Poverty and Power: Survival of the Poorest in Three Villages of West Bengal, India
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POVERTY AND POWER: SURVIVAL OF THE POOREST IN THREE VILLAGES OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA ANTHONY BECK THESIS SUBMITTED FOR PhD SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 1991 ProQuest Number: 10731307 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731307 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the relation between power and poor people's agency. It does so through critical review of the literature on theories of poverty, and through a comparative analysis of three villages in two contrasting regions of West Bengal, India. Chapters two and three compare two theoretical approaches to poverty. Chapter two notes the connection between the ideology of poverty measurement in nineteenth century Britain and twentieth century India, and discusses mainstream literature on the Indian political economy which concentrates on the poor. The chapter locates a common theme in these two literatures, which are seen to conceptualise the poor as passive and lacking agency. Chapter three considers an alternative theoretical approach, that is literature concerning the dimension of human agency. In particular it analyses the tradition of 'people's history', which conceptualizes the poor as active participants in the making of their societies, as well as contemporary discussion of poor people's participation in rural development. Chapter four gives a background to agrarian West Bengal in terms of history, agro ecology, agrarian differentiation and politics. Chapter five describes the two study regions, the three study villages, and the methodology used in the field. It also outlines the method of categorization of village households employed in the thesis. The next two chapters present the field work data. Chapter six evaluates the effectiveness of irrigation facilities introduced into the main study village as a means of examining how external resources are mediated through village power structure. The evaluation analyses the relation between irrigation, the local agro-ecology, and power structure. The main benefits of the programme accrued to the village elite, and benefits to the poor were negligible. Chapter seven focusses on poverty as experienced by the poorest, and poorest people's priorities. In contrast to chapter six, it details indigenous efforts at 'development'. It discusses five types of strategies used by sixty purposively selected poorest households that were crucial to their survival: use of common property resources, management of food, sharerearing of livestock, sale of assets, and informal organization into mutual support networks. Poorest people exploited both social and natural resource bases in an attempt to 'negotiate' a better quality of life for themselves within local socio-economic structures. The conclusion stresses the importance of understanding the ways in which the abilities of the poor are conceptualised, and argues that rural development may be more successful if it attempts to understand and build on indigenous strategies already in use by the poor. Poverty and Power: Survival of the poorest in three villages of West Bengal, India •Page n Table of contents 1 List of Tables and Figures 5 List of Maps 6 Acknowledgements 7 Glossary 8 Acronyms 9 Chapter 1 Introduction 10 Chapter 2 Measures of the poor 12 2.1 Introduction 12 2.2 Poverty measurement in Britain 13 2.2.1 The history of poverty measurement in Britain 2.2.2 Measurement and morality - Charles Booth and Joseph Rowntree 2.2.3 Poverty measurement and regulation of the poor 2.3 Poverty measurement in India 22 2.3.1 The history of poverty measurement in India 2.3.2 Contemporary poverty measurement and 'poverty line language' 2.3.3 Poverty and causality 2.4 Wider approaches to poverty 30 2.4.1 Criticisms within the measurement paradigm 2.4.2 Widening the focus on poverty 2.5 The 'political economy' view of the poor 36 2.6 Conclusions 40 P.Thompson. agency and experience 3.3.1 The concept of agency 3.3.2 The concept of experience 2 3.4 Moral economy theory 52 3.5 Understanding poor people's priorities and knowledge 55 3.5.1 Participation theory and rural development 3.5.2 Studies of the perspective of the poor from South Asia 3.6 Conclusions 62 Chapter 4 West Bengal - the case study area 63 4.1 Introduction 63 4.2 Geography, agriculture and population in Bengal and West Bengal 63 4.3 Historical and political background to Bengal and West Bengal 65 4.3.1 