Peasant Communities and Agrarian Capitalism Kai Friese Placing particular emphasis on Muzaffarnagar and Meerut districts, which are characterised by high agricultural productivity, this examination of the development of forces and relations of production in agriculture in the Upper Doab of Uttar Pradesh is intended as a critique of the view that the green revolution of 1960s introduced a new mode of production. Analysing the developments with regard to the 'property connection' and the 'real appropria tion connection' this paper, in tracing the emergence of peasant capitalism in the region, seeks to provide an alter- native to the prevailing view of agrarian capitalism.
I productive investments in agriculture- to the development of capitalism: English mechanisation, the introduction of new interference.. . dissolved these small semi- Communal Capitalists implements and inputs. barbarian, semi-civilised communities by THE 'green revolution' of the 1960s may In terms of the property connection, I will blowing up their economic bases and has have transformed agricultural production in focus on the development of private alien produced the greatest and to speak the truth India, but the common contention that it the only, social revolution ever heard of in able property in land and free labour as indi 4 also ushered in a new mode of production, cators of capitalism. This will involve an Asia. Contemporary Marxist scholars do is problematic Despite the apprehensions of investigation of the changing character of not generally look to the colonial period for numerous scholars that a new class of land tenure and agricultural labour, from the the capitalist apocalypse, but assert the capitalist farmers is on the rise, the continui advent of British rule onward. ongoing dissolution of the agrarian ty in the economic and political character economic structures as a result of an Our understanding of the capitalist incipient capitalism in the post independence of agrarian India often seems more striking features of rural political economy will be than the change. This is particularly evident era. This is what Omvedt recently termed the tempered with an awareness of its enduringly 'traditional Marxist' viewpoint: in precisely those areas of the sub-continent peasant character. We will account for this that served as beach-heads for the 'green in terms that are also derived from Marx and —that the growth of capitalism in agriculture revolution'. easily integrated with our analysis of rural leads to the increased concentration of land This paper will examine the development in the hands of rural rich, now become a capitalism. Thus, the examination of pro 5 of forces and relations of production in the perty relations will be doubly important here class of capitalist farmers (kulaks). agriculture of such a region—the Upper Before we proceed to our reading of 1 by virtue of the emphasis I shall be placing Doab of Uttar Pradesh—from the colonial on the 'traditional' communal structures agrarian change in the Upper Doab, we period to the present day. Particular em that mark peasant capitalism to this day. In should briefly examine the central tenets of phasis will be placed here, on two districts— doing so, I will be tracing these structures the prevailing view of agricultural capitalism Muzaffarnagar, and Meerut—which are back to what Marx terms the 'communal in India. This perspective is well represented distinguished by high agricultural producti presuppositions of the original forms of pro in the work of Utsa Patnaik, a veteran of vity even by the standards of the region perty and production' (in which category he the debates on the mode of production in Indeed, the Jat peasants who constitute the includes communal landownership resting Indian agriculture. In a well known polemic largest 'agricultural caste' in these districts on the oriental commune, as well as small, with Paresh Chattopadhyay, Patnaik (and the region) have become virtually free landed property). Marx writes: employs the distinction between property synonymous with the 'kulaks' who enliven relations and production relations to argue the pages of many sober works on the rise (The) naturally arisen clan community, or if that capital never entered the sphere of of green revolutionary 'peasant capitalism' one will, pastoral society, is the first agricultural production in colonial times. What follows is intended as a critique of, presupposition—the communality of blood, She concedes the obvious fact that the as well as an alternative to, the analysis language, customs—for the appropriation of British introduced 'bourgeois' concepts of presented in such work. the objective conditions of their life's property but asserts that reproducing and objectifying activity (acti In keeping with much of the literature on the legal system and property relations agrarian capitalism, I will draw on a Marxist vity as herdsmen, hunters, tillers etc)... They relate naively to (the earth) as the property introduced by the British in India actually framework of analysis, with particular of the community, of the community pro hindered the development of capitalist rela regard to the theoretical formulation of ducing and reproducing itself in living labour. tions in agriculture given the context of capitalism as a mode of production. The 6 Each individual conducts himself only as a colonialism. latter has been defined as an articulated link, as a member of this community as the Patnaik emphasises the precariousness of the combination of three elements—labourer, proprietor or possessor. The real appropria 'external grafting' of 'bourgeois concepts of non-labourer, and means of production- tion through the labour process happens transferable private property and