Caste and class in the agrarian structure
Agrarian structure means how farmland is owned and who works on it. In most Indian villages the pattern is a ladder:
- Big landowners (few families, much land);
- Middle and rich farmers;
- Small and marginal farmers (under about 1 to 2 hectares);
- Landless agricultural labourers (many families, no land).
Caste and class overlap. Big owners were mostly from upper castes or from dominant castes (castes with land, numbers and local power, such as Jats, Reddys, Kammas, Marathas, Vokkaligas). Landless labourers were mostly Dalits and Adivasis. Women rarely owned land even when they did much of the farm work.
In colonial times, systems like zamindari placed intermediaries between the state and cultivators, which made the structure even more unequal.
Land reforms after independence
Land reforms tried to make land ownership fairer:
- Abolition of zamindari: removed the big intermediaries who collected rent. This was the most successful step.
- Tenancy reform: gave tenants security or ownership, and limited rent.
- Land ceiling: fixed the most land one family could own; surplus land was to go to the landless.
Limits: landlords used loopholes, transferring land to relatives or servants on paper (benami transfers), evicting tenants before laws came, or declaring land as orchards. Many tenants lost their land. Only a few states, especially Kerala and West Bengal (Operation Barga), carried out strong reforms. Still, reforms helped middle castes and farmers rise.
Green Revolution and its social effects
From the mid-1960s the Green Revolution used high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and assured irrigation, with state support through credit and fixed prices. It began in areas with irrigation: Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh and parts of Tamil Nadu. Food output rose and India became self-sufficient in grain.
Social effects
- Inequality among farmers: big and middle farmers could buy inputs and gained most; small farmers often took loans.
- Tenants pushed out: owners took back land to farm it themselves with machines.
- Labourers: demand for labour rose at first, but machines later cut jobs; payment moved from grain to cash.
- Regional gaps: irrigated regions grew rich; dry regions fell behind.
- Ecology (second-generation problems): falling groundwater, tired soil, pesticide use.
- Dominant castes grew richer and more politically powerful.
Transformation in rural society after independence
Commercial farming changed village relations:
- From patron-client ties to cash: old ties where labourers got grain or a share of the crop for lifelong service (sometimes called the jajmani type of exchange) gave way to daily cash wages and short contracts. Workers gained some freedom but lost security.
- Machines: tractors, threshers and harvesters reduced the need for labour.
- New rich farmer class: dominant-caste farmers invested in shops, transport, schools and trade, and became powerful in politics.
- Growing links: villages became more tied to towns, markets and the state.
Circulation of labour
Many poor rural workers cannot find enough work at home. They move for a season to places with work: prosperous farms, brick kilns, construction sites, quarries. When the work ends they return home, and next season go again. This back-and-forth is called circulation of labour. Sociologist Jan Breman called such workers footloose labour.
- Rich farmers often prefer migrant workers because they are cheaper and easier to control than local labourers.
- Migrants face poor housing, low pay, no social security and debt to contractors.
- Feminisation of agricultural labour: as men move out, women do a larger share of farm work, usually without owning land.
Globalisation, liberalisation and rural society
Since the 1990s Indian agriculture is more linked to the world market:
- Contract farming: a company tells farmers what to grow, supplies seeds and inputs, and promises to buy the crop at a fixed price. It gives security but makes farmers depend on the company and may harm soil and food crops.
- Agribusiness: big firms sell seeds, fertilisers and pesticides; local agents push expensive inputs.
- Price swings: crop prices follow world markets; state support has shrunk in some areas.
- Agrarian distress: costly inputs, crop failure, falling prices and debt have led to farmer suicides in some regions, especially among small cash-crop farmers.
Exam corner: this unit carries about 10 marks. Expect: define dominant caste; limits of land reforms; social effects of the Green Revolution; circulation of labour; how globalisation affects farmers.
Key formulas and definitions
- Agrarian structure: pattern of land ownership and who works the land.
- Dominant caste: caste with land, numbers and local political power.
- Land reforms: zamindari abolition, tenancy reform, land ceiling.
- Benami: land held in someone else's name to escape the ceiling.
- Green Revolution: HYV seeds + fertiliser + irrigation (mid-1960s).
- Patron-client (jajmani-type) ties โ cash wages.
- Circulation of labour: seasonal to-and-fro migration of workers.
- Feminisation of agricultural labour: women's share of farm work rises.
- Contract farming: company fixes crop, inputs and price in advance.
Worked examples
1. Why do we say caste and class overlap in rural India?
Because the land ladder and the caste ladder usually match: big landowners were mostly upper or dominant castes, while landless labourers were mostly Dalits and Adivasis. So a person's caste often predicts their land (class) position, though not always.
2. A landlord with 100 acres hears a ceiling law will allow only 30 acres per family. Show how he might escape it, and what that tells us about land reform.
He could put 70 acres in the names of relatives or workers on paper (benami transfer), or evict tenants before the law begins. He keeps control while records look legal. This shows why land reforms were only partly successful in most states.
3. The Green Revolution raised output. Why did it also raise inequality?
The new method needed money for seeds, fertiliser and water. Big farmers could pay and gained most; small farmers borrowed or lagged; tenants were evicted as owners began self-cultivation; dry regions without irrigation fell behind. So output grew, but gains were uneven.
4. A village in Jharkhand has many men working in Punjab fields each harvest and on Delhi sites the rest of the year. Explain two social effects.
This is circulation of labour. First, the migrants earn cash but live without security, housing or rights. Second, women back home take over farm work (feminisation of agricultural labour) and family roles change.
Common mistakes
- Thinking land reforms gave land to all the landless. Loopholes and weak enforcement limited them; only a few states did well.
- Treating the Green Revolution as good for everyone. It helped big farmers and irrigated regions most.
- Confusing circulation of labour with permanent migration. Circulating workers go and come back season after season.
- Thinking globalisation affects only cities. Contract farming, seed companies and world prices deeply affect villages.