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Paper short abstract:

The proposed land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement (LAR&R) bill, 2011 appears better than land acquisition act (LAA), 1894. The paper attempts to analyse LAR&R bill and its social impacts on displaced communities.

Paper long abstract:

The LAA of 1894 governs the land acquisition process in India. The law enacted by the colonial government, aimed to utilize the forests and land resources for 'public good' and did not recognize the customary rights of tillers. It prescribed mere cash compensation to those who owned land titles through the legitimacy of the State.

The collapse of colonial regime in the twentieth century and the subsequent arrangement of world into new nation states governed by system of international capitalism, with mapped patterns of development policies, further altered the relationship of the human communities with natural resources. Under the benign impact of globalization and liberalization from 1991, a tremendous stress is at the fault lines of the tribal belt where large scale industrial projects and investments have been constantly projected as economic and institutional necessities.

The legal tangle with all possible complexities exists with the LAA of 1894, as it stipulates only individual landowners entitled for compensation in case of displacement, and all other customary owners of the land are classified as 'encroachers'. Absence of clear resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) policy and compensation in terms of market equivalent of the land value. The present paper focuses on these legal issues affecting various social categories of the Indian society, particularly the livelihood rights of the tribal and agrarian communities, through the analysis of various protest movements against development-induced displacements. The paper also compares the LAA of 1894 with the land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement (LARR) bill, 2011, and highlights the differences and its impact on various communities.