socio-economic conditions of agricultural labourers...
TRANSCRIPT
CHAPTER III
SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OFAGRICULTURAL LABOURERS IN
THANJAVUR DISTRICT
Thanjavur is the foremost district of the Cauvery delta which
occupies an important position in the agricultural map of Tamil Nadu.
Since its formation, the district is called as the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu.
It was bifurcated and a new district named Nagapattinam was formed
during 1993. Nagapattinam district was again bifurcated into
Nagapattinam and Thiruvarur districts during 1997. Thus, the erstwhile
district of Thanjavur had been trifurcated into Thanjavur, Nagapattinam
and Thiruvarur districts.
Thanjavur stands unique from time immemorial for its agricultural
activities and is rightly acclaimed as the Granary of the South India lying
in the deltaic region of the famous river Cauvery and criss-crossed by
lengthy network of irrigation canals. This coastal district abounds in
green paddy fields, tall coconut groves, vast gardens of mango and
plantain trees and other verdant vegetation. Various testimonials available
in the ancient Tamil literature referring to the Cauvery as possessing the
sanctity of the Ganges in conformity with the legendry and mythological
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stories attributed to its divine origin, rightly point out why the river is
popularly called the 'Mother Cauvery' and its sacredness is evident from
'Kaviri-Thala-Puranam'. The river has also been named as 'Ponni' because
it is yielding 'pon' - Gold in the form of paddy. That is why it is said with
pride that every iota of the earth of Thanjavur is equal to an iota of gold.
It is no wonder therefore that at the very threshold of the district
itself, one can feel the distinguished green vegetation and call Thanjavur
as “the green mansion”, of the South. With the river Cauvery irrigating
the district, the cropping pattern followed was Paddy-Paddy-Rice fallow
pulses/cotton/ gingely. The economy of the district is, therefore, primarily
agrarian in nature with very few industrial units.1
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DISTRICT
Thanjavur is one of the thirteen coastal districts of Tamil Nadu in
the production of marine fish which accounts for about 5 per cent of the
total marine fish catch in the State. The district is famous for its exquisite
ancient handicrafts-making of bronze icons, Thanjavur art plates, bell-
metal castings, bowls, and napkin and powder boxes of metal with
beautiful and artistic in-laying and engraving work of motifs well known
as Thanjavur swami work. It is equally well-known for pith-work,
1 Accessed at www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanjavur on 15.10.2012.
136
ornamental fans, mats and making of musical instruments out of
jackwood. It is also a flourishing centre of handloom silk and cotton
sarees. Thanjavur attained prominence under the Chola rulers who were
paramount in South India during 9th to 12th centuries. They were not only
excellent rulers, but also mighty builders, who erected a large number of
exquisite temples in their empire, some of which constitute the finest
specimens of architecture. Hence, the district stands distinguished in the
state even in its large number of temples, whose legends extend deep into
early historic times. Many of these temples reflect the power, genius and
architectural grandeurs of their authors displaying the unique and
magnificent proficiency in sculpture, painting and wood carving. Art
gallery the great Saraswathi Mahal library, the 'Sangeetha Mahal' (hall of
music), the thriving of classical music and dance known as
'Bharathanatyam' and the celebration of grand annual music festival at
Thiruvaiyaru, in honour of the great Saint Thiagaraja, all bear testimony
to the cultural heritage.
The district can be divided into two distinct regions viz., the deltaic
region and the upland area or non-deltaic region. The deltaic region
covers the whole northern and eastern portions of the district where the
Cauvery with its wide network of branches irrigate more than half of the
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district. It comprises the whole of Kumbakonam taluk and parts of
Thanjavur, Papanasam taluks. The rest of the southern and western areas
of the district are non-deltaic or upland region. A good portion of upland
regions which was dry has now been brought under irrigation with the
help of Grand Anaicut canal, fed by the Cauvery-Mettur Project and by
extension of the Vadavar river. Non-deltaic region is also devoid of hills
and slopes gradually seawards.2
Thanjavur is the home to famous Brihadeeswara Temple, one of
United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation’s World
Heritage Sites, which was built by Raja Raja Cholan during the 11th
century. The temple is enclosed in two courts, surmounted by a lofty
tower and including the exquisitely decorated shrine of Murugan. Among
the other historic buildings is the Vijayanagara fort, which contains a
palace that was expanded by the Maratha king Serfoji II with an armoury,
a Bell Tower and the Saraswathi Mahal Library, which contains over
30,000 Indian and European manuscripts written on palm leaf and paper.
Also built by Serfoji II is the Manora Fort, a monumental tower, situated
about 65 km away from Thanjavur.3
2 Accessed at www.thanjavur.tn.nic.in on 15.10.2012.3 Ibid.,
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PROFILE OF THANJAVUR DISTRICT
The composite Thanjavur District comprising the present
Thanjavur, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts along with the
composite Trichy district was known as Chola Nadu or Chola Mandalam
in ancient days. Thanjavur was the capital of Chola kings for many years
and later Maratha rulers had this place as their headquarters. Even now,
the Maratha Royal Family has their heirs in Thanjavur.
A very old and efficient canal irrigation system has facilitated
agriculture to be the main occupation of the population. The “Stanley
Reservoir” constructed during pre-independence period across Cauvery
River at a distance of about 200 km northwest of Thanjavur is still
serving as the chief source of surface water irrigation in Thanjavur delta.
Water received from the dam through Cauvery River is well regulated at
Grand Anicut located at a distance of 28 kms and distributed in a
balanced way through 3 main systems like Cauvery, Vennar and Grand
Anicut canal. However in the recent past, the storage capacity in the
Stanely Reservoir has become low and people of the district are being
forced to venture upon other sources for irrigation water particularly
ground water. The climate of the district is tropical and it falls under the
category of medium and high rainfall region with average rainfall around
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1020 mm. Majority of the rain is received through North East Monsoon
(October to early December).4
The economy of the district is basically agrarian and about 75% of
the work force is depending on agriculture. Paddy is the main crop of the
district and raised in nearly 60% of the cropped area. Sugarcane,
groundnut, pulses, gingelly and coconut are the other important crops
cultivated in the district. Surface irrigation is the main source of
irrigation. Cauvery, Vennar, and Grand Anaicut Canal with their
subsidiaries viz. Vettar, Kudamurutti, Thirumalairajan, Veerachozhan,
Arasalar, Agniyar, Kalyana Odai and Poonaikuthi river constitute the
irrigation system of the district.
The basic strategies advocated under agro-climatic Zonal Planning
System is to include improvement of Cropping systems, development of
land and water resources, animal husbandry and fisheries activities. The
district has extensive irrigation canal network of the Cauvery system.
Over dependence on canal irrigation which is subject to ravages of the
monsoon and complexities of inter-state water sharing arrangements
among the riparian states is the main negative feature of the district.5
4 Accessed at www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanjavur_district on 16.10.2012.5 Accessed at www. thanjavuronline.blogspot.com/2009/05/thanjavur-district-profile.html on16.10.2012.
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DEMOGRAPHIC AND WORKFORCE STRUCTURE OF
THANJAVUR DISTRICT
This section examines the demographic and the workforce structure
particularly that of the total workers, cultivators and agricultural labourers
in Thanjavur district during 1951, 1961 and 1971 based on the Census
pertaining to the Census period. Table – 4.1 presents the data for 1951.
Table – 4.1 Demographic and Workforce Structure ofThanjavur District, 1951
Area Male Female TotalTotal Population
Rural 978598 (81.26) 981549 (81.24) 1960147 (81.25)Urban 225655 (18.74) 226687 (18.76) 452342 (18.75)Total 1204253 (100.0) 1208236 (100.0) 2412489 (100.0)
Total WorkersRural 538588 (72.93) 277066 (90.13) 815654 (77.99)Urban 199868 (27.07) 30334 (9.87) 230202 (22.01)Total 738456 (100.0) 307400 (100.0) 1045856 (100.0)
CultivatorsRural 302825 (97.56) 97532 (95.38) 400357 (97.02)Urban 7573 (2.44) 4724 (4.62) 12297 (2.98)Total 310398 (100.0) 102256 (100.0) 412654 (100.0)
Agricultural LabourersRural 272934 (96.54) 88824 (95.37) 361758 (96.25)Urban 9782 (3.46) 4312 (4.63) 14094 (3.75)Total 282716 (100.0) 93136 (100.0) 375852 (100.0)
Note: Figures in brackets are percentagesSource: Primary Census Abstract, 1951, Tamil Nadu, Census of India
141
It is noted from the table that the proportion of rural population
stood at 81.25 per cent with a population of 19.60 lakhs, while the share
of urban population stood at 18.75 per cent with a population size of 4.52
lakhs. Among the male population, the share of rural males accounted for
81.26 per cent with 9.78 lakhs and thus, the percentage of urban males
formed 18.74 per cent with 2.25 lakhs. In the case of female population
too, the rural females accounted for 81.24 per cent with a population of
9.81 lakhs and the urban share stood at 18.76 per cent with 2.26 lakhs.
Thus, Thanjavur remained highly rural-oriented in 1951.
In the rural areas, workers formed 78 per cent of the total workers,
while it was 22 per cent in the urban areas, while it was 72.93 per cent
among the males and 90.13 per cent in the case of the female workers.
