Exam-useful questions from this chapter, grouped by marks, each with a full model answer. Try writing the answer yourself first, then check it against this one.
1 1-Mark Questions
Q. Define agrarian structure, in the book’s own words.
Answer: The term agrarian structure is often used to refer to the structure or distribution of landholding.
Q. Who coined the term ‘dominant caste’?
Answer: The sociologist M.N. Srinivas coined and defined the term ‘dominant caste’.
Q. What does ‘raiyat’ mean, and in which language?
Answer: ‘Raiyat’ means cultivator, in Telugu.
Q. Name the three categories of land reform law passed between the 1950s and 1970s.
Answer: (1) Abolition of the zamindari system, (2) tenancy abolition and regulation acts, and (3) Land Ceiling Acts.
Q. What is ‘underemployment’, as used in this chapter?
Answer: Underemployment is the condition of agricultural labourers who are daily-wage workers but do not have work for many days of the year.
Q. What term does the book use for the outcome of the Green Revolution where the rich grew richer and the poor stagnated or grew poorer?
Answer: The book calls this outcome ‘differentiation’.
Q. In which year was the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana launched?
Answer: It was launched in 2014.
Q. What is a ‘benami transfer’?
Answer: Benami transfers were one of the ways landowners avoided the Land Ceiling Acts. The book’s example is rich farmers who divorced their wives but continued to live with them, in order to avoid the Act’s provisions, which allowed a separate share for unmarried women but not for wives.
Q. What share of a tenant cultivator’s crop income does the book say goes to the landowner as rent?
Answer: Often as much as 50 to 75 per cent of the income from the crop.
Q. What does the book mean by a ‘proprietary caste’ group?
Answer: A caste group that, in a given region, owns most of the resources and can command the labour of others to work for it.
2 2-Mark Questions
Q. Distinguish between a ‘peasant’ and a ‘farmer/agriculturist’ as the book defines them.
Answer: A peasant produces mainly for the family’s own consumption and cannot produce a surplus for the market (subsistence agriculture). A farmer or agriculturist produces more than the family needs and sells the surplus, so is linked to the market.
Q. Why does the book say Brahmins usually fall outside the agrarian structure even though they are the highest caste?
Answer: Because in most areas Brahmins are not major landowners, so access to agricultural land, which defines the agrarian structure, does not apply to them, even though they remain part of rural society.
Q. What is the difference between the zamindari and raiyatwari systems of colonial land revenue administration?
Answer: In the zamindari system, the British ruled through local zamindars who collected revenue from cultivators and extracted heavy taxes, so production stagnated. In the raiyatwari system, the actual cultivator paid tax directly to the colonial government, without a zamindar intermediary, so the tax burden was lighter and these areas became relatively more productive.
Q. Why were the Land Ceiling Acts called ‘toothless’ by the book?
Answer: Because in most states there were many loopholes and other strategies through which most landowners escaped having their surplus land taken over by the state. In some places rich farmers actually divorced their wives (but continued to live with them), since the Act allowed a separate share for unmarried women but not for wives; these were also called benami transfers.
Q. Explain the ‘feminisation of agricultural labour force’.
Answer: In poor areas where male family members spend much of the year working outside the village, cultivation has become primarily a female task, and women are emerging as the main source of agricultural labour; the book calls this the ‘feminisation of agricultural labour force’. The women’s insecurity is greater because they earn lower wages than men for similar work.
Q. What does Jan Breman mean by describing migrant workers as ‘footloose labour’ without implying freedom?
Answer: The term describes workers who circulate between regions for work, but Breman’s study shows they have few rights, for example they are usually not paid even the minimum wage, so their mobility does not amount to real freedom.
Q. How did the Green Revolution’s second phase (from the 1980s) differ from its first phase?
Answer: The first phase (1960s-70s) was concentrated in assured-irrigation wheat and rice regions such as Punjab. In the second phase, farmers in dry and semi-arid regions took up Green Revolution practices, shifting from dry to irrigated cultivation; increasing commercialisation and dependence on the market (for instance, where cotton cultivation has been promoted) increased livelihood insecurity. In most Green Revolution areas farmers also switched from a multi-crop system to a mono-crop regime.
