Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Agrarian Reform and Shrimp Cultivation in West Bengal, India

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Graduate student Sarasij Majumder, supervised by Dr. Bonnie J. McCay, will conduct research on the relation between politics and export-oriented economic development programs in West Bengal, India. He will examine the political role of small landholders and sharecroppers to explain different outcomes in the shrimp cultivation sector in two sites in the Bengal Delta. In spite of having similar agro-ecological condition, the two sites have very different patterns of commercial shrimp cultivation. In one site, outside entrepreneurs own most of the shrimp farms, which cover a very large surface area. In the other site, local small landholders and sharecroppers own most of the shrimp farms, which are relatively small in scale. The researcher hypothesizes that the scale and ownership of shrimp farm is dependent on two factors. The first is the ability of small landholders and sharecroppers to negotiate with bureaucrats at all tiers of the multi-tiered local government body, the implementing agency of the state. The second is how natural resources and the state are perceived by individuals at these sites. Data will be collected through a) participant observation of formal and informal politics at the villages and the district towns, b) unstructured and semi-structured interviews with small landholders, sharecroppers, bureaucrats, elected representatives and landlords at the two sites, and c) structured questionnaires administered among the small landholders/sharecroppers. The research will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist. The findings also will help to understand differential outcomes of shrimp aquaculture, a growing economic development strategy throughout Asia.