However, among the workers, the share of male workers was
considerably higher than that of female workers in both rural and urban
areas. The percentage of cultivators was 97.02 per cent in the rural areas
and 2.98 per cent in the urban areas, while the share of cultivators within
total workers was around 40 per cent. Out of the 412654 cultivators in
Thanjavur district, 310398 cultivators were males and the remaining
102256 were females. Among both male and female cultivators, the
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share of urban area was quite less, as rural cultivators formed more than
95 per cent.
In the case of agricultural labourers, there were 361758 labourers
in the rural Thanjavur and 14094 labourers in the urban areas and within
both male and female labourers, the percentage of urban area was less
than 5 per cent. Thus, out of a total of 1045856 workers in Thanjavur
district, agricultural labourers accounted for 36 per cent, which was 38
per cent in the rural areas.
The changes in the demographic and the workforce structure of
Thanjavur district are explained with the help of Table – 4.2 which
presents the data pertaining to 1961.
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Table – 4.2 Demographic and Workforce Structure ofThanjavur District, 1961
Area Male Female Total
Total Population
Rural 1280196 (79.50) 1304211 (79.73) 2584407 (79.62)
Urban 330045 (20.50) 331475 (20.27) 661520 (20.38)
Total 1610241 (100.0) 1635686 (100.0) 3245927 (100.0)
Total Workers
Rural 785666 (82.13) 373234 (91.72) 1158900 (85.00)
Urban 170842 (17.87) 33704 (8.28) 204546 (15.00)
Total 956608 (100.0) 406938 (100.0) 1363546 (100.0)
Cultivators
Rural 347861 (96.34) 130806 (97.90) 478667 (96.77)
Urban 13198 (3.64) 2803 (2.10) 16001 (3.23)
Total 361059 (100.0) 133609 (100.0) 494668 (100.0)
Agricultural Labourers
Rural 238572 (95.89) 190463 (96.59) 429035 (96.20)
Urban 10221 (4.11) 6719 (3.41) 16940 (3.80)
Total 248793 (100.0) 197182 (100.0) 445975 (100.0)
Note: Figures in brackets are percentages.
Source: Primary Census Abstract, 1951, Tamil Nadu, Census of India.
The table indicates that the total population of the district has gone
up to 32.45 lakhs in 1961, in which the rural areas accounted for 79.62
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per cent with 25.84 lakhs and urban areas accounted for 20.38 per cent
with 6.61 lakhs of population. The share of female population was higher
than that of male population, since the former had a population of 16.35
lakhs, while the latter had a population of 16.10 lakhs of population.
The number of workers remained at 13.63 lakhs, which was 42 per
cent of the total population and within total workers, 85 per cent were
rural based (11.59 lakhs) and the remaining 15 per cent were urban
oriented (2.04 lakhs). Among the male workers, 82.13 per cent were rural
workers (7.85 lakhs), while 17.87 per cent were urban workers (1.71
lakhs) and in the case of the female workers, 91.72 per cent were rural
workers (3.73 lakhs and the remaining 8.28 per cent were urban workers
(0.33 lakhs).
The number of cultivators has gone up to 4.94 lakhs, in which
96.77 per cent (4.78 lakhs) were residing in the rural areas, while 3.23 per
cent (0.16 lakhs) were residing in the urban areas. Moreover, there were
3.61 lakhs of male cultivators and 1.33 lakhs of female cultivators.
Among both male and female cultivators, the share of urban cultivators
accounted for less than 4 per cent.
The total number of agricultural labourers stood at 445975, in
which 248793 were males (55.8 per cent), while 197182 were females
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(44.2 per cent). Within the male and female labourers, the share of rural
labourers was more than 95 per cent, since in the total number of
agricultural labourers, the percentage of rural labourers was 96.20 per
cent (4.29 lakhs). This indicates considerable growth in the number of
agricultural labourers in Thanjavur districts in 1961 from that of 1951,
which is not surprising, given the demand for agricultural labourers in
this district. Apart from those who were residing in the district, there were
others who were coming from the neighbouring districts as agricultural
labourers. This indicates a considerable amount in the presence of
agricultural labourers in Thanjavur district.
Table – 4.3 presents the demographic and workforce structure of
Thanjavur district during 1971. As per the 1971 Census, the total
population of Thanjavur district stood at 38.40 lakhs, out of which 30.52
lakhs were in the rural areas (79.48 per cent) and the remaining 7.88
lakhs were residing in the urban areas (20.52 per cent). This indicates that
the proportion of urban population has gone up in Thanjavur district in
1971 compared to that of 1951. The male population was 19.26 lakhs,
while the female population was 19.14 lakhs, which indicates that the
share of the latter was marginally less than that of the former. Among
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both male and female population, the percentage of urban population
stood at around 20 per cent.
Table – 4.3 Demographic and Workforce Structure ofThanjavur District, 1971
Area Male Female Total
Total Population
Rural 1530592 (79.47) 1522102 (79.50) 3052694 (79.48)
Urban 395451 (20.53) 392587 (20.50) 788038 (20.52)
Total 1926043 (100.0) 1914689 (100.0) 3840732 (100.0)
Total Workers
Rural 877525 (82.12) 193846 (90.45) 1071371 (90.31)
Urban 191073 (17.88) 20465 (9.55) 211538 (9.39)
Total 1068598 (100.0) 214311 (100.0) 1282909 (100.0)
Cultivators
Rural 332924 (95.80) 25908 (96.64) 358832 (95.86)
Urban 14591 (4.20) 901 (3.36) 15492 (4.14)
Total 347515 (100.0) 26809 (100.0) 374324 (100.0)
Agricultural Labourers
Rural 366451 (94.93) 150612 (96.61) 517063 (95.41)
Urban 19577 (5.07) 5279 (3.39) 24856 (4.59)
Total 386028 (100.0) 155891 (100.0) 541919 (100.0)
Note: Figures in brackets are percentages.
Source: Primary Census Abstract, 1951, Tamil Nadu, Census of India.
147
The number of total workers was 12.82 lakhs in which 10.71 lakhs
were rural based (90.31 per cent), while the remaining 2.11 lakhs (9.39
per cent) were urban based. Moreover, sex-wise, 10.68 lakhs were male
workers and 2.14 lakhs were female workers. In the case of the male
workers, 82.12 per cent (8.77 lakhs) were residing in the rural areas,
while 17.88 per cent (1.91 lakhs) were urban based; on the other hand, in
the case of the female workers, 90.45 per cent (1.93 lakhs) were rural
based, whole 9.55 per cent (0.20 lakhs) were residing in the urban areas.
In 1971, the number of cultivators stood at 3.74 lakhs, in which
3.58 lakhs (95.86 per cent) were rural bound and the remaining 0.15 lakhs
(4.14 per cent) were urban based. Sex-wise, 3.47 cultivators were males
and 0.26 lakhs were females. During 1971 too, more than 95 per cent of
the cultivators were based in the rural areas. Chart – 4.1 presents the
growth in the number of agricultural labourers in Thanjavur district
during 1951 to 1971.
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Chart – 4.1 Growth in the Number of Agricultural Labourers inThanjavur District, 1951 to 1971
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
400000
No.
of A
gric
ultu
ral L
abou
rers
Male Female Male Female Male Female
1951 1961 1971
Rural Urban
Source: Based on Tables – 4.1 to 4.3.
The number of agricultural labourers had gone up to 5.41 lakhs in
1971, out of which 5.17 lakhs (95.41 per cent) were residing in the rural
areas and 0.24 lakhs (4.59 per cent) were residing in the urban areas. On
the basis of their sex, 3.86 lakhs were male labourers and the remaining
1.55 lakhs were female labourers.
149
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN THANJAVUR DISTRICT
The ground water exploitation is to the extent of 42 per cent
leaving reasonable scope for development. Paddy, pulses, groundnut,
gingely and sugarcane are the main field crops and coconut, cashew and
banana are the important tree crops. Soya beans and Cotton also find a
place in the agriculture map of the district. Thanjavur district is one of the
six districts in the state where Oil-palm cultivation has been introduced.
The district has large tracts of land suitable for horticulture activities.
Dairy and goat rearing are popular allied activities. Poultry farming is
also done in some places. The district is blessed with the presence of
substantial network of various Government departments, banking
network and specialized agencies like the Soil and Water Management
Research Institute, Soil Survey and Land Use Organisation, Tami Nadu
Rice Research Institute, Paddy Processing Research Centre, Regional
Coir Training and Development Centre, Marine Products Export
Development Authority, etc. The district is industrially backward with 5
blocks classified as Industrially Most Backward and 6 Blocks as
Industrially Backward. Well-developed Handloom and Handicrafts
150
Sector include activities like icon making, lamp making, art-plates
manufacture, musical instruments production etc.6
The dependability of ground water is further increased by the
vagary of monsoon as well as poor intensity of rainfall in the delta. This
situation had put people to lots of hardships affecting even the drinking
water supply in addition to agricultural instability. When there is flow in
Cauvery River, natural recharge is taking place in the delta area. With
surface water availability not guaranteed, to the full extent, at a time
when it is needed, people resorted to exploit the ground water in large
proportions. This has caused lowering of water table in the area especially
in summer months. In Thanjavur district, coastal habitations are facing
severe drinking water supply problem especially in summer. A stage has
come to sink deep tube wells to augment water supply in areas where
shallow open wells are serving as the source of drinking water supply. To
avoid further continuation of such a precarious situation, Government of
Tamil Nadu timely thought it is necessary to arrest further depletion of
6 Alexander, K.C., (1973), “Emerging Farmer-Labour Relations in Thanjavur”, Economic andPolitical Weekly, Vol. 8, No. 34, pp. 1551-1560.
