Vilyatpur 1848–1968: Social and Economic Change in a North Indian Village by Tom G. Kessinger reconstructs over a century of life in an ordinary Punjabi village, tracing the rhythms of agriculture, labor, and community from the advent of British rule through independence and into the postcolonial era. Unlike memoirs or literary portraits of Punjab, Kessinger’s focus is on the small-scale farmers, artisans, and laborers who made up the bulk of rural society—people who left few personal records but whose decisions and livelihoods can be pieced together through official documents, surveys, and statistical inquiries.

By building on the tradition of empirical research into rural Punjab begun in the 1920s, Kessinger examines how village residents adapted to shifting political regimes, market pressures, and social transformations across 120 years. The book situates Vilyatpur’s story within broader patterns of agrarian change, while paying close attention to the granular realities of income, landholding, labor, and survival strategies. More analytical than anecdotal, and grounded in historical and social-scientific method, Vilyatpur 1848–1968 fills a critical gap in the history of South Asia by documenting the lived experience of “ordinary” villagers whose collective story illuminates the evolution of rural life in modern India and Pakistan.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.