Agrarian Relations and Caste Dynamics in Contemporary Rural India : A Case Study of Azamgarh District (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Review, 2017
The taste of the pudding is in eating, so is the case of any policy prerogative that is initiated in the name of well being of millions of tillers, who leave no stone unturned to produce the produce-food grains, of land, which only suffice for their subsistence and fill the belly of millions more who never care about how was that produced. In the 21st century much fanfare is made about the tertiary sector but when it comes to access the growth outcomes of policies, policy makers are in a want of an appropriate explanation, which is most like the same as it was previously but framed in a new way. That is why at one point of time in the recent past the then Finance Minister was compelled to say that everything is doing well but I do not know what to do with agriculture. The significance of the primary sector in the national output in the course of development, plight of the tiller with respect to number, area operated and size of holdings, the composition of agricultural workers, contribution of agriculture in the State Gross Domestic Product of few selected states vis-à-vis national level average, the sources of income generation of the people in rural India from different economic activities and the state of indebtedness in rural India is analytically examined. The economic state of the vulnerable section of our social strata–Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes, vis-à-vis the state of poverty and the average size of holdings is analyzed. An effort has been made to analytically examine five tehsils of Faizabad district of eastern Uttar Pradesh regarding their employment in different setupsgovernment, public and the private, their monthly income of highest earning household members and their income source with respect to the SC & the ST households in particularand the national and the State level at large is also depicted. The paper is based on secondary data taken from the budget speeches, economic survey of the government of India, research papers, journal etc. Keywords: Agriculture, Agriculturist, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2019
Anti-Special Economic Zone (SEZ) mobilisation in Haryana failed to generate a mass movement. This is despite the political strength of farmers and their deep resentment of the government's policy to build up land reserves for industrial purposes. This article argues that there are two main reasons for this outcome. First, the state government put in place a series of significant policies to compensate landowners and give them a stake in the industrial project, primarily through payment of an "annuity." Second, the main anti-SEZ movements were led by dominant landowning castes who did not incorporate the concerns of landless labourers and tenant farmers who faced equally or even more dire consequences from the government's land acquisition policy. Moreover, mobilisation relied on traditional caste institutions such as khap panchayats and farmer unions strongly associated with Jats, rather than adopting a more broad-based approach. Entrenched caste animosity and pre-existing conflicts of interest between landed Jats and Dalits, who have traditionally worked as agricultural labourers, further explain the limited scope of the mobilisation among rural groups. The analysis underscores how hierarchical relations shape social movements, define the claims they make and ultimately impact their effectiveness.
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