Table Of ContentMapping India’s Capitalism
EADI Global Development Series
Series Editors:
Maja Bucar, Vice-Dean and Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of 
Ljubljana
Andy Mold, Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic 
Commission for Africa
The EADI Global Development series reflects the multi-disciplinary character of 
EADI member institutes and the association at large. The series seeks to broaden 
our understanding of the processes that advance or impede human development, 
whether from a political, economic, sociological or anthropological perspective. 
EADI’s mission is to inform students of development, international relations, and 
area studies, the academic and policy research and teaching community, develop-
ment administration, professional training and practice.
Development research is characterized by its interdisciplinary approach and its 
interest in a strong link between theory, policy and practice. The series invites 
book manuscripts emanating from EADI working group activities, EADI confer-
ences and EADI research projects, but is also open to external submissions.
Titles include:
Gabriela Dutrénit, Keun Lee, Richard Nelson, Luc Soete and  
Alexandre Vera-Cruz (editors)
LEARNING, CAPABILITY BUILDING AND INNOVATION FOR DEVELOPMENT
Paul Hoebink, Lau Schulpen (editors)
PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT AID IN EUROPE
Foreign Aid between the Public and the Private Domain
Charlotte Lemanski and Colin Marx (editors)
THE CITY IN URBAN POVERTY
Ondřej Horký-Hlucháň and Simon Lightfoot (editors)
DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION OF THE ‘NEW’ EU MEMBER STATES
Beyond Europeanization
EADI Global Development Series
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–137–01335–4
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a stand-
ing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the 
address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN 
quoted above.
Customer  Services  Department,  Macmillan  Distribution  Ltd,  Houndmills, 
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Mapping India’s Capitalism
Old and New Regions
Edited by
Elisabetta Basile
Professor of Development Economics, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Italy
Barbara Harriss-White
Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford, UK
Christine Lutringer
Lecturer, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
Editorial matter, introduction and selection © Christine Lutringer,  
Barbara Harriss-White and Elisabetta Basile 2015
Individual chapters © Respective authors 2015
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this 
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted 
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the 
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence 
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 
Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication 
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this 
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2015 by 
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, 
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, 
Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,  
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies 
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, 
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
E-ISBN: 978–1–137–53634–1
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully 
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing 
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the 
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mapping India’s capitalism : old and new regions / [edited by]  
Elisabetta Basile, Barbara Harriss-White, Christine Lutringer.
    pages cm. — (EADI global development series)
  Includes bibliographical references.
  ISBN 978–1–137–53633–4
  1. Economic development—India.  2. Capitalism—India.  3. Regional 
planning—India.  4. Rural development—India.  I. Basile, Elisabetta.   
