This volume marks the sesquicentennial of the events of 1857, in which multi-pronged, widespread and in many instances, organised resistance broke out against the British across north India. The contributions in this volume look at several aspects of 1857, and assess its events not merely in terms of their immediately, but in the repercussions that they had politically, socially, and militarily. The essays look at how historiography has accorded its own interpretation to 1857 and its effects, an interpretation that is changing even today. The collection has been grouped into five sections, each of which explores diverse aspects of 1857. The first section looks at historical perspectives and is titled "Then and Now;" the second, "Sepoys and Soldiers" looks at the military aspects; the third, "The Margins" is from the point of view of Dalits; the fourth, "Fictional Representations" studies how 1857 has been depicted in literature; and the fifth, "The Arts and 1857" looks at 1857 as it has inspired films, music, and fine art. Held together with a preface by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, the essays in this volume—that range in theme and subject from historiography and military engagements, to the dalit viranganas idealised in traditional songs and the "unconventional protagonists" in mutiny novels—converge on one common goal: to enrich the existing national debates on the 1857 Uprising.

The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 60th anniversary on 1 October 2009. December 2008 marked 30 years since the Chinese Communist Party’s decision to launch ‘market reforms’. The breathtakingly rapid economic growth witnessed after 1978 has attracted worldwide attention. But the condition of more than 350 million workers is abysmal, especially that of the migrants among them. The stagnation of peasant incomes had fuelled a huge, historically unprecedented migration into the cities—over the past 25 years, some 150-200 million persons, including women, migrated from the countryside to the urban areas in search of jobs. Why do the migrants put up with so much hardship in the urban factories? Has post-reform China forsaken the earlier goal of ‘socialist equality’? What has been the contribution of rural industries to regional development, alleviation of poverty and spatial inequality, and in relieving the grim employment situation? How has the meltdown in the global economy in the second half of 2008 affected the domestic economy? What of the current leadership’s call for a ‘harmonious society’? Does it signal an important ‘course correction’?

Depletion and destruction of forests have eroded the already fragile survival base of adivasis across the country. Deprived of their traditional livelihoods, an alarmingly large number of adivasis have been displaced to make way for development projects. Many have been forced to migrate to other rural areas, the urban fringes or cities in search of work, leading to further alienation. This systematic alienation, however, is not a modern-day phenomenon. Invasion of adivasi territories, for the most part, commenced during the colonial era and later intensified during the post-colonial period. The Adivasi Question situates the issues concerning the adivasis in a historical context while discussing the challenges they face today. The introduction examines how the loss of land and livelihood began under the British administration. The British brought tribal land under their control and weaned the adivasis away from shifting cultivation. It analyses how the colonial government forced a section of the adivasis to take up cultivation on lower rates of assessment, thereby making them dependent on the landlord-moneylender-trader nexus for their survival. The articles, drawn from writings of almost four decades, discuss questions of community rights and ownership, management of forests, the state’s rehabilitation policies, and the Forest Rights Act and its implications. It presents diverse perspectives in the form of case studies specific to different regions and provides valuable analytical insights. Bringing together contributions by well-known sociologists, historians and environmental activists, this book will be an indispensible read for students and scholars of environmental studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, and policy-analysts.

This volume investigates the nature of economic growth in India, its pace over time, its relationship to changes in the policy regime and the role of the external sector, and uses data to evaluate the policies that have implicitly underpinned the changes. Presenting a range of approaches, views and conclusions, this collection comprises papers from the Economic & Political Weekly that are marked by an empirical awareness necessary for an understanding of a growth history. The articles reflect a certain groundedness in their approach in that they privilege content/context over methodology. The introduction outlines the importance of putting together the writings of almost a decade on the subject, explains why the issue of development is conspicuous by its absence, and presents this book as a complement to studies addressing a wider set of issues around the economy since 1990. The book is thematically divided into five sections. The first two are macroscopic in nature, focusing on the overall economic growth. While section one provides an overview, of the subject, attributing causes and delineating the phases of economic growth, the papers in the second section are largely statistical and reflect the progress made by econometricians in devising estimation methodologies. The two sections identify growth regimes and structural breaks in the Indian economy. The third section focuses on sectoral performances, in particular agricultural and industrial growth, intersectoral linkages, the role of trade and capital flows, and the sources of growth of India’s exports before and after economic reforms. Section four presents data and analyses of inter-state variations in economic growth and regional inequality. The last section analyses the political economy of growth in India. It throws light on the systemic implications of socio-economic changes, their effect on the poor, and the relationship between economic growth and social development. This volume is an important addition to the literature on post-liberalisation economic growth in India. It will be useful to students and scholars of economics and management.

The notion of ‘work and employment’ of ‘work and employment’ for women is complex. While economic factors predominantly determine a man’s participation in employment, the reasons why women work, or do not work, or whether they work part-time or full-time, can be diverse and are often rooted in a complex interplay of economic, cultural, social and personal factors. In India, as in most other parts of the world, fewer women participate in employment compared to men. This is the backdrop against which Women and Work analyses a wide range of issues—from what counts for ‘work’ to the economic contribution of women to how gendering of work has many significant and related consequences. The introduction talks of how oppression faced by wage-earning women is the result of patriarchal norms and capitalist relations of production. It also demonstrates how policies and programmes anchored around data based on national income accounts and/or labour force surveys seriously disadvantage women in more ways than one. Divided into four sections, the articles focus on women engaged in varied work—paddy-growers in West Bengal, beedi-rollers in Tamil Nadu, laceworkers in Andhra Pradesh and bardancers in Maharashtra—all of whom live and work in dismal conditions, and earn paltry incomes. Bringing together well-known sociologists and economists, this volume will be useful for students and scholars of sociology, economics, political science and women’s studies.

This volume presents a set of readings which primarily focus on the social, political and cultural aspects of village life. A few readings discuss issues of agrarian change and the economy of rural India. A comprehensive introduction provides a detailed historical analysis of the study of rural India, the changes in rural social life, and the forces shaping life in villages today. The articles, drawn from writings over four decades (1972 to 2010), cover various features of village society: caste and community, land and labour, migration, discrimination and use of common property resources, among others. The volume will be a single reference point for some of the best published works in the field.

The idea of devolving power to local governments was part of the larger political debate during the Indian national movement. It had strong advocates like Mahatma Gandhi who felt that the panchayats had to be the basis of government in independent India. This volume maps the trajectory that decentralisation of government has taken in the decades following Independence and discusses the constitutional changes and policy decisions that make governance more accountable to and accessible for the common man. It presents a set of twenty-five readings that analyse the impact of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, which gave autonomy to the institutions of both rural and urban governance.