Anticipation of Dispossession: Narratives from the Mallanasagar Reservoir Area

Abstract

This article attempts to give voice to the perspectives of people living in ‘anticipation of dispossession.’ While the rationale for development projects involving mass displacement, is that it is the responsibility of the state to expand and diversify economic activity and create opportunities, how tenable is this logic in terms of the lived experience of those facing imminent removal? Can compensation in fact compensate the layers of loss suffered by those who are displaced? The collectivity built around the collective ownership of the village (an ownership distinct from title), and a sense of rootedness and identity—a situated belonging—is jeopardised by dispossession. Is this shared notion of ownership quantifiable? This article explores these questions through conversations and interviews with people living in the villages in the Mallanasagar reservoir area in Telangana that has been marked for submergence in the very near future.