Identity Negotiations Amidst Conflict

Abstract

Protests in opposition to development projects involving acquisition of agricultural newlinelands have become a part of everyday reality in India. The present research was taken up with newlinethe aim of exploring the subtler processes of negotiation in a conflict situation, where the two newlinemajor actors involved are the government agencies responsible for acquiring land, and the newlinepeople protesting dispossession. The research is based upon the insights drawn from newlineethnographic explorations of a simmering conflict over dispossession of land due to a dam newlineconstruction in a non-descript district in Central India, namely Chhindwara. The geographic newlinelocale of Chhindwara provides the context for constructing a discursive field allowing for newlineexplorations of the multiple intersecting discourses that define a development related conflict. newlineChhindwara also provides a context for reflecting upon the larger socio-political contexts and newlineneo-liberal ethos within which such conflicts are increasingly becoming commonplace. newlineThe present research building upon the constructionist-interpretive paradigm accepts newlineco-constructed nature of social reality and thus adopts a methodological approach that affirms newlineresearch process as a participatory exercise between the researcher and the researched. The core newlineresearch question is to understand conflict as a co-constructed social reality and to highlight the newlinereciprocal impact made by the dynamics of such constructions on identities of the parties newlineinvolved, i. e. the government agencies and the community. Based on interpretive newlineepistemological framework, the research explores the subjective meanings and experiences of newlinevarious actors, and brings out the complexities involved in explaining a conflict. Aiming to newlinedelve into the questions of power, dominance and negotiated nature of identity constructions the newlineresearch emphasises the constructed nature of all social phenomena and utilises a critical newlineethnographic approach. newlineIn order to situate the work the geo-political and socio-historical