Badalte Gaon, Badalta Dehat: Nayi Samajikta Ka Uday Kumar Satendra

Everyday life in contemporary rural India is characterized by an increased sense of mobility, inequality, and uncertainty. This ethnographic study of the village of Khanpur (in Uttar Pradesh, north India) is an attempt to grasp everyday life in rural India. Ordinary villagers often find themselves caught between the promises and failures of democracy and development.

The villagers confront growing economic and moral uncertainty; they creatively harmonize public discourse and local practice; and sometimes they resolve incoherence and Drawing on descriptions of village life, interspersed with theoretical analyses, the author examines how ordinary people construct their own sense of their lives and their futures in everyday activities: working on farms, attending college, searching for non-farm employment, celebrating religious rituals, and dealing with local elections and democracy.