In this issue

Sepcial Issue on for Forest Rights Act

A set of five articles provides a 10-year review of the Forest Rights Act, focusing
on its potential to democratise forest governance, in mobilising community forest
resource rights, the role of local communities and their conception of conservation.

AND
Review of Rural Affairs

This Review of Rural Affairs covers a wide range of issues that concern rural India. The fi rst paper addresses the question of structural transformation looking at data that spans almost a century and fi nds that sub-Saharan Africa and Asia face similar challenges. Two papers look at the nature of “urbanisation” over the last decade through fi eld research in West Bengal and Bihar. One paper interrogates
the infl uence of caste in agricultural production and output in India. Another studies the interplay between agricultural electricity subsidies and water markets in Gujarat and West Bengal. The last paper focuses on farmers’ movements in Karnataka and their experiments with larger, international solidarities.

Economic and Political Weekly Magazine Description:

First published in 1949 as the Economic Weekly and since 1966 as the Economic and Political Weekly, EPW, as the journal is popularly known, occupies a special place in the intellectual history of independent India. For more than five decades EPW has remained a unique forum that week after week has brought together academics, researchers, policy makers, independent thinkers, members of non-governmental organisations and political activists for debates straddling economics, politics, sociology, culture, the environment and numerous other disciplines.