A century of change: Caste and irrigated lands in Tamilnadu, 1860s-1970s

The book explores agrarian change in Tamil Nadu's irrigated areas since the 1860s, using Settlement Registers for 26 villages. It challenges recent arguments that deny structural changes in rural society under British rule, identifying two trends: deterioration of landownership and stratification of the non-Brahman population.

Format: Hardback
Length: 323 pages
Publication date: 15 April 2024
Publisher: Manohar Publishers and Distributors

Tamil Nadu has experienced significant agrarian change since the 1860s, and this volume explores this change over a century. The author presents a systematic analysis of Settlement Registers for 26 villages compiled at 30-year intervals between 1865 and 1925. The computer-processed data enables the author to trace micro-changes in caste-wise and size-wise distribution of landholdings of each village. Based on these data, the author challenges recent arguments that tend to deny structural changes in rural society in terms of landholdings under British rule. He identifies two different trends at work. The first was the gradual deterioration of the pattern of landownership characterized by the dominance of higher-caste landowners. This reflected a change in agriculture towards smaller farms, a tendency more or less held in common with agrarian developments in East Asia. The second trend witnessed was the growing stratification of the non-Brahman population as a result of the colonial transformation of Indian society.

Weight: 490g
Dimension: 148 x 224 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9788173041594