Madhura Swaminathan

This book is a compilation of papers examining women’s role in rural production systems in India. The book is divided into six sections; the first section explores conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues with respect to understanding women’s work. The second, third, and fourth sections present evidence from primary and secondary data on women’s work in agriculture and nonagricultural activities, and include a discussion of the nature of work among Dalit and Adivasi women. The fifth and sixth sections provide a brief historical perspective of rural women’s employment in the colonial period and analyze women's access to banking.

The book is a report on the village economy of the state of Tripura in India, based on a survey of three villages in the state conducted by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies in May–June 2016. The villages—Mainama in Manu block, Chailengta tehsil, Dhalai district; Khakchang in Dasda block, Anand Bazaar tehsil, North district; and Muhuripur in Muhuripur tehsil, Julaibari block, South district—were surveyed under the ongoing Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI). The survey was conducted using a stratified simple random sampling method. A team from the Foundation for Agrarian Studies revisited the three villages in April 2017 to conduct case studies. These villages were also surveyed in 2005 for the Tripura Human Development Report 2007.

This book is a collection of essays written in tribute to N. Ram, journalist, writer, and person of the Left. Its title reflects Ram’s concern that journalism, and indeed intellectual endeavor, be both informative and credible and committed to the social good. The contributors to the book are: Venkatesh Athreya, Wayne Barrett, C. P. Chandrasekhar, John Cherian, Noam Chomsky, P. Jacob, T. Jayaraman, Kumari Jayawardena, Prakash Karat, C. T. Kurien, Parvathi Menon, Prabhakara S. Motnahalli, Suresh Nambath, Prabhat Patnaik, V. K. Ramachandran, Alan Rusbridger, Nirmal Shekar, M. S. Swaminathan, and Romila Thapar.

This book is the outcome of a two-year research project undertaken by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies and supported by the Rosa Luxemberg Stiftung (New Delhi). The objective of the project was to examine the socioeconomic characteristics and viability of small producers in different agro-ecological regions of India, locating them in the broader context of the capitalist development of Indian agriculture. This book seeks to address some key questions concerning small farms and small farmers in the context of contemporary India, drawing on empirical material of exceptional quality collected through carefully designed and conducted household and farm economy surveys in seventeen villages located in nine major states of India. Chapters based on household data examine issues such as the productivity of small farms, the economic viability of small farming, the multiple sources of household income of small farmers, the patterns of input use, and the extent of labor performed by small farmers on their own holdings. While not romanticizing the role of small farmers, the book brings out the need for strong state support to enable small farmers to meet the challenges they face.

In 2005, the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) initiated the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI), with the aim of studying village-level production, production systems and livelihoods, and the socio-economic characteristics of different strata of the rural population by means of detailed village surveys. The present volume is the third in a series of field reports on surveys conducted by FAS in three villages in Karnataka: Alabujanahalli in Mandya district, Siresandra in Kolar district, and Zhapur in Gulbarga district. A census survey was conducted in the three selected villages. A unique feature of these surveys is the estimation of household incomes based on detailed information on income from crop production, animal resources, agricultural and non-agricultural wage labor, salaries, business and trade, rent, interest earnings, pensions, remittances, scholarships and other sources. The two previous volumes in the series, Socio-Economic Surveys of Three of Three Villages in Andhra Pradesh: A Study of Agrarian Relations and Socio-Economic Surveys of Two Villages in Rajasthan: A Study of Agrarian Relations, have already appeared from Tulika Books.

This is the second in a series of field reports on village surveys conducted by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies. This report deals with agrarian relations in two villages of Rajasthan: Rewasiin Sikar district and 25 F Gulabewala in Sri Ganganagar district. It presents an analysis of statistical data collected through census-type surveys conducted in both villages. The focus of the study is on differences across socio-economic classes and social groups in respect of a rang eof variables, including land, assets, incomes, crop production, employment, indebtedness, schooling, and housing. The report attempts to contribute to the discussion on agrarian relations and economic distress in contemporary rural Rajasthan and India.

Caste is an institution of oppression and social discrimination specific to South Asia, more so to India. Central to the caste system were the status assigned to the Dalit people and the criminal practice of untouchability. Caste is embedded in production relations. It is an impediment to the growth of the productive forces, and a bulwark against the revolutionary overthrow of the ruling classes. Although there have been, in recent years, new scholarship and new attempts to understand the socio-economic conditions of life of Dalit people and households in India, it is still true, as a leading scholar in the field has written, that 'very few empirical studies have tried to study the phenomenon of economic discrimination'. This book is an attempt to contribute to the study and understanding of economic deprivation and exclusion among Dalits in rural India. The first section deals with poverty and group discrimination. The second section has case studies - from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal - on historical aspects of land, caste and social exclusion. The third section deals with contemporary fieldwork-based economic analyses from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The last section has studies of Dalit households in village economies; the empirical base for these studies comes from the village-level data archive of the Project on Agrarian Relations (PARI) being conducted by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies. The articles in the book are evidence, in some cases, of direct discrimination, and in others of what has been described as differential impact discrimination. Most of all, they reflect cumulative discrimination and disadvantage.

This volume is a field report on surveys of agrarian relations in three villages in Andhra Pradesh conducted by scholars of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies. The study villages are Ananthavaram village in Kollur mandal, Guntur district; Bukkacherla village in Raptadu mandal, Anantapur district; and Kothapalle village in Thimmapur L. M. D. Mandal, Karimnagar district. This volume presents an analysis of statistical data collected through the village surveys with a special focus on differences across socio-economic classes and social groups. There are separate chapters on land and asset inequality, tenancy, household incomes, crop incomes, employment and wages, indebtedness, literacy and school education, and household amenities. The report attempts to contribute information, statistical data and analysis to the discussion on agrarian relations and economic distress in contemporary rural Andhra Pradesh and India.