Land dispossession, aspirational asymmetries and dilemmas of the rural youth

ABSTRACT

Compulsory land acquisition has time and again resulted in disruption of local communities in multiple ways. However, this process has often been justified as an important transitional stage for rural populations to move towards urbanisation and development. This paper looks at the case of a village in district Faridabad (in the state of Haryana), where land was acquired for purposes of setting up an Industrial Model Township (IMT). It is argued that land dispossession, in the case of prosperous rural communities, has resulted in the loss of livelihood and location. While the transition from owners to rentiers has been particularly traumatic for the older generation, the younger generation face new dilemmas pertaining to their identity and livelihood choices. Assured rent has enhanced family incomes. This has reduced the need to engage with agriculture which youth from the dominant castes wished to relinquish even otherwise. However, the jobs that are available are not commensurate to the social status that the youth from the dominant castes aspire for. Apart from these aspirational asymmetries, monetisation of assets has unleashed consumerism, conspicuous consumption and an identity crisis for the youth.

KEYWORDS:

• Land acquisition
• urbanisation
• youth
• identity
• Haryana

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Katyal and Katyal, ‘How Can Agriculture Be Made “Cool” For India’s Youth’.

2. Jodhka, Emergent Ruralities-Revisiting Village Life, 16.

3. Jeffrey and Dyson, 26.

4. One of the largest protest movements organised by farmers against land acquisition in Haryana was by farmers in district Jhajjhar and Gurgaon in 2007. The movement was against the establishment of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for which land was acquired by HSIIDC and Reliance industries. For details see Kennedy, ‘The Politics of Land Acquisition in Haryana’. More recently in August 2022, farmers in Manesar, Gurgaon protested acquisition of 1810 acres of land by the Haryana government. They demanded higher monetary compensation and threatened that they would commit mass suicide if the government did not accept their demands. See Sharma, ‘Protesting against land acquisition’.

5. The name of the village has been changed to maintain anonymity.

6. Levien, Dispossession without Development: Land Grabs in Neo-liberal India, 6.

7. Ibid., 5.

8. Sarkar, Beyond Dispossession, 439.

9. David Harvey’s theory of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ is a feature of what Levien calls, ‘predatory neo-liberal phase of capitalism’. This refers to how land dispossession may also take place through the market and is not limited to acquisition by the state. For a more detailed discussion see Levien, Dispossession without Development.

10. Agrawal and Redford, Conservation and Displacement: An Overview.

11. Mollett, A Modern Paradise: Garifuna Land, Labor, and Displacement-in-Place, 30.

12. Gururani and Kennedy, The Co-production of Space, Politics and Subjectivities in India’s Urban Peripheries, 3.

13. Ibid., 17.

14. Kennedy, Large-Scale Economic and Infrastructure Projects, 1060.

15. Prior to this policy, compensation was paid, based on the sale deeds. These sale deeds were known to deflate the price of land. By deflating the price of land, they would be able to forego payment of land transaction tax to the government. This is because in the official records, the price of land was recorded much lower than the market rate.

16. In case land is acquired for setting up an SEZ, the developer must pay Rs 30,000 per acre per annum for 33 years with the annuity increasing by an amount of Rs 1,000 per year.

17. Ibid., 1063.

18. These included ‘No Litigation Incentive’ scheme, revised rates of annuity as well as benefits other than the one-time compensation paid to those whose land had been acquired. See Haryana Government Gazette, 2010.

19. Nichenametla and Sharma, ‘How Haryana mastered the art of land acquisition.’ Also In 2018, the Haryana government adopted the Haryana Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Rules to align the land acquisition policy of the state with that of the central government.

20. Levien, Regimes of Dispossession: From Steel Towns to Special Economic Zones, 384.

21. For more on Nandigram see Nielsen and Nilsen, ’Law Struggles, Lawmaking, and the Politics of Hegemony in Neoliberal India’.

22. Jenkins, India’s SEZ Policy-The Political Implications of ‘Permanent Reform’.

23. Kennedy, Haryana-Beyond the Rural-Urban Divide.

24. Kennedy demonstrates this feature of protest movements when comparing the case of land acquisition in Gurgaon and Jhajjar Districts in Haryana.

