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CONTENTS

Vol. 13, No. 1: JanuaryMarch 1981

P. V. Panajape - Kulaks and Adivasis: The Formation of Classes in

Maharashtra

David Kennett - Economics, Imperialism, and Restorative

Revolution

Dipankar Gupta - Review of S. Banerjees In the Wake of Naxalbari

Pradip Sen - Prisoners of Conscience / Cinema Review

Shambhu Shaha - Some Images of Calcutta and Environs / Photos

David Selbourne - J.P. Narayan: A Political Morality Reexamined

T. G. Cannon - Review of M. Frandas Indias Rural Development

Anonymous - Indian Defense Forces and Arms Production

Martin Stuart-Fox - Socialist Construction and National Security in

Laos

BCAS/Critical Asian Studies

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CCAS Statement of Purpose

Critical Asian Studies continues to be inspired by the statement of purpose

formulated in 1969 by its parent organization, the Committee of ConcernedAsian Scholars (CCAS). CCAS ceased to exist as an organization in 1979,

but the BCAS board decided in 1993 that the CCAS Statement of Purpose

should be published in our journal at least once a year.

We first came together in opposition to the brutal aggression of

the United States in Vietnam and to the complicity or silence of

our profession with regard to that policy. Those in the field of

Asian studies bear responsibility for the consequences of their

research and the political posture of their profession. We are

concerned about the present unwillingness of specialists to speak

out against the implications of an Asian policy committed to en-

suring American domination of much of Asia. We reject the le-

gitimacy of this aim, and attempt to change this policy. We

recognize that the present structure of the profession has often

perverted scholarship and alienated many people in the field.

The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars seeks to develop a

humane and knowledgeable understanding of Asian societies

and their efforts to maintain cultural integrity and to confrontsuch problems as poverty, oppression, and imperialism. We real-

ize that to be students of other peoples, we must first understand

our relations to them.

CCAS wishes to create alternatives to the prevailing trends in

scholarship on Asia, which too often spring from a parochial

cultural perspective and serve selfish interests and expansion-

ism. Our organization is designed to function as a catalyst, a

communications network for both Asian and Western scholars, aprovider of central resources for local chapters, and a commu-

nity for the development of anti-imperialist research.

Passed, 2830 March 1969

Boston, Massachusetts

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Vol. 13, No. I/Jan.-Mar., 1981Contents

Gail Omvedt 2 Introduction to ParanjapeP. V. Paranjape 3 Kulaks and Adivasis: The Fonnation of Classes in Maharashtra

David Kennett 22 Economics, Imperialism and Restorative RevolutionDipankar Gupta 31 Review of S. Banerjee's In the Wake ofNaxalbari

PradipSen 32 "Prisoners of Conscience" /cinema review35 Notice by the Editors and Address Change Fonn

Shambhu Shaha 36 Some Images of Calcutta and Environs/photosDavid Selbourne 38 JP Narayan: A Political Morality Re-Examined

T. G. Cannon 50 Review ofM. Franda's India's Rural Development, 'Anonymous" 53 Indian Defense Forces and Anns Production

58 Letters, continued from front coverMartin Stuart-Fox 61 Socialist Construction and National Security in Laos

72 List of Books to Review

StaffEditorsBen Kerkvliet Joe Moore Bob Marks Bryant Avery (Honolulu, HI) (Canberra, Aust.) (Whittier, CA) (managing editor)

Editorial Board Southeast Asia Northeast Asia East Asia South AsiaNina Adams Frank Baldwin Steve Andors Ashok Bhargava (Springfield, IL) (Tokyo, Japan) (Staten Is., NY) (Madison, WI) Doug Allen HerbertBix Helen Chauncey Hassen Gardezi (Orono, ME) (Tokyo, Japan) (Nanjing, China) (Sault Ste. Marie) Noam Chomsky Bruce Cumings Gene Cooper Kathleen Gough

(Lexington, MA) (Seattle, W A) (Los Angeles, CA) (Vancouver, BC) Richard Franke John Dower Richard Kagan Maria Mies (Montclair, NJ) (Madison, WI) (St. Paul, MN) (The Hague, Neth.) Lim MahHui Jon Halliday Victor Lippit Gail Omvedt (Philadelphia, PA) (London, Eng. ) (Riverside, CA) (Pone, India) Ngo Vinh Long SugwonKang Angus McDonald Hari Sharma (Cambridge, MA) (Oneonta, NY) (Minneapolis, MN) (B urnaby, BC) Joel Rocamora Gavan McCormack Victor Nee Joe Tharamangalam (Berkeley, CA) (Tokyo, Japan) (Santa Barbara, CA) (Halifax, NS) Carl Trocki Nakamura Masanori James Peck Tom Weisskopf (Ft. Mitchell, KY) (Tokyo, Japan) (New York, NY) (Ann Arbor, MI) Jayne Werner, Brett DeBary Nee Linda Pomerantz (Tempe, AZ) (Ithaca, NY) (Los Angeles, CA) Christine White Rob Steven Carl Riskin (Brighton, Eng.) (Christchurch, NZ) (New York, NY) Martha Winnacker Moss Roberts Mark Selden (Berkeley, CA) (New York, NY) (Binghamton, NY) Vera Schwarcz Saundra Sturdevant (Middletown, CT) (Berkeley, CA)

The Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars welcomes unsolicited essays, reviews and letters. Please direct all correspondence(manuscripts, orders, subscriptions, etc.) to P.O. Box W, Charlemont, MA 01339 USA. Manuscripts should be in triplicate. Thedecision on publication is the responsibility of the Editors following consultation with members of the Editorial Board. In the listingthat follows, the Board members, like the Editors, are occasionally called upon to assist with papers and issues that cut across suchcategories. The Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Inc., is a non-profit corporation. Contributions are needed, appreciated-andtax-deductible.

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Introduction to Paranjape

by Gail OmvedtThe following article is part of a longer project by SuhasParanjape. dealing with the historical development first of classrelations and then of class struggle in Dhule district, which liesnorth of Bombay in the state of Maharashtra. The area involved

is small, but it might be pointed out that this is true of other"vanguard" areas of class struggle in post-independence India,such as Naxalbari and Srikakulam which were also areas populated mainly by adivasis or tribals. Dhule differs from these incombining adivasi militancy with developed capitalist farming - and so perhaps is even more of a signal for the rising formsof class struggle in India.It is important for Bulletin readers to know that this articledoes not originate from an academic background or out ofacademic concerns. Suhas was for two years an activist in theShramik Sanghatana (Toilers' Union), an organization of agricultural laborers and poor peasants based mainly among adivasis in Dhule. Most of the different "regions" describedhere-Shahade, Talode, Nandurbar, Akkalkuwa-are talukasof the district in which the Shramik Sanghatana is now organIzmg.

The Sanghatana itself was formed following a 1970 atrocity in which two adivasi agricultural laborers were killed bykulaks firing on a famine-starved crowd which had gathered todemand a share of the stored grain they themselves had harvested. This "Patilwadi incident" was only one of countlesssuch clashes that are increasing in India in recent years. (Theseare sometimes seen as a result of the' Green Revolution" but itwould be more accurate to say that both are an aspect of thegrowing capitalist relations in agriculture which have slowly butsurely been shifting the main class contradiction from that ofpeasant versus landlords to that of mainly low caste agriculturallaborers versus kulak farmers.) But it brought a wave of youngvolunteers, new activists, to come to work in the area, and thesehelped shape the adivasi militancy into the formation of a newclass organization. Fights over land and wages, violent battleswith the landowners, spontaneous "peoples' courts" to fightkulak oppression and rape of women, efforts to smash alcoholism and other destructive habits within the adivasi communityitself, the formation of mazur samitis (laborers' committees) asnegotiating bodies and tarun mandals (youth leagues) as groupsof politically conscious adivasi youth, programs of politicaleducation, the organization of an SO-mile march to protestatrocities against dalits (untouchables), the formation of awomen's liberation organization by the adivasi women themselves without a single middle class woman to take the lead-allthese have been part of the Shramik Sanghatana struggle. (Oneaspect of this struggle has been dealt with in the Bulletin itself byMaria Mies, "Indian Women and Leadership," Vol. 7, No. I,1975; the song "Hey Indira" in the same issue is by an adivasiSanghatana activist.) Today it is the strongest mass organizationin the rural areas in Maharashtra and perhaps one of the strongest in India as a whole.All of this organizing has not taken place in a vacuum.

with Magowa, a Communist group that was formed in a perioof disillusionment with the traditional parties (the CPI anCPM) and on the background of the N axalite revolt and its brutarepression by the Indian state. The Magowa group had important theoretical and political disagreements with the Naxalites, but they shared much of the critique of the parliamentarismand bureaucratism of the established left. Beyond this, one othe unique features of the group was a stress on the importancof theort:tical development, and their journal opened with thstatement that "we will examine everything, even Marxismitself, under a microscope."

