Attachment to place and territoriality in Nandigram land struggle, India

Abstract

The Nandigram peasant struggle against land acquisition for special economic zones (SEZs) in West Bengal, India, in 2006–2007, highlights the importance of attachment to place and territorialization in resistance. Analyzing the Nandigram land struggle, I underscore the importance of place-based attachment. I argue that land is a social relation. The land acquisition was a threat of breakage in that place-based relation, which led to negative perceptions of industrialization. This threat pronounced the existing attachment to place, which led to the spatialization of the muktanchal or liberated zone. I conceptualize the muktanchal as an act of territoriality, where militant peasant identities emerged that facilitated their claim-making. This paper uses content analysis of existing primary data from heterogeneous sources, to illuminate how the peasants strategically created the muktanchal to contest top-down attempts by the state to create a SEZ enclave.