25. Along with this Compulsory Acquisition Charges at the rate of 30% amounting to approximately Rs 29 lakhs and an additional amount covering the period between notification and award at the rate of 12% equalling around Rs 23 lakhs was also included in the total compensation making it around Rs 149 crores (Office of Patwari, Sub-Tehsil Dayalpur, Ballabhgarh on 30 January 2018).

26. Ahlawat, Farmers’ land compensation issue resolved.

27. Apart from the issue of compensation for farmers at IMT, payment was also pending for farmers whose land was acquired in the Neharpar area (Greater Faridabad), In that case the Haryana Urban Development Authority had acquired around 1029 acres of land in 2008 from 1000 farmers in 19 villages. Following various court judgements delivered in 2010, 2013 and 2015 the compensation amount had risen to 1900 crores. The president of the Neharpar Kisan Sangharsh Samiti said that the land was acquired to build master and dividing roads in the sector. Also he said that the farmers had not been allotted residential plots in consonance with the land acquisition policy and therefore they had no other option except to launch an agitation against the government. See Ahlawat, ‘Farmers’ land compensation issue resolved’.

28. Kumar, Paradise Lost.

29. For details see Rajalakshmi, Farmers’ Fury.

30. Chakravorty and Palit, Seeking Middle Ground: Land, Markets and Public Policy.

31. Ibid.

32. See Kumar, Attitudes, anxieties and aspirations of India’s youth. 16.

33. Rahar, Unemployment rate in Haryana three times national average.

34. Gururani, When Land Becomes Gold, 7.

35. This data was collected from the office of the Patwari, HSIIDC, IMT, Faridabad on February 7, 2021.

36. Non-Governmental Organization.

37. The names of the respondents have been anonymised to protect their identity.

38. Speculation in land involves purchasing land for the purposes of reselling it when the price of land appreciates. Hence land is seen as an investment enabling monetary gains. However, in village Ramgarh the compensation received by landowners was used by them to buy agricultural land in the neighbouring district or state which they sub-leased to local cultivators.

39. In the case of Haryana, population projections show that between 2011 to 2036, there will be a decline in the proportion of those between the ages of 0–14 from 27.2 to 18.5% of the total population. There will be an increase in percentage of those between 15 to 59 years from 65.9 to 67.3 and increase in proportion of those who are 60 years and above from 6.9 to 14.4%. See ‘Population Projections for India and States 2011–2036’,185.

40. Chowdhry, First Our Jobs then Our Girls, 440–441.

41. Ibid.

42. In the case of Haryana, one also notes that there has been no movement amongst the SCs demanding land from the dominant castes. Instead, most have gained economic mobility by pursuing jobs. See Kumar, ‘Dalit Women Panchayat Members in Haryana’, 4. There have been instances wherein the common panchayat lands which are auctioned every year and reserved for the SCs have been taken over by the dominant castes by rigging the auction process. Elsewhere in India, land dispossession has often exacerbated inter caste conflict as the dominant castes have not only taken over land belonging to the SCs but also laid claim to the village commons. In the case of peri-urban areas in Bengaluru, Upadhya and Rathod argue that the Dalits have been opposing unequal accumulation by marshalling various political resources. See ‘Caste at the City’s edge’.

43. A government official who keeps records of land ownership.

44. See Rahar, Haryana hospital sees 12-fold rise.

45. See Singh, Heroin proves seductive.

46. Spatial proximity of Bhangi and Chamar households as well as attempts to maintain traditional caste hierarchies and boundaries were cited as reasons for repeated confrontation between youth of the two communities.

47. Jeffery, Youth, class and time among unemployed young men in India, 469.

48. Kumar, The Time of Youth Joblessness, 103.

49. As Levien notes, farmers leaving agriculture cannot be conflated with farmers being forced out of agriculture. See Dispossession without Development. Also, Jodhka in his ethnographic study of two villages in Haryana observes that while large and middle landowners took on urban employment, they would prefer leasing out their land rather than selling it. He notes that even in the case of unviable holdings, farmers would not sell their land. See ‘Emergent Ruralities-Revisiting Village Life’, 14.

50. Jaffrelot and A, The Political Economy of the Jat Agitation, 43.