Poverty in rural India: is this a permanent condition? Are villagers immobilized by a rigid caste system, limited resources and economic exploitation? This book is about villagers who have done remarkable things with their lives and people who have broken the constraints of poverty and inequality to become innovative and mobile. <br /><br /><strong>Inside–Outside</strong> narrates the stories from the combined view of an insider (Baviskar), who grew up in a poor village, and an outsider (Attwood) who came to study social change in the same region. Baviskar tells his stories and Attwood tells his own. In contrast toBaviskar, Attwood is a complete outsider, having grown up in a suburb near Chicago, in the US heartland. He stumbled into anthropology and spent several years in India, mostly doing fieldwork in the same region where Baburao grew up and did his research. Attwood’s early life and first inept encounters with India are described in Part Two, and then their stories interweave. <br /><br />The villagers’ stories describe rapid innovation and institution-building in the countryside and challenge an array of common stereotypes about life in India’s villages. Seeking explanations for change, it helps to look from different angles. <br />