II. Harriss-White, Barbara, 1946–  III. Lutringer, Christine.
  HC435.3.M36 2015
  330.954—dc23  2015014432
Contents
List of Tables, Figures and Maps  vii
Acknowledgements  x
Notes on Contributors  xi
  Introduction: Space and Capitalist Development  
in Contemporary India  1
Elisabetta Basile, Barbara Harriss-White and Christine Lutringer
1  Mapping Regions of Agrarian Capitalism in India  9
Deepak K. Mishra and Barbara Harriss-White
2  Mapping Agro-Ecological Zones in India  43
Richard Palmer-Jones and Kunal Sen
3  Uneven Development and Peasant Mobilisations:  
Perspectives from Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh  65
Christine Lutringer
4  Regions and Capitalist Transition in India:  
Arunachal Pradesh in a Comparative Perspective  87
Deepak K. Mishra
5  Women and Work in India: Simultaneous Geographies  113
Saraswati Raju
6  A Spatial Analysis of the Incorporation of Dalits into  
the Indian Business Economy  143
Kaushal K. Vidyarthee
7  Constructing Spatialised Knowledge about Urban Poverty: 
(Multiple) Dimensions, Mapping Spaces and Claim-Making  
in Urban Governance  167
Isa Baud
8  Reciprocity as Regulation: Exploring Methodologies in  
Urban Design for the Informal Economy of the  
Historic Pete, Bengaluru, India  193
Champaka Rajagopal
vi  Contents
9  Mapping Territories of Luxury: Spatial and Symbolic  
Reassertion of Inequality in Indian Cities  219
Isabelle Milbert
Conclusion: Lineages of Scholarship – A Conversation  
with Barbara Harriss-White  239
Christine Lutringer
Index  245
List of Tables, Figures and Maps
Tables
2.1  Agro-ecological zones  50
5.1  Employment status by sex and residence, 2009–2010,  
age group 15–19 years  118
5.2  Regular salaried workers in urban private households,  
2009–2010  119
5.3  Regular salaried workers in educational institutions,  
urban India, 2009–2010  119
5.4  Workers in each MPCE quintile in rural India,  
2009–2010, age group 15–59 years  125
5.5  Workers in each MPCE quintile in urban India,  
2009–2010, age group 15–59 years  126
5.6  Educational attainment levels among self-employed  
workers 2009–2010, age group 15–59 years  131
6.1  Moran’s I statistics for indices of incorporation at the  
State- and district-levels, 2005  155
6.2  OLS and spatial regression results for indices of  
incorporation-private enterprises at the State level, 2005  156
6.3  Spatial error regression results for all sectors at the  
State level, 2005  159
6.4  OLS and spatial regression results for indices of  
incorporation-private enterprises at the district level, 2005  160
7.1  Summary of deprivations and percentage of slum  
inhabitants in quintile of Delhi wards with highest  
levels of IMD  176
vii
viii  List of Tables, Figures and Maps
Figures
5.1  Home-based workers among self-employed  
workers (rural), 2009–2010  121
5.2  Home-based workers among self-employed  
workers (urban), 2009–2010  121
7.1  Criteria model to map multiple deprivations  173
7.2  Flow chart of the methodology of mapping  174
7.3  Wards with highest poverty levels according to the  
index of multiple deprivations (IMD) (left map)  
compared with wards with highest percentage of  
inhabitants living in slums (right map)  175
7.4  ‘Spaces’ for participation and their use in grievance  
redressal  180
7.5  Spatial concentration of priority issues by ward in K-D  186
8.1  Centrally located Pete; Bengaluru  195
8.2  Markets associated with trades  196
8.3  Private activities negotiating public space  197
8.4  Bifurcations of land among a Devanga family  202
8.5  Traditional oil pressing  203
8.6  Avenue Road: bifurcated plots, 100 per cent ground  
coverage  205
8.7  Mutual adjustment: tensions between the ‘Inside’  
and the ‘Outside’  209
Maps
1.1  NSS regions and States of India  16
1.2  Percentage of households leasing-in land  19
1.3  Percentage of total operated area leased-in  20
1.4  Percentage of farmer households owning less than  
1 ha of land  22
List of Tables, Figures and Maps  ix
1.5  Percentage of small and marginal holdings (less than 2 ha)  23
1.6  Percentage of agricultural labourers in total  
agricultural (main) workers, 2011  25
1.7  Percentage of expenditure on purchased inputs to total 
expenditure  26
1.8  Percentage of total output sold by all farmers  27
1.9  Percentage of farmers selling more than 10 per cent  
of their output  28
2.1  Indian agro-ecological zones  51
2.2  Rural poverty in India – 1987–1988 and 1993–1994  55
2.3  Poverty correlates, NSS regions  56
2.4  Growth of agricultural productivity and inputs to  
agriculture – 1962–1965, 1990–1993  57
5.1  Women workers (age group 15–59), 1993–1994  122
5.2  Women workers (age group 15–59), 2009–2010  123
5.3  Gendered India: spatial differentiation in select attributes  132
6.1  Indices of incorporation for all private enterprises at  
the district level, 2005  154