http://flickr.com/photos/jckolepics/

India’s poor reputation in dispossesing farmers with little or no compensation has come home to bite them in the Communist State of West Bengal. 1000 acres of pristine land was forcibly appropriated for the Tata Motors juggernaut.

Seven farmers have committed suicide in dispair over the lack of consultation. Now the socially conscious Tata company is leaving the state in protest at the poor administrative process, costing them millions of dollars.

Land disputes such as those surrounding the highly contentious Narmada Dam (documented beautifully in Drowned Out), have seen India’s adivasi farmers kicked off the land with no compensation and are soon begging on the streets as slum-dwellers (until they graduate into a sweatshop).

The tragedy of India is that so much land is used inefficiently. Urban centres see the homeless sleep on footpaths, meanwhile large tracts of vacant land directly behind them are empty. Speculators in India don’t use fences. They just trash the building, ensuring that concrete rubble outweighs the ability of the dispossed to set up a living abode.

Meanwhile, the pavement dwellers set up little shops out the front, making something out of nothing and inadvertently assisting the landowner to become richer by creating community. The community essence flows through into higher land values, pushing home ownership further out of reach. Classical economic theory backs this statement up.

We are confident that absentee landlords, possibly still hungover since colonial days, control large tracts of land in rural India. It would be interesting to see a local film maker’s opinon from Singur, India on the dramas that are costing their community on so many levels. Inefficient land use with poor administration sees everyone a loser.