India’s economic "revolution": a perspective from six decades of economic development in Palanpur, a north Indian village

Abstract

The village of Palanpur, Moradabad District, Uttar Pradesh, India has been the subject of close study by economists since the late 1950s. The data collected provide a unique opportunity to understand development in India through the experience of one village. There is one economic/social survey for each decade since independence covering a 100% sample of households. There is strong continuity in the research investigators. And three of the surveys involved long residency in the village (more than eight months in each of 1974/5, 1983/4, and 2008/10). Thus there is strong acquaintance not only with the household data, but with the households themselves, together with the economic, social, and political institutions of the village.

This report on work so far is presented as nine analytical papers:

(1) India and an Indian village: 50 years of economic development in Palanpur (Himanshu and Nicholas Stern).
This first paper sets change in Palanpur in the context of change in India and serves also as an overview of the work so far. It has an appendix describing the data.

(2) Non-Farm Diversification and Rural Poverty Decline: A Perspective from Indian Sample Survey and Village Study Data (Himanshu, Peter Lanjouw, Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay and Rinku Murgai).

(3) Poverty, Inequality and Mobility in Palanpur: Some Preliminary Results Himanshu, Ishan Bakshi and Camille Dufour

(4) Stepping out of Palanpur: Employment outside Palanpur: From short visits to long-term migration and how they are linked (Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay)

(5) Tenancy in Palanpur (Ashish Tyagi and Himanshu)

(6) Change and Continuity: Agriculture in Palanpur (Ashish Tyagi and Himanshu)

(7) Developments in education in Palanpur, a village in Uttar Pradesh (Ruth Kattumuri and Dinesh Kumar Tiwari)

(8) The Invisible Half – Women’s Status in Palanpur (Dipa Sinha and Rosalinda Coppoletta)

(9) Nutrition Status in Palanpur (Dipa Sinha)

Appendix A lists:

  • Papers of Palanpur research for MSc by French Interns
  • List of all researchers involved in the Palanpur project
  • Dissemination workshops and seminars in London, India and USA

Appendix B comprises:

  • Note on data collected during the 2008-2010 survey of Palanpur
  • Schedules used for data collection

Citation

London School of Economics (LSE). India’s economic "revolution": a perspective from six decades of economic development in Palanpur, a north Indian village. London School of Economics (LSE), London, UK (2011) 428 pp.

India’s economic “revolution”: a perspective from six decades of economic development in Palanpur, a north Indian village

Updates to this page

Published 1 January 2011