This volume is about the emerging development trajectories of rural labour relations in India, based on studies from its regions and states. its overarching theme is the rural class conflict and the results of such conflict, and the link between this and the nature and impact of state intervention. Vigorous emancipatory processes are identified, and the limitations of and contradictions inherent in such processes are examined. Both powerful general trends and significant regional variations are distinguished.

This book examines two subordinated groups untouchables and womenin a village in Tamilnadu, South India. The lives and work of untouchable women in this village provide a unique analytical focus that clarifies the ways in which three axes of identitygender, caste, and classare constructed in South India. Karin Kapadia argues that subordinated groups do not internalize the values of their masters but instead reject them in innumerable subtle ways.Kapadia contends that elites who hold economic power do not dominate the symbolic means of production. Looking at the everyday practices, rituals,...

This book investigates the contemporary situation of women in India by focusing on four broad domains: the cultural, the social, the political, and the economic. The writers argue that despite apparently positive indicators of progress, particularly in education and paid employment, little has changed in the position of women. Steadily falling sex ratios suggest a growing bias against the female child.