Author Description

Amidst decreasing price of grains and crumbling state capacity, a farmer from Purvanchal (Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India) lamented, "Everybody is doing politics and business on behalf of farmers". On the other hand, a whopping number of agricultural labourers started using mobile phones but many of them don't share their numbers with farmers. They are willing to see farmers at their doorsteps every day. For educated farmers, it's not an exciting 'ritual' to visit every day early in the morning, so they give such responsibilities to other members of the family. In this book. I'm shedding light on a wide range of contradictions - some of them are nagging and inadequately articulated frictions at the micro-level. A close encounter with people and institutions based in Purvanchal is very encouraging and disappointing at the same time.