Contention in Defining Philanthropy, Corporate and Public Responsibilities in India’s Industrialisation Process: A Case Study on the Launch of an Industrial Park in Chennai’s Peri-Urban Area (Tamil Nadu, India)

Evoking the “public interest”, the Tamil Nadu federal government (South India) promotes industrialization as an engine for growth and development. Through a dedicated public agency, the government thus opens industrial parks around its capital city. This paper studies how contention arose (2007) and reached a stalemate (2013) in the launch of such a park. In order to respond to pressing social demands, the Indian central government has endorsed two major political reforms related to land acquisition and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in 2013. We explain here how these reforms fail to respond to the root causes of the conflict and deliver local development: 1) categorical inequalities are maintained as public common lands are excluded from the reform; 2) the developmental-capitalist state model remains and gives no voice to the affected communities in the public decision-making and in the companies’ implementation of CSR (CSR retaining a strong philanthropic character).