Interrogating Development

Description

This volume provides a new perspective on the role of culture in shaping the attitudes towards economic development of marginalized people both in the global North and the global South. The strength of the collection lies in the examples from within India and without, which illuminate old Dalit—Savarna and Hindu—Muslim dynamics specific to India. These also facilitate a new understanding of the processes of marginalization in northern capitalist contexts. The essays draw attention to the various modernizing forces that have rendered invisible the dynamics of cyclicity, bio-cultural regeneration, and social and ecological reproduction. The volume contrasts Western modernity and modernizing processes in India, thereby providing startlingly new insights on modernity and non-modernity in contemporary India. This enables a deeper understanding of the nature of market forces and their effect on older, non-modern social, cultural, and epistemological dynamics and practices. Through specific examples and case studies from India, Europe, and the Americas, this volume explores key issues in the fraught relationship between development and marginalization. Contributors Rafiul Ahmed - Frédérique Apffel-Marglin - Maren Bellwinkel-Schempp - Rahul Ghai - Sanjay Kumar - Stephen A. Marglin - Arvind Mishra - Ajit K. Mohanty - Ashis Nandy - Badri Narayan - Gail Omvedt - Ingrid Robeyns - Linda Tuhiwai Smith - Betsy Taylor