Sudhir Kumar Suthar – författare

In September-October 2020, around 300,000 Indian farmers marched to New Delhi, to protest against three new farm laws by stationing themselves on national highways around the capital for over a year. This movement, the largest farmer assertion in recent times, with its firm commitment to democracy, civil disobedience and peaceful resistance, carved out a distinct political space for itself.

This book explains farmer suicides in India in the backdrop of rural politics as a determining factor. By bringing in politics as a variable the research presented in the book reveals that there are non-farm factors playing critical role in prompting behavioral change amongst the peasantry but haven’t received much academic attention. The book argues that the changing nature of public spaces has significantly altered the perception of self in the rural society of India. It presents indicators of this rural change and how the state policy and political parties led political mobilization that changed the character of community relations in the rural areas. The book shows that other possible manifestations of the large-scale behavioral change in the rural areas and increasing rural distress, those are equally serious but haven’t received much attention, are rising cases of drug-addiction, agrarian riots, or other forms of collective violence. The increasing number of farmers protests also need to be understood in this context.

This book discusses various debates around the policy of rural development in India. Various authors in this volume attempt to show how the issue of rural development requires looking into multiple issues at hand. Looking at the issue from the dignity perspective, it not only offers a critique of the existing policy framework but also proposes an alternative one. Building upon empirical studies comparing India with other countries or discussing specific cases within India, authors have attempted to put up different perspectives on rural development together. It offers fresh insights into the debate as the existing debate on the subject largely revolves around farm-related issues or the challenges of income enhancement. It attempts to show that the idea of rural development needs to be broadened to incorporate other critical issues such as rural infrastructure building, women's dignity, industrialization, etc. This book in this sense initiates a new debate on rural development in India in academic discourse.