Indian Villages
Achievements and Alarm Bells, 1952–2012
This book presents a unique testimony on the evolution of the Indian peasant's world over more than sixty years. Its originality lies in part in the unique trajectory of its author, Gilbert Étienne, an exceptional man, all at once scientific traveller, thinker of the North/South relationships and economist concerned by sociology and history inputs. In unfolding the story of his passionate relationship with India, the author offers a very personal look which takes into account not only crop div...
Note de l’éditeur
Cover Transplanting rice. Photo: Gilbert Étienne.
Éditeur : Graduate Institute Publications
Lieu d’édition : Genève
Publication sur OpenEdition Books : 13 novembre 2014
ISBN numérique : 978-2-940503-64-3
DOI : 10.4000/books.iheid.1744
Collection : eLivres de l’Institut | 5
Année d’édition : 2014
Jagdish Bhagwati
ForewordJean-Luc Maurer
PrefacePart 1 – Before the Green Revolution
Part II – The Green Revolution and After
Part III – The All India Rural Picture and the Future
This book presents a unique testimony on the evolution of the Indian peasant's world over more than sixty years. Its originality lies in part in the unique trajectory of its author, Gilbert Étienne, an exceptional man, all at once scientific traveller, thinker of the North/South relationships and economist concerned by sociology and history inputs. In unfolding the story of his passionate relationship with India, the author offers a very personal look which takes into account not only crop diversification and production techniques, but also local anthropological structures and the conditions of the various castes, including the lowest ones.
With its approximately 100 pages, the book is sometimes reminiscent of a collection of vignettes and impressions gathered while travelling, such as can be found in field notes. Here lies the strength of this unusual work, especially as the "things-seen" dimension is completed by penetrating reflections on the transformations of an agrarian society discovering modern consumer goods, on a comparison between France in 1946 and India today, and on the causes and consequences of contempt for agriculture in a country whose elites swear by cities, as Christophe Jaffrelot said.
This book is the latest publication of Professor Gilbert Etienne, written before his death in May 2014.
Gilbert Étienne (1928–2014), Honorary Professor of Development Economics at the Graduate Institute of International and development Studies in Geneva, was a renowned specialist of South Asia and its rural world, which he criss-crossed for more than half a century. Favouring a multidisciplinary approach based on long-term history, Gilbert Étienne was involved in the 1960s in the creation of the African Institute of Geneva – the future “Graduate Institute of Development Studies” – alongside Jacques Freymond. In addition to his columns in major newspapers such as Le Monde, one will remember, among his forty or so publications on developing countries (India, China, Pakistan as well as Africa), Le Pakistan, don de l’Indus (Paris, PUF, 1989; new digital edition, 2014), Repenser le développement: Messages d’Asie (Paris, A. Colin, 2009), Chine-Inde: La grande compétition (Paris, Dunod, 2007), or his contributions to A History of Pakistan and Its Origins (edited by C. Jaffrelot, London, Anthem Press, 2004).
Professeur honoraire d’économie du développement à l’Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement de Genève, Gilbert Étienne (1928-2014) était un spécialiste reconnu de l’Asie du Sud et de son monde rural, qu’il avait parcourus pendant plus de cinquante ans. Partisan d’une lecture pluridisciplinaire s’appuyant sur les temps longs de l’histoire, il avait participé dès les années 1960 à l’aventure de l’Institut africain de Genève – futur Institut universitaire d’études du développement – au côté de Jacques Freymond. Outre le souvenir de ses chroniques dans des journaux comme Le Monde, on retiendra, de la quarantaine d’ouvrages qu’il a consacrés aux pays en développement (Inde, Chine, Pakistan mais aussi Afrique), Le Pakistan, don de l’Indus (Paris, PUF, 1989 ; nouvelle édition électronique, 2014), Repenser le développement : Messages d’Asie (Paris, A. Colin, 2009), Chine-Inde : La grande compétition (Paris, Dunod, 2007), ou encore ses contributions à A History of Pakistan and Its Origins (dirigé par C. Jaffrelot, Londres, Anthem Press, 2004).

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