UPSC Sociology Syllabus
Paper 2 – Introducing Indian Society – Part B – Social Structure
Social Classes in India:
(a) Agrarian class structure.
(b) Industrial class structure.
(c) Middle classes in India.
- Agrarian social structure will include caste, class, land ownership, Jajmani system etc while agrarian class structure will include only classes.
- Land is the central element to the agrarian social structure in India and caste, class and land ownership are closely linked.
- Dominant landowning groups are usually middle or high ranked castes, most of the marginal farmers and landless belong to lower caste groups.
AGRARIAN CLASS IN BRITISH INDIA
- Traditional Indian ‘rural communities’ and the agrarian social structures were organized within the framework of ‘Jajmani system’ and caste. The kamins provided different kinds of services to the jajmans. While the kamins were obliged to work for the jajmans, the latter were required to pay a share from the farm produce to their kamins in cash or kind. The relationship was based on a system of reciprocal exchange.
- British conquest introduced the concept of private property, a well entrenched money economy and transformation of society from ‘peasant’ society to ‘agrarian class’ society started.
Panchayats lost their jural and economic power. New methods of fixing land revenues created hierarchies in rural society and revenue was paid in cash. It promoted commercialization of agriculture. Earlier, village agriculture and industry co-existed and served as basic pillars for self- sufficiency of village, now revenue system, market forces defined village dynamics.. - To understand the dynamic nature of agrarian class structure in India during colonial rule, several considerations needed to be kept in mind like – nature and form of control over land;
kind of technology used in cultivation; regional variations in land holding patterns etc. Since land tenure system was not uniform across India, classes also developed differently across India.
AGRARIAN CLASSES IN POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIA
- First, agriculture lost its earlier significance and became only a marginal sector of the economy.
- The second important change that has been experienced in the agrarian sector is in its internal social organization. earlier modes of social organizations, such as, ‘feudalism’ and ‘peasant societies’ have disintegrated giving way more differentiated social structures.
- The land tenure systems, which existed in colonial India, do not exist today anymore. They were abolished in 1950s by the provincial governments. Both social and economic change and a new form of consciousness are the net gains of the land reforms. The land reforms consisted of (1) the abolition of intermediaries, (2) fixing of ceiling on landholdings, and (3) reorganisation of agriculture through the consolidation of landholdings and modernisation of agricultural practices and production.
THINKERS’ VIEWS
- Daniel Thorner gives a three fold classification in his ‘The Agrarian Prospects of India, 1956’ as – Malik, Kisan and Mazdoor on the basis of right over land. He also maintains that these three classes also reflect social structure too as most of Maliks belong to upper castes and Mazdoors from lower castes and Kisan belong to Artisan class.
- Contemporary scholars like K L Sharma offer a diffusive view about agrarian class structure.
- Feminist sociologists like Bina Majumdar view agrarian class structure from feminist perspective and she argues that with economic growth, gender based exploitation gets institutionalized and agrarian social structure should also be studied with a gender perspective. According to her in agrarian structure women assumes role of home maker and men as bread winner curtailing economic freedom of women.
- The agrarian social structure is marked by wide diversities. As pointed out by Dhanagare in his ‘Peasant Movements in India, 1983’, ‘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 incorporate them all in a general schema’.
- According to Joan Mencher, in different regions, agrarian classes are termed differently by different scholars. For example, in Bengal they are named as – Zamindars, Jotedars, Bargadars, Khet Mazdoors. In Bihar, they are known as – Ahraf, Bakal, Pawania and Jotiya. In Tamil Nadu they are known as Mirsadas, Payakari and Padiyals. So, agrarian class structure also shows regional variations.
- Beteille and Mencher conclude that given the complexity, agrarian classes needed to be studied as particular types based on spatial, interest criteria.
- Vibha Saxena in her article ‘Globalization and Depeasantisation’ puts agrarian class structure in light of globalization. Transnational corporations are promoting use of land for cash
crops in partnership of large farmers and also acquiring agricultural land. As a result subsistence farmers are further marginalized or depeasantised.
