Revolution by Stealth

Vijayendra (Biju) Rao will be speaking about a new book, Revolution by Stealth: How Women's Groups Catalyzed a Cultural Transformation in Bihar, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press and jointly written with Shruti Majumdar and Paromita Sanyal. The book tells the story of how Jeevika—a large-scale livelihoods project—sparked far-reaching change in one of India's poorest and most patriarchal states. Drawing on four years of qualitative fieldwork embedded within a randomized trial, they trace how federated women's self-help groups enabled marginalized women to access credit, build collective capacity, and reshape gender norms. Through shared rituals, new roles, and solidarity networks, women moved from domestic isolation to public voice, challenging caste and patriarchal hierarchies. Conceptualizing Jeevika as an "induced social movement," they show how state-supported programs rooted in local traditions can catalyze durable empowerment. The seminar offers an interdisciplinary account—spanning development economics, sociology, and feminist theory—of how agency is built, how norms shift, and how cultural change can be induced and sustained.