The felt need for theory was itse lf a resultof the experiencof confronting a mass reality that made many traditionallaccepted Marxist answers seem inadequate. For the activists othe Shramik Sanghatana, the debate about the' mode of production in agriculture" was not simply an intriguing intellectuaexerci se but one that had real implications for their work: is aalliance with the "rich peasants" possible? All the traditionaCommunists (including the Naxalites) have answered yes, othe grounds that since "feudalism" was dominant, progressiv"bour geois" trends could be part of a democratic front. For thShramik Sanghatana in contrast, the' rich peasant" (kulak) wathe actual class enemy they confronted, the power-holder in thcountryside. Similarly, the role of "caste" -type factors in thfom1s of exploitation and of class struggle, the fact that thkulaks were predominantly Gujars and the laborers predominantly adivasi, forced them to go beyond the traditional IndiaMarxist tendency to neglect caste with the argument that "fundamentally it's really a class struggle; if you unite on economiissues then the social issues can be resolved." It is perhaps noaccidental that the one other political organization with a basamong adivasis in Dhule is the Satyashodhak Communist Partywhose leader, Sharad Pati!, had split from the CPM on ththeme of combining "class-caste struggle." Paranjape takes somewhat different line in this article from Patil, but the attention to caste is new for Indian Marxists and apparently was onof the most controversial parts of the paper when an earlversion was presented to the Peasants Seminar in London twyears ago. The fact is, however, that for those involved in ruraorganizing in India, the need to deal with-and thus to theoretcally understand-the role of caste/community and the shiftinnature of different classes with the development of capitalifarming has become almost a life-and-death matter.Today the Magowa group has been dissolved and thShramik Sanghatana is functioning as a left mass organizatioformally unconnected with any political group. But in the context of the heightening contradictions in today's India and thdaily growing threat of systematic repression, it is not enough tbe a strong locally based organization. The issue before thShramik Sanghatana activists is, as it always was, how and iwhat way will they be part of an all-India revolutionary politicatrend. In the name of seeking security in the face of repressiowithin a "big" party, and out of a sense of doubt about the verpossibility of theoretical analysis, some voices are being hearcalling for going into the fold of the traditional parliamentarcommunist parties; others are urging that the theoretical anpractical innovations of Shramik Sanghatana must be fulfilleand carried forward as part of an organized struggle to give new direction to the entire Indian movement. It is in the contexof debate on such political issues that theoretical contributions-whether they are published in the Bulletin or else

'*any of the activists of Shramik Sanghatana were connected where-have their real significance.2 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org

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Kulaks and AdivasisThe Formation ofClasses in Maharashtra

by P.v. ParanjapeThe Khandesh Region: Pre-British Period

Dhule and Jalgaon districts make up the Khandesh regionof Maharashtra. Khandesh is bounded on the west by Gujarat,in the east by the Vidarbha part of Maharashtra, in the south bythe Nashik district and the Marathwada part of Maharashtra andin the north by Madhya Pradesh. The Tapi Basin that we areconcentrating upon lies in the north-west of Dhule district nowcomprising talukas of Shahade, Talode and Nandurbar.By the period of the later Moghuls, Khandesh had becomean important and covetable part of the Moghul empire. European travellers of the late sixteenth century describe Khandeshas a rich and well-peopled country yielding great abundance ofgrain, cotton, wool and sugar with big markets for dry fruits. Itwas during the first viceroyalty of Aurangzeb in Shahjahan'stime (the seventeenth century) that we find the first systematic,recorded and centralized land revenue assessment being appliedto Khandesh. This assessment, known as the "Tankha" andreorganized on a more lenient basis during Aurangzeb's secondviceroyalty was to serve as the nominal standard and the basicdeparture point right up to British times.

In Khandesh, the west and north-west formed a very important part. The seven divisions of Nandurbar district (including what today form the Shahade and Talode talukas) yielded ayearly revenue of 125,000, while the 32 other divisions ofKhandesh yielded a yearly revenue of 76,000. 1 Europeantravellers mentioned the Kunbis, the Bhils and the Gond Adivasi* tribes as a main class of cultivators, 2 and Muslim recordsshow that the area north of the Tapi (Shahade-Talode region)was exclusively peopled and tilled by the Adivasi (tribal) population. 3 Thus by the time of the late Moghuls theTapi Basinplains north of the Tapi in what forms the Dhule district today 4were peopled and tilled by Adivasi but ruled by the Moghulsthrough Adivasi chieftains, and Rajput, Muslim as well asMaratha feudatories.

I t is necessary to separate clearly the Adivasi "husbandmen" and their non-Adivasi counterparts. The prosperity orrevenue of the north-west basin did not arise from an advance inproduction on Adivasi-cultivated land. The crucial position ofKhandesh on trade-routes and the production of non-Adivasicultivators on the fertile plains appear to be at the root of the

3

prosperity. It seems that the Adivasis and their entire life formeda relatively autonomous enclave in the region. It was the fertilityand production of the lands and the trade in Khandesh whichmade it important that peace with the Adivasis be secured. TheAdivasis were tolerated on the land and they retained their ownrites and practices in regard to the land. The Bhil Adivasis whoform the largest part of the population of the north-west basin,are believed to be a group of tribes occupying the whole area ofthe Satpudas and its northern parts. The Bhil have been pressedsouthwards5 so that they occupy the large forest belt startingfrom the Thane district in the west to the western parts of theVindhya mountains. The Adivasis ofthe basin thus form simultaneously the fringe of this vast tribal area and a part of the largerMoghul empire.Since the late thirteenth century trade routes criss-crossingthe south and the north-east of the whole of Khandesh regionhave developed, and by the fourteenth century the area hadbecome important enough to warrant a separate fiefdom and aseparate centre for administration. This administrative seat,which was later to be of importance also during Moghul times,was situated at Sultanpur-now a small village in the centre ofShahade taluka. With the integration of the region into the largerMoghul Empire, its stability and peace assured the developmentof trade on an extensive scale. The road just south of the TapiRiver and following it became an important artery of this trade.Gathering unto itself most of the export trade bound for Suratfrom the Madhya Pradesh as well as the deeper Central Prov

* Adivasi is the word meaning original senlers which has come to be used by thetribal populati on to identify itself.\. Gazetteer a/the Bombay Presidency, Vol. XII, (Khandesh, Bombay,1880) (hereafter GBP-XII), p. 248.2. Ibid., p. 248; Gazetteer of the Territories under the Governmentof theEast India Company, Vol. I, (London: Edward Thorton, (854) (hereafterEICG-I), pp. 258-259.3. EICG-I , pp. 258-259.4. GBP-XII, p. 82.5. Ibid., pp. 80-83.


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inces, Nandurbar became a town of importance, especially withcotton fabrics, muslins of all kinds being exported to Persia,Turkey, Moscow, Poland, Arabia, Cairo and other places.6 As amatter of fact, Khandesh had acquired such importance thatonly a close relative of the Emperor could be granted viceroyaltyover it, and moreover, this viceroy had to be on the spot, inSultanpur. Due to the position of Khandesh, the feudatories whoheld power there, and especially in the northwest basin, were ofvaried castes-of Muslim, Maratha, Rajput origins along witha few Adivasi chieftains. Because the feudal class wa

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fare exactly along the lines of the early Maratha period. Theystruck the invading enemy wherever possible and plundered it.The Maratha feudatories, who, in spite of their infighting,considered the area their collective domain, looked upon thetribal population and its revolt as pure banditry-much as theMoghuls had looked upon the Marathas. Irritated, they resolvedto read the tribals a chapter in terror. In 1808 Balaji Laxman atKopargaon tempted from the hills a large body of ChandorBhils-and proceeded to surround and massacre them. Insteadof being cowed down, the Bhil revolt became fiercer and theMarathas retaliated with cruel massacres at Chalisgaon, Dha-rangaon, Antur and a number of other places.Such unsettled conditi9ns naturally fostered other forms ofbrigandage as well. Most of the big feudal landowners draftedinto service private Kamataka and Arab mercenaries, many ofwhom soon took to independent brigandage. Meanwhile Yesh-wantrao Holkar, who had been kept captive at Poona, escapedand, in the words of the Gazetteer, "carried sword and firethrough Khandesh."8 He was actively helped by the chieftainJugar Naik of Chikhli to attack and devastate the Marathastronghold at Sultanpur. The warlike Pendharis and the MuslimTadvi Bhils carried an expedition across Khandesh from east towest in 1816 and back again in 1817.The only ones to have consistently and progressively bene-fitted from the warfare were the British. Apart from the cam-paigns actually fought and territory held by the British, theMaratha campaigns also took their toll: in their feuds the Mara-tha had become accustomed to and later were forced to acceptBritish help-but at a price. Territory after territory passed intoBritish hands until in 1818, with the decisive defeat of thePeshwa at Aste, the Maratha empire (including Khandesh)became part of British territory. The whole social fabric ofKhandesh had been torn asunder. The laboring population hadfled. The Adivasi peasantry had withdrawn to the hills and theprovince was full of marauding groups of plunderers. On theirentry the British were astounded at the sight that met their eyes.Anarchy, chaos and desolation always announced their imperialcontrol but the scale astounded them and led Elphinstone toremark that in their anarchy the conditions of Khandesh werealmost unexampled "even in Asia. " 9Return of "Order": British Colonization

Having acquired rights over this now desolate and armedcountry, the British colonizers first set up a political and civilapparatus to crush the resisting tribes and the armed gangs. In afew years they had taken care of the bandit gangs of Arabs andothers. But crushing the resistance of the local tribal populationwhich was fighting for its homeland was quite another matter.Right up to 1825, in continuous and ferocious campaigns, theytried unsuccessfully to wipe out the resistance with armed force.In 1825, however, the British, at the instance of Elphinstone,then Governor of Bombay, put into effect a policy which was tobe much more fruitful. One edge of this dual policy consisted inan effort to repopulate the area while assuring the Adivasipopulation that they would not be pursued at gunpoint if theAdivasis settled on land and paid the British Caesar his due intaxes. The second edge of it was to draft into service a part of thetribal population to participate in the work of suppression. Tothis end three Bhil Agencies were formed and Agents wereposted at each to take care of the "benevolent" measures. A