151
water level by adopting suitable techniques of artificially recharging the
groundwater aquifer.7
Thanjavur District has a total area of 3,740 square miles and total
population 3840732 persons as per 1971 Census. This gives it a
population density of 1027 per square mile which is considerably higher
than the state average of 669, Tamil Nadu itself being one of the most
densely populated states in the country. The high density of population in
district is largely due to the fertility of the soil and its high agricultural
productivity; there are no large industrial or urban centres in the district
which can be held to account for any high concentration of population.
The vast majority of the population of the district consists of
Tamil-speaking Hindus. There are, in addition, small minorities of
Telugu and Marathi speaking people who have been established in the
district for generations. There is also a small community of silk weavers
speaking what is locally known as "Sourashtra" i.e., dialect of Gujarati.
Among religious minorities, Muslims and Christians numerically the
most important. The division of the population into castes constitutes one
of its most important Sociological characteristics. There are three broad
divisions: Brahmin, Non-Brahrnin, and Adi Dravida, or more
7 Pillai S., Ganapathy, (1969), “Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Agrarian Labour Problemsof East Thanjavur District”, Government of Tamil Nadu, Madras, pp. 4-5.
152
specifically, the Forward Caste (FC), Backward Caste (BC), Most
Backward Caste (MBC) and the Scheduled Caste (SC).8
Many of the Thanjavur Brahmins are, or were until recently, fairly
big landowners, or mirasdars. Since the beginning of the twentieth
century absentee landlordism has become common among the Brahmins,
several Non-Brahmins have owned as much land as they, if not more.
The Non-Brahmins as a category are more diverse and heterogeneous
than the Brahmins. Sometimes even Christians and Muslims are included
among them, but generally the Adi-Dravidas are excluded. The Non-
Brahmins include mainly landowning castes; landowning and cultivating
castes; trading castes; servicing castes, and a large number of other
specialist castes. The third tier in the caste structure is composed of the
Adi-Dravidas. As Scheduled Castes they have a special position and
status guaranteed to them by the Indian Constitution. The Adi-Dravidas
have hitherto been both economically and socially depressed. They are in
most cases agricultural labourers, as they were in the past; they also
engage in other forms of labour, such as digging and road building.9
8 Sivertsen, Dagfinn, (1969), “When Caste Barriers Fall”, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., New York,pp. 56-62.9 Beteille, Andre, (1966), “Caste, Class and Power”, Oxford University Press, Bombay, pp. 78-89.
153
There are two classes of cultivable land in the district, nanja and
punja. Nanja is wet or irrigated land and is greater in extent and
importance than punja. Paddy is raised only on nanja land, which is
occasionally used for raising other crops as well, either after the paddy
harvest is over, as in the case of black gram and green gram, or in
rotation with paddy, as in the case of banana or sugar cane. Punja is
unirrigated or dry land, and is used for rising millets, oilseeds, and
vegetables.
The principal crop cultivated in Thanjavur District is paddy.
Generally, two paddy crops are grown, the first being a short term crop
known as kuruvai, and the second being of longer duration and known as
samba or thaladi. A special class of land, the strip between the bed of the
river and its embankment, is known as paduhai.lt is very fertile and
generally used for growing cash crops such as banana, betel vines, and
sugar cane.
Along with high agricultural productivity, Thanjavur District has
been characterized by great polarity of agricultural incomes. It is difficult
to give in brief an adequate account of the relations of production,
particularly in view of certain basic change which have been created, at
least in law. Until recently, Thanjavur was well known for its mirasdars,
154
large and small, many of whom had very little connection with the actual
business of cultivation. With the enactment of laws fixing ceilings on
agricultural holdings, large estates have begun to break up, although it is
true that many ways have been devised to evade the law.10
The estates, large and small, were often cultivated on lease, and the
conditions of lease were generally exploitative in nature. The lessor in
many cases demanded as much as 70 to 75 per cent of the produce even
though the supplying of plough, cattle, seeds, and manure was done by
the lessee. With the passage of the Thanjavur Tenants and Pannayal
Protection Act in 1952, the legal position of the lessee becomes more
secure. The lessee was given the right to retain 40 per cent of the
produce, and this was later raised to 60 per cent. In many places these
laws exist largely on paper although they have, certainly, brought about a
change in the climate of landlord-tenant relations.
While on the one hand there has been a substantial class of rentiers,
on the other hand there was and still is an even larger class of landless
labourers. A large number of the latter belong to Scheduled Castes. Their
position up to the nineteenth century was more or less that of serfs tied to
10 Abel, Martin e., (1970), “Agriculture in India in the 1970s”, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 5,No. 13, pp. A5-A11.
155
the soil. 11 Legislative enactments over the last several decades have no
doubt freed them in one sense, but often have also left them without
employment because under the new conditions land owners do not any
more feel the obligation to support them.
Agricultural labourers in Thanjavur district are about evenly
divided between those who are permanent labourers, i.e., attached to the
family of one mirasdars and those who work as hired labour on a daily
basis. Of the two groups, the attached labourers receive greater amount of
their annual earnings in kind, and fare better. They generally receive
food, housing and some clothing from their landowners. In addition,
depending on individual arrangements, they also receive monthly
payments, both in cash and in kind. Those permanent labourers who
receive the largest portion of their monthly wage in kind enjoy the most
favoured position. In such cases, a labourer typically receives one and
one-half bags of paddy per month, plus Rs. 2 in cash; during harvest there
are additional kind payments about two Madras measures (1 Madras
measure = 1.22 Kgs) of paddy per day. While there rates have remained
substantially unchanged over the last ten years, their cash equivalent has
risen along with the price of food grains from less than Rs. 400 to about
11 Frankel, Francine, (1971), “India’s Green Revolution”, Princeton University Press, New York,pp. 41-48.
156
Rs. 500 during this period. Other labourers who have customarily
received their monthly payments in cash are less fortunate. A labourer
who in 1960s received Rs. 100 annually (in addition to food, clothing and
housing), may now, in the 1970s be paid Rs. 300 per year, an increase of
three times, but still lag behind the purchasing power of workers getting
constant payments in kind.12
Moreover, the economic position of the agricultural casual
labourers tends to vary from one part of the district to another, depending
on the extent of new employment opportunities opened up by the
conversion of single-cropped to double-cropped land, diversification of
the cropping pattern and the level of associated off-season activities.
Nevertheless, even in areas of intensive farming, the general oversupply
of agricultural labourers has tended to keep the wage rate frozen at the
same level for many years. This is particularly true of that portion of the
farm workers income which is still paid in kind, i.e., wages for harvest. In
the most prosperous western portion of the district, agricultural labourers
generally receive about six Madras measures per day for harvesting work,
valued at about Rs. 4. In most cases, this is the same rate of payment as
received over the past five or six years. Even if am agricultural worker is
12 Frankel, Francine, (1971), “India’s Green Revolution”, Princeton University Press, New York,pp. 81-84.
157
fortunate enough to find harvest work during two crop seasons, i.e., for
about two months a year, he can earn the equivalent of only some Rs. 240
during the peak season. It is true that daily cash wages for other
agricultural work (ploughing, transplanting, land levelling or farm
operations, etc.,) have increased over the years from the rates that were as
low as Rs. 0.75 per day for men to Rs. 2.30 and from Rs. 0.50 per day for
women to Rs. 1.80.13
In the most impoverished eastern part of the district, the self-
assertive attitudes of agricultural labourers have begun to share over into
open hostility and combativeness toward landowners. Actually, the
agricultural economy of East Thanjavur as a whole gained very little from
the agricultural development programmes. Situated in the coastal region,
much of the area is subject to submersion during the northeast monsoon.
Consequently, it has proved especially difficult to convert single-cropped
to double-cropped land. As a result, the benefits of agricultural
modernisation have come almost exclusively to large landowners, in the
form of higher yields from the application of chemical fertilizer to the
main Samba crop.
13 Ibid., pp. 89-92.
158
It is in this contrast to the large landowners that the landless
labourers have experienced the greatest decline in their economic
position. In some cases, negative changes have added up to an absolute
decline in the standard living. There are three main reasons for this: 1)
The Intensive Agricultural District Programme has generated very few
opportunities for employment, leaving most farm labourers idle from
three to six months a year; 2) Payments for harvesting and even cash rates
for day labour have remained stationary in the face of rising prices;
and 3) The proportion of wages traditionally paid in kind is shrinking as
the mirasdars substituted cash payments for a growing number of
agricultural operations. Thus, in 1967, labourers were receiving the
traditional rate for harvesting of four litres per half bag.14
CONDITIONS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS IN
THANJAVUR DISTRICT
Thanjavur district, prior to its division accounted for nearly 30 per
cent of the State's paddy production, due to its rich irrigation facilities.
Thousands of acres of land were in the possession of temples, Hindu
religious mutts and zamindars, a class of people created by the British to
collect land revenues for the government. Thirty per cent of the cultivable
14 Ibid., pp. 100-102.
159
land was in the possession of 5 per cent of the landholders. Fifty-five per
cent of the temple and mutt lands were under the control of the
cultivating tenants. There were also small and marginal farmers. The
district had a large presence of agricultural workers, most of them were
treated as slaves (pannai adimaigal). They were therefore oppressed both
socially and economically. They suffered the worst forms of
untouchability, being denied access to public wells, rivers, streets and
temples.
