Forward
March Of Capitalism In Orissa
By Sarbeswar Sahoo
11 June, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The
New Year 2006 greeted the people of the state of Orissa, India with
the sounds of bullets and shedding of blood, leaving 12 people dead
and creating a sense of fear and insecurity among others on 2nd January.
This barbaric and dishonorable act committed against ordinary citizens
in the name of modernization and development reflects the height of
capitalism in Orissa. The questions here are, is Orissa a capitalist
state? And, why do people resist the industrialization ventures of the
government, if it aims to bring development? Although the first question
seems less important, is inseparably related to the second. Despite
of having more than 40 percent of its population below the poverty line,
the historical trajectory of development and policies of the government
of Orissa reflect the incessant pursuit of profit over the general interest
of the people. Capitalism is marching forward in the name of development,
and generating poverty and inequality as its intrinsic logic. Given
this background, the paper analyses briefly the historical trajectory
of development in Orissa and its implications for the people in the
context of firing at Kalinga Nagar on the issues of industrialization,
displacement and rehabilitation.
Due to the unequal allocation
of resources, administrative apathy, and central neglect, Orissa has
been suffering from extreme poverty and underdevelopment in comparison
to other Indian states. In his eagerness to bring development to Orissa
the then chief minister, Biju Patnaik openly endorsed the new economic
policy and invited investment from the country and overseas to set up
steel plants, power plants, and refineries which projected Orissa as
a dynamically enterprising, liberalizing, and privatizing state. By
virtue of cheap labour and low transportation costs it attracted the
largest amount of private sector investment during 1995-96, followed
by Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharastra, and emerged as one of the major
economic power in the Asia-Pacific region.
Recently, due to Chief Minister
Navin Patnaik’s open invitation to the corporate bodies to get
the mining rights on massive iron and bauxite reserves of the state,
Orissa optimistically expects a Rs. 1,00,000 crore bonanza over the
next five-to-seven years, which is highest in comparison to any of the
Indian states. Taking into account the growing demand for steel in international
market and its commitment towards industrialization and development,
the present Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government
has signed up 43 memoranda of understanding for steel plants and 3 for
aluminum refineries so far. The state also has proposed to build two
more ports in Dhamra (L&T and Tata Steel) and Gopalpur (global bid
on build-own-operate-transfer terms) to provide investors with a gateway
to international trade. Thus, Orissa has fast emerged as a major site
for foreign direct investment and free market capitalism.
The question then is why
do people resist the development projects undertaken by the state? In
order to understand the politics of resistance, we need to understand
the implications of capitalist development for the people of Orissa
and especially the displaced population? Grounded on Western rationalism,
the capitalist mode of profit oriented development and modern industrial
growth has not only perceived nature as ‘external’ to society
and thus, an infinitely exploitable domain, but also transformed the
people, often against their will, into a dispossessed working class.
In the name of development, people have been pushed off the land; their
forests and water have been taken over by the state and the market,
so that they have been deprived of everything except their labour power.
Coercive state power has impoverished the people and, in this context,
resistance is seen mainly as a reflex action prompted by being driven
over the edge by economic and political deprivation.
The state of Orissa, which
seems to be acting as the managing agent of the corporate giants, is
deliberately flouting the constitutional provisions of the Panchayats
Extension to the Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996. The study group of
the CSD in 1999 found that there is no evidence of consultation of gram
sabha by the state related to land acquisition and R and R package.
The local administration in the region in league with the company does
not seem to have any respect for and commitment to the rule of law,
which it is supposed to uphold. Large-scale industrial and infrastructural
projects have displaced the tribals from their productive assets (particularly
land, forest) and homes.
The Land Acquisition Act
of 1894 (now amended in 1984) empowers the government to acquire private
lands and properties in ‘public interest’. Statistical figures
on Orissa indicate that till 2000, about 20 lakh people have been directly
affected by development projects in varying degrees out of which about
5 lakh have been physically displaced losing their home and hearth from
their original habitat. Mining in Orissa has created "an estimated
50,000 environmental refugees," according to news reports. The
government of India (1994) admits that 15.5 million people have been
displaced by various development projects, out of which 74.52 percent
displaced people were still awaiting rehabilitation. This unsuccessful
rehabilitation policy also stands as one of the major reasons of resistance
of the development projects.
Establishment of industrial
projects, felling trees to supply timber for laying railway tracks,
building towns and collecting raw material for industries gave birth
to a process of deforestation. The destruction of forests have unleashed
a situation where more and more people are being displaced from their
communities and traditional ways of life and resulted in an insecure
livelihood for the tribal and indigenous communities in the hilly areas
and tribal belts of Orissa. Displacement dismantled the existing socio-cultural
fabric and economic base of the displaced families, which has been built
over several centuries and generations. It dispersed and fragmented
communities, dismantled patterns of social organization and interpersonal
ties; kinship groups became scattered as well. It also increased the
drop out rates and caused a wider loss to the children of the displaced
tribals and denied their basic right to education and literacy.
The new policies of development
in consonance with the needs of the market forces have been forcing
the indigenous people to leave their traditional rights of community
(common property) resources and minor forest produces. In course of
time, tribal lands and forests became the property of the state, denying
them from their right to employment, work and livelihood. Nature turned
into property. Instead of protecting the interest of the people, protection
of the interest of the multinationals and profit occupied the central
place in every move of progress by the state. This process of development
by the state has brought disentitlement for the people, where the tribals
are gradually denied access to the support system of their livelihood.
As Cernea (2000) has argued,
capitalist development projects have generated various impoverishment
risks for the displaced people. These are: (1) landlessness, (2) joblessness,
(3) homelessness, (4) marginalization, (5) increased morbidity and mortality,
(6) food insecurity, (7) loss of access to common property, and (8)
social discrimination. To this list Courtland-Robinson (2003) added
two more: (9) loss of access to community services, (10) violation of
human rights. A.K. Mahapatra (1996) added the eleventh point: (11) loss
of educational opportunities.
It is evident from the above
that the government’s patrimonial and profit oriented policies
by permitting corporations for extracting mineral wealth indiscriminately
and pushing thousands of people into destitution reveal the exploitative
and exclusionary development agenda and unstoppable forward march capitalism
in Orissa. The primacy of profit over people has severely violated the
human rights of the people. The democratic state has given rise to a
kind of Hobbesian ‘state of nature’ where a sense of fear,
insecurity, and lack of freedom rule over society. The Hegelian state,
which ensures and legitimizes the freedom in civil society and protects
the citizens, is now using its sovereign powers to protect the MNCs
and TNCs to crush the interests of the citizens. The citizens are turned
into refugees and aliens in their own country, the ‘foreigners’
and ‘aliens’, because of the capital they possess, are treated
more than citizens. And, civil society as a sphere of freedom has turned
into a domain of the oppressed.
References
1. Sahoo, Sarbeswar (2005) ‘Tribal Displacement and Human Rights
Violation in Orissa’, Social Action, April-June, 2005, Vol. 55,
No. 2
2. Cernea, M. (2000) ‘Risks,
Safeguards, and Reconstruction: A Model for Population Displacement
and Resettlement’, Economic and Political Weakly, October 7
3. Mitra, A., Gupta, A. and
Nitya, V. (2004) ‘The Hot New States for Business’, Business
Today, November 21, pp. 120-128
4. Das, Prafulla (2006) ‘Churning
in Orissa’, The Hindu, January 13
Sarbeswar Sahoo is a PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, National
University of Singapore,
[email protected],
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