Two models of power in contemporary rural India

The Changing Rural-agrarian Dominance: A Conceptual Excursus

“…In this article, we have argued that the political economists have continued to treat the dominance of certain castes as simply coming from their ownership of land and other means of agricultural production, as well as their dominant influence on rural economic relations owing to their political access to the local–regional patron–client networks. However, contemporary evidence has pointed out the de-linking of ‘land’ and ‘authority’ and the coterminous breakdown of the old correlation between caste and class (Macdougall, 1980). It has led to the morphing of the caste–class reality into a complex web of ‘caste-in-class’ (Mukherjee, 2015) as well as ‘classes within caste’ (Mendelsohn, 1993).…”

“…With the decline of land as the primary source of power, other sources of authority like the ability to get members elected or appointed to influential political and government positions or belonging to the dominant caste groups have come to the fore (Macdougall, 1980). The fluidity of these alternative sources of power vis-à-vis the stability offered by land as the dominant source of power has transformed the rural politico-economic arena.…”

Role of Sericulturists in the Development of a Village

“…The Eighth Plan aimed at making high-yielding varieties available to the whole country and developing more productive strains of other crops. Some other scholars (Agarwal 2001;Cohen 1997;Cross 2009;Khare 1998;Macdougall 1980;Martin 2009;Shankari 1991;Tharu 2007) opine that the Green Revolution created wide regional and interstate disparities. The plan was implemented only in areas with assured supplies of water and the means to control it, large inputs of fertilisers and adequate farm credit.…”