It was under these circumstances that the Communist movement
struck root in the district. With agricultural workers being mostly SCs and
a significant number of marginal and small landholders being from the
socially backward castes, the Communists had to integrate the fight
against economic oppression and social oppression with the cooperation
of both these sections. The communists first organised the cultivating
tenants, who were at the mercy of zamindars, temples and mutts, and then
agricultural workers. Long struggles by them for protection from eviction
led to the abolition of the zamindari system with the adoption of the
Tamil Nadu Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948;
the Tanjore Pannaiyal Protection Act, 1952 (later repealed) and the Tamil
Nadu Tenants Protection Act, 1955.
160
The Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants (Payment of Fair Rent) Act,
1956, was meant to ensure that the tenants paid a fair rent. With the
abolition of the zamindari system, a new class of marginal farmers
emerged, besides the small farmers. Similarly, the mechanisation of
agriculture that came with large allotment of funds for agriculture in the
First Five-Year Plan brought in the daily-wage earners. In the 1950s, a
Minimum Wages Act fixing wages for farm workers came into being.
The communist agricultural workers' unions demanded agreements on
payment of wages for both cultivation and harvest periods. In the 1960s,
thanks to developments such as border wars, steep fall in food production
and certain actions of the Union government, such as, devaluation of the
Indian rupee in 1966, there was a spurt in prices of agricultural
commodities giving fillip to demands for higher wages in several places.
A separate organisation for championing the cause of agricultural
workers was later formed. 15
CHANGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME IN THE
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN THANJAVUR DISTRICT
According to Swenson (1973)16, the changes in net income to farm
operator households from paddy production is the aggregate effect of all
15 “The Thanjvavur Tenants and Pannaiyal Protection Act, 1952, Act XIV of 1952”, in AgriculturalLegislations in India, Vol. VI: Land Reforms, pp. 257-267.16 Swenson, Clyde Geoffrey (1973), “The Effect of Increases in Rice Production on employment andIncome Distribution in Thanjavur District, South India”, Department of Agricultural Economics,Michigan State University, Michigan, pp. 107-113.
161
of the changes. The changes in income reflect changes in area (from both
changes in net area and changes in area resulting from a change in
cropping pattern), changes in production and changes in per acre returns
to paddy production.
The net value income from paddy production is the total value of
production less all costs of production including both purchased and non-
purchased inputs. The value of production (and costs where they were
paid in kind) is determined by the price per unit which the farm operator
received for the quantity of paddy he sold. Thus, the total production is
valued at the opportunity cost of sales as opposed to other uses for the
paddy such as consumption, gifts and payments in kind for other goods
and services. The net value income from paddy computed does not
include the value of family labour. This was deducted as a cost under the
assumption that the family labour and hired labour are substitutes. Thus,
the net value income from paddy is a return to the enterprise.
In total, the net value income at current prices of paddy from all
paddy crops increased 48 per cent between 1965-66 and 1970-71. The net
value income from Kuruvai paddy production increased the most with a
71 per cent increase. Income from Thaladi paddy production followed
with a 49 per cent increase. And, in spite of a 22 per cent reduction in
162
Samba area, income at current prices from Samba production showed an
increase of 7 per cent.
He further notes that when the net value income for paddy in 1970-
71 is deflated by the changes in consumer prices between 1965-66 and
1970-71 to reflect real changes in income, the increases in paddy income
are reduced considerably. The real increase in income from all paddy
crops was 14 per cent. After being deflated, income from Kuruvai paddy
increased 32 per cent, and Thaladi paddy income increased 14 per cent.
But, because of the 30 per cent increase in consumer prices, income from
Samba paddy decreased 18 per cent. In terms of relative change, there do
not appear to be any general tendencies with regard to either farm size or
tenure. But particular groups of farmers stand out as having greater or
less than the average overall gain of 14 per cent in real income from
paddy production.
The author also indicates that a number of farmers were employed
in labour for their own paddy production. In addition, some farmers were
employed on other farms as agricultural labourers. The total value of
agricultural labour on other farms is small compared to income from
163
paddy production or even other crops, but it was relatively important
source of income for particular groups of farmers.17
The total value of agricultural labour on other farms increased from
Rs. 14184 to Rs. 19300 at current prices or Rs. 14846 in real terms for an
increase in real value of 5 per cent between 1965-66 and 1970-71. Most
of the agricultural labour on other farms was in paddy production. This
represented 77 per cent of the total income from agricultural labour in
1970-71 compared to 80 per cent in 1965-66. Labour on other crops
contributed 6 per cent of agricultural labour in 1970-71, up from 5 per
cent in 1965-66. And 17 per cent of total agricultural labour was earned
by supervising other people’s farms in 1970-71 compared to 15 per cent
in 1965-66. This is shown in Table – 4.4.
The income from agricultural labour was received by a particular
set of farmers. In both years, only farmers in the smallest farm size
category or owner-tenants and tenants in the small farm category worked
as agricultural labourers on other farms. When divided by tenure, the
tenants had the highest proportion of their farmers working on other
farms, and the owner-operators had the least proportion with the
proportion of owner-tenant farmers between the two.
17 Ibid., pp. 118-121.
164
Table – 4.4 Total Value of Income from Agricultural Labour onother Farms for Farm Operator Households by Source of
Employment in Thanjavur District, 1965-66 to 1970-71
Source ofEmployment
1965-66
1970-71(CurrentPrices)
1970-71(Real
Income)
Paddy Labour 11261 14728 11329
Other Crop Labour 793 1221 939
Farm Supervision 2130 3351 2578
Total 14184 19300 14846
Source: Swenson (1973), op.cit., p. 147.
The proportion of all farmers working on other farms as
agricultural labourers increased between the two periods. In 1965-66, the
proportion was 37 per cent which increased to 42 per cent in 1970-71.
But the total number of days decreased slightly between 1965-66 and
1970-71. This means that while more farmers worked on other farms in
1970-71, the average farmer worked somewhat less labour days on other
farms.
That only the smaller farmers worked as agricultural labourers on
other farms is not very surprising. First, from a sociological point of
view, working as an agricultural labour is considered as inferior
occupation. Secondly, this group of famers had the least income from
165
paddy production and probably did not have other alternative
employment to augment the income from their farm operations.
The real value income from agricultural labour on other farm is
presented in Table – 4.5.
Table – 4.5 Real Value Income from Agricultural Labour on OtherFarms per Farm Operator Household by Farm Size and Tenure in
Thanjavur District, 1965-66 to 1970-71
Farm Size (in Acres)
Year TenureVerySmall
(0-2.5)
Small(2.51-5.0)
Medium(5.01-10.0)
Large(10.01-20.0)
VeryLarge
(Above20.01)
Average
Owner-Operator
168 0 0 0 0 94
Owner-Tenant
98 81 0 81
Tenant 137 97 0 113
1965-66
Average 147 80 0 0 0 98
Owner-Operator
135 0 0 0 0 76
Owner-Tenant
105 75 0 79
Tenant 190 118 0 150
1970-71
Average 150 88 0 0 0 102
Source: Ibid., p. 150.
166
The average real value income per household from this source
increased 2 per cent and 10 per cent for the smallest group of farmers and
small group of farmers respectively. Along tenure classification, the
owner-operators had a decrease of 19 per cent while owner-tenants had
nearly the same income in both years with a 2 per cent decrease. Tenants,
on the other hand, had a 33 per cent increase in income from agricultural
labour on other farms, reflecting an increase in the number of labour days
for this group.
Since most of the wages received for labour on other farms was in
kind (paddy), the cash income from this income source was nominal. In
1965-66, only 14 per cent of the wages received was cash. This increased
to 22 per cent in 1970-71. Thus, the cash income from agricultural labour
on other farms increased more than the value income. At current prices, it
increased 57 per cent. When deflated to reflect real increases in income, it
increased 21 per cent.
It is also noted that community of the owner-operator-wise, the
average Brahmin operated nearly 10 times as much gross paddy area as
either non-Brahmin or Scheduled Caste operators. In addition, all but one
Brahmin owned all of the land he operated compared to 40 per cent of the
non-Brahmin and only 24 per cent of the Scheduled Castes. Thus, it is not
167
surprising that the Brahmins had much higher incomes than the other
caste groups in Thanjavur district. The average non-Brahmin had only 8
per cent as much as the average Brahmin in 1970-71 compared to 9 per
cent in the earlier period. And the average Scheduled Caste operator
household, with the least income of the three caste groups, had only 6 per
cent as much income in 1970-71.18
CHANGES IN INCOME OF LANDLESS LABOUR
HOUSEHOLDS
Swenson states that according to his survey, in total, 61 per cent of
the agricultural households were landless labourers or slightly over 50 per
cent of all households. Thus, the changes which took place within this
group were critical in the total evaluation of the effects of changes in
paddy production.
The author indicates that the 67 landless labour households were
randomly selected from the 247 total landless labour households in the
sample villages. By caste, 67 per cent of the landless labour households
were Scheduled Caste with the remainder being non-Brahmin. There
were no Brahmin landless labourers.
