{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02301989855637924, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0015606710885680843, 'mean_word_length': 5.193236714975845, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Transition in Afghanistan: hope, despair and the limits of statebuilding

industrialisation. Land is seen as a means to gain exclusivity, status, security and it can be liquidated at crucial moments to generate cash. However, landholders display a simultaneous desire to move offfarm and adopt non-farming lifestyle. The land is therefore central to the formation of subjectivity – acquiring inconsistent meanings including hope, anxiety, anticipation and incompleteness at the same time. The book consists of four chapters. By using the linguistic distinction between chasa (a landless) and chasi (a ‘developed’ landowner), chapter 1 explores the emergence of land-based identities and subjectivities in rural West Bengal. Chapter 2 examines how local discourse of land and development connect property understood as things and property understood as relationships in local hierarchies. Chapter 3 considers the protests against land acquisition as performances. Chapter 4 focuses on the narratives spun by activists in order to construct an authentic peasant voice to suit a set agenda. The author rightfully points out the limitations of the ‘idyllic’ presentations of the rural and agrarian environment. However the book contrasts and emphasizes the narratives of distinctions and aspirations of the small landowners vis-à-vis the landless. Excessive emphasis on this dimension and making it the axis of analysis may appear far-fetched to many. This is particularly true at present times, when, due to a wide range of reasons, land is no longer a remunerative asset if used for agriculture. Sandwiched between an increasingly unviable agriculture and the absence of rural dynamism, between the lure of the modern, urban lifestyle glorified by mass media and the role of the state as a ‘broker’ in land deals, small farmers often surrender. In short, industrialisation appears to hold promises for a better future for them – if not today, then tomorrow, if not for themselves then for their children. Many scholars have highlighted that such promises in post-colonial conditions are often false. The pulls of the narrative, however, remain strong. The land question in the context of industrialisation in India is too complex to be captured by a single analytical framework. Processes of industrialisation and its associated dynamics need to be explored from multiple perspectives, and in this context this theoretically rich book remains an important contribution to the growing literature on how ‘land’ fits into the contemporary development process in India.