enforceable according to both a 'property connection' under these presuppositions, which are not contract' onto the indigenous pre-capitalist (the relations of production) and a 'real themselves the product of labour, but appear system. Instead, she and others of this school appropriation connection' (the forces of pro- 3 have concentrated on the post-colonial indi 2 as its natural or divine presuppositions. duction). These distinctions will be Following Marx's reasoning, I shall draw cators of a capitalist tendency, relying par employed throughout the paper in tracing attention to the persistent traces of these ticularly on evidence of increasing capital- the development of peasant capitalism in the communal presuppositions among the intensification; "the application of more Upper Doab. peasant castes of the Upper Doab, in terms constant capital (fertilisers, irrigation, high- With regard to real appropriation, par of continuities in their relation to 'their' yielding seeds, etc) and variable capital ticular emphasis will be placed upon the land. Landholding data will be important Oabour) to a given area".7 Patnaik does not development of a combination of genera in this regard. Despite the Marxian basis of find any evidence of this sort for the colonial lised commodity production and increasing the approach outlined above, the argument period, and states that "the five or six organic composition of capital as evidence here will contradict Marx's own analysis of decades before independence for which data of a capitalist trend. In concrete terms, this conditions in colonial India. He clearly are available show a remarkable picture of will mean examining data on the develop- perceived (or hoped for) a dissolution of stagnation".8 ment of cash crop production, as well as on India's agrarian communities as a prelude The argument that capitalist tendencies
Economic and Political Weekly September 29, 1990 A-135 are a post-colonial phenomenon is useful to communal solidarities of peasant capitalists. from the cultivators. Thus the Asiatic pro Patnaik in overcoming one of the greatest At this point, I should confess that the perty form corresponds to "explicit exploita obstacles facing the Marxist model of peculiar character of Jat society—hovering tion on the basis of tribal communal capitalist development in the Indian context: between caste and tribe, as it were—does ownership".17 the lack of evidence of any concentration of render it particularly fruitful ground for the Conditions in pre-colonial India, and cer landownership. Patnaik explains this away investigation of communal solidarities. As tainly in the Upper Doab region do corres by arguing that it is early days yet, and she a result, w,hat follows may have rather more pond closely to the Asiatic model of pro invokes the examples of nineteenth century resonance for clan-based societies rather perty relations. In the Muslim era, the Upper England and Germany to argue that than the usual caste-based ones, but I hope Doab was increasingly settled by Jat peasani agrarian capitalism in its earlier stages does this will not be taken as a mark of ir communities who would come to be the not require ownership concentration.9 At relevance The Jats may be unusual, but they dominant agricultural caste of the area. the same time, she suggests that "there may are not unimportant. While these communities developed strong well be increasing concentration of non-land By virtue of our concern with the com ties to their farmland and maintained a assets (livestock, productive equipment), of munal structures of the peasantry we must stable tenurial system for its division and aggregate output and of employment".10 discuss the specific character of the pre redistribution, they generally remained Finally, we should note that despite the colonial property connection at some length. feudatories of the rulers of Delhi. The period perception of the capitalist tendency as a Many scholars, including Patnaik, have before the advent of Mughal rule, however, recent phenomenon, many writers who share regarded Mughal India as not only a pre was marked by instability and conflict reflec Patnaik's perspective have emphasised the capitalist, but more specifically a feudal ting the lack of any organic links between sudden emergence of 'kulaks' as a major social formation. Yet, however indigenised the Jat communities and their ephemeral political force. Thus, according to Byres: it may be, the notion of feudalism presumes Muslim rulers. Nonetheless, this period ex Among the rich peasants, clearly class con the hegemony of a feudal class, and detracts presses a very 'Asiatic' communal/despotic from an understanding of the roots of tension. In a study of a Jat peasant clan of solidation has proceeded apace and has been 18 hastened by the availability of the 'new peasant-capitalism. The idea of an 'Indian the Upper Doab Pradhan finds that this technology! They are more and more a class feudalism' weakened, but nonetheless peasant community expanded its territory of capitalist farmers. Class for itself action preserved by colonial rule is of course during the 14th century by capturing villages has been pursued with relentless skill with appealing to those scholars who wish to lend held by Muslim castes and expelling their respect to both subordinate rural classes and an air of immediacy to 'green revolutionary' occupants. While such acts affirmed the to the urban bourgeoisie (and urban peasant capitalism by depicting kulaks as communal basis of landed property as well proletariat).11 sudden (post-colonial) champions over an as defiance of the despotic state (in this case It is widely argued that kulaks manipulate arena long dominated by zamindars. the Delhi Sultanate), the