Mahanirban Calcutta Research group

Next Year          Previous Years

Policies and Practices 42
 
Colonialism, Resource Crisis and Forced Migration
The establishment of de facto political control by the English East India Company in Bengal after the battle of Plassey in 1757 inaugurated a period of gradual conquest of the subcontinent leading ultimately to the establishment of direct imperial control after the great Revolt of 1857.

Essay by Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty
 

Policies and Practices 41
 
Finding a Point of Return : Internally Displaced Persons in Sri Lanka
Decades of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is said to have left around 800,000 Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs). Some estimates put the figure at more than one million people. On an average one in every 18 Sri Lankan is displaced, and in the Northern Province it is one in every three persons. Apparently, the majority of displaced people are mainly from the northern and eastern provinces. S. Y. Surendra Kumar’s article “Conflict and Internal Displacement In Sri Lanka: Concerns and Obstacles to Durable Solutions” delves into this issue, finding the causes of displacement (from military campaigns to developmental projects, from majoritarianism to uneven political development); it also brings out the details of an ongoing process of finding a solution for and rehabilitating the displaced people.
Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen in her article “Conflict, Displacement and the Conditions for Sustainable Return: A Study from the District of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka” does a thorough local-level study to understand the larger ramifications of the problem of IDPs and finding durable solutions for them. Trincomalee was chosen because most of the returnees settled here in 2007. And from this choice her argument flows. The mere administrative act of hastily resettling displaced people often doesn’t mark a return to stable life. It needs a more sensitive overhaul of property relations, infrastructure, education and the condition of political participation. Only then it can be called sustainable return, Badurdeen argues.
Essays by S. Y. Surendra Kumar and Fathima Azmiya Badurdeenm
 

Policies and Practices 40
 
Law and Democratic Governance : Two Studies from Europe
In the article “Tolerance Established by Law: The Autonomy of South Tyrol in Italy”, Eva Pfostl examines the model of autonomy in Trentino-South Tyrol in Italy. Her finds persuade her to argue that the ‘success’ of this model lies in a system of tolerance established by law, in the sense of a ‘mix’ of legal instruments and institutions which preserve the different identities through autonomy and, on the other hand, enable co-operation through representation and participation. Jean-Louis Halperin in the article “The Impact of Internationalization of Law upon the French Legal Order” shows that though many jurists consider that contemporary France---drawing on a long tradition of nation-building---has a legal order creating its own rules, the country is involved in the process that accommodates international law not only in foreign affairs but also in its internal legal order.
Essays by Eva Pfostl and Jean-Louis Halperin
 

Policies and Practices 39
 
Place of Poor in Urban Space
Through a case study of Mumbai city and LC resettlement colony, the paper highlights the tribulation of poor in urban space. The experiences of recurring and multiple marginalities and vulnerabilities of poor in Mumbai city expose how the state, its policies and agencies treat different classes of citizens differently. Based on an empirical research and analysis of experiences and observations, the paper highlights numerous problems encountered by poor in slum settlement as also in relocation sites.
Essay by Manish K Jha
 

Policies and Practices 38
 
Incomplete Citizenship, Statelessness and Human Trafficking : A Preliminary Analysis of the Current Situation in West Bengal, India
In this article Pascale McLean gets into the definition and the characteristics of trafficking of girls and women. She explores the grounds for a complete citizenship. The article then goes on to examine whether statelessness is a de jure phenomenon or a de facto reality. Before concluding, she studies the relationship between trafficking and statelessness within refugee camps. Her data is drawn from West Bengal.
Essay by Pascale McLean