India Working
Essays on Society and Economy

In this 2002 book, the author describes how the Indian economy works and whether liberalisation has actually helped ordinary Indians.

Barbara Harriss-White (Author)

9780521809795, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 December 2002

336 pages
23.8 x 15.9 x 2.6 cm, 0.637 kg

'Barbara Harriss-White … brings an anthropologist's training in fieldwork and her own eye for detail to an examination of aspects of India's economy that are often neglected by economists themselves … an intriguing and interesting book, one that is packed with detailed observations. These observations are the book's strength, and make it worthwhile for professional economists as much as for other social scientists and for general readers.' International Journal of Punjab Studies

By drawing on her extensive fieldwork in India and on the adjacent theoretical literature, Barbara Harriss-White describes the working of the Indian economy through its most important social structures of accumulation. Successive chapters explore a range of topics including labour, capital, the state, gender, religious plurality, caste and space. Despite the complexity of the subject, the book is vivid and compelling. The author's intimate knowledge of the country enables the reader to experience the Indian local scene and to engage with the precariousness of daily life. Her conclusion challenges the prevailing notion that liberalisation releases the economy from political interference and leads to a postscript on the economic base for fascism in India. This is an intelligent book, first published in 2002, by a distinguished scholar, for students of economics, as well as for those studying the region.

1. Introduction: the character of the Indian economy
2. Labour, work and its social construction in India
3. Class: Indian development and the intermediate classes
4. The local state and the informal economy
5. Gender, family businesses and business families
6. India's religious plurality and its implications for the economy
7. Caste and corporatist capitalism
8. Space and synergy
9. How India works
10. Postscript: Proto-fascist politics and the economy.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Regional studies [GTB]