The decade of the 1980s was a ‘lost’ decade for development during which for many countries development actually went into reverse. At the same time, the dominant paradigm moved away from the Keynesian consensus to a sharply monetarist and neo-classical type. Given the present crisis of development increasing doubts are being felt about the validity of this dominant paradigm. The authors of this volume have highlighted this multifaceted crisis, not only in economic terms but also in political and human terms. Tackling the problems of Third World development from a different perspective, this study offers a new approach in which people at the grass roots level in South Asia become both the subjects and the objects of a participatory process of development designed to improve living conditions.