Agrarian Social Structure

Answer : The various land ceiling legislation such as abolition of intermediaries, tenancy reforms, security of tenure, right of ownership for the tenants, consolidation of land holding etc. have greatly affected the social life, especially peasant in the rural areas. The new hierarchy in the agrarian social system consist of: (i) Big land owners which stands at the top of the hierarchy. Normally, these landowners relied on the hired labour and the modern farm machinery for cultivation. ....

Answer : The peasant society, chiefly refers to the society of village life where the main source of livelihood is agriculture and allied activities. According to Durkheim the main basis of the division of labour of this society is communal and characterised by the mechanical solidarity. The other basis of the division of labour are lineage, gotra, caste and varna. The jajmani system, under which the goods and service are mutually exchanged is a crucial feature of ....

Answer : Post – independence era witnessed the uninterrupted continuity of the agrarian movements due to the failure of the ruling party to resolve any of the basic problems of the working masses of rural India.

The peasant struggles in this period were led predominantly by left political parties like the Communist Party of India (CPI), Praja Sociologist Party (PSP), and Socialist Party (SP), through their Kisan organizations.

The land reforms and community development programmers meant for promoting capitalist ....

Answer : National movement in India is largely a product of Kisan Sabha movement that was founded on the farmer and peasant movements in colonial India. Bardoli movement, Eka movement, Moplah movement, Champaran movement, Kedha movement were instrumental in bringing peasants together. The cause of Indian peasantry, their plight and suffering was highlighted by the leaders of Congress and Communists and that offered a form of integration among the masses in India.

The peasants of the country strongly ....

Answer : Indian village not only occupied a pride of place in colonial social morphology, but also became enmeshed in the leading theoretical and histographical debate of the day. Sociologist like Karl Marx, B.H. Banden Powel looked Indian villages as a unit of knowledge than unit of coloniasl administration.

Breman noted that idea of Indian village in the 19th century had many meanings like anarchic and primary nucleus of Indian society, an autonomous political administrative unit, an economically ....

Answer : Dr. Yogendra Singh has explained that there were three bases of power structure in traditional ruralIndia– zamindari system, village panchayat, caste panchayat. In this power structure, on one side landlords were representative of physical & economic interest and expectation of villagers, on other side form of rural politics is decided by village and caste panchyat. System of inter relation between zamindari system and rural power structure was dependent mainly on owner-ship of property and land.

But ....

Answer : Green Revolution during the period 1970s was aimed at making Indian agriculture an effective contributor for national economy. The new technology especially high yielding variety seeds were introduced to the feudal dominated agricultural regions. Earlier, the spread of new technology was confined to the wheat belt of Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh. But by mid 1970s a breakthrough was achieved in paddy cultivation. During 1980s there was a further spread to the eastern states. ....

Answer : Agrarian movements have been an important area in the study of social movements in India. India is essentially an agrarian country having complexity of landownership, tenancy, use and control of land, all reflect the complex nature of agrarian structure. The complexity of agrarian structure is also manifested in agrarian class structure which has existed since long in rurul areas. The diversity of land systems and agrarian relations has produced an elaborate structure of agrarian classes.

However, ....

Answer : The impact of the land reforms and the Green Revolution has not been uniform throughout the country. In certain regions some sections have benefited more than the others. However the owners of large landholdings have pocketed the maximum profits in every region.

The share of benefits to the small peasants has been limited almost everywhere. But it is the middle peasant who have been the real beneficiary all over the country. Middle peasants ordinarily belong to ....

Answer : The emergence of the middle class is an interesting development in the era of economic liberalization in India. The study of middle classes by a scholar named as B.B Mishra has suggested that the members of educated professionals, such as government servants, lawyers, college teachers and doctors constitute the bulk of Indian middle class. He also included the body of merchants, agents of modern trading firms, salarised executives in banks, middle grades of peasant proprietors ....

Answer : Most of the familial studies in India wishfully ignored the significance of house hold and its dynamicity under various changes. But Iravati Karve has considered this aspect.

According to Iravati Karve Indian society is recognized by joint family and its existence. It is a residential unit where the people are holding property in common. It is also a social unit where multigenerational people are living together under the authority centred around the eldest male, and holding ....

Answer : Structural-functional perspective is the approach developed by the scholars belonging to British Anthropology. This perspective is based on the principles which visualise society as a functional unit. This perspective considers a society as a system in which there are multivarious structure. This method was generally used to study small community indicating that within a community there are different facets of life which are organized, repetitive and continuous.

However, the structural part of the society are organized ....

Answer : Feudalism and semi feudalism are the dominant reality of the agricultural land of the kingdom. In India, there was nothing analogous to the Roman conception of dominion and the land of the kingdom. The king did not, in theory, create subordinate owners of land because he himself was not, in theory, the supreme owner of the land. What he delegated to the intermediaries was not even his sovereignty understood in this restricted sense but only ....

Answer : As far as class-structure of the agrarian social structure of India is concerned, there are some varied explanations and typology. Daniel Thorner has argued about three classes; Malik (land lord), Kisan (peasant) and Mazdoor (agricultural labour). The Malik was traditionally rich, but, now, the Kisan and Majdoor are gradually improving their status. The neo-rich agrarian class which constitute of middle or lower middle class is generally characterised by modern outlook, exposure to modernisation, secular-religious ....

Answer : According to A.R. Desai (1959) there are three main classes in agrarian society. These are landowner, tenants and labourers. The landowners constitute about 22 percent, tenants about 27 percent and agricultural labourers about 31 percent. The fourth, non-agricultural labourers about 31 percent. Daniel Thorner has analysed agrarian relation by using three specific terms: Malik for agricultural landlords, Kisan for working peasant and Majdoor for agricultural labourers. D.M. Dhangre has suggested a different model of ....

Answer : The land reforms aims at the institutional and motivational obstacles which stood in the way of modernising agriculture and establishment of a more egalitarian social structure. Intermediary tenure like zamindari, jagirs and inams have been abolished. Legislative provisions have been made for enforcement of ownership rights on the tenants who require ownership of land from a landlord or from the state on payment of reasonable revenues. Provisions have also been made in the laws for ....