Vong Nanhthavong, CASAS’ member, has published this article in The Journal of Peasant Studies Abstract: Many land deals in the Global South are initiated and sustained, while others fail financially but maintain control over land and resources. These failed deals—and their implications for peasant well-being—remain undervalued in debates on the global land rush and land-grab…
Tag: Asia
Reading agrarian transformation through literature: moral economy, political economy, and caste in 1950s Punjab in Gurdial Singh’s Marhi da Deeva
Gaurav Bansal has published this article in the journal Sikh Formations. Abstract: This article examines the socio-economic transformations of 1950s rural Punjab through Gurdial Singh’s seminal novel Marhi da Deeva (1964). By putting moral economy framework in conversation with political economy, this essay reveals how the gradual transition from semi-feudal relations to capitalist tendencies had fundamentally reshaped…
Agrarianising the forest fire crisis: rethinking forest fires from grassroots in the Uttarakhand Himalaya
Kapil Yadav (CASAS’ member) has published this article in The Journal of Peasant Studies. Abstract: This study re-examines the role of fire in the Uttarakhand Himalaya through political ecology and critical agrarian studies. It emphasises the importance of understanding fire regimes in relation to ongoing agrarian change. Drawing on fieldwork conducted with rural communities, the…
Jhum’s Stubborn Roots: Misunderstood Science, Curious Persistence
CASAS’ member Amit John Kurien has published an chapter in the report Community Involvement in Conservation and Livelihood Initiatives in the Eastern Himalayas Reflections on Practices and Policies. Abstract: Post-Independence efforts by the Indian agricultural science community and the state to curb jhum (shifting cultivation) in Northeast India. It took place primarily in the hill…
Rural Transformation in India: What can we learn from village studies?
C.R Yadu, CASAS’ member, has published a Working Paper in CSE Working Paper. Abstract: This article examines rural transformation in India through a review of longitudinal village studies conducted over the past three decades. It argues that rural India is not undergoing structural transformation in the classical sense. While labour is steadily moving out of…





