Nationalisation, Privatisation and the dilemmas of common property management in Western Rajasthan

Abstract

Since 1949, the Indian state of Rajasthan has experienced a series of land reforms and other policy interventions which tended to disregard the institutional needs of natural resource management in general and common property resource management in particular. Nationalisation of land and the creation of modern forms of private property for agricultural expansion along with rising population densities have caused continuous decline in availability of common property resources and undermined possibilities for collective action in the arid zone of Rajasthan which occupies a major part of the state. This article reviews the problem of common property resources management in Rajasthan's arid zone from a historical‐institutional perspective and provides a microanalysis based on a household survey in two sets of villages. It concludes by highlighting the current dilemmas of common property resource management and indicating possible directions for policy intervention.