This book emerges from over a decade of careful observation and analysis of two contradictory developmental processes in contemporary India – the transformation of the economy towards one that celebrates big business and the power of the market and the continued need for governments (at least in rhetoric) to be attentive to the concerns and aspirations of communities exploited, marginalized or ignored by these capitalist forces. The question of land remains central to both these processes and has been subject to contestation throughout India's three decades of economic liberalization since the late 1980s. Over this period, the role of the state can seem almost schizophrenic: on the one hand, enacting progressive legislation that protects India's still predominantly rural population which remains dependent on land and natural resources for livelihoods and subsistence and, on the other, also facilitating the alienation and acquisition of rural assets by local and global capital.

I have had the privilege to work closely with the author, Shashi Ratnaker Singh, throughout this last decade. This book is the fruit of work that contributed towards his doctoral research at Cambridge, but it actually reflects wisdom and insights that both predate his graduate studies and have continued to be developed since. It is being published at a unique moment in Indian – and global – history, with ‘normal’ life having been suspended due to a pandemic of unprecedented proportions.

At another level, though, what the 2020 pandemic has revealed are the vulnerabilities that lie at the heart of this book, the insecurity of those who have been relegated to the margins of growth and capital accumulation. In this moment of exception, as economic activity is temporarily suspended, it is the dispossessed who suffer most – migrant labourers far from the safety of their erstwhile rural homes, with their livelihoods denied and their humanity stripped away. Having already lost their lands, the precariat are now unable to earn the daily wages that might provide a modicum of dignity and have been forced to return to their villages. To truly understand the processes that have led to this immiserization, we need to study the land question – and there could be no better place to start than this book.