From Singur to Sompeta: people’s resistance against land grabbing gaining power in India

In early 2006, Singur in West Bengal became the epitome of peasants’ struggle against neo-liberal expansion in land and livelihoods in India. Meanwhile, in 2010 the struggle in Sompeta exposed politics of ‘power’ in the name of energy production in Andhra Pradesh. Villagers and fishers there resisted the development of a government-backed private thermal power plant, which caused State-wide protest and raised the question of development effectiveness as a whole.