Class 12 Sociology Notes Chapter 4 (Change and development in rural society) – Social Change and Development in India Book

Detailed Notes with MCQs of Chapter 4: 'Change and Development in Rural Society'. This is a crucial chapter as the vast majority of India's population still resides in rural areas, and agriculture remains a significant part of our economy and social fabric. Understanding the dynamics here is essential.

Chapter 4: Change and Development in Rural Society - Detailed Notes

I. Introduction: The Significance of Rural India

• India is predominantly a rural country, although urbanization is increasing.
• Agriculture is the single largest source of livelihood for the majority of the rural population.
• Rural social structure is complex, intertwined with caste, class, and land ownership patterns.
• Understanding changes in rural society requires looking at the agrarian structure, state policies, and market forces.

II. Agrarian Structure: Caste, Class, and Land Ownership

• Definition: Agrarian structure refers to the structure or distribution of landholding. It includes patterns of ownership, tenancy, and the relationship between agriculture and other sectors.
• Land as Productive Resource: Land is the most crucial productive resource in rural areas. Access to and control over land shapes social hierarchies.
• Traditional Interplay of Caste and Land:
  • Historically, dominant castes usually controlled the best and largest tracts of land.
  • Lower castes, particularly Dalits, were often denied land ownership rights and performed agricultural labour, sometimes under conditions of bondage or forced labour (begar).
  • Intermediate castes often comprised cultivators or tenants.
• Class Structure: Agrarian society can be broadly divided into classes:
  • Large Landowners: Own significant land, often don't cultivate it themselves but employ labourers or lease it out.
  • Medium Landowners/Cultivators: Own sufficient land for subsistence and sometimes a surplus; primarily use family labour, may hire labour during peak seasons.
  • Small and Marginal Farmers: Own very little land, often insufficient for subsistence; rely heavily on family labour and may also work as labourers. Marginal farmers own less than 1 hectare.
  • Tenant Cultivators: Cultivate land owned by others, paying rent either in cash or kind (sharecropping). Often insecure tenure.
  • Landless Agricultural Labourers: Own no land and sell their labour power for wages. This is often the most vulnerable group.
• Overlap of Caste and Class: While not perfectly aligned, there's a significant historical overlap. Dominant castes tend to be landowners, while lower castes are often tenants or landless labourers. However, economic changes (like the Green Revolution) have led to differentiation within castes as well.

III. Colonialism and Agrarian Change

• British colonial policies drastically altered the Indian agrarian structure.
• Commodification of Land: Land became a commodity that could be bought, sold, and mortgaged, which was not always the case previously.
• Land Settlements: Introduced primarily for revenue collection:
  • Zamindari System: Zamindars were recognized as landowners responsible for collecting revenue for the British. Led to exploitation of cultivators. Prevalent in Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, parts of UP.
  • Ryotwari System: Individual cultivators (ryots) were recognized as owners and paid revenue directly to the state. Led to high taxation and indebtedness. Prevalent in parts of South and West India.
  • Mahalwari System: Revenue settlement was made for the entire village community (Mahal). Village headmen collected revenue. Prevalent in parts of Punjab, UP, Central India.
• Impact: Increased rural indebtedness, land alienation (transfer of land from cultivators to moneylenders/landlords), stagnation of agriculture, and famines. Forced commercialization of agriculture (growing cash crops for export).

IV. Post-Independence Agrarian Transformation

• Land Reforms: A major focus after independence to ensure "land to the tiller" and reduce inequality. Key components:
  • Abolition of Intermediaries (Zamindari Abolition): Largely successful legally, but former zamindars often retained large tracts as 'personal cultivation' land (sir, khudkasht), evicting tenants.
  • Tenancy Reforms: Aimed to regulate rent, provide security of tenure to tenants, and enable them to acquire ownership rights. Limited success due to legal loopholes, poor implementation, and resistance from landowners who often evicted tenants preemptively.
  • Land Ceilings: Fixed a maximum limit on land ownership per family. Surplus land was to be redistributed among the landless. Largely failed due to benami transfers (transferring land to relatives/fictitious names), legal challenges, exemptions, and lack of political will.
• The Green Revolution (mid-1960s onwards):
  • Context: Food shortages and dependence on imports.
  • Strategy: Introduction of High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, expansion of irrigation, and agricultural credit. Focused initially on wheat and rice.
  • Positive Impacts: Significant increase in food grain production (especially wheat), making India self-sufficient. Increased income for some farmers.
  • Negative Social Consequences:
    • Increased Inequality: Primarily benefited medium and large farmers in irrigated regions (Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, coastal Andhra, parts of Tamil Nadu) who could afford the inputs. Small/marginal farmers and dryland areas were left behind.
    • Displacement of Tenants: Landowners resumed land for 'personal cultivation' as farming became more profitable.
    • Shift from Payment in Kind to Cash Wages: Traditional ties weakened; labour relations became more impersonal and market-based.
    • Increased Demand for Labour (initially), then Mechanisation: Led to demand for wage labour, but later mechanization displaced labour in some areas.
    • Regional Disparities: Widened the gap between irrigated and rain-fed agricultural regions.
  • Environmental Consequences: Soil degradation, water depletion, pollution from chemical inputs.

