3 Review(s)

India has a mixed bag of experience in the development profile of villages. Each village has a distinct identity in the physical, socio-economic and political map of India in terms of its unique combination of material resources, human capital and socio-political ethos. The path to development of a village has not necessarily been of the 'Lewis' variety with structural shifts of surplus labour taking place from rural to urban sector or from agriculture to industry and thus contributing to rise in marginal productivity of labour. Neither has it necessarily evolved around the Gandhian path of 'village republic'. Over the years, each village has evolved its own pattern of development based on its societal relations, political milieu, economic opportunities and other resources. The development in most cases has been slow and not perceptible. The pace of transformation has also varies extensively from one village to the other. Yet, some transformation has taken place in the villages which have struggled to evolve their own patterns of resolving issues and inducing material progress.Amongst a plethora of village issues the book has concentrated on a few selected themes. It contains a set of papers covering different aspects of Indian villages. The first part of the book deals with a framework of analysis and methodology for rural development. The second part is on a selected policy issue of organising the rural poor. The third part of the book relates to socio-economic forces and political economy of rural development. While, the last part of the book presents a profiles of villages in Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Uttar Pradesh.