Struggle

Never Just About Rights: 20 years of The Forest Rights Act (FRA) : Part-2

None of this is an argument against the Forest Rights Act. Quite the opposite. It remains, perhaps, the most democratic forest legislation independent India has enacted. Without it, millions of people would be far more vulnerable to eviction and administrative violence. It gave political and legal force to claims the forest bureaucracy had denied for generations and opened doors that had previously been closed.

Read story →

Never Just About Rights: 20 years of The Forest Rights Act (FRA) : Part-1

Forest rights, its preamble said, had not been properly recorded during either the colonial period or independent India, resulting in a “historical injustice”. The struggle that produced the law was therefore never simply a demand for land titles. It challenged a system of forest governance built during colonial rule and retained, remarkably intact, long after the British left.

Read story →