proprietorial claims their economically subordinate brethren However, the paradigm of feudalism is an of the latter could not be evaded indefinetety. through primordial tics. We find Terry Byres inappropriate basis for an understanding of Once Mughal rule established itself, rela speaking of rich peasant ideologues who the persistence of these communal pre tions between the central authority and the manage to hold sway over the smaller suppositions in rural India. We may, village communities were regularised and peasantry as well.12 A R Desai13 describes however, find an alternative in Marx's own many village councils of the Upper Doab the same phenomenon, as does Bardhan.14 writings on the Asiatic mode of production. received charters recognising their authority In fact, many scholars who remain outside Marx himself saw that feudalism could in village affairs and entrusting them with the neo-Marxist perspective of the peasant- not account for the distinctive features of the collection of revenue. It is sometimes capitalist school share this vision of the new Indian social formations and sought to argued that even this system of revenue class's invidious political 'skill'. Andre delineate a mode of production that was not collection was likely to produce a class of Beteille, for example, describes the 'ambid derived from the European model for this exploiters from within the peasant com extrous' political style of rich middle caste purpose. The resultant Asiatic mode of pro munity, as the responsibility for realising the farmers: duction is undoubtedly problematic in many revenue would finally fall to the village head Sociologically the most distinctive feature of respects, but one of its virtues lies in the man or muqaddam who could use this the progressive farmers is that they combine model of property relations that it offers. position to enhance his personal wealth and ownership of land and capital with skills in The Asiatic mode is crucially distinguished property. This was not generally the case in manipulating both traditional and modern from feudalism by the absence in the former the Upper Doab. Here the prototypical Jat institutions.15 of private property in land. Marx was unsure community had a strong segmentary struc The academic enthusiasm for caste or whether all land belonged to the community ture with several distinct kinship groups 'primordial' loyalties has not however been or to the 'despot' who ruled over it and did (known as thoks) co-existing as equal part matched with any worthwhile analysis of the not take a definitive stand on the issue What ners. The equitable representation of thoks reasons for the continued vitality of such was certain, however, was that the Asiatic within the village council or khap panchayal bonds.16 nobility who extracted the surplus-produce and the fact of inter-thok rivalry served as The analysis here will diverge from the of the land, were not private proprietors, and an effective barrier to the aspirations of any received view of Indian peasant capitalism unlike their European counterparts did not ambitious headman (known as chaudhun in all three respects discussed above. First of enjoy hereditary rights to this surplus. among the Jats). The latter's position was all, I shall trace the origins of agrarian The ambiguous monarchical/communal in any case based on election rather than capitalism in Muzaffarnagar and the Upper Asiatic form of property corresponds both hereditary principles. Finally, the elaborate Doab to the late nineteenth century. Thereby, logically and historically to the earliest forms bhaiachara system of land tenure ensured an 1 will also dispense with Patnaik's explana of class society. It is the product of a equitable distribution of land among the tions of the absence of ownership concen transition that leaves the property relations members of a thok and proscribed the tration. By the same token, I will present essentially unchanged, in that private owner alienation of land outside a lineage group. peasant-communal structures as an integral ship of land does not develop. Unlike the None of this is to deny the existence of and enduring element of peasant capitalism. primitive communal society, however, the the elite of revenue collecting intermediaries As we have just noted, most attempts at 'Asiatic' society is based on the exploitation who were so prominent in Mughal society. explaining the persistence of these structures of the direct producers by a parasitic class I do however dispute their importance as a have consigned them to the role of a primor of non-producers. The state acts in the name feudal class. Local lords or zamindars were dial residue, and/or merely that of an instru of the community and hence as the owner not, as we have seen, the norm among the ment of class domination. It seems to me, of the land, so that representatives of the egalitarian peasant communities of this at least as important, to account for the state are able to collect taxes/ground rent region. Meanwhile, the higher echelons of
