Land

Land is power and labour makes wealth: how dominant castes use land to command Dalit labour, and how Dalits fight back.

Farmers bring their land papers to revenue officials during the government land survey in Erravalli, Telangana, in September 2026. File photo. — Deccan Chronicle, Shared with credit
  1. EXPLAINERWhat is DC Manna land, and why are Dalits in coastal Karnataka still waiting for it?
  2. EXPLAINERWhat is Panchami land, and who holds Tamil Nadu's Dalit land grants now?
  3. EXPLAINERCents, not acres: how Kerala's celebrated land reform passed over its Dalit labourers

When we refused to allow the revenue officials to survey our land, they told us that it would be taken at any cost as the plot was assigned to us by the government.

— Cherlapally Baliah, a Dalit farmer in Islampur, Medak district, to The News Minute, 2022