“We Are Chasi, Not Chasa”: Emergence of Land-Based Subjectivities

This chapter shows the emergence of land-based identities in West Bengal in the postcolonial period. It demonstrates the social and political divisions and hierarchies that had historically existed in the villages and how in the postcolonial period, certain distinctions gradually softened whereas others based on land hardened. It examines how politicians and policymakers perceived “the villages” and “the rural.” It looks at the political expediencies of elections and democratic politics, which played out in the distribution of land among tenant farmers who constitute the present group of small landholding farmers in Singur. It explores the linguistic distinction between chasa and chasi to trace the changes that occurred in village life and in the subjectivities of small landholding villagers.