HS 620 Political Economy of Agrarian Development

This is an optional course for MA (Development Studies) students. Preferably it will be offered in the second year of the programme. The course may also be available to PhD students. Students with an interest in political economy -- especially classical political economy and its successor Marxist political economy -- may opt the course. The course interweaves classical political economic concepts with the study of agrarian change. Economic thoughts starting from mercantilism, through Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx to the present-day scholarship are covered. A major focus is on the evolution of peasantry in India through history, and its present predicaments.