Agrarian legislation and rural social structure

Agrarian legislation
and
rural social structure
Presented by-Deepika
Ph.D Research scholar
Department of Sociology
Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University

Agrarian legislation and rural social structure
Indian agriculture has
made tremendous strides since Independence. A
country with recurring food shortages and
dependence on food imports is now not only
self-sufficient but a net exporter also. The
agriculture has slowly shifted from subsistence
to semi-commercial, and the traditional systems
have been replaced by improved production
systems, which are technology-driven.

This transformation in Indian
agriculture has been possible by technology
development, adoption, policies, and hard
work of farmers, supported by the legislative
measures with codified laws for observation in
agricultural and allied activities. Although
agricultural legislations in the country was the
legacy of British, real efforts were commenced
only after 1947 to alter the economic condition
of farmers and status of farming through
legislative measures.

The democratic
governments of states and centre had moved
in a large way to remove the most unhealthy
impediments to the progress of the agrarian
sector. Since Five-Year Plans became an
integral part of the development process,
agricultural legislations also became portion
of a purposeful national effort for changing
the socio-economic condition of the society.

In the early period, the legislations could
be categorized into main four groups such as:
Abolition of the intermediaries, Tenancy Reforms,
Ceiling of Land holdings and laws relating to
Gramdan and Bhoodan. The abolition of Zamindari
and similar measures helped actual cultivators to co-
ordinate directly with the state. Similarly, the
foremost cause of enhanced productivity was reforms
in tenancy laws in most states. The landreforms
measures in the country adopted the principle of
conferring ownership on the tenants, although the
laws varied from state to state.

Similarly, to achieve social justice and
redistribution of agricultural land, laws were passed in
almost all states to restrict the size of agricultural holdings.
As a result, more than 1 million ha of agricultural land
was declared surplus with the government for
distribution to those who needed it the most. For facilitating
the implementation of these laws, most of them have been
included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution of
India, to place these laws above challenge in the courts of
law, by necessary amendments. In addition to these, the
Bhoodan Movement, started in early fifties by Acharya
Vinoba Bhave to collect the donation of land for
distribution among the landless was subsequently supported
by legislative sanction and approval by states through series
of laws and rules.

Act and Laws for Indian Agriculture
 The agriculture produce Act-1937.
 Relief of agriculture indebtedness act-1989
 Protection for plant varieties and farmers right Act-2001.
 The national biodiversity Act-2001.
 Food, conservation and Energy Act-2008.

Social structure
Social structure is conceived as the pattern of
inter-related statuses and roles found in a society,
constituting a relatively stable set of social
relations. It is the organized pattern of the inter-
related rights and obligations of persons and
groups in a system of interaction.

Rural Social Structure in India
India is a country of ancient civilization that
goes back to the Indus Valley Civilization,
which flourished during the third millennium
B.C. Since then except for a brief interlude
during the Rig-Vedic period (Circa 1500-1000
B.C.) when the urban centres were overrun,
rural and urban centres have coexisted in India.
Rural and urban centres share some common
facets of life.

They show interdependence especially in
the sphere of economy, urban ward migration, and
townsmen or city dwellers’ dependence on villages for
various products (e.g., food grains, milk, vegetables,
raw materials for industry) and increasing dependence
of villagers on towns for manufactured goods and
market. Despite this interdependence between the two
there are certain distinctive features which separate
them from each other in terms of their size,
demographic composition, cultural moorings, style of
life, economy, employment and social relations.

The specific components of
rural social structure in India have been identified as
family, kinship, caste, class and village. Human
world is composed of individuals. Individuals
interact with one another for the fulfillment of their
needs. In this process, they occupy certain status and
roles in social life with accompanying rights and
obligations. Their social behaviour is patterned and
gets associated with certain norms and values, which
provide them guidance in social interaction.

Three main types of settlement patterns have been observed in
rural areas:
i) The most common type is the nucleated village found all over
the country.
Here, a tight cluster of houses is surrounded by the fields of the
villagers An outlying hamlet or several satellite hamlets are also
found to be attached to some villages in this case.
ii) There are linear settlements in some parts of the country, e.g. in
Kerala, in Konkan and in the delta lands of Bengal. In such
settlements, houses are strung out, each surrounded by its own
compound. However, there is little to physically demarcate
where one village ends and another begins.
iii) The third type of settlement is simply a scattering of
homesteads or clusters of two or three houses. In this case also
physical demarcation of villages is not clear. Such settlements
are found in hill areas, in the Himalayan foothills, in the
highlands of Gujarat and in the Satpura range of Maharashtra.

