| Summary/Abstract |
This paper demonstrates a case of state formation in South Asia that emerged from below. In India, the state of Maharashtra has had a history of social movements by people evicted by dam construction dating back to the 1920s. The cumulative effect of these movements led Maharashtra to enact a law in 1976 to empower dam evictees, thus establishing the first rehabilitation law in India. These movements democratised the state and transformed its legal arena through a rights-based, claim-making approach. I argue that in post-colonial India, the state and society co-evolved through dialectics that were instrumental in transforming both, and that the making of the Maharashtra Resettlement of Project Displaced Persons Act, 1976, was the precursor to all acts subsequently passed in India in response to a rights-based, claim-making approach.
|