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Book No. – 19 (Sociology)
Book Name – Social Background of Indian Nationalism (A.R. Desai)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Emergence of National Agriculture
2. Growth of Subdivision and Fragmentation of Land
3. Effects of Fragmentation
4. New Land Revenue System
5. Commercialization of Agriculture
6. Growth of Poverty
7. Growth of Rural Indebtedness
8. Transfer of Land from Cultivating to Non-Cultivating Owners
9. Rise of Serfdom
10. Growing Polarization of Classes in Agrarian Areas
11. Rise of Agrarian Proletariat
12. Rise of Parasitic Land-owning Class
13. Colonial Character of Indian Agriculture
14. Reconstruction of Agriculture, its Prerequisites
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LANGUAGE
Social Consequences of the Transformation of Indian Agriculture
Chapter – 4
Table of Contents
Emergence of National Agriculture
- With the establishment of new land relations based on private property, Indian agriculture entered a new phase of development.
- The introduction of private ownership and the individual landowner’s right to dispose of land transformed the agrarian economy.
- Agriculture was no longer confined to isolated village economies but became part of a national economy.
- The problems of agriculture became national, and issues like the formation of compact economic holdings, technical reorganization, and the introduction of modern farming methods became national concerns.
- Under British rule, Indian agriculture rose to the level of a national agriculture but did not achieve prosperity.
- The material conditions of the agrarian population did not improve, and agriculture did not reach a high level of organization or productivity.
- The history of Indian agriculture, despite becoming national in character, was marked by disorganization and the progressive impoverishment of the agricultural population.
- The agricultural population experienced increasing indebtedness, expropriation of land, and the transformation of peasants into paupers or the agricultural proletariat.
Growth of Subdivision and Fragmentation of Land
- One of the most alarming features of Indian agriculture was the extreme subdivision and fragmentation of land, making holdings progressively uneconomic.
- The introduction of capitalist relations in agriculture in Europe led to the creation of compact farms, but in India, no such reorganization occurred.
- Land remained intermixed, and the disadvantages of land fragmentation continued.
- The introduction of private property in land led to centrifugal tendencies within the joint family, causing the division of family land and increasing subdivision.
- The practice of renting or sub-renting land by landholders and tenants further divided holdings into smaller pieces.
- Overpressure on agriculture due to the economic ruin of handicraftsmen and artisans contributed significantly to land fragmentation.
- The percentage of population dependent on agriculture increased:
- 1891: 61.1%
- 1901: 65.5%
- 1911: 72.2%
- 1921: 73.0%
- 1931: 75.0%
- In contrast, the percentage of population dependent on industry decreased:
- 1911: 5.5%
- 1921: 4.9%
- 1931: 4.3%
- 1941: 4.2%
- This shift is linked to de-industrialization, the destruction of old handicraft industries without the proportional growth of modern industries, causing overcrowding on land.
- Overcrowding accelerated the process of subdivision and fragmentation of land.
- In a typical Deccan village, average landholding size shrank from 40 acres in 1771 to 7 acres in 1915.
- The average landholding sizes varied across regions in India, with Punjab having the largest average of 12.2 acres.
- Small holdings were predominant, and many cultivators had uneconomic holdings:
- Over 10 acres: 24%
- 5 to 10 acres: 20%
- 1 to 5 acres: 33%
- 1 acre or less: 23%
- In Punjab, 22.5% of cultivators had 1 acre or less, 15% had between 1 and 2.5 acres, and 17.9% had between 2.5 and 5 acres.
- The subdivision and fragmentation process was widespread across India, with holdings as small as 1/100th to 1/400th of an acre in some areas.
- Extreme fragmentation made it difficult for cultivators to carry out efficient agricultural operations.
- As the size of holdings decreased, the use of more basic tools like spades and hoes increased.
- Population growth exacerbated overcrowding on land, though the over-dependence on agriculture was not due to land scarcity but to imperialist policies.
- Only 34.2% of the total area in India was cultivated, leaving 30.6% potentially cultivable.
- In regions like Sind and Punjab, large fertile tracts of land could be irrigated but were left undeveloped due to government indifference.
- The Indian peasantry, burdened with indebtedness, could not afford the necessary investment to open up new agricultural tracts.