Education

PhD

Profile

Gaurav is an interdisciplinary political economist with a PhD from the School of Global Development, University of East Anglia, UK.

His research focuses on the uneven dynamics of structural transformation, rural capitalism, class-caste relations, labour and inequality, and agrarian social movements in India under neoliberalism. His thesis simultaneously examined aspects of both rural labour and rural/provincial capital through a relational lens, with a regional focus on Indian Punjab in the late-Green Revolution context. His research also focusses on linking the changes happening in rural India with the political economy of small towns and the broader non-farm economy.

His work is grounded in extensive field-based research and employs both qualitative and quantitative methods. Theoretically, he draws on the heterodox political economy tradition to engage with long-standing debates on the persistent irresolution of the Agrarian Question(s)—of capital, labour, and politics—in India.

Research

Structural transformation, uneven development, labour informality, rural economic inequality, rural capitalism, class and caste relations, social movements, and the political economy of small towns in India.

Publication

Journal Articles

2026 Bansal, G. (2026). Reading Agrarian Transformation Through Literature: Moral Economy, Political Economy, and Caste in 1950s Punjab in Gurdial Singh’s Marhi da Deeva. Sikh Formations.

2021 Pattenden, J., & Bansal, G. (2021). A New Class Alliance in the Indian Countryside? From New Farmers’ Movements to the 2020 Protest Wave. Economic and Political Weekly, 56(26-27).

2021 Gupta, R., & Jacob, J.,& Bansal, G. (2021). The Role of UBI in Mitigating the Effects of Psychosocial Stressors: A Review and Proposal. Psychological Reports 2022.

2020 Bansal, G. (2020). Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab. Review of Agrarian Studies, 10(2).

2018 Bansal, G., & Das, S. (2018). Why Coping Cost is An Underestimate of Willingness to Pay? Some Theoretical Explanations Based on Forest Water Link. Applied Economics & Business, 2(2), 1-14.

Book Chapters

2026 Bansal, G., & Vicol, M. (Accepted/in press). Contract Farming, Social Movements and Rural Politics. In N. Fold, C. Hambloch, S. Narayanan, H. Perez Nino, & M. Vicol (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Contract Farming in the Global South. Routledge.

2024 Bansal, G. (2024). The Political Economy of the farmers’ protest: emerging perspectives from the field. In C. Molliner & D. Singh (Eds.), The Indian Farmers’ Protest of 2020–2021: Agrarian Crisis, Dissent and Identity. Taylor and Francis.

Book Reviews

2022 Review of Contract farming, Capital, and State: Corporatisation of Indian agriculture by Ritika Shrimali. The Journal of Peasant Studies.

2021 A Framework for the Analysis of State–Society Relations: A Review of “Class and Conflict: Revisiting Pranab Bardhan’s Political Economy of India” by E. Chatterjee & M. McCartney. Economic and Political Weekly, 56(22), 30-32.

Popular Articles and Opinion Pieces

2025 Kaur, N., & Bansal, G. (2025). Why Punjab’s youth desperately seek the West. Frontline, March 2025.

2020 Bansal, G. (2020). Rice bowl on the boil. Frontline, October 23, 2020.

2020 Bansal, G. (2020). Punjab: Land Struggle in the time of Pandemic. Frontline, July 31, 2020.

2020 Bansal, G., & Bhattacharya, S. (2020). Harvesting Misery. Frontline, May 22, 2020.

2020 Bansal, G., & Bhattacharya, S. (2020). COVID-19: Punjab Villages Face Double Brunt of Lockdown and Curfew. Newsclick, April 21, 2020.