This was the observation made by freelance British anthropologist Felix Padel. He was delivering a talk on development-induced displacement resulting from the Indian aluminium industry. The talk was organised by the Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development here on Friday.
Padel also observed that workers are ‘often not paid or have to give large bribes to get jobs.’ He was particularly referring to the evidence from Nalco and Vedanta industries in this respect.
Moreover, industrial pro-jects class people as ‘unskilled’ who were highly skilled as cultivators. They had century-old traditions of developing sustainable agriculture systems, said the British anthropologist.
Politically and socially, communities that have always had a large degree of cohesion and remained remarkably egalitarian, are thrown onto the lowest rung of a complex hierarchy that stretches from company directors and bankers etc in London and other cities. They are reduced into coolie labourers and unemployed oustees.
Villagers become dependent on outside contractors and markets, which are very much outside their control in matters of channelling water and land use, relation between the villages, making their own houses and tools, etc. This especially affects women, who previously had a lot of control in growing and selling produce.
Even the religious beliefs of the villagers are undermined and corruption is evident at every level of the mining industry, from ministerial to the village level and most of the mining projects are implemented with the help of numerous goondas, who help force compliance to a company’s demands at the local level, said the anthropologist.
Trained at Oxford University as well as Delhi University, Padel has so far authored two books on the condition of the Indian tribals. His first book analysed the imposition of colonial structure over a tribal society and his second book is on invasions on the tribal landscape. GUWAHATI, Feb 22 – All is not well with the process of industrialisation in India. Industrialisation is reducing the village people of the country, who used to be highly skilled farmers, into vulnerable cheap labourers. “Economically, the community is forced from basic self-sufficiency, growing their own food, supplemented by migrant labour etc, to becoming a labour workforce at the mercy of companies or contractors…”
This was the observation made by freelance British anthropologist Felix Padel. He was delivering a talk on development-induced displacement resulting from the Indian aluminium industry. The talk was organised by the Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development here on Friday.
Padel also observed that workers are ‘often not paid or have to give large bribes to get jobs.’ He was particularly referring to the evidence from Nalco and Vedanta industries in this respect.
Moreover, industrial pro-jects class people as ‘unskilled’ who were highly skilled as cultivators. They had century-old traditions of developing sustainable agriculture systems, said the British anthropologist.
Politically and socially, communities that have always had a large degree of cohesion and remained remarkably egalitarian, are thrown onto the lowest rung of a complex hierarchy that stretches from company directors and bankers etc in London and other cities. They are reduced into coolie labourers and unemployed oustees.
Villagers become dependent on outside contractors and markets, which are very much outside their control in matters of channelling water and land use, relation between the villages, making their own houses and tools, etc. This especially affects women, who previously had a lot of control in growing and selling produce.
Even the religious beliefs of the villagers are undermined and corruption is evident at every level of the mining industry, from ministerial to the village level and most of the mining projects are implemented with the help of numerous goondas, who help force compliance to a company’s demands at the local level, said the anthropologist.
Trained at Oxford University as well as Delhi University, Padel has so far authored two books on the condition of the Indian tribals. His first book analysed the imposition of colonial structure over a tribal society and his second book is on invasions on the tribal landscape.