A-136 Economic and Political Weekly September 29, 1990 jagirdars and mansabdars were subject to and anticipating its dire consequences for the as a community to expand their patrimony. periodic transfers and reappointments, 'communal system'. In his words: Ian Stone cites an instructive case from a preventing them from establishing feudal Our system of administration is framed to settlement report of 1874 regarding the sale proprietary rights over any particular vindicate the rights of the individual to pro of an estate on the Ganges bank of Meerut: area.19 tection for himself and his property, and the a large number of jats from scattered villages, Finally, we must deal with the inter-caste growth of private rights is inconsistent with in no less than three pergunnahs on the jajmani relations which are often referred the theory of the communal organisation... Jumna side of their district, clubbed their to as yet another element of Indian feuda Communal life thus tends to become sordid resources, bought the village, and sent forth lism. Although zamindars and jagirdars may and unkindly: everyman's hand is against his a colony to inhabit and cultivate it.23 often have exploited the labour of workers brother; ancestral feuds are actively fostered, Not surprisingly, such modern manifesta bonded to them through jajmani ties it is and once a stranger forces his way into the tions of communal appropriation sometimes important to bear in mind that this ex community by purchase of a share, he spends carried elements of older style of collective ploitative relation was rooted in communal his time devising schemes whereby he may action. Thus, in another instance of village rather than feudal social relations. There was absorb more of the estate. purchase by the Jats of Meerut: abundant evidence of this in the Upper Crooke seem to anticipate a process of the purchase was effected not only through Doab, where peasant communities such as 'primitive accumulation' just as Marx did. clear proposals but also by force, arson, and those of the Jats were involved in a jajmani His perspective is mirrored in the work of even murder. Manipulations were practised. relationship with members of lower caste at least one modern scholar—Alavi—who The patwari (village accountant) was bribed groups, notably the Chamars (now known believes that the colonial period saw 'the to change names of the owners in revenue as Jatavs) who would work as labourers separation of the producer from the means registers.24 22 exclusively on the fields of the particular of production, land! However, an in Such 'manipulations' do not alter the fact thok to which they were bonded. They would vestigation of colonial relations of produc that more purely commercial transactions be renumerated by a customary share of the tion in the Upper Doab does not support were increasingly the norm. At any rate, the produce of the jajman's fields. The servitude such assertions. Rather, we find a convoluted instances cited illustrate the persistence of of these castes to the peasant communities process, in which cultivators are initially the peasant's communal presuppositions in has been traced to the conquests of the faced with expropriation but ultimately a most crucial activity—the acquisition of Scythian forbears of the Jats, and as such emerge on the road to a regime of peasant the means of production. is illustrative of Marx's analysis of the sub proprietorship, the 'communal presupposi Having observed how the peasantry ex jugation of one clan by another in the con tions* of their agriculture intact. tended their proprietary holdings, we should text of communal property relations. The notion of alienable private property also note that they were able to extend their The fundamental condition of property in land came to the Upper Doab as part of control over rented land in a manner that resting on the clan system (into which the the panoply of colonial laws, in the early increasingly approximated proprietorship. community originally resolves itself).- makes nineteenth century. This was the period The British had in fact created categories of the clan conquered by another clan property- during which 'India was made to pay for its protected 'occupancy' and 'sub-proprietary' less and throws it among the inorganic con own conquest' (as Alavi puts it), and land terants in the pre-mutiny years. It was ditions of the conquerors reproduction, to revenue was extracted from the peasantry during the latter half of the nineteenth which the conquering community relates as with an unprecedented rapaciousness. The century, however, that the protection af its own. Slavery and serfdom are thus only combination of the new alienability of land forded to tenants became significant in both further developments of the forms of pro and the unrelenting revenue demands forced scope and scale. As colonial administrators perty resting on the clan system. They many of the Upper Doab's co-parcenary 20 brought their tenancy laws into force they necessarily modify all the latter's forms. communities to sell their proprietary rights severely curtailed landlords' rights to European scholars of the nineteenth century and farm their ancestral fields as tenants. increase rents, and guaranteed a substantial seem to have been well aware of the strong At this point, elements of the rural elite were portion of tenants an almost unassailable communal structures of the Upper Doab able to profit from the dire straits of the and heritable security of tenure. Indeed, as peasantry, and certainly of the Jats. Thus peasantry and established a number of vast one scholar recounts it, colonial legislation for Karl Marx, the Jats recalled 'the type of estates, notably that of the Jat raja of paved the way to the land reforms which the ancient German' whose communal Kuchesar. Thus, the evidence of the pre- ultimately disposed of the landlords. The forms feature prominently in his discussion mutiny years seems congruent with Crooked process began with of pre-capitalist social formations. Similarly, opinions. Yet, the peasant communities, while under pressure, had by no means been The North Western Provinces Act XII of Baden Powell would write that; destroyed, and they retained a capacity for , 1881 which prevented landlords from We find the Jat village settlements to be resistance. Their discontent soon found purchasing tenant's rights of occupancy, among the most strongly constituted, often expression in the mutiny