Agrarian crisis and neoliberalism in India

Abstract

The nature and manifestations of the rural and agrarian distress in India point to the disastrous, class-specific nature of neoliberal economic policies. A significant aspect of this process is its spatial dimensions – the various ways through which uneven development has been the cornerstone of the unfolding dynamics of economic growth in globalizing India. The prolonged agrarian crisis, fuelled by neoliberal economic policies, has created a crisis of survival in the rural areas. It has uprooted a class of cultivators and agricultural labourers, who have joined the informal economy as insecure, vulnerable workers.