Here is a remarkable tour de force from one of India's senior most anthropologists. Unlike many practitioners of textbook writing, Professor Reddy has chosen to divide the volume innovatively in  three compact sections ranging from epistemology and methodology to critical essays on contemporary theories and vignettes of grounded ethnography. The inventory of themes is at once  encyclopaedic and kaleidoscopic: function, meaning, cultural variability, relativism versus universalism and globalization followed by theories of Levi-Strauss and Dumont, cultural materialism of  Marvin Harris, critique of Geertz and the debate between Margaret Mead and Derek Freeman. The last section tackles from a fieldwork perspective burning issues like naxalism, developmental  hurdles, farm-size and productivity, and the changing functional interdependence between castes in village India. All in all, the book would remain a valuable summum bonum of the author's  outstanding contributions to Indian anthropology and to the discipline in general.

—  Ravindra K. Jain
     Former Professor of Anthropology and Dean, School of
     Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Professor N. Subba Reddy is a key figure in the modern history of Indian anthropology, not only because of his own research contribu-tions, but also by virtue of his roles in academic leadership. The  present volume, which collects together 30 highlights from his long and distinguished career, brings fully into focus how prolific he has been as a scholar, and also underlines the astonishing range of  his intellectual and research interests. In his own synoptic profile    to the volume, Professor Subba Reddy provides a fascinating reconstruction of this intellectual journey that has occupied him over  six decades. It is a delight to find this immense body of work collected together for the benefit of contemporary students and researchers alike.
—  Anthony Good
     Professor Emeritus; Professorial Fellow - Social Anthropology,
     School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK.

N. Subba Reddy completed his MA (1946-48) and PhD (1952) at Lucknow University. For his PhD, he was awarded the Bonnarjee Research Prize.

He joined the post of Deputy Director of Kanpur  Social Survey (a Planning Commission project) under the directorship of Dr D.N. Majumdar, and their report was published in 1960 under the title “Social Contours of an Industrial City”; it was later  re-printed in America in 1975. He joined Lucknow University as Lecturer in 1956. He handled the PG courses in anthropology at Gauhati Univerity (1957) and was in-charge of Centre for Tribal  Research. He was instrumental in organising the Department of Anthropology at Andhra University (1960) and was with the Department, initially as Reader and Head of the Department and later as  Professor (1961-76). He was closely associated with all the committees for the starting of anthropology at SV University, Tirupati. During the year 1970-71, he was a visiting senior fellow at the  University of Illinois. In 1976, he moved to Madras University to start PG courses in anthropology. He also helped Tamil University to start a Centre for Tribal Research at Ooty, and he served on the  committee to select the first team of teachers in anthropology at Calicut University (Kerala) and later helped to consolidate the courses there by delivering some lectures in the initial years. After his  retirement at Madras University, he was invited by Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, for commencing research work on the tribal problems of Andhra Pradesh and continues to be  an honorary professor in the institution.

S. Mahendra Dev is currently Director (Vice-Chancellor), Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai. He received his PhD from the Delhi School of Economics and his Post-doctoral research at the Economic Growth Centre, Yale University.

He has written extensively on agricultural development, poverty and public policy, food security, employment guarantee schemes, social security, farm and non-farm employment. He has more than 100 research publications in national and international journals. His recently published book is Inclusive Growth in India: Agriculture, Poverty and Human Development (2011). He has been a consultant and adviser to many international organisations, such as UNDP, World Bank, IFPRI, ILO, FAO and ESCAP. He has been a member of several government committees including the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Employment and Rangarajan Commission on Financial Inclusion. He was member of several working groups for Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Five Year Plans.

Ravi Kanbur is T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics at Cornell University. He holds a bachelor's degree from Cambridge and a doctorate from Oxford. He has taught at Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton and Columbia. He has published in the leading economics journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, and Economic Journal. Prof. Kanbur has served on the senior staff of the World Bank, including as Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank, and as Director of the World Bank's World Development Report.

S. Galab is PhD from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, He is currently Professor, Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad, India. He has written extensively on agricultural development, poverty, women empowerment, child well-being, agrarian relations, safety networks and self-help groups. He has more than 30 research publications in national and international journals. He has been a project director for Andhra Pradesh District Poverty Initiatives Programme (APDPIP), Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Programme (APRPRP) (World Bank projects) and Young Lives and various other projects like NREGS, Wage Employment Programmes etc. He has been a member in the Commission on Farmers’ Welfare in Andhra Pradesh, Departmental Committee of Centre for Regional Studies, Working Group on Poverty Elimination Programmes, Expert Group on Agricultural Indebtedness.

G. Alivelu is currently Assistant Professor, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, India. She received her PhD from B.R. Ambedkar Open University in 2007. Her research interests include areas of industry and services. She has published research articles in both national and international journals. Her recently published book is on Indian Zonal Railways. She has contributed papers on industry for Human Development Report of Andhra Pradesh. She is a member of working group for the Twelfth Five Year Plan for the Government of Andhra Pradesh. She also conducted collaborative projects with Department for International Development (DFID), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, the Netherlands on issues like state business relations and also on water and sanitation costs and service levels.

Rumi Aijaz is Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, India. He is also an associate member of the Institute of Town Planners, India. He received his doctoral degree in Urban Governance from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, and has been a post-doctoral Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

His research interests are primarily in the areas of urbanisation, urban development, urban and regional planning, urban infrastructure and services, urban management and governance, geography and social development. Dr. Aijaz has written on some of these topics and his articles have been published in leading journals, such as Habitat International, Journal of Asian and African Studies, Journal of the Institute of Town Planners, India, Urban India and Seminar.