of 1857 during while Act XIV of 1886 permitted accrual of there is a considerable clan feeling, and not which the Jat peasants of Muzaffarnagar occupancy rights even when a tenant moved infrequently much pride of descent from rose in large numbers against the British. from one plot to another. In the same year some noted ancestor to be found among The post-mutiny years saw a sharp rise in of 1887, the Oudh Rent Act XXII fixed rent them; and there is always a co-sharing or for every seven years. There followed in 21 the fortunes of peasant cultivators, and a joint claim to the whole village area. corresponding decline in the importance of succession the North Western Provinces Having examined at some length, the the rural elite. The British had evidently Tenancy Act of 190) (similar in content to communal characteristics of agrarian society drawn some lessons from the revolt, and the the Oudh Rent Act) and the Agra Rent Act of 1926, culminating ultimately in the UP as the British first encountered it ip the excesses of revenue collection became a thing Upper Doab, let us now investigate the Tenancy Act of 1939 which provided the of the past. Relieved of this burden, and impact of colonial rule in the region. We background of zamindari abolition in the encouraged by developments in the forces of may begin by considering the significance post-independence period.25 production which we will presently examine, of the introduction of the notion of alienable Apart from the legal protection that tenants peasant communities steadily strengthened private property in land. This has already enjoyed, their communal solidarity often their hand in the landholding structure of been mentioned as a necessary condition for posed further impediments to a landlord's the Upper Doab. This process can be seen the capitalist transformation of the 'property control. Stone cites the cases of the Gujar 1 at work among both peasant proprietors and communities in tehsil Budhana and the Raj connection , and it is interesting to find tenants of the region. nineteenth century authorities such as put tenants of Khatauli (both in Muzaffar W Crooke stressing the importance of the With regard to peasant proprietorship we nagar), the former withstanding the attempts British achievement in bringing this about find numerous instances of peasants acting of their new landlords to raise prevailing
Economic and Political Weekly September 29, 1990 A-137 rents while the latter "restricted competition for village lands by the effective expedient of not allowing tenants of other villages to cultivate there".26 Similarly, on the Skinner estate in Eulandshahr the proprietors shrank from raising rents to anything near 'market value' because, "for historcial reasons, the tenants are too powerful for them".27 Small wonder that even on the great Kuchesar estate a settlement official finds: "The occupancy tenant... commonly refers to his occupancy land as 'hamari1 [ours]."28 The growing strength of the occupancy tenant's position was some indication that these cultivators too would one day be proprietors. Much like the colonial era, the post- colonial period opens with an apparently dramtic change in tenurial relations that nonetheless reinforces the existing structure of cultivating control. Although often described as a land reform, the Zamindari Abolition Act of 1951 redistributed statutory rights in land but not the land itself. The report of the UP Zamindari Abolition Com mittee had expressed long-term hopes of reaping the benefits of large-scale farming through collectivisation, but while this While the spread of bhumidari tenures, re presently examine) and the demand for remained on the agenda of the left wing of affirmed, in Marx's terms "the relation of labour that this had produced. the Congress for some years, it had little the working subject to the land (as pro However, the advent of wage labour in the prospect of realisation. Instead, we find an prietor)" the above instance emphasises the Upper Doab did not presage an end to the essential stability in the landholding struc role of the community 'whose property the self-cultivation among the peasant castes. ture before and after the enaction of the individual himself is up to a certain point'33 Despite their use of Chamar labour the Jats zamindari reforms. in fostering this reaffirmation. were famed for their own skill and energy While the Zamindari Abolition Act did Nor would the peasant character of the as cultivators. Jat women worked in the not immediately invest former tenants with landholding structure be disturbed in sub fields (uncharacteristically for a proprietary proprietary rights in land (making them sequent years. We may see from the case of caste) and the local saying "the Jat child has rather hereditary tenants of the state) it did Muzaffarnagar that there was hardly any a plough handle for a plaything" remains provide the opportunity to purchase these change in this respect during the decade in currency. The level of family labour in this rights (known as bhumidari) from the state 1951-61 (see Table 1), the years in which the region remained high in the post-indepen for a nominal fee. In UP as a whole, zamindari reforms were instituted. Similarly, dence period, as attested by Farm Manage peasants were slow to avail themselves of this a comparison of landholding figures from ment survey data.36 opportunity. In the Upper Doab, and 1948, 1971, and 1981 does not reveal any Having examined developments with Meerut division in particular, by contrast, tendency towards concentration of land regard to the "property connection", we may peasant proprietorship soon became the ownership (see graph). now proceed to the "real appropriation con order of the day, with as much