History of the agrarian structure 4.3.2 Political protest by rural groups 4.4 The agrarian structure in West Bengal 70 4.4.1 Background and agrarian structure 4.4.2 Increase in the numbers of agricultural labourers 4.4.3 Tenancy, absentee landlordism and credit 4.5 Politics and agrarian reform in West Bengal 76 4.5.1 Agrarian reform - benefits to sharecroppers and landless labourers 4.5.2 State sponsored rural development programmes 4.6 Conclusions 81 Chapter 5 Methodology, background to the study villages, and economic differentiation 82 5.1 Introduction 82 5.2 Methodology 82 5.2.1 Choice of study areas, villages and the gathering of data 5.2.2 Method and theory 5.3 Background to the case study villages 87 5.3.1 Fonogram 5.3.2 Bithigram and Keshipur 5.3.3 Land operation, employment and gender relations in the three study villages 5.4 Economic categorisation 99 5.4.1 The method of categorisation employed 5.4.2 Discussion of the four income groups 5.5 Conclusions 106 3 Chapter 6 Rural development and land use in the case study villages: how resource access is mediated by power 107 6.1 Introduction 107 6.2 The 'green revolution1 in South Asia 108 6.2.1 The relation between technology and society 6.2.2 'Farmer size' 6.2.3 Employment 6.2.4 Factor shares 6.2.5 Partial proletarianization and differentiation 6.2.6 Other issues 6.3 The green revolution in Fonogram and West Bengal 112 6.3.1 The green revolution in Fonogram 6.3.2 The West Bengal context 6.4 Land type and land use in the Fonogram area 117 6.4.1 'Minifundist' farming in the Fonogram area 6.4.2 Plot size and fragmentation 6.4.3 Physiography and soil 6.5 Cropping patterns and adoption rates in the boro crop seasons. 1986-87 to 1988-89 122 6.5.1 Institutional factors and crop choice 6.5.2 Adoption rates of HY V paddy 6.5.3 Land under paddy in relation to total operated village land 6.6 Tenancy and absentee landlordism 127 6.6.1 Tenancy 6.6.2 Absentee landlordism 6.7 Benefits of the green revolution to different Fonogram groups 130 6.7.1 Returns to cultivators and labourers 6.7.2 Total returns to income groups 6.8 Benefits to agricultural labourers, the non-agricultural poor. and perceptions of the poorest of the green revolution 133 6.8.1 Agricultural labourers 6.8.2 Non-agricultural poor 6.8.3 Perceptions of the poorest of the green revolution 6.9 Land sales, land mortgaging and partial proletarianization 138 6.9.1 Land sales 6.9.2 Land mortgaging 6.9.3 Partial proletarianization? 6.10 Fonogram power structure and the green revolution 145 4 6,11 Conclusions 148 Chapter 7 Survival and agency of the poorest 149 7.1 Introduction 149 7.2 Agency and characteristics of the poorest 151 7.2.1 Who are the poorest? 7.2.2 Selection of the poorest in the case study villages 7.3 Natural resource use and common property resources 154 7.3.1 Introduction 7.3.2 Gleaning 7.3.3 Fuel 7.3.4 'Wild' foods and other common property resource uses 7.3.5 Common property resource use in the three study villages 7.4 Poorest people and food 169 7.4.1 Food preparation and food types 7.4.2 Food consumption and its regulation 7.4.3 Food and self respect 7.5 Livestock and sharerearing of livestock 175 7.5.1 Introduction 7.5.2 Sharerearing of livestock 7.5.2 Sharerearing by poorest Fonogram households 7.5.4 The literature on sharerearing 7.6 Poorest people and assets 184 7.6.1 Introduction 7.6.2 Assets owned by the poorest 7.6.3 Management and sales of assets by the poorest 7.6.4 Respondents' perceptions of assets 7.7 Power and the poorest 191 7.7.1 Introduction 7.7.2 Poorest people and politics 7.7.3 Exploitation, violence and organisation 7.7.4 The experience of poverty - poorest people's views of the rich and the poor, and the causes of their poverty 7.7.5 Poverty and self respect 7.8 Conclusions 205 Chapter 8 Conclusions 207 5 Bibliography 212 List of Tables and Figures Table 4.1 Statistical profile of West Bengal -1981 63 Table 4.2 Decennial growth of population in West Bengal - 1951 to 1981 65 Table 4.3 Operational distribution of land (percentages) in acres, West Bengal, 1953/4 to 1970/1 71 Table 4.4 Increase in the numbers of agricultural labourers, Bengal and West Bengal, 1901 to 1981 73 Table 4.5 Votes to the Left Front in the 1978, 1983 and 1988 panchayat elections in West Bengal 76 Table 5.1 Population and land operation in the three study villages 91 Table 5.2 Land operation in the three case study villages (1988/89), and in West Bengal (1970 to 1971), by NSS categories 94 Table 5.3 Primary occupation in the three study villages by household, 1988-89 96 Table 5.4 Fonogram village