After encouraging news over the weekend, this is not good. Although I am hesitant to opine on contemporary Bengali politics, and I certainly don't want to get into the relative benefits and drawbacks of the Tata plant, the situation in Singur as it reflects on India merits discussion.
Writing recently for the Business Standard, Arvind Subramainan argues that deteriorating state capacity in India will be a hamper to future growth. He writes that, "Building state capacity...involves overcoming collective action problems, mediating conflict...and contending with the deep imprints of history." (Emphasis mine). Events in Singur over the past couple of weeks would seem to vindicate him.
The troubles at Singur have caught the attention of the world press because it is the site of the much-heralded, much-discussed, and much-criticised Tata Nano. Subramainan and many, many, many others make this seem like a "quintessentially Indian," problem. It is not. To generalise across India from events in Bengal is to fall into an old trap. The diversity of development and political institutions within India cannot be emphasised enough. Singur is not indicative of the country as a whole; West Bengal's troubles and politics are not India's.
By any definition Bengal is different, an anomaly, an outlier. Labour disputes, strikes, and general lockouts are as Bengali as Ilish and Bhekti. As the graph below shows, Bengal led India in industrial disputes in 2007; the state accounted for over half of all man days lost due to labour disputes in India (West Bengal's closest "competitor" - Tamil Nadu - came in a distant second with 713,294 man days lost to West Bengal's 2,452,264).
Unsurprisingly, investors avoid West Bengal. The state is more akin to Kerala and Uttaranchal than Maharashtra and Gujarat in terms of attracting foreign investment:
Beside an oft documented open hostility to industry in Bengal, there is indifference within the state to the project: in a survey in Anandabazar Patrika, India's largest Bengali daily, 45% of respondents polled in Kolkata agreed with the statement, "We've survived all these years without industry, so what is the din?.
Whatever you want to take from the debacle at Singur is applicable to West Bengal and West Bengal only. Industry can thrive in India, but it matters where. Bangalore and Hyderabad's shiny new airports reveal their ambitions to be global destinations for IT and the wider service industry. The growth in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, and Pune, to name but a few, cannot be discounted either.
The Tatas are not threatening to scrap their project altogether or to take it to another country, merely to take it to another state. Indian industrialists understand the diversity of business atmospheres in India: Lakshmi Mittal claims that "Singur can happen anywhere [in India]." The repercussions of Bengal being "quintessentially Bengali" are already being felt.
5 comments:
While your statistics of bengal being high on labour dispute etc is very valid, I tend to strongly disagree that singur is a result of the 'bengal phenomenon'. While it will be unfair to call all west bengal's troubles as representative of india's, issues such as singur and nandigram are definitely representative of a bigger developmental question in India. This country has been seeing so many struggles with respect to land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation. Struggles like Narmada and Orissa mining has not reached the ears of many mainstream political space. The only reason singur got to such an issue is because of one political party seeing opportunity in increasing its base in the state. But that doesn't mean that such problems are not there in other states. Its only that the state oppression has been succeeding in keeping such struggles away from our ears.
The need of the hour is to look into policies of land acquisition and resettlement and rehab bill . Wide range of questions such as the doctrine of eminent domain to forced eviction needs to be answered.
Completely agree with Jayaram. The real problem lies in the process of land acquisition and rehabilitation. To add to Orissa and Narmada, there are national parks and sanctuaries which have been just created with out rehabilitating the human beings, Various other dams where voices were not as strong as Medha Patkar....
The land rehab process is faulty - 1. One doesn't get a tit for tat deal. There are various sub-issues of this point.
2. There is huge amount of official (paper, read red tape) work, which a person wouldn't do if his land was not being acquired.
3. CORRUPTION in the over-all process.
In my aim of dispelling the myth that India should be considered as a single political and economic entity I propagated another myth: That India as a whole has shrugged off its struggles with questions on the value of industrialisation and romanticism of agriculture and swadeshi. What I tried to highlight is that there are various levels of functional government-led development projects, and unfortunately Singur (and other examples like Nandigram and Narmada) receive the most attention in the global press.
The issues you both raise with regards to eminent domain are interesting, but further complicated when looking at Singur. Unlike a traditional example, where the government expropriates land for public use, the government bought land off farmers and then turned around and sold it to a private entity. This makes events like Singur and Nandigram particularly prickly. However, I don't think it detracts from my point, as it was not mere coincide that both Singur and Nandigram happened in West Bengal under the current CPI(M) administration. The events you mention are all confined to a small number of states - namely West Bengal, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh, and serves to further highlight the diversity of "social contracts" in India. In some states within India, eminent domain is supreme, while others have done a better job of respecting individual property rights.
"What I tried to highlight is that there are various levels of functional government-led
development projects"
I think we differ in the meaning of functional govt led development projects. If you mean, that in other projects there were no noises in the press about land acquisition, R & R and hence it is functional, then u r right. But my point is even in most of those projects
millions were displaced and affected without proper R & R and irrespective of what benefits it brought to other people, the people displaced stood affected. Its estimated recently that 2% of india's population (with 40% being tribals) have been displaced bcaz of various projects after independence and almost the entire tribal lot displaced without or minimum R & R.
"the government bought land off farmers and then turned around and sold it to a private entity"
Again u r wrong here..the govt FORCIBLY bought land off farmers..and that is what eminent domain means..It is also called expropriation in canada.
"as it was not mere coincide that both Singur and Nandigram happened in West Bengal under the current CPI(M) administration."
nandigram happened after singur..it is very easy to follow when someone near me has done it yesterday under the same administration rather than a different state and thats what nandigram farmers did..but i totally agree that it turned violent bcaz of the administration's mishandling.
"The events you mention are all confined to a small number of states"
The events were only examples. There are many more projects in each state. Thanks to state machinery and media for making us think that such events are odd
and happen in few states. Interacting with social activists involved in such struggles will give a better picture than the global press.
While there is no need to romanticize either agriculture or industry, the need is to look
into proper cost benefits of project, procedure of land acquisition and R&R. I know this
is a really long comment and sorry for this.
Dear Mamata-di ,
I and millions of non resident Bengalis were dreaming that one day we could return to our motherland. First of all I am neither a supporter of Congress or CPM or TMC, I am just another citizen who want Bengal to flourish.
Jyoti Babu and his party never wanted industrialisation in the state. Communists want people to struggle and then raise the bogey that "Struggling people unite". See how Gujrat , Karnataka , Tamil Nadu , Andhra Pradesh are competing with each other to get business set up in the state.
Although , the opposition in these states are bitter political rivals.The one thing that probably unite them is prosperity of the state.
With what you have done in "Singur" --- What did you achieve.? The state can't even boast of a good medical facilities, education istitution , good infrastructure.But I guess that don't bother any of the political parties in West bengal. Because the only thing I have been hearing from childhood is "andolan" (struggle).
Alas Mamata-di , the one chance the state got is also lost.
God bless the state of West Bengal
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