Q. State two social effects of introducing farm machinery (tillers, tractors, threshers, harvesters) in Green Revolution areas.
Answer: It displaced the service-caste groups who used to carry out these agriculture-related activities, and this displacement increased the pace of rural-to-urban migration.
3 4-Mark Questions
Q. Explain how caste and class are related in rural India, according to the book.
Answer: Rural class structure is shaped mainly by access to agricultural land. In most regions, upper and middle castes also had the best access to land, resources, power and privilege, so caste rank and class rank broadly move together (“in many areas this is broadly true but not exactly”), with dominant landowning castes usually being middle or high-ranked. But this correspondence is not exact: in most areas, Brahmins, the highest caste, are not major landowners, so they fall outside the agrarian structure. Marginal farmers and the landless mostly belong to lower castes, officially classed as SC/ST/OBC, and formerly ‘Untouchable’ or dalit castes historically supplied much of the agricultural labour for dominant landowning groups.
Q. Describe the three categories of land reform law passed between the 1950s and 1970s, and how effective each one was.
Answer: (1) Abolition of the zamindari system removed the layer of intermediaries between cultivators and the state; the book calls it probably the most effective reform, since it weakened the zamindars’ power and strengthened actual landholders and cultivators. (2) Tenancy abolition and regulation acts tried to outlaw or regulate tenancy; in most states they were never implemented effectively, except in West Bengal and Kerala, which saw a radical restructuring giving land rights to tenants. (3) Land Ceiling Acts set an upper limit on landholding per family and were meant to redistribute surplus land to landless and SC/ST families, but were widely evaded through loopholes such as benami transfers, so the book calls them ‘toothless’.
Q. Explain why the Green Revolution mainly benefited medium and large farmers rather than small and marginal farmers.
Answer: The new technology (HYV or hybrid seeds, pesticides, fertilisers and other inputs) was expensive, and small and marginal farmers could not afford to spend as much as large farmers on these inputs. Only farmers able to produce a marketable surplus, and who had land, capital, technology and know-how, could invest in the new seeds and fertilisers, increase production and earn more money, which is why the book says that in the first phase the new technology ‘seemed to be increasing inequalities in rural society’.
Q. Explain the process of ‘differentiation’ brought about by the Green Revolution, using the book’s own account.
Answer: Differentiation, the book’s ‘ultimate outcome of the Green Revolution’, describes how the rich grew richer while many of the poor stagnated or grew poorer. Well-to-do farmers with access to land, capital and technology increased their production and profits, while in many cases landowners displaced tenant-cultivators by taking back land to farm directly, since cultivation had become more profitable. Employment and wages for agricultural workers did rise in many areas because labour demand increased, but a shift from payment in kind (grain) to cash, combined with rising prices, actually worsened the economic condition of most rural workers.
Q. Describe the pattern of seasonal circulation of agricultural labour described in the book.
Answer: As traditional patronage bonds between labourers and landlords broke down, and demand for labour rose in prosperous Green Revolution regions such as Punjab, thousands of workers began circulating seasonally between their home villages and more prosperous areas offering more work and higher wages. Migrants typically come from drought-prone, less productive regions and travel to farms in Punjab and Haryana, brick kilns in U.P., or construction sites in cities such as New Delhi or Bangalore. Men usually migrate while women and children are left behind with elderly grandparents, and Jan Breman calls such workers ‘footloose labour’ but this does not imply freedom: Breman’s study shows they have few rights and are usually not paid the minimum wage.
Q. Explain how contract farming works, and give two of its sociological costs.
Answer: In contract farming, a company identifies the crop to be grown, supplies seeds and other inputs (and often working capital), and guarantees to buy the produce at a pre-fixed price, giving the farmer an assured market. Its sociological costs include: it disengages farmers from the production process and makes their own indigenous agricultural knowledge irrelevant, and it can divert agricultural land away from foodgrain production toward export-oriented crops such as flowers and gherkins. It also usually requires heavy fertiliser and pesticide use, which is often not ecologically sustainable.
