Abstract
In December 2007, in response to protests against the compulsory acquisition of land for special economic tones and other industrial projects, most notoriously at Nandigram and Singur, the UPA-I government proposed changes to the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 ('LAA 1894') of a scope and significance unprecedented in independent India. There exists, however, a comparable albeit forgotten precedent of reforming intent and ambition from the late (British) Ra. In 1927, the Maharashtrian nationalist N. C Kelkar (1872- 1947) proposed what was described as a 'revolutionary' private member1Billto amend the LIAA 1894, inspired in part by a satyagraha, a few years earlier, against land acquisition for a privately-constructed dam. The Bill met with serious opposition from officials and was ultimately withdrawn, a failure which this article attempts to explain in light of the history of land acquisition and the political economy of the inter-war years.
Custom Citation
Eesvan Krishnan, 'Private Speculations and the Public Interest: N.C. Kelkar's Land Acquisition Bill' (2012) 8(2) Socio-Legal Review 78
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.55496/IJFH2773
