Agrarian Class Structure in India

Fundamentally speaking, human settlements can be classified as cities, towns and villages. The agrarian class structure is characteristic of the village or rural society. It is a classification based on the dominant economic activity of the people – agriculture. The agrarian class structure in India is the result of economic and social forces acting together. Hence, the dynamics of the agrarian class structure in India result in distinct classes. 

Agrarian class structure in India

When the rural Indian society was examined post-independence three main agricultural classes came to be observed along with a fourth class that was composed of people who practised non-agriculture related activities. The three agriculturist classes are the landowners, the tenants, and the labourers. The approximate population shares of each class as given by A. R. Desai are as follows:

•     Non-agriculturists are about 20%.
•     Landowners are around 22%.
•     Tenants are about 27%.
•     And the agricultural labourers are approximately 31%

In this agrarian class structure, about 60% of the cultivators are marginal cultivators who cultivate less than 2 hectares of land, the small cultivators who work 2 – 5 hectares of land are around 16%, the medium cultivators with 5 – 10 hectares of land are 6%, and big cultivators with more than 10 hectares of land are about 18%.

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The dynamics of agrarian class structure in India

The agrarian class structure has certain relations that are formed due to the following causes:

1. Enforced by law.
2. Customary of traditional.
3. Fluctuating in character.

Daniel Thorner did not agree with the thesis of three agriculturist classes in the agrarian class structure of India. He believed that in the Indian rural society one man could sometimes belong to all three classes at once. He could cultivate some land that he owned, rent some more land from a bigger landowner, and in case of emergencies even act as an agricultural labourer in the fields of other cultivators.
So Throner came forth with three terms to analyse the dynamics of agrarian class structure. They were:

• Malik: This class of people are characterised by earning income through property rights. They may let out the land they own to other people who pay the Malik a percentage of the produce of the land. Or the Malik may choose to cultivate the land by employing agricultural labour. Maliks are usually the owners of large swathes of land
• Kisan: The Kisan is the peasant class, both landed or without land. The landed class of Kisan does not own large pieces of land like the Malik class of people. And where the Malik class does not perform agricultural labour the Kisan class of people usually take part in the actual physical labour involved in the process of cultivation
• Mazdoor: This is the poorest class of people in the village. They earn their incomes by working the fields of other people. Their income is the wages paid to them by the people whose fields they work. Since the earnings by such means are low such people usually migrate to other cities in search of more lucrative careers

D.N. Dhangre came up with a different sort of agrarian class structure. He proposed dividing the structure into five classes, namely:

1. Landlords.
2. Sub-tenants and share croppers.
3. Rich peasants.
4. Middle peasants.
5. Poor peasants.

The agrarian class structure in India has certain relationships among the different classes. This has been the result of years of social customs and sometimes due to the enforcement of the law. For example, the landowners and rich peasants control an inordinately large amount of economic resources in the villages. So they are able to have a lot of power over small and poor peasants and the landless labourers. This has caused the two classes to have bitter relations. The rich landed classes of the village have a lot of political, social, and economic mileage. On the other hand, the poor of the village barely exercise any control over their economic or social conditions.

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Conclusion

The agrarian class structure of India is a rigid organisation that is in need of reforms if the rural society has to make progress. The economic backwardness of the poor in the village is insurmountable without state intervention. And the schemes that have been implemented to date have not been able to make much of a dent in this direction. That is why the rural life of the Indian agricultural class needs to be closely studied, and proper measures need to be taken if India has to lift the majority of its population from economic backwaters.