As the Indian economy integrates into global circuits of production, exchange and accumulation, the burdens of adjustment are shared unequally by different sectors, classes and regions. This study unravels the livelihood strategies and living conditions of labour in the tea gardens of Assam. The tea sector has been undergoing a crisis since the 1990s, with stagnant production, decline in exports, and closures of many tea gardens leading to large-scale retrenchments in the labour force. Based on a detailed analysis of secondary data and primary field research, the study examines the extent, types and implications of inter-generational occupational mobility (or immobility) among tea garden labourers in Assam. In the process, it reflects on how even a sector that had brought capital and labour from outside and contributed significantly to the country's export earnings failed to create dynamic growth linkages within the local economy. The experience of the labour force in the Assam tea sector, the authors argue, is important for making sense not only of the development dynamics of the region, but of the contradictory ways in which forces of globalisation and neo-liberal reforms have been reshaping the worlds of labourers in the margins. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of labour studies, development studies, management studies, and studies of north-east India, as well as to policy-makers and those in the tea industry.

As the Indian economy integrates into global circuits of production, exchange and accumulation, the burdens of adjustment are shared unequally by different sectors, classes and regions. This study unravels the livelihood strategies and living conditions of labour in the tea gardens of Assam. The tea sector has been undergoing a crisis since the 1990s, with stagnant production, decline in exports, and closures of many tea gardens leading to large-scale retrenchments in the labour force. Based on a detailed analysis of secondary data and primary field research, the study examines the extent, types and implications of inter-generational occupational mobility (or immobility) among tea garden labourers in Assam. In the process, it reflects on how even a sector that had brought capital and labour from outside and contributed significantly to the country's export earnings failed to create dynamic growth linkages within the local economy. The experience of the labour force in the Assam tea sector, the authors argue, is important for making sense not only of the development dynamics of the region, but of the contradictory ways in which forces of globalisation and neo-liberal reforms have been reshaping the worlds of labourers in the margins. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of labour studies, development studies, management studies, and studies of north-east India, as well as to policy-makers and those in the tea industry.

Economic development of frontier and remote regions has long been a central theme of development studies. This book examines the development experience in the northeastern region in India in relation to the processes of globalisation and liberalisation of the economy. Bringing together researchers and scholars, from both within and outside the region, the volume offers a comprehensive and updated analysis of governance and development issues in relation to the northeastern economy. With its multidisciplinary approaches, the chapters cover a variety of sectors and concerns such as land, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, finance, human development, human security, trade and policy. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of economics, public policy, governance and development, geopolitics, geography, development studies, politics and sociology of development and area studies as well as observers and policymakers interested in the Northeast.

Economic development of frontier and remote regions has long been a central theme of development studies. This book examines the development experience in the northeastern region in India in relation to the processes of globalisation and liberalisation of the economy. Bringing together researchers and scholars, from both within and outside the region, the volume offers a comprehensive and updated analysis of governance and development issues in relation to the northeastern economy. With its multidisciplinary approaches, the chapters cover a variety of sectors and concerns such as land, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, finance, human development, human security, trade and policy. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of economics, public policy, governance and development, geopolitics, geography, development studies, politics and sociology of development and area studies as well as observers and policymakers interested in the Northeast.

The book discusses important developments emerging around the land questions in India in the context of India's neoliberal economic development and its changing political economy. It covers many issues that have been impinging the political economy in land and livelihoods in India since the 1990s, examining the land question from diverse methodological standpoints. Most of the chapters rely on evidence generated through primary surveys in different parts of the country. The book, via its diversity of approaches and methodologies, brings out new and hitherto unexplored and/or less researched issues on the emerging land question in India. The range of issues addressed in the volume encompasses the contemporary developments in the political economy of land, land dispossession, SEZs, agrarian changes, urbanisation and the drive for the commodification of land across India. The authors also examine role of the state in promoting the capitalist transformation in India and continuities and changes emerging in the context of land liberalisation and market-friendly economic reforms.