Remembered village, a remembered town: Socio-economic changes in western Tamil Nadu

Western Tamil Nadu has witnessed tremendous changes in the last many decades, which have underpinned its contemporary economic, social and political importance. However, the region in general has remained largely understudied. A Remembered Village, A Remembered Town gives an impressionistic account of socio-economic changes in a village, Appipalayam, and its nearest town, Karur, in the second half of the twentieth century. As a trained economist, S. Neelakantan brings his scholarship to bear on his lived experience and, whilst exploring labour, landed power, caste, and rural-urban linkages, provides an insightful account of the transformations, growth, and stagnation witnessed in the Kongu region across five decades. Peppered with anecdotes, this book makes for a gripping read. Author: S. Neelakantan (1935–2023) was born into a traditional landholding family in Chettipalayam of Karur district, Tamil Nadu. Having begun his career with a brief stint as an advocate at Madras High Court, Neelakantan taught economics at various colleges in Tamil Nadu before becoming a Professor at Bharathisadan University. He was also a Fulbright Fellow at Washington University under Nobel laureate Douglass C. North. Neelakantan served as Director of MIDS in the early nineties. After his retirement, he returned to his village and raised a fruit orchard using drip irrigation—a project that had to be abandoned with the depletion of groundwater due to extensive sand mining in the area. In 2008, with the publication of Oru Nagaramum Oru Gramamum (2008)—an extended Tamil version of this book—Neelakantan became a celebrity in Tamil intellectual circles. This was soon followed by two acclaimed books on the history of economic thought: Chevviyal Porulatharam: Adam Smith muthal Karl Marx varai (2012), and Nava Chevviyal Poruliyal (2021).