Indrani Sigamany | University of York (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by Indrani Sigamany
In Country Frameworks for Development Displacement and Resettlement: Reducing Risk, Building Resi... more In Country Frameworks for Development Displacement and Resettlement: Reducing Risk, Building Resilience, editors Susanna Price and Jane Singer bring together contributors to offer a deep exploration of evolving national frameworks that seek to mitigate the risk and deprivation faced by vulnerable communities displaced by the global competition for land. The chapters in this thought-provoking and comprehensive book carefully build a rigorous documentation of policies and legal practice to form a vital resource for academics, students and specialists working with land rights, writes Indrani Sigamany
Access to justice remains uneven and elusive for indigenous peoples dispossessed of their lands. ... more Access to justice remains uneven and elusive for indigenous peoples dispossessed of their lands. The Forest Rights Act of India (2006) promises land security for forest peoples displaced from ancestral lands by the combined forces of colonial forest resource extraction and contemporary free-market economic development, which have disregarded customary indigenous land rights. This research challenges the assumptions: land rights legislation necessarily contributes to access to justice, and governments serve the interests of citizens in a democratic system such as India. I posit that justice is subverted by: a legal chronology of land expropriation during colonial occupation; contemporary neoliberal policies; and administrative injustice. These issues encouraged legal violations and exacerbated land dispossession. Socio-economic and gender inequalities and marginalization of mobile indigenous peoples compounds their land dispossession, and economic, social, legal disenfranchisement. A...
In Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania and M... more In Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania and Mexico, Prakash Kashwan contributes to urgent debates surrounding forest and land rights by looking at how competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice have been balanced in three country-specific case studies drawn from India, Tanzania and Mexico. This is a powerful portrayal of the complexities of governance and the pursuit of justice when it comes to land displacement and environmental conservation, writes Indrani Sigamany.
Control of land is a source of contention among indigenous peoples, governments, conservationists... more Control of land is a source of contention among indigenous peoples, governments, conservationists and extractive industries. Forests are crucial to the existence and survival of tribal and pastoralist populations in India. The competition for control of land, coupled with a historical lack of rights of indigenous peoples, has resulted in land dispossession and impoverishment. To address this, the Indian Government passed the Forest Rights Act in 2006. Using empirical evidence from India, I critically examine, from a socio-legal perspective, the challenges of implementing the Forest Rights Act. The Act itself, while pushing the new ‘inclusion’ paradigm within conservation thinking, has been a shock to bureaucratic structures in India such as the Forest Department, which sees its role as fighting the ‘encroachment’ of tribal communities, and whose attitudes towards the community ranges from apathetic to openly hostile. In violation of human rights, state and central governments are i...
International Journal of Law in Context
Does legislation that grants land rights necessarily ensure justice? The Forest Rights Act of 200... more Does legislation that grants land rights necessarily ensure justice? The Forest Rights Act of 2006 (FRA) in India, a landmark social justice law, aims to enhance land security for forest peoples. Increasingly displaced by development and extractive industries that intensify impoverishment, indigenous peoples in India should, with the FRA, be able to protect their land, their livelihoods and their culture. Continued government violations of forest land rights in the name of development highlight that economically vulnerable populations lack the power to take advantage of legislation. I examine the tension of current indigenous land struggles in the context of the legal frameworks of the FRA and the neoliberal culture of India.
In Country Frameworks for Development Displacement and Resettlement: Reducing Risk, Building Resi... more In Country Frameworks for Development Displacement and Resettlement: Reducing Risk, Building Resilience, editors Susanna Price and Jane Singer bring together contributors to offer a deep exploration of evolving national frameworks that seek to mitigate the risk and deprivation faced by vulnerable communities displaced by the global competition for land. The chapters in this thought-provoking and comprehensive book carefully build a rigorous documentation of policies and legal practice to form a vital resource for academics, students and specialists working with land rights, writes Indrani Sigamany
Access to justice remains uneven and elusive for indigenous peoples dispossessed of their lands. ... more Access to justice remains uneven and elusive for indigenous peoples dispossessed of their lands. The Forest Rights Act of India (2006) promises land security for forest peoples displaced from ancestral lands by the combined forces of colonial forest resource extraction and contemporary free-market economic development, which have disregarded customary indigenous land rights. This research challenges the assumptions: land rights legislation necessarily contributes to access to justice, and governments serve the interests of citizens in a democratic system such as India. I posit that justice is subverted by: a legal chronology of land expropriation during colonial occupation; contemporary neoliberal policies; and administrative injustice. These issues encouraged legal violations and exacerbated land dispossession. Socio-economic and gender inequalities and marginalization of mobile indigenous peoples compounds their land dispossession, and economic, social, legal disenfranchisement. A...
In Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania and M... more In Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania and Mexico, Prakash Kashwan contributes to urgent debates surrounding forest and land rights by looking at how competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice have been balanced in three country-specific case studies drawn from India, Tanzania and Mexico. This is a powerful portrayal of the complexities of governance and the pursuit of justice when it comes to land displacement and environmental conservation, writes Indrani Sigamany.
Control of land is a source of contention among indigenous peoples, governments, conservationists... more Control of land is a source of contention among indigenous peoples, governments, conservationists and extractive industries. Forests are crucial to the existence and survival of tribal and pastoralist populations in India. The competition for control of land, coupled with a historical lack of rights of indigenous peoples, has resulted in land dispossession and impoverishment. To address this, the Indian Government passed the Forest Rights Act in 2006. Using empirical evidence from India, I critically examine, from a socio-legal perspective, the challenges of implementing the Forest Rights Act. The Act itself, while pushing the new ‘inclusion’ paradigm within conservation thinking, has been a shock to bureaucratic structures in India such as the Forest Department, which sees its role as fighting the ‘encroachment’ of tribal communities, and whose attitudes towards the community ranges from apathetic to openly hostile. In violation of human rights, state and central governments are i...
International Journal of Law in Context
Does legislation that grants land rights necessarily ensure justice? The Forest Rights Act of 200... more Does legislation that grants land rights necessarily ensure justice? The Forest Rights Act of 2006 (FRA) in India, a landmark social justice law, aims to enhance land security for forest peoples. Increasingly displaced by development and extractive industries that intensify impoverishment, indigenous peoples in India should, with the FRA, be able to protect their land, their livelihoods and their culture. Continued government violations of forest land rights in the name of development highlight that economically vulnerable populations lack the power to take advantage of legislation. I examine the tension of current indigenous land struggles in the context of the legal frameworks of the FRA and the neoliberal culture of India.