Q. According to Box 4.3 of the chapter, what factors does the book link to farmers’ suicides since 1997-98?
Answer: The book links farmer suicides to ‘agrarian distress’ caused by: changed landholding patterns; changing cropping patterns, especially the shift to cash crops; liberalisation policies exposing Indian agriculture to global market forces; heavy dependence on high-cost inputs; the state’s withdrawal from agricultural extension activities, replaced by multinational seed and fertiliser companies; a decline in state support for agriculture; and the growing individualisation of agricultural operations. Official figures record 8,900 farmer suicides between 2001 and 2006 in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra.
Q. Contrast the paths of rural transformation taken by (a) coastal Andhra Pradesh, western U.P. and central Gujarat and (b) Kerala.
Answer: In coastal Andhra Pradesh, western U.P. and central Gujarat, well-to-do farmers from dominant castes invested profits from Green Revolution agriculture into other businesses, producing new regional entrepreneurial and political elites and feeding the expansion of the urban middle class through education. Kerala, by contrast, developed through political mobilisation, redistributive measures and linkages to the Gulf countries: its rural economy became a mixed economy of retail, services and remittances rather than one transformed mainly by farm technology.
4 6-Mark Questions
Q. Discuss the impact of land reforms on rural India after Independence, and evaluate how far they achieved their aims.
Answer: After Independence, Nehru and his policy advisors linked agrarian reform to planned development, responding to low farm productivity, dependence on imported foodgrain and deep rural poverty. Between the 1950s and 1970s, land reform laws were passed nationally and in the states, in three categories: abolition of the zamindari system (probably the most effective, since in most areas it took away the zamindars’ superior rights over land and weakened their economic and political power); tenancy abolition and regulation acts (in most states never implemented very effectively, except in West Bengal and Kerala, which saw a radical restructuring that gave land rights to tenants); and Land Ceiling Acts (meant to redistribute surplus land to the landless and SC/ST families, but in most states they ‘proved to be toothless’, because loopholes and strategies such as benami transfers let most landowners escape). Progress was uneven across states, and although the agrarian structure has changed substantially since colonial times, it remains highly unequal. The book’s own verdict is that land reforms ‘have had only a limited impact on rural society and the agrarian structure in most regions’. It concludes that land reforms are necessary not only to boost agricultural growth but also to eradicate poverty in rural areas and bring about social justice.
Q. Explain the social consequences of the Green Revolution, distinguishing its achievements from its costs.
Answer: The Green Revolution was a government programme of agricultural modernisation, largely funded by international agencies, based on HYV/hybrid seeds with pesticides and fertilisers, introduced only in assured-irrigation areas and targeted mainly at wheat and rice: Punjab, western U.P., coastal Andhra Pradesh and parts of Tamil Nadu got its first wave (1960s-70s). Its achievement was real: agricultural productivity rose sharply and India became self-sufficient in foodgrain for the first time in decades. But its social costs were also real: mainly medium and large farmers, who could afford the expensive new inputs, benefited; in many cases tenant-cultivators were displaced as landowners took back land to farm directly; and machinery displaced service-caste groups, increasing the pace of rural-urban migration. The ultimate outcome was ‘differentiation’: the rich grew richer while many of the poor stagnated or grew poorer. Employment and wages rose in many areas, but rising prices and a shift from payment in kind to cash ‘actually worsened the economic condition of most rural workers’. A second phase from the 1980s spread Green Revolution practices to dry and semi-arid regions, where the shift from dry to irrigated cultivation and growing commercialisation (for instance, where cotton has been promoted) increased livelihood insecurity; in most Green Revolution areas farmers had also moved to a mono-crop regime, with nothing to fall back on if the crop fails. The book also names the worsening of regional inequalities as a negative outcome: Das (1999) documents that the Green Revolution was promoted more in the western and southern parts of the country than in the east.
