Jonathan Pattenden is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Politics and International Development at the University of East Anglia, UK, and co-editor of Class Dynamics of Development (Routledge,

1 Introduction: poverty and the poor

2 A class-relational approach

3 Labour, state and civil society in rural India

4 Changing dynamics of exploitation in rural South India

5 Dynamics of domination in rural South India: class relations at the state–society interface

6 Social policy and class relations: the case of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

7 The neoliberalisation of civil society: community-based organisations, contractor NGOs and class relations

8 Organisations of labouring class women

9 Conclusion: poverty and class

‘This outstanding book, based on more than a decade of richly textured research, illuminates the character of agrarian social relations in contemporary India and is a major contribution to understanding of the social implications of India’s pursuit of neoliberalism.’

- John Harriss, Professor of International Studies, Simon Fraser University

'This book is a valuable addition to the great tradition of studies of the political economy of change in rural India. It is very much up to the moment in its excellent contextualisation of contemporary change; its investigation of rural 'classes of labour' and what shapes their prospects, is innovative, theoretically sophisticated and empirically precise.'

- Henry Bernstein, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies, SOAS, University of London