Development Dilemmas and Management of Natural Resources in India: A Sociological Analysis

This paper highlights the recent global debate on cronyism, capitalism and power relations between and among the political nexus, executives and the corporate sector that has raised questions on the development paradox resulting in speculations and a prelude to the anarchy in the social sector. The current study based in the resource rich eastern belt of the Indian peninsula is an amalgamation of both qualitative and quantitative data that has been analysed using scientific tools and techniques.

Based on the twin Theories of ‘Resource Curse’ and the ‘Tragedy of the Common’s’ this study draws light on the prevailing socio-economic condition of communities living in the peripheries of society who are not just handmaids of class inequality, caste biasness and patriarchal dominance but also subjected to extreme vulnerability too as a result of over and explicit extraction of resources. The author has used multiple scientific methods and techniques such as resource mapping, narratives and correlation to measure the asymmetry between the availability of resources and livelihood status of indigenous communities in the study area.

Thus, the relevance of this research lies in rethinking development so as to create a just human-environment interface by co-creating substitute capital in the form of social and physical infrastructure through stakeholder-engagement. Additionally, the quest for sustainable development, can further be achieved by investigating the critical and emancipatory potential of the right to social justice, empowerment and rural transformation.