Key Points

Indian society is predominantly rural, with a majority of the population depending on agriculture. This agrarian base heavily influences Indian culture, social structure, and festivals like Pongal, Bihu, and Baisakhi which celebrate harvests.

The term agrarian structure refers to the structure or distribution of landholding in rural areas. Since land is the most important resource, its unequal distribution shapes the rural class structure and access to power.

In rural India, there is a complex and close relationship between caste and class. Higher castes generally have better access to land and resources, while lower castes, such as Dalits, were often landless agricultural laborers.

Sociologist M.N. Srinivas termed powerful, landowning groups as 'dominant castes'. These groups are economically and politically powerful in their regions, such as Jats in U.P. or Kammas and Reddis in Andhra Pradesh.

The British established two main land revenue systems: the Zamindari system, where landlords collected revenue, and the Raiyatwari system, where cultivators paid taxes directly to the state. The Zamindari system was generally more exploitative.

After independence, India introduced a series of land reforms from the 1950s to the 1970s. The most effective reform was the abolition of the Zamindari system, which removed intermediaries and strengthened the position of cultivators.

Tenancy Acts aimed to regulate rents and provide security to tenants. Land Ceiling Acts imposed a limit on how much land a family could own, but both were largely ineffective due to loopholes and poor implementation in most states.

The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was a government program to modernize agriculture using High-Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation. It significantly increased food grain production, making India self-sufficient.

The Green Revolution primarily benefited medium and large farmers who could afford the new technology, thus increasing inequality in rural society. It also led to the displacement of tenants as landowners found direct cultivation more profitable.

The program was introduced only in areas with assured irrigation, like Punjab, Haryana, and Western U.P. This led to a worsening of regional inequalities, as these areas developed while others stagnated.

Commercialization of agriculture led to a shift from traditional hereditary labor bonds (patronage) to a system of 'free' wage labor. Sociologist Jan Breman described this as a shift from 'patronage to exploitation'.

A pattern of seasonal migration emerged where workers, termed 'footloose labour' by Jan Breman, circulate between their home villages and prosperous agricultural regions for work. These migrant workers are often exploited and paid low wages.

As men migrate to cities for work, women are increasingly becoming the main source of agricultural labor. This trend is known as the 'feminisation of agricultural labour force', though women continue to face wage discrimination and lack land rights.

Since the late 1980s, liberalisation policies have exposed Indian farmers to global competition. This includes the entry of multinational corporations in selling agricultural inputs and the import of food items.

Contract farming is a system where farmers produce crops under contract for multinational companies for a pre-determined price. While it assures a market, it increases farmers' dependence on corporations and can divert land from food production.

Since the late 1990s, many parts of India have seen a rise in farmer suicides. This 'agrarian distress' is linked to factors like high input costs, unstable markets, debt, and the withdrawal of state support for agriculture.