Wage, labour and unfreedom in agriculture: an Indian case study

Some features of the Agrarian economy of the Cumbum Valley; classes and property inequality in Gokilapuram; the labour force - sources of expansion; the demand for labour and sources of employment; the deployment of labour time; some aspects of the material conditions of life of agricultural labourers; labour services and unfree labour; aspects of the labour process in agriculture; resurvey 1968. Appendices: notes on methods of collection of primary data; case study - farming practices in rice; cultivation on surface-irrigated land; case study - Karuppayya Asari, Blacksmith; definitions of asset categories; from peasant to proletarian - a case study of P.Chinnasubbayyan; case study - G.Selvam, farm servant; the Periyar irrigation system in Cokilapuram; case studies of irrigation workers

Focusing on an area in the vanguard of agricultural development in Southern India, this book asks how so much growth and technical change can take place in agriculture and yet leave the position of the labourers relatively unchanged. The author examines the decline of wages, the property-less status of labourers, and consumption and indebtedness