Contents
Series Acknowledgement/Ranabir Samaddar
Series Introduction/Ranabir Samaddar
Introduction/Pradip Kumar Bose and Samir Kumar Das
1. Land Acquisition Act and Social Justice : A Study on Development and Displacement/Ratan Khasnabis
2. Two Leaves and a Bud : Tea and Social Justice in Darjeeling/Roshan Rai and Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty
3. Deprivation and Social Injustice in a Rural Context : An Ethnographic Account/Kumar Rana with Amrit Paira and Ila Paira
4. On the Wrong Side of the Fence : Embankment, People and Social Justice in the Sundarbans/Amites Mukhopadhyay
5. Prescribed, Tolerated and Forbidden Forms of Claim Making/Ranabir Samaddar
Consolidated Bibliography
List of Contributors
1. Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty, former President of Calcutta Research Group, is a noted historian who specialises in European History. A retired Professor of Presidency College, Kolkata, he is now the Additional Director, Police Archival Wing of the West Bengal State Archives. He is also a pioneer in the study of the society and politics of Darjeeling.
2. Ratan Khasnabis, an economist and a specialist on agrarian reforms, is a Professor in the Department of Business Management, University of Calcutta.
3. Amites Mukhopadhyay, completed his PhD in Social Anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently teaches Sociology at the University of Kalyani, West Bengal. His research interests include ecology and livelihood in the Sundarbans delta and environment and development, ethnographies of state and civil society, ethnic identities, particulary in the South Asian context.
4. Amrit Paira is an independent researcher, an activist and is mainly engaged in the trade union movements in West Bengal.
5. Ila Paira, was involved for 20 years with a peoples health movement in the villages of Jhargram, West Bengal. Now she works with a Sishu Siksha Kendra. She lives in Jhargram.
6. Roshan Rai, is an independent researcher and a human rights activist based in Darjeeling.
7. Kumar Rana, leads the research team of the Pratichi (India) Trust, founded by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, since 2001. His main fields of research include primary education, basic health, hunger, (about migration, and life and livelihood of the Adivasis of West Bengal and Jharkhand.
8. Ranabir Samaddar, is a well-known political thinker on contemporary issues of justice, human rights and popular democracy in the context of post-colonial nationalism, trans-border migration, community history and technological restructuring in South Asia. Some of his works include a three-volume study of Indian nationalism, the final one tided A Biography of the Indian Nation, 1947-1997(200]). His recent works include The Politics of Dialogue (2004) and The Materiality of Politics, two volumes (2007).
List of Figures
3.1. Employment Pattern in Jorakhali (Primary)
3.2. Employment Pattern in Betkundri (Primary)
3.3. Annual Income of the Households
3.4. Educational Scenario in Jorakhali and Betkundri
3.5. Sources of Medical Treatments
3.6. Extent of Hunger in Jorakhali and Betkundri
3.7. Perception of Justice with Regard to Service Deliveries
4.1. The Sundarbans and Area of Fieldwork
4.2. Erosion-prone Area of North Kusumpur
4.3. The 1,500 Feet Wide Ring Embankment of Garantala and Adjacent 36 Acres of Land Acquired for that Purpose
About the Editors
Pradip Kumar Bose is a Professor of Sociology, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. A leading sociologist of the country, an expert in research methodology, and, above all, a superb essayist. His writings in English and Bengali on tribes, castes and families in Bengal are widely read. His work on the cultural history of Bengal has been equally significant. Among his works are Classes in Rural Society : A Sociological Study of Some Bengal Villages (1984) and Classes and Class Relations among Tribals in Bengal (1985). Besides, he has edited a classified compilation of Bengali journals of 19th century, the first volume of which is titled Samayiki : Purono Samayik Patrer Prabandha Sankalan, Vol. 1-Bigyan o Samaj (1998). He has also edited Refugees in West Bengal-Institutional Practices and Contested Identities (2001), a seminal work on refugee flows and practices of care and rehabilitation in West Bengal in the first decade following independence. His recent work includes Health and Society in Bengal : A Selection from Late 19th Century Bengali Periodicals (2005).
Samir Kumar Das is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, and is also presently the President of Calcutta Research Croup (CRG). A Postdoctoral Fellow (2005) of Social Science Research Council (South Asia Program), he is also the Deputy Coordinator of UGC-DRS Programme on 'Democratic Governance in Indian States'. He specializes in and writes on issues of ethnicity, security, migration, rights and justice. His recent publications include Conflict and Peace in India's Northeast (2008), Ethnicity, Nation and Security : Essays on Northeastern India (2004). He has edited Blisters on their Feet : Tales of Internally Displaced Persons in India's North East (2008), South Asian Peace Studies II : Peace Accords and Peace Processes (2005) and co-edited Internal Displacement in South Asia : The Relevance of UN Guiding Principles (2005).