It was Professor Partha Nath Mukherji who first mooted the idea of a socio-economic survey in an area where large scale peasant mobilisations and revolt occurred, known as "The Naxalbari Movement", roughly two decades ago. The basic purpose of this project was to study the structure and change in the agrarian social systems keeping in view the dimensions of agrarian mobilisations and conflicts. The theoretical considerations in mind were that the structure of exploitation, discrimination and oppression within which rural poor is situated generate their own contradictions which can lead to a variety of agrarian and other conflicts. Such conflicts are of crucial significance in comprehending the agrarian relations vis-a-vis the crystallization of agrarian classes.
In Naxalbari and the surrounding places, which are agriculturally tuckward, feudal landlordism was the dominant mode of production before the mid-sixties. With the penetration of political forces such as the Naxalite movement and the movement by the left and other progressive forces during the recent years, the system has become vulnerable. Land reform efforts at redistribution of surplus land is also acquiring importance. With such background the need for a reasonably broad-based study on agrarian relations, cannot be overstated.
The project was jointly directed by Professor Mukherji and the present author. The project was sponsored by the Indian Statistical Institute and conducted during 1981 to 1983. The present volume only covers the changing conditions of agrarian relations of the region. The present study is, in fact, a part of the larger study which is under way at the moment.
The basic model with which we are attempting in this volume to analyse and interpret the structure of agrarian relations assumes that in a context in which the market principles operate land, labour and credit markets will function as per the dynamics of supply and demand.
However, the complexities of a backward agrarian economy characterised by the existence of several non-market forces tend to alter the above principles of market operations. It has been argued that the role of private credit in linking labour and tenancy to land and capital leads to a situation of interlocking of the three markets. The large-scale surveys quite often do not capture the intricacies of these inter-relations. We, therefore, propose to present in this volume some results based on field survey data on land, labour and credit relations to comprehend the agrarian structure of the region under study. In fact, we feel that agrarian conflict is the product of the agrarian structure and since the agrarian structure is conceived partly or fully within an interlinkage framework, the survey specifically of the movement belt can be advantageously used to judge the empirical soundness of this kind of study. First and foremost my thanks are due to Professor Partha Nath Mukherji for his continuous help and inspiration, stimulation and encouragement in preparing this volume.
Our survey was preceded by a fairly large-scale survey on more or less similar issues carried out by Professor Pranab Bardhanand Professor Ashok Rudra. We have benefited greatly from discussions with Professor Ashok Rudra at the phase of designing and framing of schedules.
I take this opportunity to thank those who have meant most for the project. Sri Jayanta Kumar Chatterjee, Sri Madhablal Sadhukhan, Sri Karuna Roy Sarkar, Sri Nilmani Roy rendered extremely valuable assistance as field investigators. There are innumerable others particularly in the villages concerned who always cooperated with us in our field enquiries. Sir Sumit Kumar Ghosh has provided excellent support as Research Scholar throughout the period of field work and also helped us in field supervision. Sri Arun Kumar Chatterjee and Sri Siddhartya Ghosh my colleagues, shouldered the responsibility of field supervision and tabulation of data. Ms. Bhaswati Majumdar and Ms. Ruma Bhattacharya have given untiring efforts in tabulation and analysis of data. I am indeed grateful to all of them.
In the course of this work, I have benefited greatly from discussions with my colleagues of the Economic Research Unit and Sociological Research Unit of Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. express my heart - felt gratitude to all of them.
I shall be failing in my duty if I do not acknowledge the untiring effort and meticulousness with which Mrs. Gita Ghosh ultimately 'produced the manuscript out of the typewriter.
Finally, I must extend my sincere thanks to the authorities of the Indian Statistical Institute for having facilitated our work in every manner possible.
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