Politics after Dispossession

This chapter shows how the politics that followed dispossession in Rajpura were shaped by the conflicting forces outlined in the previous chapters. Although the Rajasthan government avoided an initial “land war” in Rajpura, dispossession and marginalization from good jobs and facilities inside the SEZ generated widespread anger. But a shared sense of victimization was undercut by the inequalities land speculation magnified within Rajpura. Differentiation by speculation weakened the types of social relations—within castes and families—that would be necessary for collective action. In place of a populist upsurge or radicalized proletariat, there were individualized forms of resistance and adaptation. While Rajpurans continued to aspire for inclusion into “development,” their vision of development is unattainable under the current trajectory of Indian capitalism. It is this mismatch between subjective aspirations and objective possibilities that will shape politics in Rajpura going forward.