Struggling with Destiny in Karimpur, 1925-1984

Susan Wadley first visited Karimpur—the village "behind mud walls" made famous by William and Charlotte Wiser—as a graduate student in 1967. She returned often, adding her observations and experiences to the Wisers' field notes from the 1920s and 1930s. In this long-awaited book, Wadley gives us a work of unprecedented scope: a portrait of an Indian village as it has changed over a sixty-year period.

She hears of changes in agriculture, labor relations, education, and the family. But Karimpu...