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Abstract:
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"This paper examines and analyses the organization and functioning of
subaltern peasant sanghams (grassroot associations of the poor) and
their place-based as well as network-based strategies in building
autonomous local communities that challenge the consequences of
neoliberal globalization in general and the commodification of
agriculture and food in particular. The major objective of the counterhegemonic
organizational strategies is to build self-protective and
subsistence communities, to mend the metabolic rift between nature
and society, and to re-reconstruct social fabric within communities. The
question remains is whether place-based autonomous communities
can sustain in an increasingly globalizing world. To better understand
these political dynamics, I use Karl Polanyi’s concept of ‘double
movement’ and examine the making of a double movement in Indian
agriculture and its socio-political and ecological implications for the
Indian peasantry. I use the organizational strategies and activities of
the Deccan Development Society, a prominent non-governmental
organization that has been working in Medak district for more than
two decades, as an illustrative case study."
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