Indian Villages

Book excerpt: This book presents a unique testimony on the evolution of the Indian peasant's world over more than sixty years. Its originality lies in part in the unique trajectory of its author, Gilbert Étienne, an exceptional man, all at once scientific traveller, thinker of the North/South relationships and economist concerned by sociology and history inputs. In unfolding the story of his passionate relationship with India, the author offers a very personal look which takes into account not only crop diversification and production techniques, but also local anthropological structures and the conditions of the various castes, including the lowest ones. With its approximately 100 pages, the book is sometimes reminiscent of a collection of vignettes and impressions gathered while travelling, such as can be found in field notes. Here lies the strength of this unusual work, especially as the "things-seen" dimension is completed by penetrating reflections on the transformations of an agrarian society discovering modern consumer goods, on a comparison between France in 1946 and India today, and on the causes and consequences of contempt for agriculture in a country whose elites swear by cities, as Christophe Jaffrelot said. This book is the latest publication of Professor Gilbert Etienne, written before his death in May 2014.