18 The Thanjvavur Tenants and Pannaiyal Protection Act, 1952, op.cit., p. 188.
168
The landless labourers had four general sources of income
including paddy labour, other crop labour, other agricultural income and
non-agricultural income. The total value income from these sources for
the landless labour households increased 47 per cent at current prices or
an increase of 13 per cent in real value income between the two periods
viz., 1965-66 and 1970-71. This is shown in Table – 4.6.
Table – 4.6 Total Value Income for Landless Labour Households byIncome Source in Thanjavur District, 1965-66 to 1970-71
Source 1965-661970-71
(Current Prices)1970-71
(Real Value)
Paddy Labour 22646 33720 25939
Other Crop Labour 3176 4758 3660
Other Agricultural Income 2917 3293 2533
Non-agricultural Income 1002 2006 1589
Total Value Income 29741 43837 33721
Source: Swenson (1973), op.cit., p. 191.
With over 77 per cent of total value income coming from paddy
labour wages in 1970-71 and 76 per cent in 1965-66, it was by far, the
most important source of income for landless labourers. Combined with
other crop labour wages, 88 per cent of total value income was from
agricultural labour wages in 1970-71, up slightly from 87 per cent in
1965-66.
169
Paddy labour wages also provided 83 per cent of the increase in
total real value income with the 14 per cent increase in income from
paddy labour wages. Together with the 15 per cent increase in other crop
labour wages, total increases in real income from agricultural labour
accounted for 95 per cent of the increase in real value income. The
sources for the increase in income for agricultural labour can be divided
between changes in labour days and changes in wage rates as shown in
Table – 4.7.
Table – 4.7 Source of Change between 1965-66 and 1970-71 inCurrent and Real Agricultural Labour Income of Landless
Labourers in Thanjavur District
Current Income Real IncomeSource of Change
Paddy Other Crops Paddy Other Crops
Days of Labour 7.6 14.8 7.6 14.8
Wages 41.3 35.0 6.9 0.4
Total Change 48.9 49.8 14.5 15.2
Source: Ibid., p. 192.
The number of paddy labour days of employment for the landless
labourers in the survey increased 7.6 per cent between the two periods.
Subtracting this from the total increase in income from paddy labour
indicates increases in paddy labour wage rates increased income from
paddy labour by 41 per cent at current prices or by 7 per cent in real
170
income.
With labour days on other crops increasing by 14.8 per cent,
increases in daily wage rate for other crops increased current income
from labour on other crops by 35 per cent. But, in real terms virtually all
of the increase in income from labour on other crops was due to increase
in labour days.
While the average daily wage for labour on other crops remained at
Rs. 1.75 per day in real wage rate, there were changes in real wage rates
for paddy labour which increased the real income from paddy labour
nearly as much as the effect of increased labour days. The real wage rate
for paddy labour increased 11 per cent for male casual labour and 3 per
cent for male permanent labour as shown in Table – 4.8.
Table – 4.8 Daily Wage Rates for Paddy Labour of LandlessLabourers by Labour Type and Sex in Thanjavur District, 1965-66
and 1970-71
Casual Labour Permanent LabourYear
Male Female Male Female
1965-66 2.48 1.07 2.84 1.18
1970-71: Current Prices 3.59 1.32 3.80 1.37
Real Wages 2.76 1.02 2.92 1.05
Source: Ibid., p. 193.
171
The basic reason for the increase of permanent male labourers
being less than the increase for casual labour is that a sizeable proportion
of the total wage is paid in kind at the end of the season. The amount of
this payment did not change between the two periods. The real wage per
day for female labour actually declined between 1965-66 and 1970-71.
The real casual female labour wage rate decreased 5 per cent, and the real
permanent female labour wage rate decreased 11 per cent. The reason for
the greater decrease in real wages for permanent female labour is the
same given above for increases in wage rates for male permanent labour
being less than increases for male casual labour wage rates.
It is not known how important the demand and supply relationships
for labour are in determining agricultural labour wage rates in this
district. Certainly, the quantity of labour demanded for paddy production
did increase between the two periods, but the population of labourers,
undoubtedly also increased with the result being that the two effects may
have cancelled each other.
The most common reason given by both operators and labourers
for the increase in agricultural labour wage rates was because the cost of
living had gone up. This reasoning is in line with the more traditional
master-servant relationship between farm operator and labourers. There
172
had also been considerable tensions between farm operators and labourers
over wage rates in some areas of the district. The Communist party has
been very active in some parts of the district in organising labourers to
strike for higher wages. In this regard, many labourers believed labour
wage rates had increased as a direct result of the activities of the
Communist party. Even though the Communist party was not very active
in the district, the wages paid to labourers tend to be nearly the same as in
nearby areas.
In addition to the changes in income from agricultural labour,
changes in income from other agricultural sources as well as non-
agricultural income had an effect on total income to landless labourers,
though in a more minor amount. While increasing by 13 per cent at
current prices, other agricultural income decreased by 13 per cent in real
terms and contributed only 7 per cent of total income in 1970-71, down
from 10 per cent of total income in 1965-66. Non-agricultural income,
though even more minor than other agricultural income in terms of total
income, increased from 3 per cent of total income to 5 per cent with a 59
per cent increase in income from this source. Most of this increase was
from additional non-agricultural labour which was not present in the
earlier period. It is also to be noted that as was the case for other
173
agricultural income, non-agricultural income was not an income source
for most labour households. In 1970-71, there were 10 households in the
survey with non-agricultural income compared to only 7 in 1965-66.
Thus, agricultural labour income was the sole source of income for most
labour households with paddy labour being the most important source.19
EFFECT OF LABOUR TYPE ON LABOUR INCOME
There were differences between the total incomes per household of
the three categories of labour, due to the variations between the types of
labour in the number of labour days employed and differences in wage
rates between casual and permanent labour, which is shown in table – 4.9.
19 Swenson (1973), op.cit., pp. 194-195.
174
Table – 4.9 Real Value Income per Landless Labour Households byLabour Type in Thanjavur District in Thanjavur District, 1965-66
and 1970-71
Labour TypeYear Income Source
Casual Casual andPermanent Permanent Average
Paddy Labour 318 629 369 338
Other CropsLabour
39 112 115 47
OtherAgriculturalIncome
50 0 0 44
Non-agriculturalIncome
15 33 0 15
1965-66
Total ValueIncome
422 774 484 444
Paddy Labour 361 783 378 387
Other CropsLabour
43 107 133 55
OtherAgriculturalIncome
44 0 0 38
Non-agriculturalIncome
25 25 0 23
1970-71
Total ValueIncome
473 915 511 503
Percentage Change 12 18 6 13
Source: Ibid., p. 196.
175
The table indicates that the average casual labour househol4ds had
an increase in total value income of 12 per cent between the two periods.
Most of this increase was from increases in income from paddy labour.
Of the Rs. 51 increase in total real income per household, Rs. 43 was
contributed by the increases in paddy labour days along with a 7 per cent
increase in average real wage rates (male and female combined) produced
a 14 per cent increase in real income from paddy labour for casual labour
households. The households with both casual and permanent labourers
had much higher incomes than either the casual labour households or
permanent labour households.
Households with only permanent labourers had average income
which was more in line with the casual labour households. Their only
source of income was from agricultural labour. The real paddy wage rates
for permanent labourers increased only 3 per cent for males and
decreased 11 per cent for females. The result was that income from paddy
labour increased only 2 per cent while income from other crop labour
increased 16 per cent as a result of a larger relative increase in labour
days on other crops than paddy labour.
Since about 80 per cent of wages received for paddy labour and 34
per cent of wages for other crops were paid in kind, the cash income for
176
landless labourers was considerably less than value income. With the
additional cash income from paddy sales of about 15 per cent of total
kind payments received, the average landless labour household had Rs.
274 cash income in 1970-71 at current prices or Rs. 211 cash in real cash
income compared to Rs. 192 in 1965-66 for a 10 per cent increase. This
represented 42 per cent of total value income in 1970-71 compared to 43
per cent in 1965-66.
AGRARIAN REFORMS IN THANJAVUR
On August 23, 1952 the Government of Madras took a momentous
step towards Agrarian reforms by issuing the Thanjavur Tenants and
Pannaiyal (protection) Ordinance. Situated in the rich Cauvery delta,
Thanjavur, known as the Granary of the South, is one of the largest rice
producing areas in Madras State. As in other districts, there are zamin,
inam and ryotwari holdings in Thanjavur. A considerable portion of
arable land in the district belongs to big landowners and institution like
mutts and temples.
The different system of cultivation adopted is varam (share-
cropping), lease and pannai (direct cultivation through farm labour).
While the first two are common to other districts also, the pannai system
is unique to Thanjavur, and is in vogue in most taluks of the district.
177
Under this system, the mirasdar owning the farm, employs landless
labourers called pannaiyals for cultivation work on daily wages. These
pannaiyals may be said to be hereditary employees on the farm, for their
attachment to the farmstead can be traced back to many generations.
