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C H A P T E R 9 Erosion of Essential Resources in Neoliberal India A BOTTOM-UP VIEW Vamsi Vakulabharanam The idea of essential resources (such as the means to produce a basic live- lihood) as different from other goods (private, public, or common-pool resources) does not arise so much from the unique internal nature of these goods (e.g., their inherent attributes, such as excludability or subtractabil- ity). Rather, the difference results from the fact that these resources are indispensable to the basic survival of the people who use them. They need to be governed differently than other goods, because we associate a value of moral repugnance to the withdrawal of these goods from the poor.1 This chapter seeks to address whether it is possible to imagine a skeletal governance structure or regime for essential goods that could span mul- tiple spatial levels, including the local, provincial, national, and global. In this paper, I work with the concrete experience of two South Indian states—Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana.2 Through the case study of AP’s tribal economy and the peasant economy of Telan- gana, I discuss how the erosion of access to essential goods has gath- ered momentum in the past few decades. From this description, I present broader reflections on the question of devising appropriate governance structures for essential goods. G R A N I T E Q U A R R Y I N G I N T H E P E A S A N T E C O N O M Y O F K A R I M N A G A R The Indian mining department makes a distinction between major and minor minerals. In the case of minor minerals quarried in plots of less than five hectares, exemption is given from environmental clearance and a public hearing in the area where mining is anticipated. Granite

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