as 60.5 per Having examined the character of landed nection" and changes in the forces of pro cent of the cultivable land in Meerut division property we should proceed to the second duction. Foremost among these must be the and 71.08 per cent of that in Meerut district aspect of the property connection thai substantial system of canal irrigation con itself coming under bhumidari tenure by concerns us: the position of labour. Here, structed by the British. The British had in I960.29 It is interesting to note the role of as with landed property, colonial legislation fact begun work on a number of large canals traditional institutions of peasant com- eased the introduction of capitalist relations in this region as early as the 1820s, and these munities in encouraging this tendency. We of production. British law had no place for projects were themselves developments of an find a clear instance in the work of Pradhan, the servitude of jajmani relations, and if the earlier Mughal irrigation system. But the full who provides an account of a meeting held colonial administrators did not go out of impact of the Ganges canal system would in November 1949 of the panchayat of their way to end this system, it had at least not be felt until the late 1800s. Canal irriga khapP Baliyan (in Muzaffarnagar), com become possible for the low castes to break tion enhanced agricultural production in a prising all the agricultural castes to discuss these ties. This they did, with some force. number of ways: new lands were brought the implications of the Zamindari Abolition One administrator reporting on a tour of Act and its effects on the farmers: Muzaffarnagar and Sharanpur districts A resolution was passed by the panchayat stated that by the 1870s the Chamars had calling upon the fanners of the khap area to almost entirely emerged from (their former) pay the money required by the government state of serfdom and were able "to select in order to get proprietary rights in the their own masters either in their own village agricultural land which they hitherto tilled or elsewhere".34 Similarly, another official as tenants of the landlords.31 reported from Meerut in 1882 that in many Pradhan adds that the meeting was villages Chamars "utterly refused to do 'singularly successful', that most farmers began" and "demand a full wage for a day's paid the 10 per cent of the value of their land work",35 This new found assertiveness did to acquire property rights, and that this not spring from new laws alone. In fact, the success was largely due to the ability of the Chamars were also the beneficiaries of panchayat leaders "to remove suspicion and agricultural development in the Upper Doab fear from the minds of the farmers".32 in the late nineteenth century (which we will
A-138 Economic and Political Weekly September 29, 1990 under cultivation, the dofasli or double crop Upper Doab was reflected in higher yields. regulated the supply of productivity en ped area expanded, and last but not least, In every crop from the staple wheat to pulses hancing inputs such as HYVs and fertiliser. new crops, notably sugarcane, were intro we find substantial increases in productivity Meanwhile, the rapidity with which agri duced. Thus we find that following the during the late nineteenth century.40 The culturalists realised the potential of the new opening of the Ganges canal in eastern improved yields combined with colonial technologies stands as proof of their entre Muzaffarnagar the cultivated area increased tenancy regulations and, no doubt, favour preneurial drive. We have seen evidence of from 2,21,400 acres to 2,64,000 acres in the able prices, considerably enhanced the the peasantry's own role in developing the 37 31 years between 1841 and 1872. By Muzaffarnagar peasant's earnings (see forces of production during the nineteenth another calculation, the proportion of irrig Table 2). Such evidence demonstrates that century, and this has continued to be an able cultivated land in the district increased in this region, capital was not absent from important factor in the development of from 18 per cent to 60 per cent, or by 233 the sphere of production. Conditions in the agricultural production during the twentieth per cent and the proportion double cropped Upper Doab are entirely contrary to Utsa century. Evidence from Meerut indicates from 4 per cent to 23 per cent, or by 475 per Patnaik's assessment of the colonial that farmers of the Upper Doab continued cent between the periods 1827-40 and 38 situation: to develop their productivity during the final 1897-1921. ...there was simply no incentive for the rural decades of colonial rule in the twentieth This prodigious increase in cultivated and classes with investible funds to put these into century.44 The post-colonial era has also irrigated area was accompanied by the adop agriculture itself, into improving methods of been marked by continued growth in pro tion of new cropping patterns and new cultivation and raising productivity.41 ductive investment in agriculture both before crops, notably sugarcane. The latter had The nineteenth century Muzaffarnagar and after the green revolution. Data for been of limited importance in the region peasant had investible funds, invested in new Muzaffarnagar shows that fertiliser con prior to the canals, but irrigation had equipment, machinery and techniques, and sumption has increased considerably (see "almost halved the laborious field prepara certainly succeeded in raising productivity. lables 5,6,7), as has irrigated area (see foot tions designed to retain maximum moisture" Admittedly, the available data on wheat note 48) and that the level of tractorisation and facilitated the adoption of higher yields in the Upper Doab reveals a long is