Discontent, Conflict, Social Resistance and Violence at Non-metallic Mining Frontiers in India

Abstract

The twenty-first century is witnessing increased extraction of natural resources across the globe, which includes biomass, metal ores and tailings, fossil energy carriers, and industrial and construction materials. Increasing extraction of resources is largely a result of either intensification of extractive operations in existing extractive locations, or as a result of expansion of frontiers of resource extraction to new geospatial locations across the world. Amongst these, extraction of construction materials has been the highest in the last century. This article analyses conflicts surrounding such minerals which are non-metallic, low value, and extracted to a large degree by local or regional extractive agents, with a special focus on the social violence exerted in such conflicts.