About the Book: Indias Villages in the 21st century
Rural sociology in India has undergone dynamic phases and shifts; from early
ethnographic field research conducted by anthropologists such as M. N Srinivas
(1950), to more focused analyses on agrarian conflict and agrarian change
through the 1960s and 70s, village studies in India continued to evolve.
However, post economic liberalisation in the 90s, the village ceased to be
central to ongoing sociological concerns, and the urban took over, with studies
on the city and demography becoming more prominent. The shifts in Indian
economic policy during the early 1990s began to marginalize rural life and its
agrarian economy in