5

The Tapi river flows east-west across the districtcutting the district into two almost equal halves. It orms abasin from the beginning of the Shahade taluka whichbroadens into a strip of extremely fertile plains ofabout15 to 20 miles in width at its broadest. In the north of theShahade and Talode talukas, the plains end with a steeprise of the Satpuda mountains which form ridge afterridge of rising mountains. Most of the part ofAkkalkuwataluka which bounds the Talode taluka on the west is takenup by the Satpudas with a relatively narrow strip of thenorth-west basin included in its southern region. TheNandurbar taluka lies to the south of the Tapi. Here theplains end with a slow rise and increasingly rocky soil thatblend into the Sahyadri and Galna hills in the south-west.The Nawapur taluka which bounds Nandurbar taluka tothe west lies entirely in this slowly rising part with asparse forest covering a large part.The Bombay-Agra Road passes through the easternpart of the district through Dhule and Shirpur and liesalong one of the old trade routes of India. The BombayDelhi railway route passes through the Jalgaon district.The Surat-Bhusaval Railway line follows the south bankofthe Tapi throughout the region. The village Prakashewhich lies at the confluence of the Tapi and the Gomai inShahade taluka was the important nodal link in earlierdays. From Prakashe through Shahade we have a routewhich passes north through the Khetiye pass into theMadhya Pradesh plains. We also now have a metalledroad (i.e. paved with broken rock) passing throughAkkalkuwa-Talode-Shahade-Shirpur following the northbank ofthe Tapi on the Surat-Barhanpur highway.Khandesh thus lies in the westernmost parts of thewhole cotton tract ofMaharashtra. It also forms a naturalboundary, for it is the beginningofthe mountainous partsof Madhya Pradesh once we leave Khandesh behind onthe Bombay-Agra Road. It is the first plains we meet as wecross the Sahyadris and the Satpudas. It lies just south ofthe great belt ofmountains andforests that girdles India,and leads directly into the rich cotton tracts ofnorth-eastMaharashtra. The strip of land between the Akkalkuwaand Talode talukas and the Tapi in the north, and betweenthe Nawapur and Nandurbar talukas and the Tapi in thesouth now form part of the Gujarat region, the history ofwhich fact is connected with the buildingofa huge dam onthe Tapi at Ukai in Gujarat and the consequent displacement ofhundreds ofAdivasis (tribals).

Bhil Corps was formed, albeit "with extreme difficulty." Thispolicy yielded substantial but slow results. By 1828 the Col-lector of Khandesh could report that "for the first time in 20years the district has enjoyed six months of rest. "10

8. Ibid., p. 259.9. Gazetteer of India, Maharashtra State, Dhulia District (revised edi-tion) (Bombay. 1974)(hereafterGMSD). p. 140.10. Ibid., p. 154.


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Sporadic outbursts still continued-not only among thetribal population-such as the 1845 confrontation between theChikhli tribal chieftain and the British. Like the more famous1857 uprising of disaffected feudatories and regal heads, theKhandesh Bhils rebelled under Kajarsingh Naik., riding a tide ofpeasant ferocity. The suppression of this revolt, just like thesuppression of the 1857 uprising, was to mark the end of adecisive period. Having served its purpose, the Bhil Corps wasnot called again for active service and was finally disbanded.In Khandesh, the consolidation of political power wasimportant to the British because it represented the suppressionof an entire people up in arms. With much fanfare revenuefarming was abolished and previous Maratha assessments wereto fonn the nonn, wherever they were not clearly (sic!) unjust oroppressive. In short, the British effected a fonnal abolition ofrevenue farming while retaining all its ill effects. Nor did theBritish adhere to the clause assuring that no new burden oftaxation would be imposed. According to class of land, dry crop

Borad. a village in Shahade (Photo by Gail Omvedt)

rates in Nandurbar were raised by 25 to 60 percent. As a resulttillage fell drastically in Nandurbar-and tillage of higher classes of land fell most drastically. 11 Only in 1839-40 with a 30percent reduction of rates did tillage in Khandesh begin toimprove, yet a systematic survey carried out by Captain Wingate in 1852 estimates that only 14 percent of the estimated arableland was under tillage. About 25 percent of the villages stoodcompletely deserted.The estimated tillage of 14 percent was an average for thewhole of Khandesh. The actual figures varied from 5 percent to35 percent for the various sub-divisions.*More significantly, inthe north-west Tapi River basin it was considerably lower thanthat for the rest of the province: the tillage figures varied from 7to 9 percent. The settlement on land that took place up to the1850s generally occurred in the Khandesh plains. To quote,"the lands north of Taptee, once very populous and yielding alarge revenue, were almost uninhabited forest." 12But this "forest" was not a forest in the real sense of theword. It was an extremely fertile land now overgrown with

bushes and trees. It had only to be cleared with some labor tbecome again with a few years of cultivation as rich in producas before. Thus while the rest of the Khandesh plains werreaching some degree of cultivation, the north-west plains stilhad the character of an open country awaiting settlement anwith an abundance of fertile land. This open country was nobeing slowly reoccupied by the Adivasis. The Gazatteer of thEast India Company, in the relief it felt at having establishedtheir law and order in the province, waxes lyrical over thiphenomenon, "the Bheels, from outcasts have become members of civil society, daily rising in respectability and becominguseful and obedient subjects of the state ." 13

With the abolition of Company rule in 1858 the process ocolonization reached yet another mark. The 'fifties also saw thegrowth of demand for cotton and gave rise to the cotton boomwhich reached its first peak in 1862-65. In 1860, the 1852assessments were lowered. The British overhauled the Administrative machinery, enacted laws, and established subdivisional civil courts. Railways began to be built and the mainBombay-Chalisgaon:j: line was completed in the 'sixties. Britishpower spread into the very pores of Indian society to effectuatand consolidate the processof colonization. The cotton boom othe 'sixties did more than all the previous British attempts toattract people to the land. Where offers of rent-free land and

With the metalling (rock-paving) of Satmala passesand the regularization of traffic through these in thewake of British takeover of most of Maharashtra, theBombay trade received a big boost. Very soon thecotton boom set in and the small traderwas completelysubordinated to the centralized chain of commercialcapital emanating from the offices of British cottonagents in Bombay.

money for bullocks and implements had failed to attract anyonto Khandesh, its rich soils now called forth an immigrationwhich outstripped the trickling streams before the 'fifties. In thwords of a visitor to the Talode taluka in 1864, ten years after hifirst visit,. . . I was hardly prepared for the change that has takenplace. Miles of high jungle, I might almost say forest, habeen cleared off, and places which gave cover to wild animals such as nilgai and sambar. were now clothed witluxuriant crops ofwheat and gram. 14

Tillage shot up from a bare 7% to 9% in 1852 to 72% inNandurbar, 60% for Shahade and 78% for Talode taluke i

* Administrati ve divisions were roughly equivalent to the present talUKIJs.:j: Part of the now Bombay-Delhi Railway route.I i. GBP-XII, p. 381.12. GBP-XII , p. 273.13. EICG-I . p. 262.14. Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government Papers Relaing to the Revision Survey Settlement of the Shahade Taluka of the KhandesCollectorate, Bombay, 1899 (hereafter RSS-ST), p. Ii .

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1878. 15 Before the end of the century, "the whole of the area[Talode taluka] is now, in effect, under good cultivation and theabsence ofwild animals is conspicuous. Pasture land has givenway to cultivation, more than halfof which is producing exportable crops. . . "1 6Gujar immigration

It is in this period during and after the 1860s that we findthe specific mention of an immigrant population in the area. TheGujars played an important role in the shaping of the landrelations of the north-west Tapi basin. The British Gazetteersand reports refer to them as Guzars, Guzar Kunbis, Guzar Vanisas well as a branch of the Leva (Reve) Patils. There is asimilarity between the several groups as well as certain distinctions. In tenns of caste, theGujars-all Kunbis by caste-mustbe clearly distinguished from the Reve Patils on the one handand from the Marwaris and Vanis of Gu arat on the other. TheBritish practice of reducing the Gujars to the caste of the RevePatils does not stand historical scrutiny. Despite certain similarities between them the Gujars constitute a distinct communitywhich migrated to this region several centuries back (around the14th century). Similarly the Gujars are also irreducible to theMarwaris and Vanis of Gu arat in spite of some money lendingand usurious practices on their part. Their immigration into thearea is quite different from the slow pace of settlement of theAdivasis. The Adivasis looked upon land more as a means oflivelihood than as a source of gain. On the other hand the GujarKunbi population, coming from a cultivating caste of the peasantry with a fully developed senseof property, looked upon landnot only as a means of livelihood but also over and above that asproperty and a means of gain. Therefore whereas the Adivasissettled on land sufficient for their livelihood, immigrant Gujarcultivators fenced in the largest available chunks of the mostfertile land.

