Farms and Factories: Social Profile of Large Farmers and Rural Industrialists in West India

Farms and Factories makes an important contribution to the understanding of class formation in the countryside in India and South Asia. Mario Rutten emphasizes that in order to understand the internal dynamics of South Asian society, it is crucial to appreciate the emergence of a single class of rural capitalist entrepreneurs in post-independence India, who share common interests over and above their agricultural, trading or industrial activities.