Land, Labour and Caste:: Agrarian Change and Grassroots Politics in Andhra Pradesh

This book presents an intensive empirical study of a district within Andhra Pradesh, India. The district had a regional diversity within that is reflective of larger diversity of processes of change in rural India. Capitalist development and grassroots politics were studied in three Mandals of the district. The three Mandals respectively were from irrigated, semi-irrigated and totally unirrigated parts of the district. The phenomena of freedom of wage labour, tenancy and intra-rural circulation of labour are presented herein in some detail. The findings presented in the book are that over the period of three decades, i.e., 1960-1990, backward caste, middle peasants emerged in semi-irrigated region; in irrigated region semi-feudal landlords transformed themselves into capitalist landlords; while in the totally unirrigated region ecologically induced proletarianization and out migration of peasantry continues. The book holds that the grassroots politics and local government institutions are subject to the above said politico-economic and politico-sociological processes of change in rural Andhra Pradesh and India.