LAND QUESTION: SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DISPOSSESSION IN

INDIA

Dispossession: (law) the expulsion of someone (such as a tenant) from possession of

land by process of law.

Neo-liberalism: Is the resurgence of ideas associated with laissez-faire economic

liberalism beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, whose advocates support extensive
economic liberalisation, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order
to enhance the role of the private sector.

Accumulation by dispossession: This concept developed by the Marxist geographer

David Harvey, which defines the neo-liberal capitalist policies in many western
nations, from the 1970s, to the present day, as resulting in a centralisation of
wealth and power in the hands of a few by dispossessing the public of land or
wealth.

Special Economic Zones or SEZs are modern economic zones where business and trade
laws differ from the rest of the country. They are located within a country's
national borders. The SEZs are designed to encourage businesses, to set up
financially libertarian policies, and promote increased trade, increased
investment, job creation and effective administration. Additionally, businesses
maybe offered tax holidays.

SEZs in the past have been equated to land grabs from farmers in India. In March
2007, in West Bengal, police and party thugs in Nandigram, killed 14 people, raped
several women, and still injured many more because, farmers were refusing to give
their land for a petrochemical SEZ promoted by an Indonesian company. A massive
upheaval followed with the eventual cancellation of the project. These land wars
have gained momentum throughout the country and, are proving to pose as the biggest
obstacles for the inflow of FDI and the expansion of the capitalist class.

The SEZ Act 2005 enabled a framework for building hyper-liberalised economic
enclaves- with minimal taxes, tarrifs and regulations, on the Chinese model,
promoting exports, attracting FDI, developing infrastructure and generating
employment. In China's case, SEZs are state controlled, whereas in India the
private sector is dependent on farmers who often are extremely protectionist about
their land as it is their only source of income. Although under the SEZ Act 2005,
public sector SEZs can develop their own SEZs through parastatal industrial
development corporations.

THEORISING DISPOSSESSION