Local-global integration, diversification and informality. Long-term change in Arni during the late twentieth century

The chapter explores change in Arni’s business economy in the wake of the Green Revolution. The analysis relies on the large quantity of good quality empirical material on the town collected since the first survey in 1972–1974. The aim of the analysis is to assess the nature of change experienced by the town since the introduction of the hybrid seeds in local agriculture and whether it can be seen as an example of India’s provincial economy, i.e. the socio-economic system made of villages and small towns located in rural areas. It is argued that Arni has experienced major changes in both economy and society, enhancing a process of capitalist development characterized by informality, economic diversification and local/global integration. The outcome of this process of capitalist development is a local system locally integrated in its territory for the provision of production factors and globally integrated with other Indian states for the marketing of production.