Finding The Middle Path

B.S. Baviskar is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Delhi. His pioneering study of cooperative sugar factories was published as The Politics of Development in 1980. With Attwood, he co-edited Who Shares? Cooperatives and Rural Development, and he is now editing a book on the sociology of development. D.W. Attwood is a Professor of Anthropology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His latest book is Raising Cane: The Political Economy of Sugar in Western India. He is doing comparative research on strategies of production and reproduction among household enterprises in the developing world. D.P. Apte has now retired as Reader in Agricultural Economics at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. Having directed numerous studies of rural and urban development, he has published a long list of reports and articles. Many of his recent studies have focused on cooperatives.

Framework for Comparative Analysis -- Viewpoints -- Background and Methods -- Fertile Grounds in Western India -- Barren Grounds in West Bengal? -- Problems in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala -- Conclusions -- Case Studies from Maharashtra -- Leadership, Democracy, and Development: Cooperatives in Kolhapur District -- Alternative Dairy Production and Marketing Systems -- Does Competition Help Cooperation? -- The Mhaisal Movement: A Farming Cooperative -- Case Studies from Gujarat -- Beyond Anand: Comparing the Kheda and Choryasi Dairy Cooperatives -- Oilseeds Growers’ Cooperatives in Gujarat: The Patidar Factor -- A Sociological Analysis of Cotton Cooperatives in Baroda District -- Case Studies from Other States -- Electoral Communism and the Destruction of Cooperation in West Bengal -- Dominant Classes and Cooperative Leaders in Western Uttar Pradesh -- Formal Cooperatives and Informal Cooperation in Karnataka -- Bureaucracy Versus Participation: Tea Growers’ Cooperatives in Tamil Nadu -- Fishermen Cooperatives in Kerala: a Case Study