Title: The Agrarian Imagination
Subtitle: Development and the Art of the Impossible by Colin Todhunter
Description: This collection of 16 essays is an unflinching assessment of the systems that dictate how we live, labour and interact with one another and with the planet. It rejects the notion that 'development' is an inherently good idea by exposing how the standard model—driven by the neoliberal capitalism, corporate interests and top-down policy—functions as an engine of injustice, displacement and ecological destruction.

The essays ask who truly benefits from the structures that shape our world and whether current notions of ‘progress’ genuinely serve the majority or protect the natural world. From the persistent agrarian struggles in India to the devastating legacy of the Bhopal disaster, the book provides concrete evidence of the violence and inequality woven into policies imposed from above.

Drawing on critical thinkers like Jiddu Krishnamurti, Mahatma Gandhi, Wendell Berry, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Michel Foucault, this work blends philosophical critique with real-world observation and urgent reportage. The power dynamics are exposed, and there is a call for alternative ways of seeing and practising change. Recurring threads, including food sovereignty, ecological care and resistance, give the collection its core structure and emotional weight.

The book speaks directly to anyone seeking to understand how the prevailing idea of development impacts ordinary life and what it takes to build a different, more equitable future.
Subjects: Agrarianism, Food Sovereignty, Development, Social Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, India, Social Change, Political Economy, Imperialism, Techno Feudalism, Hegemony, Agribusiness, Agroecology