RURAL SOCIETY IN INDIA (Second Edition)

Indian village has always been a part of a wider Indian society as an economic, political and social entity. The holistic village monographs of the 1950s and the culturological studies of the 1950s and the 1960s were substituted by the studies of structural problems and of specific issues in the 1970s. Divides between village and town, and caste and class, were not only reviewed critically during the 1970s and the 1980s, but were also substituted by paradigms or conceptualizations like ‘country-town nexus’ and ‘caste-class nexus’ to unfold and uncover the hollowness of the antinomies like village and town and caste and class.
This book presents an interdisciplinary perspective on the understanding of caste, class, mode of production in agriculture, peasant movements, land reforms, stresses in caste stratification, caste and class consciousness, rural power elite, modernization, change and social stratification. The volume imparts the message that the problems relating to landlessness, underemployment and unemployment, poverty, health, education, migration and mobility are more fundamental than the ones concerning untouchability, pollution-purity, rituals and religious practices.
The new ‘Introduction’ written for this second edition provides a review of interdisciplinary explanation to the emerging social trends and patterns of social stratification in contemporary rural India. The book would be of an immense value for students, researchers and teachers as it encompasses entire gamut of structure and change in rural society in India.

K.L. Sharma was formerly Professor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. During his stint at JNU from 1972 to 2003, he held several academic and administrative positions, including the one of Rector (pro-Vice-Chancellor). Professor Sharma was Vice-Chancellor at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, during 2003–2005. He later served as Vice-Chancellor, Jaipur National University, Jaipur from 2007 to 2014. From 1991 onwards, he was Visiting Professor for five times at College de France, Paris. He has supervised more than one hundred M.Phil and Ph.D students, and has published 26 books and 90 research papers. He regularly writes on current issues for a well-known Hindi daily, Dainik Bhaskar. Currently, he is Pro-Chancellor, Jaipur National University.