Before the 1850s the only problem noted by the Gazetteersis that of increasing tillage. It is only after the occupation oflandby the immigrant Gu jar population that the Gazetteers began tospeak of a shortage of labor. Supported by British law and byAdivasi lack of a sense of property, the Gujar population reduced the Adivasis to near slavery through a combination ofcunning, usury and pure fraud. 17Growth of Bondage

The condition of the Bhil cultivator in the northwest ofKhandesh is special. There the landholders are mostly Gujarcapitalists, not peasant proprietors, and the Bhils were formerly contented to serve them for clothes and food, liquornow and then, and a small sum of money whenever their

15. GBP-XII. pp. 330,409.417.16. RSS-ST, p. II .17. Report of the Deccan Riots CommiSSIOn. Appendix B; Action of theLaw and the Civil Courts on the Agricultural Debtor, 1876 (hereafter ORe) . pp.164-184. Also GBP-XII. pp. 197-200. Also DRC, pp. 334-336:I have no hesitation in saying that false accounts and false bonds are therule. and not the exception in the dealings of the Gujar sowkar with theunfortunate and ignorant Bheels. -Extract from Report to GovernmentNo. 255 dated January 17. 1871. from Mr. A. Rogers. Revenue Commissioner. N.D.18. GBP-XII. pp. 197-198.

children are married. Oflate the demandfor Bhillabour hasincreased and wages have greatly risen. On the other hand,the settlement oftheir disputes with their employers has beentransferred from the magistrate to the civil courts, and theGujar, by the ignorance and carelessnessofthe Bhil, has himat his mercy. The Gujar agrees with the Bhil that the Bhil is totill the Gujar's land and that they are to share the produce.An advance is made to the Bhil to buy bullocks, and a bond isdrawn up with a premium of twenty-five percent. The Bhilgrows the crop and isfed by the Gujar. At the endofthe yearthe Gujar takes the crop and puts of f the Bhil on the groundthat he has to pay for the bullocks. Next year the Bhil againgets clothes and ood and is told that he has something to pay.He asks for a new settlement of his accounts, and as apreliminary is sent for a new stamped paper. With afew softwords, some money to buy a robe for his Wife, and a littleliquor, a new bond is made, the meaning ofwhich the Bhildoes not understand, and he goes back to his work hopingforbetter luck next year. Af ter struggling onfora year or two hedetermines to leave. Then hefinds that his partner, or master, has his acceptance for 20 (Rs.200) or more, that thebullock he has toiled for is not his, and that he and all he hasare at his master's mercy. A decree is passed, and the Bhil' sgoods are seized and sold. Then his master offers him achance ofreturn and he serves for some time more. Again hegrows tired ofhis position, and refuses to work. The masterhas still some outstanding debts, .and the threat of the civilcourt again brings the Bhil to order. Thus things go onfromyear to year. It is not uncommon for a Bhil, under pretenseofthe transfer ofhis debt, to be handed over from one creditorto another. A Bhil with a decree against him is worth morethan one whose debts are smaller. His mother's name isentered in the bond, and as a Bhil will suffer anything ratherthan disgrace his mother, the threat to send her to Dhulia Jailis at any time enough to make the Bhil do whatever his masterwishes. IS

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This graphic Gazetteer description of the specific mode ofexploitation of the Bhil sharecropper brings out that, with thecoming of the shortage , " we have what on surface purports tobe a relationship of tenancy. But behind this facade lurks arelationship of total servitude. What the Gujar kulak gets from itis not a part of the produce or a share. He provides for thesubsistence of the Bhillaborer, the implements, the livestockand the seed and he then appropriates the whole of the produce.In addition we have the laborer handed over from one to anotherunder the pretext of transfer of the debt. The promise of sharingthe crop is only a ruse, a tactic, a carrot to lure the laborer in asituation where labor is scarce and wages are high. It is neither arelationship of wage-labor, though wage-labor is the context inwhich it develops, nor is it a semi-feudal relationship. I t is arelationship of pue slavery at worst and semi-slavery at best.There is another form of relationship betwen the laboringpopulation and the direct appropriation of its surplus labor. Thisform, identified by the 1880 Gazetteer as labor-mortgage, already was substantial by the 1880s, and was to form the crucialrelationship between them in later years.

About two to three per cent of the labouring populationin the east and about ten per cent in the west raise money bymortgaging their Labour. These men are generally smalllandholders, who by some folly or mishap have fallen hopelessLy'in debt. Men who mortgage their Labour are known asyearlies, saaldars, because their term ofservice lasts for oneor more years. Labour is generally mortgaged, either toclear of f old debts or to raise a sum of money to meetmarriage and other expenses. Sometimes a man mortgageshis own and his children's labour. The men who take labourin mortgage are generally rich Landowners, deshmukhs,patils and others who empLoy the mortgagees in fieldworkand sometimes as messengers or duns, mahasulis. Thelabour-mortgage bond, called an year deed, saaLkhat is onstamped paper. Sometimes the mortgagor is advanced thewhole and sometimes only halfof the sum agreed upon. Thecommon pLan is that the mortgagee, working soLely for his[the landowner'sJ benefit, is supplied with food at the mortgagee's cost. Under this form ofagreement a labourer takesfrom three or four years to work off a debt of Rs.lOO.OccasionaLLy the saaldar lives by himself and is bound to doonly a certain amount of work for his master. Under thisagreement the labourer supports himsel f and in two yearscan work of fa debt ofRs.1OO. They are willing workers andgenerally do their share of the agreement freely and withoutpunishment. Sometimes they run away, andformerly, thoughnow they refuse to do so, the magistrates used to enforce thebond. 19

The saaldari system, or the engagement of laborers by theyear, is found in a number of places, as is the use of a real orfraudulent debt to secure this labor. What is remarkable is itsprevalence on as large a scale as ten percent of the laboringpopulation. This does not mean that relationships of tenancy didnot develop in the area. To the contrary, the Adivasis that hadbegun to settle on land were mainly small holders. Their smallness of holdings was sure to drive them into the clutches of themoneylending kulaks, and a process of transfer of land into thehands of the non-Adivasi kulaks was indeed taking place. 20Most of these transfers occurred directly under the protection of and with the active intervention of the legal system that

the British imposed. In 1859 separate judicial civil courts wereestablished for each sub-division. The former system wherebythe District Collector, who was also Magistrate, vested in himself all rights to settle civil disputes was abandoned. Under Act13 of the 1859 reform, a breach of a contract of service wasmade a criminal offence. Act 8 made a provision for the imprisonment and the attachment and/or sale of the property of adebtor.* It is these British Acts that provided the kulaks with theweapon of terror that they needed against the Adivasis.The statistics for the year 1870 show that in the whole ofthe Bombay Presidency an average 7.3 percent of civil suits'related to land." The highest percentage is found in Kanaraorthe northern part of present-day Kamataka (20.5%); Khandeshis the lowest in the scale with only 0.7% "relating to land. "21This would seem to indicate that the process of land transfer inthe latter TaLuka was one of the slowest. However if we comparethe figure for the arrests of debtors and attachments and/or salesof "im movable property" we get a figure of 6 percent and 13percent respectively!The trend for these figures also graphically brings out acrucial point. The kulaks were not interested in the arrest ofdebtors as such. The highest percentage of suits in which thearrest of debtors was secured by the suitors stands at 6 percent inthe tension-ridden year of 1870. It then shows a decrease to 1.4percent in 1878. The actual arrest of debtors became less frequent because the threat of arrest had become an effectiveinstrument of terror and intimidation in the hand of the kulaks.The second category of suits "relating to land" as identified by the Deccan Riots Commission is one in which land wasdirectly involved as the. object of contention. The high proportion of such suits in Kanara or, immediately following it, inRatnagiri districts is rather an indication of a substantial sectionof middle peasantry or poor peasantry conscious of its propertyrights as well as resultant disputes among these sections. Aninteresting highlight on this is the number of suits decidedex -parte.* * Thuswe find that in most of the districts in which theproportion of suits "relating to land" is low the proportion ofex-parte decisions is much higher than the average. Thus Khandesh has a proportion of 72.4 percent of suits decided ex-partewhereas the same figures for Kanara are 46.6 percent. 22 There isevidence that the ex-parte figures were even much higher for thenorthwest basin. 23 But more importantly it is the third category

* But it may be noted here that due to the latter Act it was not necessary for thekulaks in the area to take land in mortgage, but any debt or pledge that thsmallholder could not execute could be used as an instrument to acquire lanthrough atta chment an d/or sale. This has created a very spurious appearance ithe juridical statistics.** From or on onc side only.

19. Ibid., p. 199.20. Ibid., pp. 196-7.21. DRC, pp. 98-97; GBP-XII, p. 308.22. DRC, pp. 96-97.23. We beg to appeal statenU!fIlS showing the number of suits filed by Guwrs

and moneylenders against Bheets in the coun of the Sub-Judge at Nandurbar during the years 1867, 1868, and 1869, and how they were disposed of, It will be seen from this statement that of the 635 suits that came to inquiry during those years, 612 were decided infavourofpl aintiffs, and only 23 in favor of Bheels, and that Bheels appeared to contest the claims brought against them in 29 cases only. In 594 suits judgement went default against Bheels . We rel y on these figures in supportofour statement that the ordinary 8


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Adivasi hut (Omvedt)of attachment and/or sale of immovable property which is moresignificant. While "suits relating to land" show a fluctuatingtrend rising from 0.7% in 1870 to 1.4% in 1878, the figures forattachment show an increase from 10% to about 30% from 1870to 1878. 24 In these schemes, the kulak's use of usury was notdesigned to accumulate money through the debt but rather tosecure labor on his land. Thus his transactions were mainly withthe laboring population and not in those areas where trading andmoneylending as such would be gainful. As graphically broughtout by one British official, in the case of the kulak,

The debt of the Bhil saaldar does not go on increasingyear after year. When the Guzar has got a bond up to two orthree hundred rupees he is satisfied, his chief object being tosecure the services of the man, which is done by holding outthe threat of imprisonment for breach of contract under Act 8of 1859, and for debt through civil courts. 25 (emphasis inoriginal)

civil courts are not suitable tribunals for the decision of such claims . . .- Letter dated Sept. 9, 1870 from Captain O. Probyn, Western Bheel Agent& C. Pritchard Esq. First Collector to L. B. Ashbumer Esq. Collector andMagistrate. From ORC, p. 102.24. GBP-XII, p. 308.25. ORC, p. 170.26. EICG-1.27. ORC, p. 172: Extract from a letter dated Aug. 31, 1870 from CaptainO. Probyn, Western Bheel Agent and Mr. C. Pritchard, First Collector.28. ORC, pp. 164-167,172-3.29. Ibid., p. 310.30. Ibid.

