Editor Details

Harinder Singh Happy is a researcher from Beenjhbayla, working at the intersection of agrarian studies, rural sociology, and public health in India. He is currently a PhD scholar at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His research focuses on socio-economic transformations in rural Punjab, particularly agrarian distress, peasant suicides, caste relations, and the lived experiences of marginalised communities, using an interdisciplinary and fieldwork-based approach.

His doctoral work examines suicides in peasant households, linking them to processes of neoliberal restructuring, indebtedness, and social change. Moving beyond purely economic explanations, he highlights the role of dignity, humiliation, and social identity. During his Master’s at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, he studied Dalits’ access to agricultural land in Punjab’s Malwa region, revealing persistent inequalities in land ownership.

Harender has presented his work at national and international conferences and published in academic outlets, including Routledge volumes and Q1 journal articles. He also contributes regularly to public discourse through platforms such as The Indian Express, The Wire, Punjabi Tribune, Deccan Herald, The New Indian Express, The Quint, and Scroll, writing on farm policy, labour, food security, public health, and environmental change.

He has worked with institutions such as the Centre de Sciences Humaines, the French Institute of Pondicherry, and the Punjab State Farmers’ and Farm Workers’ Commission, contributing to research on caste, agricultural policy, and sustainable farming. Earlier, he was associated with the Voluntary Health Association of Punjab, focusing on community health and awareness.

Trained in public health, sociology, rural development, and geography, he brings a multidisciplinary perspective to his work and is fluent in English, Hindi, Punjabi, and Bagdi.

Publictions:

• Happy. (2026) “Suicides in Agrarian Society: Exploring Dignity and Humiliation in Rural Punjab” in “Policy and Politics of Development in India: Quest for Rural Dignity” Palgrave Macmillan

• Kamran, M., Happy, H., & Mogha, S. (2025). Exploring ‘pindhood’ in Sidhu Moose Wala’s sound (life) world. Sikh Formations, 1-13.

• Happy, Harinder, and Shivam Mogha. (2025) “Uploading tractor to Twitter: How protesters used media during farmers’ movement.” in “A People’s History of the Farmers’ Movement, 2020–2021”. Routledge India, 2025. 235-250.