Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from Indias Poorest Districts

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The poor in India are, too often, reduced to statistics. In the dry language of development reports and economic projections, the true misery of the hundreds of millions who live below the poverty line gets overlooked. In this thoroughly researched study of the poorest of the poor, we get to see how they manage, what sustains them, and the efforts, often ludicrous, to do something for them. The people who figure in this book typify the lives and aspirations of a large section of Indian society, and their stories present us with the true face of development.

Acclaimed across the world, assigned in over 100 universities and colleges, and included in part in The Century's Greatest Reportage, alongside the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Studs Terkel, Everybody Loves a Good Drought is the established classic on rural poverty in India. Two decades after publication, it remains unsurpassed in the scope and depth of reportage, providing an intimate view of the daily struggles of the poor and the efforts, often ludicrous, made to uplift them.

Reviews

A beautifully judged account, bristling with vigorous humanity * The Mail on Sunday *
A devastating new book ... on a huge section of Indian society ... Its author has criss-crossed the country, living in the poorest villages and riding the trains with out-of-work migrants, to compile a dossier of deprivation and neglect... * The Guardian *
An extraordinary achievement.a fascinating, worrying and at times amusing book.He has avoided the sensational - the spectacular natural disasters or the outbreaks of plague - and concentrated instead on building up a detailed picture of how people live -- Patrick French * The Times, London *
Establishes Sainath as one of the finest Indian journalists of his generation ... This is journalism of a high order; pointed, well-researched, critical, stirring, alive with passion and thought. It deserves the widest readership -- Sunil Khilnani * The Independent *
Extraordinary - investigative journalism at its best * Times Literary Supplement *
While the author's original audience was Indian, this book transcends national borders, presenting characters, lives and stories of interest to anyone who follows community development and politics ... a fascinating look into the lives of some of the world's poorest citizens ... few journalists commit themselves to a project as this author has done -- Kim Bolan * The Vancouver Sun *

Author Bio

Palagummi Sainath (born 1957) is an Indian journalist and photojournalist focusing on social problems, rural affairs, poverty, and the aftermath of globalization in India. He was rural affairs editor of The Hindu from 2004 to 2014. Amartya Sen has called him "one of the world's great experts on famine and hunger." Sainath has won over 60 national and international reporting awards and fellowships. These include the Fukuoka Grand Prize 2021, the World Media Summit award 2014, the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2007, Amnesty International's Global Human Rights Reporting Prize and the Ramnath Goenka Journalist of the Year award. He has taught journalism for three decades at universities in India, and he was McGraw Professor of Writing in Princeton in 2012.