SECTION ONE

TRANSFORMATION OF RURAL AND URBAN SPACE ThisisaspecialissueofthejournaloftheJindalSchoolofGovernmentandPublicPolicy.Itisspecialbecauseithasanew‘StudentContributionsSection’whichcarriespapersproducedbystudentson the themeofdevelopment cooperation policy as part of a project supported byTheAsiaFoundation.ThatsectionofthejournalisintroducedbyDr.Clarence J. Dias and Professor R. Sudarshan.

Inthisintroduction,Wefocusonthecontributionstoregularsectionofthisjournal.

The rural-urban frontier is a constantly shifting frontier,withmanynew economic, political, social and hybrid processes being set intomotion due to technological, economic and political changes on theground.With the race to position India higher in the global arena,the Government of India as well as the regional governments are introducingnewpolicies,formingnewinstitutions,aswellasinvestingin infrastructure. These interventions are aimed at accelerating the transformation India’s economy. Economic Reforms is the key termusedtodescribethisprocess,whichessentiallyinvolvedarewiringoftheinstitutionalapparatuswithinwhichpeopleoperate.Landiscentralto this transformation, particularly in the rural-urban continuum.Agricultural land is being converted for urban use. There are several changes to agricultural policies and cultivation practices. The fourpapers throw light on diverse aspects of transformation includingthe conversion of common territory – land or lake for urban use, changesintheagriculturalpracticesintheruralcontext.Thearticlesby Sandeshika Sharma and Zia Haq draw attention to the ongoingtransformation in agriculture in the rural context, while the other two articlesbyGopaSamantaandRohanD’Souzatracethepatternsandprocessoftransformationintheurbancontext.

In the first article titled, “To IndustrializeDoAgriculture”, ZiaHaqargues for developing agriculture through investing in cuttingedge scientific research, streamlining procurement system andexpandingcredit to“real” farmersandnotcompanies.Heposes theproblematique, inacountrywhere farmlandsareconsideredsacred,

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has the bond between the tiller and the land broken? This questionhasbeendebatedintheliterature,withaspecificfocusonthemannerinwhich globalization and the accompanying transformation in theurbanandruralcontextshasbeenmanagedbytheState.Zia’sarticledescribes the reasons as to why some farmers want to exit agriculture andselltheirlandtorealestate.Inunderstandingthisphenomenon,he traces the history of green revolution anddraws attention to thesystematic failure to invest in agriculture.

Land has been at the centre of the conflict. Popular media andacademic research articles abound on the pros and cons of landacquisitionformegainfrastructureprojectsandspatialenclavessuchas the SEZs. This process, steered by different government agencieshasbeenaccompaniedbyviolentdispossessionof agricultural land.TheworksofLevien (2012), Sampat (2008),Balakrishnan (2013) andVijaybhaskar (2013) have drawn attention to land owners’ responsetotheacquisitionprocessandoutcomesoftheirprotestpolitics.Twopositionscanbediscernedinthesestudiesaboutfarmers’responsestoalienate their land.DrawingonHarvey’s thesisonAccumulationbyDispossession(AbD),Levien(2012)andSampat(2008)arguefarmersaredispossessedoftheirlandviolently.Bycontrast,Balakrishnan(2013)andVijayabhaskar(2013)suggestthatfarmersinsomelocationspartedtheirlandtobenefitfromincreasedlandprices.Whilethereareseveralstudiesonthetransformationofagriculturallandforurbanuses,littleattentionhasbeengiventothewaysinwhichlandunderagricultureisheldandputtouse.TheState,byvirtueofitscontroloverterritory,playacriticalroleinsteeringthecourseofthetransformationprocess.Farmers’ responses to land is one dimension of the transformationprocess.AcriticalquestionisthemannerinwhichtheStateissteeringfacilitating the transformation process? A significant proportion ofrural landisstillunderagriculture.Howhasglobalization impactedonagriculture?WhatistheroleoftheStateinthepolitical-economiccontext of globalization? Who dominates policy making? Severalquestions arise in this context whether and how globalization hasinfluenced agricultural policies and how has it manifested on theground?SandeshikaandPallavi’article isanattempttoaddress thisgap.

