The questions of industrialisation

Over the course of 2007, Singur and Nandigram became virtually synonymous with fault lines not only across West Bengal, but among left intellectuals across India. The state, which has just marked three decades of rule by the Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has become symbolic of a pro-people communist ideology gone awry. Since the beginning of 2007, Singur, where the Tatas propose to set up an automobile factory, and Nandigram, the site of a chemical hub in a special economic zone, witnessed large-scale protests from local peasants opposing land acquisition and displacement. Harsh repression by cadres of the ruling party, retaliation by opposition party members, a ham-handed response by the state-government, as well as pressure from civil-society organisations – together these forces ultimately caused the central government to intervene, eventually sending in the Central Reserve Police Force to control the volatile situation in Nandigram.

In all of this, the nub of the matter has been obscured: What form of industrialisation is truly in the best interests of the majority of people? How should an administration go about acquiring land, building infrastructure and setting up industries such as these? How can the political class, one which talks the language of the left, be made to deliver on its promises? As important, the situations in Singur and Nandigram have demanded a redefinition of what constitutes politics itself, and the importance of democratic dissent in a state where civil society may have been lulled into too much civility.

The dust is yet to settle after a year of upheaval. With so many issues remaining unresolved, the editors at Himal decided to bring together a range of articles, exploring the many, varied dimensions of Singur/Nandigram. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay’s overview strongly indicts the jagirdari style of governance, and Vijay Prashad analyses the schisms in the left. We also present translated articles from Ekak Matra, the Bengali journal from Calcutta that is working to foster a critical Southasian political-cultural discourse in a regional language. These pieces likewise seek to provide a broader, from-the-ground perspective: the pieces by Amit Bhaduri, Ashok Mitra and D Bandyopadhyay first appeared in Ekak Matra’s May 2007 issue, soon after the issue heated up. They delve into the nature of industrialisation in West Bengal. Then, in an article that appears in the journal’s January 2008 issue, Sumit Chowdhury takes a hard look at the nature of current political mobilisation.