Prior to 1948, the pannaiyals received less than a marakkal (two
Madras measures of paddy) on the clays they worked. At harvest time,
they were paid the same wages as other casual workers. They also
received certain other perquisites including small shares of the net
produce of the land they tilled.20
The exploitation of the pannaiyals was semi-serfs who like chattel,
changed masters along with the transfer of land. The Congress Agrarion
Reforms Committee visited the pannaiyal villages in Mayavaram taluk of
Thanjavur district and has given a most moving account of their
exploitation, utter poverty and degradation. The Committee heard stories
of physical violence visited by it. Such being the condition of the
pannaiyals, it was natural that the awakened masses began to resist the
exploitation by the mirasdars. The mirasdars failed to see the changed
times and did not adjust themselves to new conditions. Agrarian unrest
not troubles, therefore, continued became frequent and assumed the
20 Ibid., p. 268.
178
shape of a crisis. On October 28, 1948, an agreement was arrived at
between representatives of the mirasdars and the pannaiyals. This
Mayurarn Agreement, as it came to be called, fixed the daily wages of
the farm labourer at 1 marakkal in the case of a man, and to three fourths
of a marakkal in the case of women. Very soon, however, there were
breaches in the agreement, mirasdars sought to forcibly evict the
cultivators, clashes became frequent and utter chaos was threatened.
The Thanjavur Tenants and Pannaiyals (Protection) Ordinance of
August 23,1952, was therefore very timely. The Ordinance provided that
where the produce is to be shared between the tenant and the landowner,
the tenant shall he entitled to two-fifths of the gross produce or such
higher proportion as may have been agreed upon, and where the tenancy
provides for any rent, the tenant shall give the landowner three-fifths of
the gross produce or such lower proportion as may have been agreed
upon. The tenant is not bound by any agreements which give him less
favourable terms.21
According to the Ordinance, the Government could, by
notification, constitute for any specified area Revenue Court, presided
over by an Officer not below the rank of a Revenue Divisional Officer.
21 Ibid., pp. 269-270.
179
No tenant can be evicted except on application made on that behalf to the
Revenue Court. The Government may also appoint any person for any
specified area as a Conciliation Officer within a week and he will give
his award, after holding an enquiry into the case.
The Ordinance provided that every cultivating tenant, who was in
possession of any land on December 1, 1951, shall be entitled to be in
possession thereof as such tenant, subject to the provisions of the
Ordinance until the expiry of a period of five years from the
commencement of the agricultural year 1952-53; and if such tenant was
not in possession of the land at the commencement of this Ordinance, he
shall be entitled to apply to the Conciliation Officer to be restored to such
possession, any other person who was admitted to possession as tenant
after the 1st day of December 1951 being evicted from the land.
The Ordinance restored to all those who were evicted in Thanjavur
on account of the happenings and apprehensions, their farms. The
cultivating tenants, who raised the last crop, were protected and the share
of the cultivator was increased. The most important feature of the
Ordinance was that the farmer was given security of holding for a certain
number of years. This, along with the increased share that was given to
him as against the owner of the land, gives him adequate interest and
180
incentive to increase the production. The Ordinance gave statutory
recognition to the customary practice in regard to expenses incurred for
seeds, manures and cultivation.22
The Ordinance provided that wages shall be payable to pannaiyals
or farm labourers and the members of their families for each day of work
done according to custom, as follows, but not for days on which there is
no work to custom, as follows, but not for days of work done according
to custom, as follows, but not for days on which there is no work to be
done :(a) in accordance with the terms set forth in the Mayurarn
Agreement, dated the 28th day of October 1948; or (b) at the following
rates in kind; 2 marakkals of paddy for every adult male worker;
marakkal of paddy for every worker; and 3/4 marakkal of paddy for
every worker not being an adult.
The position before the Ordinance was as follows: The share
allowed to the tenants and varamdars and wages paid to the pannaiyals by
the landlords were not uniform and varied from place to place. The
tenants got the share varying from 15 to 33.3 per cent of the gross
produce. The Ordinance levelled all these differing rates and brought
about a uniform and higher share to the tenants and varamdars. Under the
22 The Hindu, (1972), “The New Wage Pact”, August 2, p. 7.
181
Ordinance, every tenant became entitled to two-fifths of the gross
produce after meeting all harvesting charges. If the tenancy provided for
rent, the tenant had to give the landowner three-fifths of the normal gross
produce in the land, after meeting harvesting charges. If the rent was to
be paid in cash, the landlord had to pay the value of three fifths of the
produce of the land, calculated at the price prevailing in the year
immediately preceding the appropriate five-year term. In case the rent is
in grain, it should be paid immediately to the landowner on the threshing
filed after each harvest.23
In December 1952, the Thanjavur Tenants and pannaiyals
Protection Ordinance was approved by the Madras State Assembly and
became an Act. With effect from 1-7-53, the Act was extended to a
portion of the South Arcot district. The agrarian relations that prevailed
in Tamil Nadu when the British came to dominate it were complex and
varied. The pre-colonial agrarian economy contained clear class
divisions, which varied from tract to tract. In the fertile irrigated tracts of
Thanjavur, land ownership was highly concentrated. Formally, in many
of these villages, the landholders held shares of the village land, and were
known as mirasdars by virtue of their mirasi i.e., ‘inheritable’ right -to a
23 “The Thanjvavur Tenants and Pannaiyal Protection Act, 1952, Act XIV of 1952”, op.cit.,pp. 272-277.
182
share in the lands of the village. Not all mirasdars were 'landlords'
however, in the sense that many of these mirasi holders worked their
lands themselves. There was also considerable differentiation among
them, with a substantial proportion of the lands being held by a small
minority who, moreover, would typically not participate in cultivation.
They would mostly lease out their lands, and have the portion that they
retained cultivated with labourers whose status resembled in many ways
that of serfs.
In the dry tracts, there was a largely independent peasantry,
cultivating their own land, and often operating systems of mutual labour
exchange. Within this, there were again variations. Further, while
inequalities were not as deep and sharp as in the wet tracts, peasant
society here was by no means homogeneous. However, these tracts did
not see the emergence of a large landlord class ruling over a subordinate
tenant and landless populations as in the canal and reasonably assured
tank-irrigated tracts.
Farm workers in Thanjavur are about evenly divided between those
who are permanent labourers, i.e., attached to the family of one mirasdar
and those who work as hired labour on a daily basis. Of the two groups, it
183
appears that attached labourers who still receive the greater amount of
their annual earnings in kind, have fared better.
Permanent labourers generally receive food, housing and some
clothing form mirasdars. In addition, depending on individual
arrangements, they receive monthly payments, both in cash and kind, or
in cash only. Those permanent labourers who receive the largest portion
of their monthly wage in kind enjoy the most favoured position. In such
cases, a labourer typically receives one and one-half bag of paddy per
month, plus Rs. 2 in cash; during harvest there are additional kind
payments of about two Madras measures of paddy per day. While these
rates have remained substantially unchanged over the last 10 years, their
cash equivalent has risen along with the price of food grains from less
than Rs. 560 during this period. Other labourers who have customarily
received their monthly payment in cash are less fortunate. A labourer who
ten years ago, received Rs. 100 annually (in addition to food and cloth)
has added upto an absolute decline in the standard of living.24 There are
three main reasons for this: 1. The Intensive Agricultural District
Programme (IADP) has generated very few opportunities for
employment, leaving most farm workers idle from three to six months a
24 Ibid., p. 272.
184
year; 2. Payments for harvesting and even cash rates for a day labourer
have remained stationary in the face of rising prices; and 3. The
proportion of wages traditionally paid in kind is shrinking as mirasdars
substitute cash payment for a growing number of agricultural operations.
Thus, in 1967, labourers were still receiving the traditional rate of
harvesting of four litres per half bag. At this rate, even if a farm worker
were idle only three months a year, his maximum earnings in 1967 could
not have been more than the equivalent of Rs. 600. More important, his
purchasing power was steadily decreasing in the face of rising prices and
the propensity of the mirasdars to substitute cash for paddy in making
wage payments. As a result, many labourers were forced deeper and
deeper into debt, subsisting for long periods of time. Added to the
discontent caused by growing material deprivation, therefore was a sense
of injustice at the inequitable distribution of benefits from the new
technology. Feeling of resentment were increased when the labourers,
citing higher costs of living and rising levels of productivity, especially
on large farms, asked the landowners for higher wages and were told in
response that additional farm income was being absorbed in the squeeze
between rising production costs and low Government procurement prices
for paddy. The strained situation was aggravated, when the landlords
185
began to rely more heavily on migrant labour from poorer districts of the
South, who were willing to work for the existing wages. Inevitably, the
entry of additional farm labourers on an already overcrowded job market
reduced still more bargaining power of the local labourers and added to
the anger of the landless labourers.25
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS’ MOVEMENTS AND THE
INCIDENCE OF KILVENMANI
In order to pay special attention and to give special assistance in
terms of subsidy and other management assistance, Intensive Agricultural
District programme was implemented during the year 1962 and it was
later converted in to Training and Visit system. By way of these
programme, agriculture in this district got its launching pad and rocketed
in to the present position. The major crops cultivated in Thanjavur district
are paddy, pulses, gingelly, cotton, groundnut and sugarcane. The minor
crops like maize, soyabean, and redgram are also grown in uplands.
Paddy is the principal crop grown in three seasons viz. Kuruvai, Samba
and Thaladi. Pulses like blackgram, greengram and cash crops like cotton
and gingelly are grown in rice fallows. In new delta area, the groundnut is
25 Oommen, T.K., (1971), “Green Revolution and Agrarian Conflict”, Economic and Political Weekly,Vol. 6, No. 26, pp. 99-102.