The attitude of the British to this enslavement of the laboring population was not unmixed indignation. We find it mentioned as an "encouraging point" that the Bhils (presumablylandless) took up service" under Gu ars. 26 But the dominanttheme in the 1870s is that "the Bhil Awtyas of these threetalukas are the slaves of their Guzar masters, forced to labour,bought, sold, and transferred from one to another like so manycattle." 27The British held a double fear: on the one hand they fearedan emigration of the laboring population; on the other hand theyfeared rebellion. 28 "In 1870 the pressure of Guzar moneylenders in the western district aroused much ill-feeling, and onlyby the personal influence of Major Probyn, the Commandant ofthe Bhil Corps, was a general rising prevented. "29 Two yearsearlier the Bhils in Baglan, "growing discontented, committedgang robberies, in many cases attacking the moneylenders'houses. "30These spectres and the Deccan Riotsof 1875 led the Britishto enact the Debt Relief Act of 1879. This did not check theprocess of enslavement of the Adivasis or an alienation of landfrom them. Instead of land mortgages, sale deeds that could betom up when the loan was repaid became common. Moreover areduction in interest could always be met by a spurious inflationof the principal. Until 1907 the court did not even have thepower to go behind the bond and determine the real nature of thetransaction.

Closure ofForestsThe British themselves took measures to relieve the area ofthe problem of the .. shortage of labor" which lay at the roots of


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Agricultural laborers and poor peasants in the Shramik Sanghatana office,Shahade, 1973 (Omvedt)

the specific intensity and sharpness of the relationship betweenthe kulaks and laboring population. So long as the intensity ofthe relationship did not create either an emigration of the laboring population or rebellion, the British were content that theBhils increasingly' took up service" under the kulaks.The decisive act of the British which unwittingly changedthe situation was the closing of the forests. By the provisions ofchaters IV and II of the Forest Act (VII of 1878), 1612 squaremiles of Khandesh were declared to be reserve forests and 714square miles were declared protected forests. 31 In Shahadesubdivision 73 thousand acres of land were enclosed. The needfor such a measure arose from the 1860s when the Railwayswere constructed and a further spurt was provided, first, by thework of the Surat-Bhusavall ine crossing Khandesh from east towest just south of the Tapi, and secondly by the Dhule-Chalisgaon line-both of which were completed in 1899-1900. Thearea formerly imported timber, especially for the famous carts

of Talode. Now more and more of the timber cut down was usedwithin the area. In 1873 the movement of timber by rail inwardsto the district was 536 tons and the outward movement was ameagre 10 tons. By 1878 the inward movement had fallen to 240tons while the outward movement had leapt to 112 tons. 32The effect of this development on the tribal population canbe easily seen. It amounted to an effective dispossession of theAdivasis from the forests that were the basis of their existence.The enclosure of the forests meant that they were to occupy theforests only on sufferance, and frequently they were only leftwith the right to pathways and waterways. Their right to gameand forest produce was severely restricted and this restrictiongrew as the British needs grew. As the forests were cleared, theywere granted plots in the clearings but in lieu they had to

perform back-breaking "veth" or gratis forced labor for theForest Department. A register was maintained of all those wholived by woodcutting. Each woodcutter was issued a wooden"ticket" with a number. During the first year the systemworked well. In the second year there was such a rush andpressure on the system that within the year tickets had to bedrastically reduced,33 and thereafter the Department gave upthese efforts and concentrated mainly on enforcing strict forestsupervision-i.e., a stricter and more effective dispossession ofthe tribal population. The forests were thinned so extensivelythat by 1930 the Department could distribute a huge section ofcleared fallows to a numberof "plotkaris. "In ever greater numbers the Adivasis were returning to theplains of the Tapi. As they settled, they occupied both emptyland in the fertile plains and barren, hilly, koradvaha (unirrigated) land. Tillage in the taluka reached its limit and newimmigrants had to take up tenancy, saaldari, or some form ofemployment with the kulaks. The dispossession of the tribalpopUlation by the British thus eliminated the shortage of labor.At least to 1898, however, no reserve army of labor had beencreated. The proportion of share-croppers and tenants for Shahade taluka is given at 2.8 percent and the percentage oflaborers(farm servants and field laborers) is given at 12.6 percent. 34(However, this process of immigration developed very fast sothat by 1917 the corresponding figures were given as 35.2% and39.7% respectively!35)With the growth of usurious practices, land became concentrated in the hands of the kulaks. The concentration of landled to a series of peasant uprisings during the second half of thenineteenth century, including the Santhal Rebellion and theDeccan Riots. The British tried by legislation to stem the tide ofconcentration by a new enactment, Act 6 of 1901. This actamended section 73 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code (Act 5of 1879) which explicitly recognized the right to sell, mortgage,bequeath or otherwise to transfer land without limit. By theamendment the Government of the day was empowered to makecertain lands non-transferable, i.e ., not transferable without theprior and special sanction of the collector. Adivasi land in thenorthwest basin was brought under this' Navi-Shart" [literally,"new tenure"]. This was quite an ineffective measure. All itinvolved was tighter credit for the smallholder and some additional trouble for the kulak and moneylender. Moreover thecollectors gave their sanction to transfers quite freely. How littlean impact it had is seen from a 1938 report which shows that theentire tribal population of Shahade taluka held only 5.3 percentof the land. 36

31. OPB-XII, p. 17. The demarcation of these was completed by 1879Note may be taken here of the fact that in the language spoken by the departments, delimitation refers to the drawing up of a boundary on paper whereasdemarcation refers to actual detennination of these frontiers on the land itself.32. Ibid., p. 216.33. Ibid., p. 21.34. Brahme, Sulabha, Upadhyaya and Ashok: Study ofEconomic Condi-tions ofAgricultural Labour in Dhulia District, Maharashtra (Poona: ShankaBrah me Samaj Vidnyana Oranthalaya, 1975) (hereafter ECAL) , p. 35.35. Ibid., p. 35.36. Quoted from the Symington Report in a typed note on Land Alienationamong the Adivasis by S. D. Kulkarni (1975). The figure of 5.3% is obviouslyvery l ow, but what it does bring out is the fact that the Adivasis by the 20s held asubstantially low proportion of the land in the plains.


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"Equality March" a/t rib al women. Feb. 1978 (Omvedt)

The 1857 Revolt

The 1857 revolt was a very complex phenomenon.What stands out clearly is the interlacing of two movements. While in most places it was led by revivalistfeudalelements, at the same time the rapidity with which itspread was definitely linked to an as yet inarticulate,chaotic revolt of the poorer peasantry, and the oppressedAdivasis.In the Khandesh, the northern revolt was a signalfora mass revolt ofthe Adivasis called the Khandesh Bhit (orBheel) rebellion by the British. It was led by Khaja Naik(or Kajeesingh Naik) along with Bheema Naik andMehvasia Naik. From 1831 to 1851, for twenty yearsKhaja Naik had cooperated with the British and was incharge of the security of 40 miles of mountainous roadswinding through the Sendhwa pass on the Bombay-AgraRoad. In 1851, he was sentenced to 10 years of confinementfor the death ofa suspect in a robbery committed onthe road in his charge. In 1856he was setfree expressly inorder to ensure the security of the Bombay-Agra Road.Much to their amazement, the British found that, on. some abuse" from an European officer, Khaja Naik ledhis men on in armed revolt which soon spread to all partsof Khandesh. The desperation and panic with which theBritish reacted is apparent from the correspondenceabout the Khandesh Bhit rebellion.In trying to suppress this Adivasi rebellion the British proved to be as ferocious as their predecessors-theMarathas. The Gazetteers include extracts of letterswhich say in proper form that, . . . . . sixty-two men weretaken prisoners out of which fifty-seven have been shot bysentence ofa Drum Beat Court Martial." ........ 72male prisoners were also taken . . . ofthese 55 were triedlast evening by Drum Beat Court Martial and shot and therest similarly disposed of today (sic!). "The Khandesh Bhil rebellion continued even afterthe northern revolts were crushed. The source of its continuance was mainly the ferocious and violent suppression of the Adivasis. Finally, after a lot of exchange of

correspondence and debate, the Britishers on the spot who were constantly advising an unconditional pardon for the Naiks as the only way of suppressing the rebellion won out. This had an immediate effect and the rebellion was finally' 'suppressed:" strange suppression, indeed, offering an unconditional and unilateral pardon to the rebellious Naiks! But the characteristic lucidity of the underlying analysis comes out:

"Taking into consideration the difficult and unhealthy country in which the Naiks had their headquarters which render military operations against them almost impracticable for the next ten months and knowing what amount of misery these men, rendered desperate by the loss of their families could inflict on the population residing on the borders ofKhandesh before they could be killed or apprehended, if they were allowed to remain united, I was convinced no sacrifice could scarcely be too great if their dispersion could be accomplished and I had little doubt of breaking up the confederacy if Kajeesingh who was the head of it could be induced to submit."

