1st Edition

Finding The Middle Path The Political Economy Of Cooperation In Rural India

By B. S. Baviskar Copyright 1995
448 Pages
by Routledge

448 Pages
by Routledge

448 Pages
by Routledge

This book explains the political economy and the striking regional differences in performance by cooperatives in rural India. It points toward general principles of organizational effectiveness, revealing the potentials and limitations of cooperatives as instruments of rural development.

Part One: Framework for Comparative Analysis 1. Viewpoints 2. Background and Methods 3. Fertile Grounds in Western India 4. Barren Grounds in West Bengal? 5. Problems in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala 6. Conclusions Part Two: Case Studies from Maharashtra 7. Leadership, Democracy, and Development: Cooperatives in Kolhapur District 8. Alternative Dairy Production and Marketing Systems 9. Does Competition Help Cooperation? 10. The Mhaisal Movement: A Farming Cooperative Part Three: Case Studies from Gujarat 11. Beyond Anand: Comparing the Kheda and Choryasi Dairy Cooperatives 12. Oilseeds Growers' Cooperatives in Gujarat: The Patidar Factor 13. A Sociological Analysis of Cotton Cooperatives in Baroda District Part Four: Case Studies from Other States 14. Electoral Communism and the Destruction of Cooperation in West Bengal 15. Dominant Classes and Cooperative Leaders in Western Uttar Pradesh 16. Formal Cooperatives and Informal Cooperation in Karnataka 17. Bureaucracy Versus Participation: Tea Growers' Cooperatives in Tamil Nadu 18. Fishermen Cooperatives in Kerala: A Case Study

Biography

B.S. Baviskar is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Delhi. His pioneering study of cooperative sugar factories was published as The Politics of Development in 1980. With Attwood, he co-edited Who Shares? Cooperatives and Rural Development, and he is now editing a book on the sociology of development. D.W. Attwood is a Professor of Anthropology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His latest book is Raising Cane: The Political Economy of Sugar in Western India. He is doing comparative research on strategies of production and reproduction among household enterprises in the developing world. D.P. Apte has now retired as Reader in Agricultural Economics at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. Having directed numerous studies of rural and urban development, he has published a long list of reports and articles. Many of his recent studies have focused on cooperatives.