This book presents insights from fieldwork in Indian villages, discussing village panchayats, land reforms, human development in Kerala, communalism, post-modernist views on development, child labor, family perspectives on children, and changing views on religion, caste, and women.

Based on fifteen years of intensive anthropological and sociological fieldwork, this book presents provocative insights in the daily life of men and women in various villages of India. The author deals with the propensity of the village panchayats and their actual working in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the impact of land reforms on development, the causes of the high human development index in Kerala, communalism at the village level, the views of poor villagers on the post-modernist views on development, child labour and family views on children as capital, and with the changing world view in relation to religion, caste and the position of women.