Land use planning, dispossession and contestation in Goa, India

Abstract

This article seeks to understand the role of land use planning in India's neoliberal regime of dispossession. Analyzing the relationship between planning and land dispossession in the state of Goa, we view planning processes and documents as constitutive parts of state-specific regimes of dispossession. We argue that planning in Goa emerges as a terrain of struggle between a state-capital nexus seeking to dispossess and convert land, and an organized citizenry seeking to use planning for alternative purposes. We show how the long-term trend in regional planning is one in which planning documents function predominantly to assemble land for private investments.