“Land is Our Mother”: Alternative Meanings of Development in Subaltern Organizing

Abstract

Land grab has emerged as an increasingly key component of neoliberal frames of development, resulting in large-scale displacement of rural populations. The discourses of farming communities living on lands threatened by these neoliberal reforms reflect an alternative rationality around land, and critique the dominant understanding of development by foregrounding local cultural meanings. Based on a culture-centered engagement with a subaltern movement opposing land grab in Singur, India, this research informs participatory development communication and offers alternative meanings of development.