Thomas, Alex M.
(2019)
The fact/fiction of Indian agriculture.
Foundation for Agrarian Studies, Bengaluru.
Abstract
At a time when the economics of agriculture has been ousted from the economics curricula in India, it is heartening to see agrarian issues occupying a
central position in recent books of fiction. In this blog, I review Kota Neelima’s Death of a Moneylender (2016, Penguin, Gurgaon). Neelima’s book conveys
the condition of Indian farmers through the eyes of Falak Anand, a newspaper reporter from Delhi, who goes to Bapat — a small village in south-central
India — to report on the death of a moneylender, Desraj. The concerns of village residents are perceptively brought out through his conversations with three
people: an old economist who sits near him on his train journey to Bapat; Shambu, a farmer; and Laxmana, the head of the village (sarpanch ) and a
moneylender.
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