Ruchira Ganguly-Scrase obtained her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Melbourne. She is Professor of Anthropology, and the National Course Director for International Development Studies and Global Studies, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. Previously she was the Coordinator of the Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS), University of Wollongong, Australia.

List of Maps, Tables and Figures
Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgements

Part I: BACKGROUND AND METHOD
1. Introduction
2. Economic and Social Organisation of Krishnagar and Nadia District

Part II: CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CLASS
3. A Cultural Account of the Rabi Das
4. From Chamars to Rabi Das: The Work of the Social Reformers

Part III: LABOUR FORMATION
5. The Demise of the Artisan: Changing Nature of Men’s Work
6. The Demise of Subsistence: Changing Nature of Women’s Work
7. Growing Up as Rabi Das
8. Conclusion

APPENDICES
1. Concentration of Cottage Industries in Nadia District
2. Distribution of Shoemakers and Units in Nadia District
3. A Note on the Translation of Indian Terms

Glossary
Bibliography

‘Ruchira Ganguly-Scrase has presented  a rich ethnographic study of a backward community of leather workers known as the Rabi Das and their transformation, under the profound influence of the global capitalism based on the findings in Krishnanagar of Nadia in West Bengal…. [Her] subject of study and her presentation are excellent … ’

--- The Sunday Statesman