Understanding Anti-POSCO Movement in Odisha: Through the Politics of Development

Abstract

Like other resistant movements by the development-induced displaced, the Anti-Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) movement was fought on the basis of issues of Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R), ecological degradation, loss of livelihood, and endangered local identity. However, this movement is studied with a nuance that examined a novel variable called the politics of development (taking the analysis beyond the R&R/livelihood issues and conventional left leaning analysis of movements). As an empirical exercise, the study exemplifies application of New Social Movement (NSM) theory and accordingly it analyzes the pivotal roles of social movement organizations (SMOs) like POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti and United Action Committee and a nexus of the principal SMO with likeminded civil society organizations (CSOs) (NGOs and INGOs) which are further linked to large number of local voluntary organizations (solidarity groups). The major point of departure for analysis is the “politics of development” which gets operationalized in terms of articulation of vested interests that undermines societal interests. The SMO and CSO with local solidarity groups forming a nexus fomented the mobilizations for the resistance movement. Hence, it is argued that as a victim of politics of development, POSCO, a huge developmental project in coastal Odisha, faced closer. Thus, within the framework of NSM perspective, the analytic nuances of “politics of development” provided the depth into the understanding of the movement dynamics.