In mid-1858 Khaja Naik dismissed his followers and supporters and presented himself to the District Magistrate at Dhule. By that time the northern revolt had also been effectively crushed by the British and Khaja Naik and his followers, facing isolation, gave up their hopes of leading a general Adivasi revolt against the Brit ishfor the time being. Thus ended the people's rebellion of the Adivasis against the British. It took the cue of the 1857 revolt of the feudal chiefs when it began. Isolated by the suppression of the 1857 revolt, it was forced to give in to the British. But 1857 was to prove a much bigger landmark in Indian history. It was also the end ofthe period of a purely revivalist feudal leadership of the anti-imperialist struggle. It marked also the end of the rule of the British East India Company and the beginning of the rown rule.

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Kulaks and Adivasis:Some mention must be made here of the variousfeudatory chiefs in the area. There were in the area atvarious places a number offeudatories who held feudaltitles to huge tracts of land in the pre-British period. This

class had a mixed caste basis and counted among itselfBrahmins, Maratha Rawals, Muslim Bohras, Rajputs aswell as some Adivasi chieftains. After the enforcementofBritish Land Administration, the erstwhile feudatorieswere able to retain their land interests in the form ofrevenue rights and land ownership. For the most parttheir land was leased out to small-holding Adivasis and,more importantly, to the emergent kulak class. Even ifwehave so far singled out the Gujar caste, as typicallyrepresentative, the kulak class that was emerging in thearea was made up alsoofthe Rajputs, Dakhani Marathas,Gosavis and Kunbis belonging to the higher castes. Thecontradiction that appeared between the Gujar kulaksand the smallholding and landlessAdivasi population inthe area appeared generally between all these sectionsofkulaks and the smallholders, landlessAdivasis. It was toan extent softened, dependent on their specific caste characteristics, but came out in its sharpest form in the relations between the Gujar kulaks and the smallholding andlandless Adivasi sections. In all these cases it will still befound that the main form in which labor was secured wasmainly the saaldari system and/or spurious tenancygraphically descrihed above.The Adivasis formed about 77 percent of the totalpopulation in Talode taluka and 53 percent of the totalpopulation in Nandurbar taluka in 1875.* Only in Shahade taluka did the Adivasis constitute about 38 percentof the total population. The popUlation classed by theBritish as Kunbis which included the Gujars was 4.2%,13.5%, and 24% respectively in Talode, Nandurbar andShahade talukas.In both Talode and Nandurbar, along with the plainswe also have a substantial population returned from theSatpudas in Talode and the offshootsof the Sahyadris insouthwest Nandurbar.ltis Shahade which brings out thecharacteristics of the plain areas very well. Here we havea Kunbi population of 24 percent along with nearly 16percent of other cultivating castes (like the Rajputs,Dakhanis, Malis, etc.) i.e., a total of 40 percent of thepopulation with only30 percent Adivasis. The proportionof the Brahmins and Vanis together was about four percent in these talukas.

* In 1875 the total population oiTalode. Nandurbar and Shahade talukaswas 30 thousand, 46 thousand and 41 thousand respectively.

* The jowar and bajra are, In comparison with wheat, both coarser types ofmillet, the bread of which fonns the staple food in most of non-coastalMaharashtra. The gram refers to chick-pea and other kinds of pulses.37. GBP-XII, pp. 379-386,409-413,417-421.

CommercializationofAgricultureThe crop pattern for 1878 for the three talukas of Talode,Nandurbar and Shahade and a comparison with the figures forKhandesh as a whole are also instructive. The proportions ofarea in all of Khandesh under jowar* and bajra were 25.4 and30.2 percent, respectively. For Nandurbar, Talode and Shahadethey were 10.2 and 27.6, 18.2 and 23.4, and 17.0 and 22.3percent respectively, consistently lower than the Khandesh figures. By contrast the figure for wheat for Khandesh as a wholewas 6.7 percent, whereas for the three taLukas it was 20.4%,

25.4%, 30.5% respectively. Also for gram the Khandesh figurewas 1.7 percent, while for the three talukas it was 6.3%, 7.2%,and 6.2% respectively. The only exception would seem to becotton; the Khandesh average being as much as 25.4 percentand the Nandurbar and Shahade talukas showing only 8.3%and 8.9% respectively. The area under cotton was negligible inTalode taluka. 37 (The proportions of cotton appear relativelylow in the crop-area of the taluka as a whole because cottoncultivation was concentrated mainly on the kulak lands in theplains. The Adivasi poor peasantry had not taken to cottoncultivation in the same way as its traditional Hindu counterparin the rest of Khandesh.) I f we take into account that the Adivaspoor peasantry in the area would be much more likely to have ahigher proportion of the coarse millets and pulses, then what wecan see very clearly is the extent of commercialization of kulakproduction. Wheat, cotton and gram formed the main crops othe kulak and accounted together for 35, 33 and 46 percentof thetotal (including both the plains and the hilly regions) croppedarea in Nandurbar, Talode, and Shahade respectively.From then till now wh'eat has been exported by the kulaksto Bombay and the southern parts of Maharashtra. The traderswere generally from the big wholesale markets of Nandurbaand Dhule. The trading structure was very rigidly centralizedand based itself mainly on the cotton trade. It was the cottontrade which brought about and maintained this centralizationWith the metalling (rock-paving) of Satrnala passes and theregularization of traffic through these in the wake of Britishtakeover of most of Maharashtra, the Bombay trade received abig boost. Very soon the cotton boom set in and the small tradewas completely subordinated to the centralized chain of commercial capital emanating from the offices of British cottonagents in Bombay, .Through these international magnates the cham passeddownward. The big marketing centres of Dhule and Nandurbawere entirely subordinated to the vagaries of the world marketIt is this chain which brought that pledging of crops six monthahead of time through advances of money-the notorious, 'jalap" which became an institution. It is through jalap thaeven the poor peasant was then made to produce cotton for theLancashire Mills, and it is jalap that secured for the trader anassured supply of cotton and guaranteed the high proportion ocotton in the area. Trading in agricultural produce led in thcolonial period to moneylending as an essential component inorder to secure produce. The trading and moneylending activities needed to secure produce at the taluka level were mainlyin the hands of Marwari and Gujarat vanis (village moneylenders) as well as the few richest o f Gu jars.The development of commodity production led the kulaksto borrow on an increasing scale to meet the expanding cashneeds. The need to repay these debts sharpened the drive to

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secure land and labor and gave rise to a series of spurious andreal debt and share-cropping transactions between the kulaksand the laboring population. Both these factors combined tomake Khandesh an area with a very high levelof per capita debt.This is borne out by the figures for 1929-30. The estimated debter Khandesh family at 685 Rs. was the highest in the BombayPresidency and was more than twice the presidency average of324 Rs.38 Under it lurked two kinds of debts: the debts of thekulak which were, so to say, truly integrated into the cycle ofusurious capital; and the debt of the laboring population inwhich the cycle was subordinate to the chief aim of securinglabor and land. The concentration of land and the expansion andextension of commodity production proceeded inexorably onthe basis of the relations formed in the early Briti:;h period.

To reiterate, then, the main class of direct exploiters in thearea was this class of kulaks that had cornered virtually all thefertile land in the plains. They were linked to the former feudatory holders by tenancy relationships and to the trader moneylenders through their credit and marketing needs. The class ofmiddle peasantry was virtually non-existent in the fertile plainsand was confined to the surrounding fringe. The laboring population was mainly that of smallholders and, increasingly, landless laborers. The smallholders were heavily in debt to thekulaks and the relationship of the kulaks to the direct producerson their lands was mainly that of labor-mortgage.The Case of Shahade

So far our analysis has only brought forward the differentelements in the situation. What must also be done is to give anhistorical analysis of the specific relations in one taluka of thisregion. This is especially important if we anticipate at this pointthe rapid growth of mechanization in the 1960s which the kulaksaccomplished.The important elements that stand out in the case of theShahade taluka are the strategic position of the Khandesh region, and the consequent crescendo of chaos that had such animpact on Shahade. Thus the warring feudatories and the foreign powers between them drove the Adivasi peasantry, whichwas in the process of consolidation, off its lands. Thus Shahadecame to acquire the character of an open "settlers country"although the land had already been brought under cultivation bythe Adivasis, but was now depopulated aI}d overgrown withshrubwood.This character of an open settlers' country also allowed thekulaks in Shahade not only to acquire land but substantialamounts of land. Thusfrom the beginning, the Shahade kulaksformed a much more substantial part of the population as com

pared to other areas of Maharashtra, had larger holdings andthus had independent strength with much less reliance on poorersections of the peasantry. This independent strength by contrastalso brings out the effect of the money lenders-traders on otherareas where the differentiation of the peasantry was not sosharp. In those other areas, the development of a rich peasantkulak was repressed economically, socially and politically bythe dominance of usury and trade; the differentiation was not

38. ECAL, p. 38.

substantial enough for the kulaks to acquire an independentstrength, and they, in their drive for power, were forced toparticipate in movements which had much more the characterofbroad peasant movements.An equally important element, as we have seen, is thenature of the immigrant population. The Gujars, who came froma peasant-pastoral tradition, possessed a well developed senseof pri vate property- and the contradictions one associates withthat consciousness. A peasant who succeeds in becoming richerthan average will frequently tum to the same forms of usury,trading and other forms of bondage of the laborer as the usurer ortrader that he might have hated earlier. After a certain period of"growth," it is difficult, looking solely at the economic character of his transactions, to distinguish him from any other usurer/trader or feudatory holder being subordinated to capital. Thereis, however, even at this level, an essential difference: his driveis to accumulate land and labor and he acts in order to effectuatethe ownership of these into a possession (i.e ., direct possessionof the labor process) as against a control of the productionprocess. He is thus at the same time creating the dispossession ofthe direct producers.