FAMILY AND KINSHIP
Family in Rural India
Family is one of the most important social
institution which constitutes the rural society. It caters to
needs and performs functions, which are essential for the
continuity, integration and change in the social system, such
as, reproduction, production and socialization.
Broadly speaking there are two types of family:
(a) nuclear family consisting of husband, wife and unmarried
children.
(b) joint or extended family comprising a few more kins than
the nuclear type.

Important dimensions of ‘jointness’ of family
are coresidentiality, commensality, coparcenary,
generation Rural Social Structure depth (three), and
fulfillment of obligation towards kin and sentimental aspect.
Coresidentiality means that members of a family live under
the same roof.
Commensality implies that they eat together i.e., have a
common kitchen.
Coparcenary means that they have joint ownership of
property.
Further, generation depth encompasses three generations or
more, i.e., grandfather, father and the son or more. Members
of the family also have obligations toward their kin.
Moreover, they have a sentimental attachment to the ideal of
joint family.

Changes in Family
Traditional joint family occupied a predominant position in
rural areas in India. It was largely prevalent among the landed
gentry and priestly caste. But nuclear family also existed in
India. Lower caste families whose main occupation was
agricultural labour were mostly nuclear. However, they
appreciated the ideal of joint family. Various studies have been
conducted to diagnose the change taking place in family in
India with increasing industrialization and urbanization,
changes in economy, technology, politics, education and
law in modern times. There are two approaches. The first
assumes that the family structure in India has undergone the
process of unilinear change from the joint to nuclear form as
in the West.

Lineage and Kinship
Within the village, a group of families tracing descent from a
common ancestor with knowledge of all the links constitute a
lineage; and the children of the same generation behave as
brothers and sisters. They form a unit for celebrating major
ritual events. Sometimes the word Kul is used to describe these
units. Usually these families live in closeness and a guest of one
(e.g. a son-in-law) could be treated as such in all these families.
These bonds of families may go back to 3 to 7 generations.
People do not marry within this group. Beyond the known links,
there are further connections ? people know the common
ancestor but are unable to trace every link. Such families use a
more generic term like being “bhai-bandh” of one another. They
are also exogamous. The word Gotra or clan may be used for
them.

Caste
People usually marry within the caste or sub-caste.
Members of a caste trace their origin from a common
ancestor historical, mythical or divine. The properties of
that ancestor are worthy of being remembered by people;
and these are well known to such an extent that a mere
mention of that name is enough to recognize the group to
which a person belongs.
Two characteristics of caste so far:
(i) it is an endogamous group.
(ii) it has a common ancestor.

Changes in the Caste System
The main traditional avenues of social mobility were
Sanskritisation, migration and religious conversion. Lower
castes or tribes could move upward in the caste hierarchy through
acquisition of wealth and political power. They could
consequently claim higher caste status along with Sanskritising
their way of life, i.e., emulating the life-style and customs of
higher castes. Some important changes have taken place in the
caste system in rural areas in the contemporary period due to the
new forces of industrialisation, urbanisation, politicisation,
modern education and legal system, land reforms, development
programmes and government policy of positive discrimination in
favour of the lower castes.

Further, we find that the size of village
population is small and density of population
low in comparison with towns and cities.
India is rightly called a country of villages.
According to 1981 Census, there were 4029
towns and 5,57,137 inhabited villages in
the country. By the year 1991 this number
increased to 4689 towns and 5,80,781
villages.

According
to 2001 census there are 5161 towns and 6,38,365
villages (including uninhabited villages) in 26 India
(Census of India (provisional), 2001). Moreover, as per
2001 census figures about 72 percent of the total
population live in villages. According to 2011 census
650,244 villages in India and 70% Indians live in
rural areas. Further, rural life is characterized by direct
relationship of people to nature i.e., land, animal and
plant life. Agriculture is their main occupation.

It is the organised pattern of the inter-related
rights and obligations of persons and groups in a system of
interaction as seen in terms of statuses, roles, institutions
governed by social norms and values.Rural Social
Structures deals with the major element of diversity of
social life in India. Rural way of living is the dominant
pattern of social life in developing countries like India in
contrast to the predominant urban style in the developed
countries.

Agrarian legislation and rural social structure

Agrarian legislation and rural social structure

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