Paper short abstract:

The recent Klondyke mining rush is affecting several states in Eastern India. This paper looks at the mining policy in the Jharkhand region in the twentieth century in the context of debates on internal colonialism, resource exploitation and state policy.

Paper long abstract:

With progressive liberalisation and trade links with world economies India is being transformed at an unprecedented rate. Landscapes and livelihoods are being significantly impacted on by this pace of change. One such area is the predominantly tribal area of Eastern India (Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand) which is undergoing extensive mining development, including by companies such as Vedanta and Tata that are listed on the London Stock exchange.

The most mineral rich areas of central India are also the areas of greatest forest diversity and tribal population. As tribal communities are displaced, their land and resources taken over for mining and metal factories, their lives are changed at every level. From a livelihood based largely on self-sufficient subsistence agriculture, supplemented by hunting and gathering in the forest, they are forced to become industrial labourers, living in resettlement colonies in swiftly industrialising areas, where poverty takes a radically different form from anything they knew before. The proposed paper aims to offer fresh models to analyse the complex changes facing the region's indigenous inhabitants. There have been few studies to date of the effects of mining on livelihoods and environment in South Asia. By examining the relationship between social structure, environment and cultural history and the impact of mining in these the research poses important analytical as well as empirical questions concerning the effects of industrial developments and globalisation on 'displaced livelihoods'.