Q. Discuss how globalisation and liberalisation have affected rural society and agriculture in India.
Answer: India’s liberalisation policy since the late 1980s, tied to WTO membership, opened Indian agricultural markets to imports, exposing farmers who had had decades of state support and protected markets to competition from the global market; India’s recent decision to import wheat reversed its earlier self-reliance policy. Contract farming became common: a company identifies the crop, supplies seeds, inputs and often working capital, and guarantees to buy the produce at a fixed price. In Punjab and Karnataka, for instance, farmers contract with a multinational company (the book names PepsiCo) to grow tomatoes and potatoes, and contract farming is now common for cut flowers, grapes, figs, pomegranates, cotton and oilseeds. While this offers farmers financial security, it also creates dependence, disengages them from the production process, devalues their own indigenous knowledge, diverts land from foodgrain, and is often ecologically unsustainable because of heavy fertiliser and pesticide use. A second face of globalisation is the entry of multinational input-sellers replacing government agricultural extension agents, deepening farmers’ dependence on expensive inputs. These pressures, alongside changing landholding and cropping patterns, are linked by the book to the agrarian distress behind farmer suicides recorded since 1997-98 (8,900 between 2001 and 2006 in four states), and the book lists schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the Kisan Credit Card, which ‘may provide unified help to farmers’, without linking them directly to the suicides.
Q. Trace the major transformations in rural social relations after Independence, using the book’s own examples.
Answer: The book lists four transformations in rural social relations after Independence: a rise in the use of agricultural labour as cultivation intensified; a shift from payment in kind (grain) to cash; a loosening of traditional, hereditary (bonded-labour) bonds between landowners and workers; and the rise of a class of ‘free’ wage labourers. Jan Breman (1974) described the changing relationship between landlords (usually dominant caste) and agricultural workers (usually low caste) as a shift from ‘patronage to exploitation’, which some scholars read as a step toward capitalist agriculture, since capitalist production separates workers from the means of production and relies on free wage labour. This process began in the colonial period, for instance with 19th-century Maharashtra’s cotton cultivation for the world market, but accelerated sharply after Independence through state investment in irrigation, roads, electricity and credit, including schemes such as the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (2014). In agriculturally rich regions such as coastal Andhra Pradesh, western U.P. and central Gujarat, enriched farmers turned entrepreneurs, feeding new regional elites and the urban middle class, while in eastern U.P. and Bihar the lack of effective land reforms, political mobilisation and redistributive measures meant relatively few changes, and Kerala took a different route through political mobilisation, redistribution and Gulf remittances.
5 Case Studies
(A) 1 mark What kind of labour tie did Ramu’s grandfather experience with the local landowner?
Answer: A hereditary, near-bonded labour tie: he had to provide unpaid labour (begar-type service) for a fixed number of days each year.
(B) 2 marks Identify the process Ramu’s father is engaged in with the cotton company, and explain one risk it carries for the family.
Answer: This is contract farming: the company supplies seeds and other inputs and guarantees to buy the produce at a pre-fixed price. One risk is that the family becomes dependent on the company and the market for its livelihood, so a fall in the price of a single crop (mono-cropping) can cause financial ruin, exactly as happened when cotton prices fell and the family struggled to repay its input loan.
(C) 3 marks Using the chapter’s concepts, explain what Ramu’s own situation shows about the ‘circulation of labour’ and the ‘feminisation of agricultural labour force’.
Answer: Ramu’s eight months away at a construction site is an example of the seasonal/extended circulation of labour the book describes: migrants from less prosperous, semi-arid regions move to cities or other regions for work while the family’s land is managed at home. Because Ramu is away for much of the year, cultivation on the family field falls mainly to his wife, which is close to what the book describes: in poor areas with male out-migration, cultivation has become primarily a female task, and women are emerging as the main source of agricultural labour (the ‘feminisation of agricultural labour force’). Women do much of the actual farm labour even though women usually remain excluded from land ownership and, until recently, were hardly visible in official statistics as earners and workers.