Redefining Social Geography of Rajasthan

Sprout: A Social Geography of Rajasthan is a fascinating study of how geography plays a pivotal role in shaping and reshaping of spatial and social formations. The book focuses on the constant struggle of different groups of people for appropriating space, the tussle between capital and labour in determining the social structures as well as practices and the relation between “the social and the spatial.”

The book is groundbreaking in terms of its presentation, the way it illuminates ideas and events with the clarity of a schoolbook. By using graphics, illustrations, pictorial maps and dialogues, it opens up a new way of approaching and understanding geography which ties up with Sunny’s claim of building on “the informal spaces of reading that should be available to the people” (in acknowledgement). The book is thus heavily driven and informed by a sense of social justice, and is indeed, a pioneering work of its kind on Rajasthan in particular, and geographical studies in India at large. Deviating from the general trend of geographical reading with its focus on the physical landscape, Sunny tries to show how the processes of production and distribution of a region determine the social formations.