‘Rural India Facing the 21st Century’ is a unique study of rural development in South India, concluded over a twenty-year period. Set against the context of international, national and state policies, the book focuses on a wide number of themes, including the stagnation of the ‘green revolution’, growing differentiation and inequality, the ecological crisis, resistance to reform, corruption and the enduring need for state intervention in rural development. Written by an international team of young scholars under the direction of Dr Harris-White, ‘Rural India Facing the 21st Century’ draws together a profound analysis of a broad range of issues to provide a masterly overview of overall rural development. Its highly original methodology and findings will be of considerable interest for development policy.

Barbara Harriss-White is Director of Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University’s Department of International Development. She is Professor of Development Studies and a Fellow of Wolfson College.

S. Janakarajan is a Fellow of the Madras Institute for Development Studies, Chennai. An experienced field economist, his interests are in rural markets and exchange and in irrigation and water management, on which he has published widely.

List of Tables; List of Figures; Preface, Acknowledgements and Dedication; PART ONE: LONG-TERM CHANGE: 1-1 Introduction: Heavy Agriculture and Light Industry in South Indian Villages; Appendix 1: The Selection of Villages and Sampled Households; Appendix 2: Production Statistics; 1-2 Irrigation: The Development of an Agro-Ecological Crisis; 1-3 Time and Space: Intervillage Variation in the Nort Arcot Region and Its Dynamics, 1973-95; Appendix: Analysis of Clusters; 1-4 Social Stratification and Rural Households; 1-5 Labour, Gender Relations and the Rural Economy; 1-6 Social Institutions and the Structural Transformation of the Non-Farm Economy; PART TWO: PRODUCTION PPOLICY AND PILLAGE PERSPECTIVES: 2-1 Policy and the Agricultural Development Agenda; 2-2 Rural Infrastructure and Local Utilities: Institutions and Access; 2-3 Populism and Electricity in Rural Tamil Nadu; 2-4 Rural Credit and the Collateral Question; 2-5 Fertilizer Reforms and Nutrient Balances; Appendix 1; Appendix 2; PART THREE: SOCIAL WELFARE IN THE VILLAGES: 3-1 Introduction: Village Studies and Welfare; 3-2 Antipoverty Policy: Targeting and Screening for Eligibility; Appendix: Deatils of Class Probability Tree Analysis; 3-3 Life Chances: Development and Female Disadvantage; 3-4 Incapacity and Disability; 3-5 Food, Nutrition and the State in Northern Tamil Nadu; Appendix 1: Nutrition Data 1973-4 to 1982-4; Appendix 2: Income, Price and Household Factors in Household-level Calorie Availability, 1994; Appendix 3: The Public Distribution Scheme (PDS); Appendix 4: Noon Meal Scheme (NMS); 3-6 No End to the Betrayal? Primary Education in Its Social Context: Evidence from Rural Tamil Nadu; Appendix: Summary Statistics for Probit Model Variables; 3-7 Socially Inclusive Social Security: Social Assistance in the Villages; 3-8 So What for Policy? The Rural Development in a Poor State; Notes; References; Index