Articles by: The Research Unit for Political Economy (R.U.P.E.)

Questions Posed by a Movement

Questions Posed by a Movement

Over a year ago, we wrote about a protest movement going on in the village of Silger, in Sukma district in the south of Chhattisgarh, against the setting up of a police camp in their village.[1] (We will not repeat here the details given in that article.) As we write this, the movement has completed more tha16 months; and it is still continuing.[Read More…]

by 04/10/2022 Comments are Disabled India
The Kisans Are Right: Their Land Is at Stake (Part 3 of 3)

The Kisans Are Right: Their Land Is at Stake (Part 3 of 3)

In the previous two parts (I & II) of this article, we saw how (1) the Government is trying to ram through a conclusive determination of property rights in agricultural land throughout the country. This is being done explicitly in order to develop a “vibrant land market”, i.e., in order to facilitate transfers of land; (2) for the last 20[Read More…]

by 07/02/2021 Comments are Disabled India
The Kisans Are Right. Their Land Is At Stake (Part 2 of 3)

The Kisans Are Right. Their Land Is At Stake (Part 2 of 3)

In the previous part of this article we saw that the Indian rulers are actively preparing the legal groundwork for parting peasants from their land. In the following part we place this in an international context. The world economy is witnessing an intensifying drive by international investors to get control of land, including agricultural land, in the Third World. Why[Read More…]

by 05/02/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Modi’s Farm Produce Act Was Authored Thirty Years Ago, in Washington D.C.

Modi’s Farm Produce Act Was Authored Thirty Years Ago, in Washington D.C.

On December 18, addressing a Kisan Sammelan (farmer conference) in Madhya Pradesh by video conferencing, Narendra Modi declared: We are compelled to do things which should have been done 25-30 years ago…. The new laws that have been made for the farmers are in the news for some time now. These agricultural reforms have not come about overnight. Every government of[Read More…]

by 04/02/2021 Comments are Disabled India
The Kisans Are Right. Their Land Is At Stake (Part 1 of 3)

The Kisans Are Right. Their Land Is At Stake (Part 1 of 3)

Part 1 The protesting kisans on the borders of Delhi repeat one thing over and over: When fighting against the three farm-related Acts, they are fighting to save their land. “See, they want to capture our land.  Adani, Ambani, corporate houses…” says one young protester. Though wheelchair-bound, he has come from Punjab to take part in the Delhi protest. An older kisan,[Read More…]

by 03/02/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Is the Auto Industry Really 49% of India’s Manufacturing Sector? Does It Employ 37 million?

Is the Auto Industry Really 49% of India’s Manufacturing Sector? Does It Employ 37 million?

The answer to both questions is: No. The real figures are only a fraction of these figures. Who is putting out such high figures? The heads of the automobile industry. Auto industry bodies claim that the automotive sector accounts for 7 (or 7.5) per cent of India’s GDP, 49 per cent of manufacturing output, and 37 (or 40) million jobs“directly and[Read More…]