Power, Policy, and Protest The Politics of India's Special Economic Zones

by Jenkins, Rob; Kennedy, Loraine; Mukhopadhyay, Partha

• ISBN13: 9780198097341
• ISBN10: 0198097344
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-04-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

India's attempt to spur growth, boost exports, and create jobs by establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) is a paradox: the policy represents an intensification of the country's increasingly market-oriented development paradigm, but implementation has required active government involvement. More than a decade after importing the SEZ concept from China, India has hundreds of these walled-off, deregulated, low-tax enclaves. But an industrialization strategy pioneered in authoritarian China has faced huge political resistance in democratic India. Protest movements arose in many localities where SEZs were proposed. Resistance varied in terms of the intensity and sustainability of opposition, the grievances articulated, and the tactics employed. A central issue has been the alienation of privately owned land by business interests, abetted by the state. To date, no systematic study of the politics of India's SEZ experiment has been undertaken. This book remedies this gap, examining variations within and between eleven states. Detailed case studies investigate differences in the nature and extent of SEZ-related political mobilization and the means employed by governments to manage dissent. By covering a broad range of regional contexts, industrial sectors, and political conditions, this volume furnishes a comprehensive picture of the politics surrounding one of India's most controversial reform measures.

Author Biography

Rob Jenkins, Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and Graduate Center, The City University of New York,Loraine Kennedy, Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris; and Deputy, Director, Centre for South Asian Studies, Paris, ,Partha Mukhopadhyay, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi


Rob Jenkins, Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and Graduate Center, The City University of New York.

Loraine Kennedy, Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris; and Deputy Director, Centre for South Asian Studies, Paris.

Partha Mukhopadhyay, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Power, Protest, and India's Special Economic Zones, Rob Jenkins, Loraine Kennedy, and Partha Mukhopadhyay
1. India's SEZ Policy: The Political Implications of "Permanent Reform", Rob Jenkins
2. Andhra Pradesh: Land Acquisition and Popular Resistance, Karli Srinivasulu
3. Goa: The Dynamics of Reversal, Solano Jose Savio Da Silva
4. Gujarat and Punjab: The Entrepreneur's Paradise and the Land of the Farmer, Manshi Asher
5. Haryana: Beyond the Rural-Urban Divide, Loraine Kennedy
6. Karnataka: The Primacy of the Local, Anjali Mody
7. Maharashtra: Institutional Politics and the Framing of Resistance, Rohit Mujumdar and Benita Menezes
8. Orissa and West Bengal: The SEZ Imbroglio, Partha Sarathi Banerjee
9. Tamil Nadu: The Politics of Silence, M. Vijayabaskar
10. Uttar Pradesh: Contrasting Cases from the National Capital Region, Sudha Pai and Avinash Kumar
Index
About the Editors and Contributors