Is industrial development in India a bane or a born to agrarian class structure? Substantiate your answer with suitable examples. (UPSC CSE Mains 2019 - Sociology, Paper 2).
Simply stated the agrarian societies are those settlements and groupings of people who earn their livelihood primarily by cultivating land and by carrying out related activities like animal husbandry. Agricultural production or cultivation is obviously an economic activity. However, like all other economic activities, agricultural production is carried out in a framework of social relationships. Those involved in cultivation of land also interact with each other in different social capacities. Some may self-cultivate the lands they own while others may employ wage labourers or give their land to tenants and sharecroppers. Not only do they interact with each other but they also have to regularly interact with various other categories of people who provide them different types of services required for cultivation of land.
As pointed out by D.V. Dhanagare, “the relations among classes and social composition of groups that occupy specific class position in relation to land-control and land-use in India are so diverse and complex that it is difficult to incorporated them all in a general schema”.
The spread of industrialisation in the Western countries during the 19th century and in rest of the world during 20th century has brought about significant changes in the agrarian class structure as well
- Agriculture lost its earlier significance and became only a marginal sector of the economy, though a large proportion of population is still employed in agricultural sector, its contribution to the total national income has come down substantially.
- The earlier modes of social organisations, such as, “feudalism” and “peasant societies” have disintegrated giving way more differentiated social structures.
- The mechanization of agriculture and its integration in the broader market economy has also in turn transformed the social relations of production in the agrarian sector.
- Industrialization lead to a process of differentiation among the peasantry.The peasantry gets divided into different strata or classes.
- Attitude of cultivators towards their occupation also changed. They begin to look at agriculture as an enterprise. They work on their farms with modem machines and produce cash crops that are sold in the market. Their primary concern becomes earning profits from cultivation.
- The old structure of jajmani relations has more or less completely Disintegrated giving way to more formalised arrangements among the cultivators and those who work for them.
- Organising farms like modem industry, employing a manager and wage labourers and producing for the market.
- According to M.N Srinivas, rise of local dominant castes and command a considerable degree of influence over the local power structure.
- Rise of large no of landless labours mostly belonging to Dalit and untouchables caste groups.
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