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An empirical account of one of India's largest indigenous populations, this book tells the story of the Gonds-who currently face displacement and governmental control of the region's forests, which has crippled their economy. Rather than protesting and calling for state intervention, the Gonds have turned toward an informal economy: they not only engage with flexible forms of work, but also bargain for higher wages and experience agency and autonomy. Smita Yadav conceives of this withdrawal from the state in favour of precarious forms of work as an expression of anarchy by this marginalized population. Even as she provides rich detail of the Gonds' unusual working lives, which integrate work, labour, and debt practices with ideologies of family and society, Yadav illustrates the strength required to maintain dignity when a welfare state has failed.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Urgent Anthropology. - 2. Local History and the Postcolonial State: The Invisibility of Gonds. - 3. Basic Income, Forests, and Anarchy. - 4. Family and Kinship: The False Binary of the Subjective and Empirical Definition of a Household. - 5. Narratives of Kamayee/Dhanda (Income): Modes of Wages. - 6. Understanding the Government Programmes in Mahalapur: Housing in Mahalapur. - 7. Conclusions.
About the author
Smita Yadav is an anthropologist interested in statelessness/state, anarchy, labour, precarity, universal basic income, gender, migration, religion, secularism, poverty, indigenous knowledge, South Asia, environment, and politics of development. She has over ten years experience working as a consultant and academic on these topics in India, US, and UK. She is currently preparing a project on religion, secularism, state and development in India. She teaches Human Geography at the University of Brighton and is a Postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sussex where she completed her PhD in Anthropology.
Summary
An empirical account of one of India’s largest indigenous populations, this book tells the story of the Gonds—who currently face displacement and governmental control of the region’s forests, which has crippled their economy. Rather than protesting and calling for state intervention, the Gonds have turned toward an informal economy: they not only engage with flexible forms of work, but also bargain for higher wages and experience agency and autonomy. Smita Yadav conceives of this withdrawal from the state in favour of precarious forms of work as an expression of anarchy by this marginalized population. Even as she provides rich detail of the Gonds’ unusual working lives, which integrate work, labour, and debt practices with ideologies of family and society, Yadav illustrates the strength required to maintain dignity when a welfare state has failed.
Additional text
“This well-researched and detailed book will have value for those interested in the changing lives of forest-dependent peoples in Central India and offers particularly insightful comments on education and welfare … .” (Adam Runacres, LSE Review of Books, July 10, 2019)
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"This well-researched and detailed book will have value for those interested in the changing lives of forest-dependent peoples in Central India and offers particularly insightful comments on education and welfare ... ." (Adam Runacres, LSE Review of Books, July 10, 2019)