V. Transformation in Rural Society after the Green Revolution

• Rise of 'Capitalist Farmers': Emergence of market-oriented farmers focused on profit maximization, often employing wage labour and using modern technology.
• Labour Relations:
  • Decline of traditional bonded labour (jajmani links weakened).
  • Increase in casual wage labour.
  • Circulation of Labour: Labourers migrating seasonally or temporarily from poorer regions (e.g., Bihar, Eastern UP, Odisha) to prosperous agricultural areas (e.g., Punjab, Haryana) during peak seasons. Termed 'footloose labour' by Jan Breman.
• Globalization and Liberalization (Post-1991):
  • Impact: Exposed Indian agriculture to global markets. Reduced subsidies, opened up to imports, encouraged contract farming and corporate agriculture.
  • Consequences: Increased vulnerability to global price fluctuations, rising input costs (especially seeds from MNCs), decline in state support, agrarian distress in many regions.
• Contract Farming: Agreement between farmers and processing/marketing firms for production and supply of agricultural products under pre-determined prices and conditions. Can provide assured markets but also lead to farmer dependency and exploitation.
• Agrarian Crisis and Farmer Suicides: A complex issue linked to:
  • Declining profitability of agriculture.
  • High levels of indebtedness (often from non-institutional sources).
  • Crop failures (due to climate change, pest attacks).
  • Falling prices / lack of market access.
  • Withdrawal of state support.
  • Shift to cash crops (more risk).
• Feminization of Agricultural Labour: Increasing proportion of women in the agricultural workforce, often due to:
  • Male out-migration for non-farm work.
  • Poverty forcing women into low-wage agricultural labour.
  • Women often undertake arduous tasks but face wage discrimination and lack land rights.

VI. Conclusion

Rural Indian society is dynamic and constantly changing. While agriculture remains central, its structure, practices, and social relations have undergone profound transformations due to colonial policies, post-independence reforms like the Green Revolution, and ongoing processes of globalization. These changes have brought both development and new challenges, including increased inequalities, agrarian distress, and environmental concerns.

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

1. The term 'Agrarian Structure' primarily refers to:
   (a) The types of crops grown in a region.
   (b) The distribution of land ownership and tenancy relations.
   (c) The level of technological development in agriculture.
   (d) The caste composition of agricultural labourers.

2. Which British land revenue system recognized individual cultivators as landowners responsible for direct payment of revenue to the state?
   (a) Zamindari System
   (b) Mahalwari System
   (c) Ryotwari System
   (d) Jajmani System

3. The primary objective of Land Ceiling Acts implemented after India's independence was to:
   (a) Encourage large-scale corporate farming.
   (b) Promote the export of agricultural goods.
   (c) Abolish the Zamindari system completely.
   (d) Redistribute surplus land from large landowners to the landless.

4. The Green Revolution strategy primarily focused on:
   (a) Organic farming and traditional seeds.
   (b) Land redistribution and tenancy reforms.
   (c) HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers, and irrigation.
   (d) Promoting subsistence farming across India.

5. A major social consequence of the Green Revolution was:
   (a) A significant reduction in rural poverty across all regions.
   (b) Strengthening of traditional landlord-tenant relationships.
   (c) Increased economic inequality between regions and classes of farmers.
   (d) Uniform benefits for all categories of cultivators.

6. The term 'footloose labour', described by Jan Breman, refers to:
   (a) Labourers permanently attached to specific landowners.
   (b) Labourers who own small plots of land and work on them exclusively.
   (c) Migrant labourers who circulate between different places and employers.
   (d) Skilled non-agricultural workers migrating to cities.

7. 'Feminization of Agriculture' in the Indian context largely signifies:
   (a) Women gaining equal land ownership rights as men.
   (b) An increase in the proportion of women in the agricultural workforce, often in low-paid labour.
   (c) The adoption of farming techniques traditionally practiced by women.
   (d) Women taking over managerial roles in large farm enterprises.

8. Which factor is LEAST directly associated with the post-1991 agrarian crisis in India?
   (a) Increased farmer indebtedness.
   (b) Exposure to global market price fluctuations.
   (c) Significant increase in government subsidies for seeds and fertilizers.
   (d) Rising costs of agricultural inputs.

9. Contract farming involves an agreement between:
   (a) Two neighbouring farmers for mutual help.
   (b) Farmers and the government for loan waivers.
   (c) Farmers and processing/marketing firms for production and supply.
   (d) Landless labourers and landowners for wage rates.

10. Historically, in the traditional Indian agrarian structure, dominant castes often:
    (a) Were landless agricultural labourers.
    (b) Controlled large amounts of land.
    (c) Were primarily tenant cultivators.
    (d) Migrated seasonally for work.

Answer Key:

1. (b)
2. (c)
3. (d)
4. (c)
5. (c)
6. (c)
7. (b)
8. (c) (Subsidies have generally been reduced or rationalized, not significantly increased, post-liberalization).
9. (c)
10. (b)

Make sure you revise these points thoroughly. Pay attention to the specific impacts of different policies and the changing relationships between caste, class, and land over time. Good luck with your preparation!