TracingthetrajectoryoftheemergingPublicPrivatePartnershipProjects(PPP)forIntegratedAgricultureDevelopment(IAD),SandeshikaandPallaviarguethatPPPpavedthewayforcorporateledpolicymakinginthefarmeconomy.Theydrawattentiontohowbudgetaryprocessand directional change within the agricultural research management

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systemscreatedthenecessaryvacuumforthecaptureofpolicyspacebythecorporates.TheproductionunderPPPisbasedonlargescalefarming,whichrequiresconsolidationoflandinacountrylikeIndiawhereagriculturallandispredominantlyheldbysmallandmarginalfarmers. The production under this model is controlled by largeaggregators.Withover80%offarmholdingsbeingsmallandmarginal,theauthorshighlightthepotentialforPPPpolicytospreadnewkindsofproductionmodels,whichareledbyaggregatorsatoneend,andanarmyofsmallandmarginalfarmersattheotherend.Withinthisnewmodel,thegovernment’sroleisthatofadistantbystander,asalotofroomismadeavailabletothecorporateentitytodesignandexecutethe projects, while the recruited small and marginal farmers havelittleroomtomanoeuvre.Thepaperconcludeswithsomeoptimisticspeculations regarding the possibility of emergence of genuine FPOmanagedsupplychains.

Urbanpoliciesarepremisedontheassumptionthatmetropolitancitiesarethesitesofglobalizationandwhicharedriversofgrowthofsmalltowns. This position, buttressed by the New Economic Geography(NEG) theory has guidedmost infrastructure investments in India’smetro cities. Contesting this position, Gopa Samanta shows in herarticlehowgrowthofsmalltownsintheStatesofWestBengal,Biharand Jharkand is occurring outside themetropolitan shadow.As thetitle,“BeyondMetropolitanShadow:GrowthandGovernanceofSmallTownsinEasternIndia”suggestssmalltownshaveadynamismoftheirown.Therapidgrowthofsmallandmediumtownsandthelaggingofmetro cities is registered in the 2011 census. Samanta argues that new urbanisationistakingplaceintheformofrapidexpansionofCensusTowns,whicharelocaleswithout(urban)statutorystatusinIndia.Inother words, most of these locales are recorded as rural areas. Many such census towns are located far away from existing urban agglomerations ofmorethanonehundredthousandpopulation.However,themetrobias inurbanpolicyhasresultedinsystematicneglectof investmentinfrastructuraldevelopmentandfortheprovisionofbasicservicesinsmalltowns.Further,smalltownmunicipalitieshavelimitedcapacityto generate their own revenue. Consequently, the census towns aregrowing without access to urban status and without proper urbangovernance mechanisms. The article, based on an analysis of census data illustrateshowandtowhatextentemergingpatternsofurbanizationdeviate from themetropolitan driven growth. In addition, drawingon the findings of field research (based on ethnographic methods),thearticle traces thecomplex interactionofpolicies, institutionsandpolitics.

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Commonterritorysuchaslakesanderstwhilegrazinglandarecomingunder pressure of transformation for urban use. This is illustratedby the degradation of water resources and the rapid conversion oflake bed and its bank for urban real estate in our cities. Bangalore is a city of lakes or keres, as they are referred to in the vernacular, and associatedlandssuchasthewetlandsanddrylands.WiththeattempttotransformBangaloreintoaglobalcityandattractglobalfinanceandinvestments,thecontestationoverlakeshasincreased.Rohanexploresthe contestation that emerges around the claims to the tanks and over theprocessofitstransformation.

BibliographyBalakrishnan, S. (2013). Land Conflicts and Cooperatives along Pune’s

Highways: Managing India’s Agrarian to Urban Transition. PhDDissertation,Cambridge,Massachusetts:HarvardUniversity.

Levien,M.2012.“TheLandQuestion:SpecialEconomicZonesandPoliticalEconomyofDispossessioninIndia.”JournalofPeasantStudies39,no.3-4(2012):933-69.

Sampat,P.“SpecialEconomicZonesinIndia.”EconomicandPoliticalWeekly43,no.28(2008):25-27,29.

Vijayabaskar,M. (2013). “Tamilnadu: The Politics of Silence.” In Jenkins.R,L.Kennedy and P.Mukhopadhyaya (eds.), Power, Policy and Protest:PoliticsofIndia’sSpecialEconomicZones,N.Delhi:OxfordUniversityPress