high.4^ In this respect, we may agree with yielding varieties of cane. As Stone notes, period of stagnation stretching from the Patnaik that "all the information we have "there were numerous villages which could 1920s to the 1940s (see Table 3). However this points to the fact that such capitalist boast 20-35 per cent of their area under cane, lull is not a peculiarity of the pre-colonial accumulation as is taking place in India reflecting that the canal had truly revolu period. After all, the green revolution years involves precisely capital intensification".46 tionised sugar production there". The area of the 1960s were also followed by lull in pro Contrary to Patnaik however, we cannot under cane in Muzaffarnagar as a whole, ductivity during the 1970s42 (see Table 4). support the argument that there is an was of course lower, but also on the rise. This phenomenon brings our attention to increasing concentration of non-land assets Alongside the new crops and cropping the close association between revolutions in or aggregate output.47 Certainly if we con- patterns now employed we find also the productivity and agricultural investment by development and application of new im the state. We have already noted the impor plements and machinery in cultivation. To tance of state-funded canal irrigation in cite Stone once more: transforming the agriculture of the Upper The local economy...underwent a qualitative Doab.43 Similarly, later increases in change as specialised services emerged in productivity do correspond to periods when response to new demands and opportunities. government policies favoured the agri Agencies for the hire and sale of sugar mills cultural sector. The second phase of yield were scattered all over Muzaffarnagar; indeed growth coincides with the green revolution some of the 'more pushing traders' took to when the state introduced and subsidised Manufacturing them on their own account'. inputs such as high yielding varieties (HYVs) A Khatauli carpenter had even applied for of wheat and fertilisers to the farmers of well a patent for an improved sugar mill, ap irrigated regions such as the Upper Doab. parently 'receiving his inspiration from some It is hardly surprising that the state had an of the thriving sugar planters in the important role to play in facilitating the neighbourhood'. The demand of petty development of production as only the state operators for simple agricultural machinery has the resources to invest in large-scale led to the establishment of fifteen flourishing infrastructural projects such as the Ganges factories in Meerut producing carts of canal, or for that matter rural electrification, various sizes in the years before 1908; while which has certainly played a role in the most their commerical requirements accounted for recent spurt in productivity. Similarly, the remarkably 'large number of small towns' through its policy decisions on prices and Muzaffarnagar contained.39 foreign investment, the Indian state has The new agricultural dynamism of the
Economic and Political Weekly September 29, 1990 A-139 sider the trend in irrigation we find if assembly or the national parliament. 1920s. In his study of this local government anything a process of extension rather than Candidates try to enlist the support of leaders body, Jha notes that leadership of the Con concentration of this signal productive of the maximal lineages and clans; and gress Party in the district, although initially asset.48 In the light of our examination of elected candidates take care not to antagonise in the hands of a Tyagi zamindar family, peasant capitalism we are in a position to them or alienate their goodwill.31 had, soon passed to the Jats, among whom offer an alternative to the analysis of When the third sarv khap was held in 1963 a factional 'family feud' for local dominance 'primordial' peasant politics of Byres et al, (in Baraut, Meerut district) leaders of all the between one Vijay Pal Singh and Charan which we discussed at the start of this paper. major political parties except the com Singh of the Daiya khap had been resolved Firstly, we can offer a materialist explana munists were in attendance. Yet, even as the in the letter's favour, as early as 1952.54 tion of the continued vibrance of communal political clout of the peasant castes was thus Charan Singh is by any account a pivotal bonds among the peasantry: Despite the being made known to parties and politicians, figure in the agrarian politics of western UP advent of private property, we have seen the council leaders were not about to throw and serves as an example of the significance instances of the communal appropriation of in their lot with any particular party pro of leader-centred multi-caste coalitions that land even in the late nineteenth century. gramme. Rather, as Pradhan points out, they are organic to the peasantry. Although this has not been a feature of pro were seeking to present the sarv khap as a It is evident that Charan Singh always perty relations in the post-colonial era, we supra-party organisation. retained and in the final analysis relied upon have found that the structure of peasant pro With regard to agrarian politics in the the 'primordial' support of his khap55 and prietorship has remained undisturbed by region, much has been made of the apparent this was complemented by his strong capitalist concentration. Thus, following trend towards modern, class-based party advocacy of the economic interests of the Marx's analysis of the communal pre politics in the wake of the green revolution. suppositions of the original forms of pro Thus, Francine Frankel, for example, points perty, we see that landed property has re to the cognitive impact of the new techno tained a form (small free landed