Mohan, Chindaliya, and Thomas offer an ethnographic critique of modern, neoliberal India from the perspective of studying the daily lives-livelihoods of marginalised, unsecured, informal vulnerable communities residing in the urban, peri-urban spaces across the nation. With case studies ranging from groups of pastoralists, fisher-folk, and handicraft workers of Kashmir to the weavers of Kutch, and the factory workers and artisans of the Delhi capital, this edited volume of feminist ethnographies cover previously undocumented geographical and socio-cultural contexts of vulnerable groups, put together by the Centre for New Economics Studies, O.P. Jindal Global University. The diverse range of ethnographic case studies further explore the invisibilisation of the growing informal sector in India’s labor market, studied through the applied concepts of Gayatri Spivak’s othering, Doreen Massey’s power geometries and Pierre Bourdieu’s (fractured) habitus. In addition to providing visual narratives of daily lifestyle, livelihoods of identified communities, our ethnographic analysis is rooted in discussing feminist paradigms from each study’s respondents. A useful read for scholars and policymakers interested in understanding intersectional applications of development studies in context of the unsecured workforce in India, with application across disciplines of social-economic anthropology of South Asia, using the methodological lens of experimental ethnography.

In this book, Das presents a class-based perspective on the economic and political situation in contemporary India in a globalizing world. It deals with the specificities of India’s capitalism and neoliberalism, as well as poverty/inequality, geographically uneven development, technological change, and export-oriented, nature-dependent production. The book also deals with Left-led struggles in the form of the Naxalite/Maoist movement and trade-union strikes, and presents a non-sectarian Left critique of the Left. It also discusses the politics of the Right expressed as fascistic tendencies, and the question of what is to be done. The book applies abstract theoretical ideas to the concrete situation in India, which, in turn, inspires rethinking of theory. Das unabashedly shows the relevance of class theory that takes seriously the matter of oppression/domination of religious minorities and lower castes.

This book discusses women-oriented microfinance initiatives in India and their articulation vis-à-vis state developmentalism and contemporary neo-liberal capitalism. It examines how these initiatives encourage economically disadvantaged rural women to make claims upon state-provided microcredit and connect with multiple state institutions and agencies, thereby reshaping their gendered identities. The author shows how Self-Help Group (SHG)-based microfinance institutions mobilise agency and create channels of empowerment for women as well as make them responsible for alleviating poverty for themselves and their families. The book also brings out the importance of factoring in women’s dissenting voices when they negotiate developmental projects at the grassroots level. Rich in empirical data, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of development studies, gender studies, economics, especially microeconomics, politics, public policy and governance.

Neoliberal policies and austerity measures have unequivocally altered the landscape of women’s lives globally. The most detrimental effect has been on mothers as they are faced with increasing responsibility and decreasing resources. Despite mothers being the primary producers, consumers, and repro- ducers of the neoliberal world, their centrality has been largely silenced within economic discourse. Thus, Mothering in the Age of Neoliberalism calls for a new economic framework to counter the individualized neoliberal model, one in which the needs of mothers and children are prioritized. This volume provides a crucial starting point. By identifying the sources of neoliberal failure toward mothers, we can begin to collectively formulate an alternative paradigm in which mothers’ voices are no longer rendered invisible, but rather predominate in the global landscape.

Privatization and the Education of Marginalized Children examines the issue of markets in education as they shape educational opportunities for disadvantaged children—for better or worse—in countries around the globe. With chapters written by leading scholars in the field of international education, this book analyzes the important questions of equity and markets, privatization and opportunity, and policies' objectives and outcomes, and it explores the potential, promises, and empirical evidence on the role of market mechanisms. Offering insights from theoretical as well as international-comparative perspectives, this volume will appeal to researchers and students of education-focused public policy, sociology, and international economics. A timely contribution to the field, Privatization and the Education of Marginalized Children aims to engage in public/private debate by addressing the larger societal exclusions and segregation of communities in which these schools exist.

Close to the turn of the century and almost 45 years after Independence, India opened its doors to free-market liberalization. Although meant as the promise to a better economic tomorrow, three decades later, many feel betrayed by the economic changes ushered in by this new financial era. Here is a book that probes whether India’s economic reforms have aided the development of Indian Muslims who have historically been denied the fruits of economic development. Maidul Islam points out that in current political discourse, the ‘Muslim question’ in India is not articulated in terms of demands for equity. Instead, the political leadership camouflages real issues of backwardness, prejudice, and social exclusion with the rhetoric of identity and security. Historically informed, empirically grounded, and with robust analytical rigour, the book tries to explore connections between multiple forms of Muslim marginalization, the socio-economic realities facing the community, and the formation of modern Muslim identity in the country. At a time when post-liberalization economic policies have created economic inequality and joblessness for significant sections of the population including Muslims, the book proposes working towards a radical democratic deepening in India.