The Shahade area was not on the list of officiallydesignated districts for the' 'green revolution, " but inShahade, as elsewhere, there was a change in therelationship of the kulak-the "progressive farmer" - and the State. The State spared no efforts toconcentrate all developmental activity on the needs ofthose' progressive farmers."

The effect is also important from the point of view of theclass struggle. In the case of peasant struggles against the realusurer-trader or the feudatory, the subordinated peasantry willstri ve to consolidate and strengthen its "peasant'" character. Astruggle against the kulak who is taking over the possession ofthe labor process, on the other hand, tends to consolidate andstrengthen the character of the subordinated peasantry as ag-riculturallaborer rather than as peasant.Thus in spite of the constantly recurrent complaint showered on the panicking Bhi! agent, there was no spontaneouspeasant revolt of the Adivasis against the kulaks. (This is thecontrast to the Santhal rebellion or the Deccan Riots.) It is why"labor-mortgage" became the main problem of the area, and itis also why we can neither subsume the kulak, the usurer-trader,and the feudatories under a single title "semi-feudal" landlordnor submerge the distinctions between them when talking about"the subordination to capital."This is further related to the importance of caste in precapitalist India. At the "pure economic instance," an instancedrained of all the dregs of "ideology and politics," it would behard to identify a distinction between the kulaks, the usurertrader and the feudatory holder. They are all subordinated to


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capital. It begins to seem as if all of them are but single stages ofan ongoing process, forming a uniform class, at least at the"economic" level. Caste has a definite role to play in this, notsimply because it has a "relative autonomy" vis-a-vis classrelations, but because caste is a necessary form of the socialrelations of production in precapitalist India, just as much as thecommodity, that pure "economic" thing, is the form that socialrelations take in capitalism. It is thus quite important to note thatcaste acted as a very material category in the history of theKhandesh region precisely because it was the precapitalist fromof the social relations of production. The relation of labormortgage was first formed and became dominant in the relationsbetwen the Gu jars and the Adivasis. Later that relation becamegeneralized but only among the cultivating castes and the Adivasis generally. The emergence and generalization of theserelations also was mediated through caste relations which confined it to cultivating castes. Thus the linear viewpoint whichsees caste as an ideological factor external to the relation between classes must first be discarded in order to be able to see thecomplex relationship that caste as a material relationship exerted on the formation of classes in both precaptialist and laterIndia.

This does not at all mean that caste was not an ideologicalrelationship as well. In fact, what strikes the eye is the cultural,ideological legitimation of violence, and "extra-economic"coercion of the subordinated laboring population. (From thestandpoint of capitalism, this seems "abnormal" because capitalism declares itself to be a realm of freedom. In the Shahaderegion, it is not a legitimation of violence and extra-economiccoercion per se but only in connection with the Adivasis.It may seem odd that tribal groups-Adivasis living outside the margins of Hindu caste society-could be experiencingcaste forms of oppression. What has to be noted is the processformation of castes. The subordination of the Adivasis and the

legitimation of the process has a distinct continuity with theother dalit (oppressed) castes of India. Caste is a reality because, not only did the kulak or the feudatory have power overthe labor of the dalits, but the village peasant castes as a wholehad a real right over the labor, especially where a freeholdingpeasantry existed. It is not therefore at all surprising that the firstsigns of spontaneous resistance of the laboring population expressed itself in the 1920s as an Adivasi movement.Lastly, it should not be forgotten that the foundation of thissubordination of the laboring Adivasis in the Shahade regionwas based on imperialism. The Maratha internecine warfare,the consequent chaos that gave the area the character of asettlers' country, the famines which drove the Gujars to thisarea, the legal enactments and their enforcement which madepossible the frauds, the usury, the spurious contracts and theviolent subordination of theAdivasis, the enclosure of foreststhese and many other elements in the story bring out the crucialnature of British imperialist power. 39

39. The southern stripof Akkalkuwa is as fertile as the Shahade region, yetin the pre- independence period we tind the area tilled by smallholding Adivasisalmost exclusively, and instead of the cultivating castes it is mainly the usurers/traders castes which hold the Adivasis in subordination. One may very well askwhy? The reason is that British control did not extend to this part of Akkalkuwaduring the influx of the cultivating castes-especially the Gujars. It is as late as1921 that effect ive British control could be established. By that time, however,the forest enclosur e was nearly fifty years old, and progressive deforestation hadadded to it. The land had already been occupied by Adivasis. It was then later,under British protection, that the usurer/trader made his entry. Until veryrecently he was not afteretfective possession of/and and labor. In fertility, in itschara cter as open country, this area had as much to offer as the Shahade region,except British control! The kulak thus was made a hard fact by the presence ofBritish colonial rule.


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The Kulak Is Set Free: 1947The period after 1947 in India represents a period in whichthe class of kulaks analyzed so far in this essay came to controlthe entire local power stucture and used it effectively to carrythrough their "green revolution." The period up to the 1960s, isa period during which it consolidated its economic and political

class dominance. After the 1960s the area experienced the rapidemergence and spread of mechanized agriculture.Tenurial Reforms

The important phenomenon which took place immediatelyafter independence was the enactment of the Bombay Tenancyand Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, subsequently amended in1956. An assessment of the impact of this act on the agrariansituation needs to take into account the differentiation within thepeasantry itself. The very well documented literature on theineffectiveness ofthis law and its implementation generally seesthe ineffectiveness only in terms of degree. 4o The contentionhere is its ineffectiveness is related to the system of tenancybetween large landowners and the poorer peasantry. The provisions for rights to resumption, for eviction after prior notice andthe number of loopholes in the law made it easy to circumventthe law with regard to the poorer sections of the peasantry. Thelaw presupposes a heavy financial burden on plaintiffs, prolonged legal procedures and at least a minimal degree of organization for any aggrieved tenant to fight effectively; hence thelaw is a barrier to the efforts of the poorer peasantry who wish toacquire ownership over the land that they till. At the same time itis equally true that the rich peasantry had acquired the financialand political base and the necessary staying power to stand up tothe landowners. Thus the significance of the tenancy laws is notthat they were totally ineffective but that they were selective intheir operation. They presupposed and exacerbated the differentiation of the peasantry, freeing the rich peasantry and perpetuating tenancy relationships with the small peasantry.

In Shahade region the law served to clarify and consolidatethe class dominance of the kulaks. The big landowners withfeudal title to large stretches of land had mainly the kulaks astenants. Tenancy relationships with the small peasantry (whichincludes the Adivasi and other depressed castes such as thedatit/untouchables) was at best subordinate. The Tenancy Lawsprovided the kulaks with a significant increase in the profitability. The more the area held by the big moneylenders and landowners was reduced under the reform, the more they took to theemulation of kulak methods. Landowners were reduced to thelevel of the rich peasantry and turned increasingly to the saldari(year-laborer) in preference to tenancy. Small J]easantry weredispossessed from whatever land the landowners managed tokeep by circumventing the provisions of the Tenancy Law. Thusin its impact the Act simultaneously set free the rich peasantry,consolidated its economic dominance by substantially increasing its profitability, created a pressure on the landowners to taketo wage-exploitation and also created another spurt and channelof dispossession of the Adivasi and dalit small peasantry.

40. V. M. Dandekar and G. J. Khudanpur: Working of the BombayTenancy Act. 1948 (Poona: Report of Investigation. Gokhale Institute of Politicsand Economics, 1957) (hereafter WBTA).

This process, starting from an already high degree ofconcentration of land in the hands of the kulaks, has entirelychanged the tenancy relationships in the area. Just as the lawsmade the rich peasants and the former landowners reluctant andill-disposed toward tenancy in preference to saldari, at the sametime it disposed the increasingly impoverished peasantry, hardput to find means (bullocks, seed, etc.) for tilling a shrinkingarea, to leasing out its lands!In the first instance this land had generally been farmed outto their own kith and kin. Now they turned to the peasants incases where the land, due to its proximity or fertility, wasespecially attractive to the rich peasants. In other words the richpeasant became a "tenant in reverse" to the impoverishedsmallholder-a development of quite some significance to therich peasantry in their attempts to consolidate their position.Land so leased, while not large in terms of area, is significant in terms of its location and quality. Today the main anddominant form of the tenancy relationships in the fringe areasaround the plains is the extensive agreements of sharecroppingamong the smaller peasantry while both the cases relating to asmall peasant tenant of a large holder and its reverse are marginal.

