Discuss the nature of agrarian social structure in post- independent India.
Answers
Post- Independence, we can say that rural India has structured itself into four classes and that is what becomes a part of the system. If we look at the agricultural field then it has three classes within itself- landowners, tenants and the laborers; while the fourth class being of the non- agriculturalists. The data of the distribution of these classes is as follows: landowners- 22%, tenants- 27%, agricultural laborers- 31% and non-agriculturalists only 20%. Because of the most population depending and sustaining their lives on agriculture, India is known as an agrarian country. 60% people here are marginal cultivators and own less than 2% hectares land, small cultivators- 16% with 2 to 5 hectares land, medium cultivators- 6% with 5 to 10 hectares land and big cultivators who comprise 18% of the population but own more than 10 hectares of land. In villages, every family gets land which is less than one-acre I.e, 0.4 hectares. 75% land area is occupied by food crops. About 35% of total production is sold by cultivators.
The marketing process is all in the hands of the intermediaries who are a link between the producers, cultivators, and sellers and regulate the trade. The village people live a miserable economic life which includes the agrarian proletarians, uneconomic holders of land in large numbers, few artisans and self- employed people. The agrarian structure establishes certain relations which can be classified as: