'The Rural Economy : A micro view from western Uttar Pradesh, circa 1930-2012' a talk by Dr. Devesh Vijay at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 8th July 2014

Time : 3:00 pmAdd to Calendar 08-07-2014 15:00:00 08-07-2014 16:30:00 68 'The Rural Economy : A micro view from western Uttar Pradesh, circa 1930-2012' a talk by Dr. Devesh Vijay Event Page : http://goo.gl/lAr37n Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011 DD/MM/YYYY

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)

Place : Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
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Event Description : ‘The Rural Economy : A micro view from western Uttar Pradesh, circa 1930-2012’ a talk by Dr. Devesh Vijay.

Abstract :
Economic transition in rural India has been well documented since the early nineteenth century. Yet, long term accounts of villages covering recent mutations in education and amenities, emigration and ‘subsidiarisation’ of farming remain scant. As a small filler in the terrain, this paper analyses the scale and limits of economic transition visible in a village called Dhantala (in the Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh) over eight decades for which oral evidence could be tapped through focus group discussions with elders in the field.  Apart from recollections of elders regarding local wage rates, yields and prices etc. since 1930s, the study charts the economic history of Dhantala more definitively from 1989 when the speaker first studied the site with focus group discussions, interviews and some life sketches and followed up with extended visits in 2006 and 2012. Comparing the evidence from these revisits, the paper examines the impact of successive policy shifts and innovations in various sectors of the local economy from c. 1930.  In what ways did colonial ‘peace’, the introduction of trains and tubewells, land reforms, the green and white revolutions, economic liberalization and measures for ‘inclusive growth’ etc. impact the farm and non-farm sectors in Dhantala? What are the principal constraints on rapid economic growth in our agrarian economy and which theoretical perspectives help us in explaining the bottlenecks, limited spurts and continuing underemployment in one of our most fertile agricultural tracts today?
In order to reflect on these and related issues, the paper also compares the trends noted in Dhantala with those in other village studies, in the region, and in national economic data, over the same period, before highlighting the peculiarities in Dhantala’s transition (following the distribution of agricultural plots to the landless here, in 1984). The paper concludes with some pointers for future research and policy implications emanating from Dhantala’s trajectory and its location in the national economy.

Speaker :
Dr. Devesh Vijay is Associate Professor in the department of history at Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi. Presently he is a fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. His writings include: Writing Politics: Left Discourses in Contemporary India; Sanskritik Itihaas: Ek Tulnatmak Sarvekshan (a comparison of European, Chinese and Indian cultural traditions) and ‘Culture and Migration: Reflections from a Delhi Slum’, Urban India, Vol. XXVII. Presently he is engaged in a comparative study of ‘poverties’ in a slum and a village near Delhi.

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