This volume unravels the underlying power relations that are masked in the present discourse of ecological sustainability and conflicts over natural resources. Current discussions on environment emphasise the use and abuse of the environment in various ways. This book looks at the inter-linkages of discourse, resources, risk and resistance in the contemporary neoliberal world. While exploring the experiences of neoliberalisation of nature in India, it brings out the intersections of conservation and management, science and gender, community politics and governance policies. The volume highlights the cultural politics of resistance from multiple sites and regions in India in the recent context (be it land, water, forest, flora or fauna or urban commons). It discusses the ways in which environmental issues have come up and been appropriated, while examining the role of the State and actors such as corporates, traders, consultants, ecotourism companies, green activists and consumers, and consequences of ‘green’ appropriation and the ‘growth’ story. The major themes of the volume are the interrelations of nature, culture and power; neoliberal governance and the environment; access to and use and management of land, natural resources and environment; community politics and livelihoods; marginalised groups and local communities; marketisation and the environment; and new forms of re-appropriation and resistance. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in sociology, environmental studies, environmental history, environmental anthropology, political ecology, political science, geography, law and human rights, economics and development studies as well as to environmental activists, policy makers and those in media and journalism.

This book describes the changing landscape of women’s politics for equality and liberation during the rise of neoliberalism in India. Between 1991 and 2006, the doctrine of liberalization guided Indian politics and economic policy. These neoliberal measures vastly reduced poverty alleviation schemes, price supports for poor farmers, and opened India’s economy to the unpredictability of global financial fluctuations. During this same period, the All India Democratic Women’s Association, which directly opposed the ascendance of neoliberal economics and policies, as well as the simultaneous rise of violent casteism and anti-Muslim communalism, grew from roughly three million members to over ten million. Beginning in the late 1980s, AIDWA turned its attention to women’s lives in rural India. Using a method that began with activist research, the organization developed a sectoral analysis of groups of women who were hardest hit in the new neoliberal order, including Muslim women, and Dalit (oppressed caste) women. AIDWA developed what leaders called inter-sectoral organizing, that centered the demands of the most vulnerable women into the heart of its campaigns and its ideology for social change. Through long-term ethnographic research, predominantly in the northern state of Haryana and the southern state of Tamil Nadu, this book shows how a socialist women’s organization built its oppositional strength by organizing the women most marginalized by neoliberal policies and economics.

This book studies the experiences of Brazil and India, the major economic powerhouses of the 21st century, during the neoliberal era. Both the nations have become important players in global markets and their economic performance has captured the attention of policymakers and academicians across the world. The book explores the patterns of growth and the changing status of human development in the two regions, since the 1980s. In an attempt to better grasp the subtleties of their developmental experiences, it also highlights the political and institutional dynamics that have under girded the liberalization of the two countries.

Why Would I Be Married Here? examines marriage migration undertaken by rural bachelors in North India, unable to marry locally, who travel across the breadth of India seeking brides who do not share the same caste, ethnicity, language, or customs as themselves. Combining rich ethnographic evidence with Dalit feminist and political economy frameworks, Reena Kukreja connects the macro-political violent process of neoliberalism to the micro-personal level of marriage and intimate gender relations to analyze the lived reality of this set of migrant brides in cross-region marriages among dominant-peasant caste Hindus and Meo Muslims in rural North India. Why Would I Be Married Here? reveals how predatory capitalism links with patriarchy to dispossess many poor women from India's marginalized Dalit and Muslim communities of marriage choices in their local communities. It reveals how, within the context of the increasing spread of capitalist relations, these women's pragmatic cross-region migration for marriage needs to be reframed as an exercise of their agency that simultaneously exposes them to new forms of gender subordination and internal othering of caste discrimination and ethnocentrism in conjugal communities. Why Would I Be Married Here? offers powerful examples of how contemporary forces of neoliberalism reshape the structural oppressions compelling poor women from marginalized communities worldwide into making compromised choices about their bodies, their labor, and their lives.