186
the principal crop sugarcane is cultivated both in new delta and old delta.
Banana is primarily grown in Padugai lands.
The initial spurt of capital accumulation among a section of larger
landowners employing wage labour during the late seventies provided the
catalyst for the emergence of concerted struggles waged by the rural
exploited classes, shaped by the interrelated questions of class, caste and
gender. But despite a stalling of the process of capitalist development
which reduced the bargaining power of labour in economic terms, this
movement continued to achieve wage rises though on the basis of very
low existing levels, during the 1960s and 1970s.
In fact, organisation and agitations on a mass scale have proved
necessary even to achieve the very meagre rights guaranteed to
agricultural labourers on paper, and to compel officials complicit with
those who control the land to acknowledge the existence of these rights.
In the movement for equal wages in Thanjavur, women who were facing
violence as a result of their participation in the movement left their homes
to stay in the organisation’s office at the height of the struggle, in order to
continue to be active. While the labourers were challenging patriarchal
relations within the family, the landowners were attempting to utilise
187
these relationships to break the strike, urging husbands and parents of the
women labourers to put pressure on them to withdraw from the struggle.
And global capital in turn incorporates and reshapes these
patriarchal and feudal patterns in order to intensify exploitation. As
global capital’s intervention in agriculture deepens, and its confrontation
with the direct producers in agriculture widens, this polarisation between
forces which seek to preserve existing patterns of inequality and integrate
them into global structures of surplus extraction, and those which
challenge them at every level, can only intensify.26
The peasant movement in the State also agitated for reducing the
concentration of land in the hands of a few by fixing a ceiling on holdings
and for redistributing the surplus land among the landless agricultural
workers. The Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling) Act, 1961,
came into being. It is another matter that the Act, riddled with loopholes,
ensured that not much land was declared as surplus.
Before achieving these, however, the tenants, small and marginal
landholders and agricultural workers had to confront the money power
and political influence of the landowners at several levels. The
confrontation often led to violence and loss of lives. The police were
26 Beteille, Andre, (1966), op.cit., p. 118.
188
invariably on the side of the landowners. Many people, including some
frontline leaders, were killed in police firings. Interestingly, in the early
years of the agitations for increased wages, agricultural workers and
agriculturists signed wage accords in the presence of the police. The
workers intensified their struggles when landholders refused to pay the
wages agreed upon and threatened to replace them with workers from
other places.
The Paddy Producers Association, a militant organisation of
landholders, emerged. The association not only refused to pay higher
wages but also threatened landholders intent on implementing the wage
accord with dire consequences. In 1966, the union organised rallies and a
strike in the district demanding appointment of a tripartite committee. But
Government in the State refused to yield. Next year, the Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) came to power in alliance with the
Communist Party of India (Marxist). The union renewed the plea for a
tripartite committee to settle the wage issue, but the DMK Government
also was in no mood to accept it. However, following the death in police
firing of a union worker who was trying to protect the union flag from
attack allegedly by the men of landlords on October 6, 1967, the State
189
government convened a tripartite conference at Mannargudi, which fixed
the wages for the short-term crop. It was valid only for a year.
This was the situation when the Kilvenmani carnage happened.
The major issue was the refusal of landlords to yield to the agricultural
workers' demand for higher wages since the earlier agreement had lapsed.
The workers demanded six litres of paddy for every 48 litres harvested,
but the Paddy Producers Association did not agree. Wherever workers
insisted on the higher wage, the association arranged for carrying out
harvest operations with "outside" labour in violation of the understanding
between the disputants under earlier wage accords. Wherever the landlord
offered to pay higher wages, the Producers Association protested and
warned of counter-action. It is reported that on December 27, 1968, 42
persons, mostly SCs, were burnt alive on the night of December 25, and
that the gruesome incident followed a clash between two groups of
kisans. 27
A one-man judicial commission was appointed to make
recommendations for resolving the labour dispute in the East Thanjavur
area. The settlement recommended was an increase in wages for
harvesting from 4.5 litres per half bag to 5.5 litres per half bag – or a rise
27 Alexander K.C., (1975), “Agrarian Tension in Thanjavur”, National Institute of CommunityDevelopment, Hydrabad, pp. 45-48.
190
in the value of daily wages calculated on the basis of three bags harvested
per day from about Rs. 5.2 to Rs. 6.9. Daily wages were also increased
from rs. 2.5 to Rs. 3, of which three-quarters of a rupee might be paid in
cash, and the remainder in kind amounting to 6 litres.
Yet, given the changing nature of the confrontation between
landlords and labourers, from a limited conflict over the question of
wages to a broad attack on traditional social and economic patterns, any
settlement based on principles of accommodation or compromise was
bound to be temporary. Not surprisingly, therefore, the conflict in East
Thanjavur continued. During the Kharif season of 1969, many mirasdars
ignored the new Government-fixed minimum wages for harvesting and
refused to pay more than the rate set by the Mannargudi Agreement of
1967. Similarly, they rejected the Government guidelines in apportioning
cash and kind components of daily wages; compared to an upper limit of
one-fourth of the total amount permitted as payment in cash under the
1968 award, mirasdars commonly gave one-half of the daily wage in
cash. In a further effort to limit their dependence on local farm workers,
the mirasdars began to use tractors with the aim of reducing the
requirement for hired labour during the sowing season.28
28 Pillai S., Ganapathy, (1969), pp. 67-69.
191
HIRING OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS
The levels of hiring of agricultural labourers depended on various
factors such as the size of holding, availability of family labour, intensity
of cropping, extent of irrigation, mechanisation, cropping pattern, use of
high yielding varieties, etc. While the use of family labour and
mechanisation placed limitations on the extent of hiring labour, factors
like irrigation, intensity of cropping, use of high yielding varieties and
coverage under paddy showed direct relationship to the use of labour.
While men were employed exclusively for operations like
ploughing, levelling and bunding, women alone were employed for
operations like transplanting and weeding. During 1975-76, the wages
paid to them were mostly in cash except for harvesting and threshing, for
which kind wages were paid. Women labourers were paid lower wages
than for men. The average wage rate was Rs.5 per day for men and Rs. 3
for women. The duration of employment of these farm workers varied
from 3 months to 10 months in a year. The average employment per year
was 189 days that for male and females being 147 and 96 days
respectively.
The average earnings of a worker from wages were Rs. 872 per
annum. About 30 per cent of the labourers got annual wages upto Rs.
192
550, 29 per cent earned upto Rs. 1000 and 41 per cent got between Rs.
1000 and Rs. 1500. The average earning of a labour household was Rs.
2238 including income from all sources. About 51 per cent of the labour
households got an annual income of Rs. 1501 to Rs. 2500. While 18 per
cent got less than Rs. 1501, 31 per cent earned more than Rs. 2500 per
annum. The average number of employment days per worker showed a
declining trend as the family income level increased.29
The per capita annual expenditure of a labour household was Rs.
499.30, of which food items alone accounted for 71 per cent. Among
other items, conventional necessities like coffee and tea accounted for
over 13 per cent and clothing 5 per cent of the expenditure.
The per capita value of consumption expenditure on food items
was Rs. 355.30 per annum or roughly Rs. 30 per month. A distribution of
the labour households by per capita consumption indicated that 75 per
cent of them were having an annual expenditure of Rs. 400 to Rs. 699 per
capita.
The cropping pattern of the district had its influence on the use of
labour. An acre of paddy required 49.78 mandays of which as much as
38.70 mandays (78 per cent) were in the form of hired labour. The
29 Arputharaj C., (1981), “Agricultural Economics Research in South India 1954-1976”, AgriculturalEconomics Research Centre, University of Madras, Madras, pp. 56-59.
193
requirement of labour for other crops was only 11.53 mandays of which
the share of hired labour was 6.51 mandays (58 per cent). High yielding
variety of paddy provided additional employment of 13.65 mandays per
acre as compared to local paddy. The use of hired labour, in the case of
High Yielding Variety paddy accounted for 76 per cent of the total labour
requirement.
Irrigation was another factor which promoted the use of labour. On
an average, an acre of irrigated crop required 49.86 mandays as compared
to only 9.55 mandays for unirrigated crop. Similarly, intensity of
cropping also had a direct relationship with labour use. The average
labour requirement of one acre of land was 44.83 mandays, of which
family labour accounted for 9.27 mandays and attached labour, 0.99
mandays. Use of family labour was found mostly on small farms.
Mechanisation had displaced labour to some extent; a comparison
between tractor using farms and bullock using farms revealed that the
tractor farms used less human labour than the bullock farms. The labour
input per acre in tractor using farms was 36.06 mandays as against 48.67
mandays for farms using bullocks only. 30
30 Ibid., pp. 72-78.
194
LAND REFORMS IN THANJAVUR DISTRICT
Land reforms, as a measure of providing economic growth, need to
be undertaken, as a result of which suitable changes in the entire
institutional framework can be brought about. In between the two Census
years of 1951 and 1961, there had been a remarkable increase in the
owners from 904919 to 1107000 which formed about 66.2 and 66.9 per
cent of the total cultivators respectively. The Report on the settlement of
land revenue showed that there had been substantial increases in the
number of pattadars from 999837 in 1950-51 to 1458458 in 1969-70.
During the period (1950-51 to 1969-70), there area owned also increased
(wet area by 21.5 per cent and dry area by 84.3 per cent).
