Adivasis social structure due to displacement. Research can also be conducted in a gender perspective to explore the role of women in the resistance movement.

Further, this research can be extended to analyze the neoliberal cultural politics of state developmentalism which often favors the corporate and provides the authoritarian position of the market economy over other subsistence economies. Based on secondary sources of data, a comparative study can be carried out between the state developmentalism in Adivasi and Non-Adivasi resource-rich regions.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The completion of my work was impossible without the cooperation of several people. So, I take this opportunity to acknowledge all those who assisted me in it. First and foremost, I owe deeply to Dr. Niharranjan Mishra for supervising my work and for his continued interest in it. I can never thank him enough for his unfailing cooperation, support, and patience all the time. It has been a great opportunity to work with him with his strong analytical and critical approach to the research area. I will be failing in my duty if I forget to mention his frequent crisp comments on the margins of my draft chapters.

I am very much thankful to all my Doctoral Scrutiny Committee Members Prof. S. Mohanty (Chairman DSC), Prof. J. Pradhan, Prof. A.K. Rath and Prof D. Bag for their valuable feedback and suggestions throughout my research career. I also thank Prof. N. Sethi, Prof. R. Biswal, Prof. B.R. Mishra, Prof. S. Dhaka, Prof. S.P. Ray, Prof. S. Verma and Prof. U. Gundala for their comments on the penultimate draft of thesis. I wish to express my sincere thanks to all the faculty members of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, NIT, Rourkela for their valuable suggestions during the research period.

I express my sincere thanks to Prof. Animesh Biswas, Director, NIT, Rourkela for creating healthy working environment in the campus and giving permission to use the facilities available in the institute for this study. I thank NIT, Rourkela for providing me the Institute Fellowship. I also express my thanks to UGC for providing me Fellowship. At the various stages of my research career, I owed the moral and physical support of my beloved friends. I am thankful to my close friends Dhiraj, Akash, Gopal, Saranga Bhai and Dhananjay Bhai for reading and commenting on the penultimate draft of thesis.