ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to retell the story of land acquisition in Singur, the resistance organized there – mainly though not exclusively – by the peasants, that was both preceded and followed with its wide-ranging ramifications across the country and most importantly how this resistance affected the institutional politics in the state of West Bengal. Singur is not only the example of a peasant movement that eventually became successful by ensuring that the land acquired for industrialization is returned to the ‘unwilling’ peasants, but redefined in more than one sense the terms of discourse of the institutional politics – particularly electoral politics in West Bengal. Singur, viewed in this light, is hardly an example that we usually cite in order to exemplify a theory or illustrate a concept, but is an exemplar that refuses to remain bound by the framing of any given theory or concept, but has the potential of interrogating and unsettling many of our known theories and concepts. As we retell the story of Singur, we are as it were called upon to renegotiate many of our theories and concepts. The scope of the chapter does not allow to delve deep into the anomalies in our theories and concepts that get unfolded through the exemplar of Singur, since it primarily focuses on the story itself, rather than the lessons we learn from the story. The ‘re’ in our effort is a modest attempt at retelling the story all over again in a way that reminds us of its immense theoretical and conceptual possibilities.