According to the IADP Report, four-fifths of the farmers in the
district were owner cultivators. About 18 per cent were tenant farmers,
not owning any land, while 22 per cent of the farmers had taken land on
lease besides cultivating their own land. The ceiling act resulted in
obtaining about 14760 acres of surplus lands for assigning to the landless
labourers. But considering the vast number of landless labourers and
tenants, there was no scope for all of them or at least a good number of
them supplied with enough lands to carry on cultivation. As per the 1971
195
Census, there were 541919 agricultural labourers in Thanjavur district.31
Employment in agriculture is the main source of income for the
labourers. But, according to them, employment is not available
throughout the year, and even during the busy seasons, they are
underemployed because of the large scale immigration of labourers from
the adjoining districts.
Unemployment among the agricultural labourers is uniformly high
during all the four seasons. It is lower during the Samba period and
higher during the summer. The mean monthly unemployment is 11.8 days
among the labourers and 12 days among the labour-cultivators. The
cultivators prefer persons belonging to their own caste for employment as
labourers.
The educational levels of the agricultural labourers in Thanjavur
district was considerably low, since 74.5 per cent were illiterate, which is
only 22 per cent in the case of the cultivators.
CHANGING AGRARIAN RELATIONS IN THANJAVUR
DISTRICT
The socio-economic conditions of the agricultural labourers depend
mostly on the nature of agrarian relations that exist in the society. The
31 Government of Tamil Nadu, (1973), “Report on Intensive Agricultural District Programme”,Ministry of Agriculture, Madras, pp. 26-32.
196
agricultural labours rely directly on the landowners for their employment
and income. Moreover, the nature of income, whether in cash and/or in
kind and the degree of each also depends on the relationship between the
landowner and the labourers.
In the past, the labour-cultivator relationship was structured within
the framework of inter-caste relations, as most of the cultivators belonged
to higher castes and the labourers to the lower-castes. The relative power
of the cultivator-labour relationship was entirely in the hands of the
cultivators so that wage rates, hours of work, work load, pattern of
supervision and exercise of authority and other aspects of working
conditions were regulated by the cultivators according to their discretion.
Significant changes have come about in these relationships during the last
few years.
Attempts to change the traditional landowner-tenant and cultivator-
labour relationships in Thanjavur were initiated in East Thanjavur, with a
heavier concentration of SCs and agricultural labourers in the population,
by the Communist Party of India. This was part of its endeavour to build
up mass organisations serving as transmission belts linking the party with
197
the class, in the overall strategy of preparing the proletariat for the
revolution.32
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS’ UNION IN THANJAVUR
DISTRICT
The activities of the agricultural labour union in Thanjavur are
closely related to the overall goals and strategy of the Communist Party.
Trade union ideals and communist ideology have been spreading among
the agricultural labourers in various parts of the East Thanjavur through
the activities of the Party. While such propaganda created a motivation in
the labourers to join the labour union, agitations and struggles for
achieving specific demands provided the more immediate rallying points
to involve them in Union activities.
During 1950-52, there were widespread agitations by agricultural
labourers in East Thanjavur demanding permanency in employment and
regulation of other aspects of their working conditions. It was in such a
context, as a measure to mitigate the difficulties of the labourers, that the
Madras government in 1952 passed the Thanjavur Cultivating Tenants
and Pannayal Protection Act, trying to regulate the relationship between
the labourers and cultivators. The Act required that when a cultivator
32 Alexander, K.C., (1975), op.cit., pp. 78-82.
198
owning more than 6.6 acres of wet land or 20 acres of dry land,
terminated the services of a Pannayal, the matter should be reported
within seven days of such termination to the Conciliation Officer
appointed under the Act. He was empowered to enquire into the matter
and to ask the cultivator to reinstate the Pannayal or to order payment of
compensation to him when the dismissal was not found to be fair and
proper.
IMPACT OF THE PANNAYAL PROTECTION ACT IN
THANJAVUR DISTRICT
Apprehending that the government would enact legislation
providing further benefits to the Pannayals, soon after the enactment of
the Pannayal Protection Act, farmers resorted to large scale eviction of
the Pannayals by paying them the compensation required under the Act,
which was rather low. Thus, the traditional Pannayals became free
labourers.
After a decade the Act came into force there was relative peace in
Thanjavur marred only by occasional agitations in certain pockets, where
the cultivators showed reluctance to pay the agreed wages. But, in 1961,
Thanjavur witnessed a number of agitations organised by the CPI
demanding fixation of ceiling on landholding at 15 standard acres, in the
199
course of which works by thousands were arrested. Again in 1955-66,
there was unrest in Thanjavur district when the labourers demanded
higher wage rates. During the course of this agitation, about 4000 persons
were arrested and these resulted in the Mannargudi Agreement in 1967
and the Tiruvarur Agreement in 1968 by the representatives of the
labourers and the cultivators.
According to the Mannargudi Agreement of 1968, the wage of a
male labourer was fixed at six litres of paddy and Rs. 1, total money
value coming to Rs. 2.68 and that of a woman labourer at five litres of
paddy and 25 paise, the total money value coming to Rs. 1.65. However,
wages in several pockets in Thanjavur where the labour organisations
were weak continued to be much lower than what were agreed upon
between the cultivators and the labourers.
These agreements too did not bring about any lasting settlement in
East Thanjavur and the labourers continued their agitations for still higher
wages. In the course of such agitations, Kilvenmani happened. The one-
man Commission which was setup to enquire into the problems of
agricultural labourers, recommended the following wage rates for
different agricultural operations:33
33 Ibid., pp. 88-91.
200
Ploughing without bullocks: (Men) Rs. 3.00
Ploughing with bullocks : (Men) Rs. 5.25
Transplanting and Weeding: (Women) Rs. 1.80
Levelling of Land : (Men) Rs. 3.00
Plucking of seedlings : (Men) Rs. 3.00
Off-season work by men Rs. 2.75
Off-season work by women Rs. 1.75
The Commission’s recommendations were accepted by the
government and were enforced in the six taluks of East Thanjavur
through the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Labourers’ Fair Wages Act of 1969.
The rates recommended by the Commission were generally welcomed by
the labourers and the cultivators.
The following are some of the main achievements of the labourers
since the formation of the Labour Union in 1939:
1939 : Increase in wages by 20 per cent;
1944 : Mannargudi Agreement increasing wage rate to two
marakkals of paddy and two annas for men;
1946 : Arbitration by Thanjavur District Judge, granting increase in
wages;
201
1948 : Mayuram Agreement further increasing wage rates;
1952 : Enactment of Thanjavur Pannayal Protection Act;
1967 : Mannargudi Agreement, providing wage rate for harvesting
at 10 per cent of the harvested grains;
1968 : Tiruvarur Agreement increasing wage rate for men to six
litres of paddy and Rs. 1 and corresponding increase in the
wage rate of women labourers;
1969 : Ganapathi Pillai Commission fixed the rates at Rs. 3 for men
and Rs. 1.80 for women; and
1972 : Thanjavur Agreement increased wage rate to Rs. 3.70 for
men and Rs. 2.25 for women.34
Another important aspect of change that deserves mention is the
contribution of the Labour Unions in changing the labour-cultivator
relationship. Earlier, it was almost a vertical relationship with the
labourers under the absolute control of the cultivators. However, with the
organisation of the Labour Unions, there has been appreciable
improvement in the status of the labourers. Since the cultivator-labour
relationship was traditionally one between higher castes and lower castes,
34 Ibid., pp. 91-93.
202
changes in it had their impact on the wider relationship between higher
castes and lower castes also. While the contribution of other factors to
this change cannot be denied, that of the labour organisations was
significant.
This chapter examined the socio-economic conditions of the
agricultural labourers in Thanjavur district during the period 1947-1976.
Thanjavur district is the foremost district of Tamil Nadu, as far as the
agricultural sector is concerned, since it was contributing more than 30
per cent of the total production in this sector at the State level. The
unified Thanjavur district was a formidable one, as it consisted of many
big landowners, mirasdars and others.
Most of the big landowners were absentee landowners in the sense
that they did reside in that district to carry out the agricultural operations,
instead they leased out their land to tenants and in turn received rents.
Agricultural labourers were the important segment of the sector, as they
formed a crucial link with the owner-cultivators or the tenant-cultivators.
The data reveal that there was a considerable rise in the number of
agricultural labourers in the district over the years, which was also
boosted up by the arrival of temporary labourers from the neighbouring
districts.
203
Studies reveal the existence of significant association between
caste and wealth, caste and occupation and caste and education. The
ideological orientation of the cultivators and labourers indicated that the
labourers were more radically oriented than the cultivators. The greater
level of radicalism of the labourers was found to be associated with their
illiteracy, affiliation with the Communist Party and membership in the
trade union. There has been a general rise in the level of daily wage
provided to the agricultural labourers, but it was not commensurate with
the rising level of prices. Moreover, the cultivators failed to abide by the
wages fixed by the Government, which led to the worsening of the
economic conditions of the agricultural labourers and thus their
relationship with the cultivators. The habit of using outside labourers and
the arrival of machines for agricultural operations also aggravated the
conditions of the agricultural labourers. This resulted in the flare up in
Kilvenmani, in which many hapless agricultural labourers were burnt to
death. However, the Government did not take sufficient measures to
protect or to improve the relationship between the cultivators and
labourers and thus, the socio-economic conditions of the latter.