Shifting Landscapes: The Making and Remaking of Village Commons in India

The experience of growing up in villages oscillates between dwelling in private spaces and frolicking in the commons. Today, these village commons lie at the intersection of environmental debates that straddle the natural and social sciences. This book explores the shifting landscape of village commons and its transformation by administrative, juridical, and techno-scientific practices in the post-colonial period. The author, Rita Brara, asks if there are ways of thinking about a village that decentre the classifications of caste and class. By viewing both the village and its commons as significant and socially constructed objects that are of practical and symbolic concern to village residents, she shifts the focus of rural studies to the terrain of village commons that has often been eclipsed. She shows how village commons are made and remade at multiple sites within the village and beyond. Bringing together the story of village commons in Rajasthan, India, the book narrates the tale of the encompassment of village commons by governmentality. The fallout of democratic decentralization for villagers is captured in thick detail. How villagers, from different subject positions, recreate the commons in the course of their individual and collective livelihood practices is also explored. The commons come alive in this book as distinct environmental and social spaces which are always at risk but are still critical for survival on the margins of private property. The author reiterates that human beings do not live by private property alone. Village commons then become life-sustaining assemblages composed of the bric-a-brac of interrelations of people, flora and fauna that invoke the space of sharing and dialogue. This volume will interest those with an ear for debates that resonate in rural areas–students, natural and social scientists, researchers, activists, and the general reader engaged in environmental concerns.