Industrialising Rural India sheds light on the current dynamics and contestations at work as India seeks to accelerate industrial growth and development. Rapid industrialisation is promoted by many as the quickest and most feasible way of rejuvenating an Indian economy that has produced sluggish growth rates over the past several years; and as an efficient way of generating rural employment on a large scale thereby bridging growing inequalities with urban areas. Yet at the same time, the transfer of land from marginal rural communities and indigenous groups for industries, mining or Special Economic Zones has proven to be probably themost explosive issues in India over the past decade.
Through a cutting-edge interdisciplinary approach, the book examines three crucial aspects of the current challenges and contestations at work in industrialising India. These are the making and influence of policy in rural industrialisation processes; the contested role of land, and the natural resource base more generally in connection with rural industrialisation; the popular resistance against Special Economic Zones, land acquisitions and forest destruction which have in many places derailed or delayed rural industrial projects.
Combining the work of scholars long established in their respective fields with the refreshing approach of younger scholars, this book charts new ways in the study of contemporary industrialisation and its associated challenges in India.