Other Land LegislationThe Bombay Prevention of Fragmentation and Consolidation of Holdings Act of 1947 stands out in contrast with all theefforts to protect the small holder. Under this Act the kulaks inShahade could truly consolidate their holdings, and converttheir holdings into unified tracts of fertile land, acquiring notonly the fragments intervening between their lands but alsocontiguous land. Many of these transactions did not perhaps


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Shram ik Sanghata na cuntinJ

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Table 1 Table 2Percentage Distributionof Outstanding Debt Land Development Bank in Dhule DistrictAccording to Class ofCultivators andCredit Agency in Dhule District 1957-58 1971-72 [*]Borrowing members 14.36 25,257Class ofCultivators Share capital (Rs. lakhs) 1.67 65.24 [30.49]Credit Agency Big Large Medium Small All Reserve (Rs. lakhs) 2.78 8.24 [3.86]LoansOutstand ing (Rs. lakhs) 24.48 288.21 [134.68]Government 8.8% 13.3% 18.4% 13.2% 14.8%Cooperative andCommerical Banks 41.2 32.8 14.0 16.0 26.3 During 1971-72 the Bank advanced 680.981akhs as short term andRs. 154.63Relatives 19.9 21.1 18.4 18.9 20.2 lakhs as medium term loans.Landlords 4.3 5.0 4.8 0.9 4.6AgriculturalMoneylenders 4.1 4.7 8.5 13.2 6.2ProfessionalMoneylenders 17.9 18.6 32.5 34.0 23.6Traders andCommissionAgents, etc. 3.8 4.5 3.4 3.8 4.1All Agencies 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Table 3Note: The total cultivators covered in the survey were classified into decile Agricultural Credit Societies in Dhule Districtgroups considering the size of landholding. The class of big culti vators refers tothe top 10 percent cultivators; large cultivators include the top three deciles,medium cultivators the middle four deciles and small cultivators-the bottom 1957-58 1971-72 [*]three decilesSource:Jndia Rural Credit Survey. ( 1951) District Monograph, West Khandesh. No. ofAgricultural creditsocieties 672 765Membership (thousands) 48.60 110.75Share capital (Rs. lakhs) 39.36 209.07 [97.70]Reserves (lakhs) 27.79 70.84 [33.10]Working Capital (Rs. lakhs) 129.99 664.93 [310.70]

Table 4District Central Cooperative Bank in Dhule District1957-58 1971-72 [*]

No. ofmember societies 777 1598 Share capital (Rs. lakhs) 10.64 98.02 [45.80] Reserves (Rs. lakhs) 33.68 [15.74] Working capital (Rs. lakhs) 118.78 884.67 [413.40]

Source: Socio-Economic Review and Statistical Abstract for Dhule District.*The figures in brackets give the amounts in 1971-72 corrected for inflationbetween 1957-58 and 1971-72, during which the consumerprice index rose by214%.Tribal Women singing at village meeting (Omvedt)


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TableS Selected Information about Agriculture Dhule District

1951 1961 1971Population in '000 1060 1351 1662Gross cropped area*(000 hectares) 753 759 724Percentage of gross irrigated areato gross cropped area* 3.6 5.0 11.7Percentage area under*Wheat 5.4 4.5 6.6Total cereals 63.0 54.7 53.7Total pulses 11.8 13.2 15.9Cotton 11.0 10.1 9.9Oil seeds 12.1 19.1 17.0Condiments & spices 0.8 1.8 1.5Fruits & vegetables 0.3 0.3 0.7Intensity of cropping* 108 113 109 Engines with pumps 884 3826 11157 Electric pumps 13 81 6651 Tractors 50 40 294 *Averagedover 1952-53-1953-54, 1960-61-1961-62, 1970-71-197172.Source: District Census Handbooks, Socio-Economic Review & StatisticalAbstracts for Dhule district.

the credit structure. The two are closely linked. Ironically thecooperative movement did not foster widespread cooperativefarming but its effect on the credit system has been extremelysignificant, especially with its double edged impact on thedifferentiation of the peasantry. On the one hand, the stream ofbenefits flowing from cooperative credit largely bypassed thepoorer sections of the peasantry. What's worse, they have evencreated new debt-bondages for them. Without the proper security, they are driven to the moneylender or the rich kulak. Forexample, the Vividh Karyakari Sahakari Society (multipurposecooperative society) is a village-based organization widelyfound in Maharashtra and expressly created for the small timeneeds of cultivators. It is also under compulsion to help thesmall peasant. This creates a curious situation. The small peasant may borrow some money. Unable to repay the loan, he orshe is advanced a sum of money to repay it and immediatelyrenew it. Thus on paper the loan is cancelled out each year,which preserves the appearance that the VKS is "helping" thesmall peasant. The twist is that the poor peasant now must pay inperpetuity an annual interest on the loan-interest which becomes funds available to the rich peasant. Thus through permanent loans and annual interest the poor peasants make creditavailable to the kulak for incidental needs! As far back as 1951the All India Rural Credit Survey indicated that most of the largeholders met nearly 40-50 percent of their credit requirementsfrom such Government or Banking channels. (See Table 2)Cooperative credit has helped the kulak to break free from the

Table 6The Progress of Agriculture

Shahade Taluka1951 1961 1971Population in '000 134.5 155.5 183.7Gross cropped area*(000 hectares) 85.2 93.4 84.3Percentage of gross irrigated areato gross cropped area* 6.8% 8.1% 20.6%Percentage area underWheat 11.2% 9.1% 10.3%Total cereals 59.6 51.2 42.6Total pulses 10.3 16.4 19.5Cotton 18.4 9.2 12.4Total oil seeds 8.6 17.8 19.0Condiments & spices 1.8 3.5 2.8Fruits & vegetables 0.5 0.6 1.5Sugarcane 0.1 0.8 1.1Intensity of cropping* 110 115 113

Engines with pumps 283 1008 2228Electric pumps 1 50 801Tractors 8 13 109***Averagedover 1952-53-1953-54,1960-61-1961-62,1970-71-197172. * *The number of tractors in Shahade taluka was 136 according to the Livestock Census, 1966. Source: District Census Handbooks, Socio-Economic Review & Statistical Abstracts for Dhule District.

need to borrow from private moneylenders and big landlordsahookars. This does not mean that the kulak no longer takesloans from them, but only that he does so at his convenience.The tremendous expansion of cooperative credit between1957-58 and 1971-72 is brought out by Tables 3 to 5. Theagricultural credit societies have more than doubled their membership during this period. During the same period however thetotal amount of capital with the societies has increased five-fold. Similarly as one goes up the chain, one finds that thecapital with banks such as the Dhule DCC Bank has increased aphenomenal eight and one-halftimes. The Land DevelopmentBank, whose holdings also increased more rapidly than itsmembership, was created with the express purpose of cateringto the long-term credit needs of the "cultivators" and was to beinstrumental in supplying credit for the purchase of mechanicalequipment by the Shahade kulaks in the 1970s. 42Other parts of the cooperative movement also allowed therich peasants to centralize their resources and achieve an economy of scale. The middle and poor peasants, if they participatedat all, could never be the backbone of the movement and theirparticipation was always dominated by the rich peasant. By1964 and 1965 there were 12 fertilizer distributing cooperativesocieties. (With the exception of Dhule this is the largest figurefor a taluka in the district.) Dairy and animal husbandry were theother agricultural operations that became subordinated to thecooperative movement. In Dhule, Shahade, and Shirpur talukas61 Feeder societies collecting and supplying milk to the central18


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Table 7 Distributionof Male Workers by Occupation Sbahade Taluka

DistributionYear Total Total Male of male earners (%)Population Earners

Cultivators Agril. OthersLaborers1951 1,34,552 37,200* 45.3* 36.6* 18.1*1961 1,55,472 44,071** 41.6 40.8 17.61971 1,83,682 48,649 33.9 48.4 17.7*Estimated**The figures ofeamers for 1961 are adjusted to concepts as adopted in 1971census.Source: District Census Handbooks for 195 I, 1961, 1971.

cooperative dairies had been established by 1964. In addition,the local milk producers' unions that were set up handled anequivalent amount of milk. Khandsari societies were established that led to the development of sugarcane production andthe construction in 1972 of the Cooperative Sugar Factory. 43Consolidation ofPolitical Dominance:

The most important political developments in the area werethe constitution of the Maharashtra State in May 1960 and thesetting up of the Zilla Parishads (District Councils). Before thecreation of the Maharashtra State the "local self-government"bodies were subordinate to the centralized bureaucracy of theBombay State. Local elected representatives had at best consultative voice and the effective control rested in the hands of thebureaucracy. Nor did these bodies have either well-definedfunction or control over funds. With the institution of the ZillaParishads, they acquired autonomous functions as well as control over substantial funds. Part of the funds were fixed at a ratioof the Gram Panchayat* collections and theof"est were providedby the State bodies. The maintenance and development of allexcept state and national highways came under its purview.Primary, and later, secondary education outside the Municipalareas came under its control. More important decisions affecting virtually all areas of agricultural development came beforethe Zilla Parishads. Except for major irrigation works, all theminor irrigation works, land conservation projects, etc., weretransferred to the ZPs. All specific development activity cameunder the Block schemes with "gramsevaks"** in nearly everyvillage. Their purposes included the general advance ofmechanization, the distribution of fertilizers, setting up of seedfarms and even the distribution of scarce fuel resources with theadvent of the "energy crisis." They are notorious for their

Table 8 Conditions ofSaldars Sbahade Taluka (1976)

(a) Duration ofEmployment (b) Amount ofLoan Takenfrom the kulakNo. of years of No. of Loan Amount No. ofemployment with saldars (Rs.) saldarsthe same kulakUpt02 201 Nil 1263-5 261 Up to 100 706-10 70 101-300 14611-15 26 301-500 75Above 15 38 Above 500 23Total 596 Total 440*Does not include 156 saldars who have joined the service of the particular kulakin the current year.Source: Field Investigations carried out in 1976 in Shahade taluka.

nepotism and maneuvering but the notoriety generally refers tocases of individuals. What is necessary is to point out that thisnepotism was the result of the competition of various contending groups exclusively drawn from among the kulaks. Thisresult might have been expected from the nature of the functionsreserved for the ZPs. No matter which groups of kulaks came todominate the ZPs, it was surely the kulaks as a class whobenefitted from their activity. The development ofthe ZPs put inthe hands of the kulaks a weapon to selectively channel development to their area and their lands. Where previously the PublicWorks Department and the local boards dominated by thenominated officials of the bureaucracy generally dissipated theirmeagre funds in feeble and general efforts at development, thenew bodies constantly expanded their area of control and theirfunds. Selectively, ruthlessly and

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