He has a PhD in sociology from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His works include a book Village Studies in India: A Case of Bihar (2001), and papers on caste, agrarian economy, agrarian movements, rural politics, and decentralisation, published in Contributions to Indian Sociology and Sociological Bulletin . His works address significant theoretical issues and are based on fieldwork in the villages of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, northern states of India. He is currently researching social divisions and rural non-farm sector in Bihar as well as caste inequalities and dominance in rural western Uttar Pradesh.