Louis Edgar Esparza

Manjusha Nair at Rutgers University recently published an article on the Indian Labor Movement in Historical Sociology. The article went through the Contentious Politics Workshop, the precursor to the Politics and Protest Workshop. It takes a look at the range of tactics that the Chhattisgarh Liberation Front used in their struggle against the Indian state and corporate interests, including wildcat strikes, violence, court battles, and street protests.

One of the interesting tensions this article brings up is that between development and radical politics. The Chhattisgarh Liberation Front targeted companies that were homegrown and contributing to the indigenous development of India, something that many development scholars around the world advocate. Indigenous development, it might be argued, is not enough for successful democratic engagement.