property) logy on the 'backward' or 'agricultural' that continues to presuppose the "individual castes: defined as a member of a clan or community The even-handedness of the scientific (whose property the individual himself is up method, the observable fact that the high- to a certain point)*'.49 Secondly, as we yielding varieties, fertiliser, and water works found in our examination of the real ap as well on the small plot of the low-caste propriation connection, the state continues peasant farmer as on the large holding of the to play a crucial role in facilitating the Brahmin landlord—encourages the notion development of agricultural production. It that all cultivators can legitimately claim an 52 is therefore quite understandable that the equal share in the new prosperity. peasantry utilise their communal political With the additional impact of the material structures to pressurise the government, for benefits of the new technology, she surmises the resources and policies their agriculture one political consequence is erosion of requires. leader-centred multi-caste (class) political Political developments in the Upper Doab factions built by upper caste landlords with bear out this analysis. In the post-colonial the support of dependent peasant groups. period, the communal character of agrarian Over time, vertical patterns of peasant society in the region continued to find ex mobilisation progressively gives way to pression, both in the indigenous political horizontal alignments of categorical (low caste-class) groups organised around com structures of the peasantry, and the new in 53 stitutions of Indian electoral democracy. mon economic interests. Very shortly after independence, in 1950, the There are a number of problems involved in first formal meeting of the sarv khap50 of applying Frankel's reasoning to develop the Upper Doab peasant castes in nearly a ments in the Upper Doab (the arguments hundred years was held in the village of cited above were made in reference to UP Shoron, Muzaffarnagar district, one of the as a whole). Such arguments seem excessive two seats of the Jat khap Baliyan. The in their emphasis on 'traditional' landlord/ leaders and representatives of 18 Jat khaps peasant, upper caste/lower caste, patron/ and those of other castes and communities client ties, obscuring the equally traditional communal political structures of the peasan attended, and all told, over 60,000 persons try, the strength and resilience of which I assembled in Shoron over a period of three have been attempting to illustrate in this days. The chaudhuri of the Kalaslain khap paper. The numerous instances cited of the of Gujars was elected chairman of the acquisition and appropriation of land by meeting. This meeting re-established the peasant communities, during the colonial practice of holding sarv khaps at intervals era are illustrative of the latter's capacity to of approximately five years, and they have pursue their economic interests independent come to play a significant role in the political of and even in conflict with landlord/upper mobilisation of the Upper Doab peasantry caste groups. Certainly, even in the Upper (the Jats in particular). The second sarv Doab, zamindari elements had some early khap in 1956, was marked by the attempt advantages in terms of their linkages with of a group representing a reactionary the state. But the autonomous political religious party (the Hindu Mahasabha), to capabilities of the peasantry clearly pre-date gain support for one of its candidates for the green revolution. We have already seen, the state legislative assembly. White the in the example of the sarv khaps, that attempt was unsuccessful, Pradhan notes political parties had grasped the significance that the sarv khap council of these peasant bodies early on. An even is sufficiently influential to substantially more telling instance is that of the position affect, by its attitudes towards the candidates, of the Jats in Meerut's district board, where the outcome of elections for either the state they had been strongly represented since the
A-140 Economic and Political Weekly September 29, 1990 'viable' cultivators (i e, self-sufficient peasant peasantry are rooted in their material con- agriculture.66 The fanners for their part are households, or by extension those holding ditions, and particularly (as Marx realised not escaping rapacious revenue collectors, 56 more than five acres of land) of UP. and we have demonstrated) in their relation they are trying to improve their position in Charan Singh was a consistent champion of to landed property. In this respect we could India's market economy. For more than a an agenda of agrarian demands, which com scarcely hope for a more appropriate rally century now, their greatest asset has been prised of higher procurement prices for ing call for a sarv khap than the defence of their community. foodgrains, lower agricultural taxes, and common land. Nonetheless, many academic cheaper inputs. Similarly, he actively voiced observers of the Khanjawala agitation in References what he regarded as a pro-peasant perspec sisted on seeing it as a product of green tive on agricultural development, arguing revolutionary capitalism and the manipula Books and Articles against any suggestion of collective or co tion of primordial loyalties by a kulak elite. Alavi, H: 'Peasant Classes and Primordial operative farming and asserting that the As one writer put it: Loyalties' in Journal of Peasant Studies, most viable and productive agricultural for the kulaks who would like to pressurise Vol 1, No 1, 1973. system for India would be "an economy of the government for cheaper inputs for Alavi, H et al: Capitalism and Colonial Pro small farms operated by animal or manual agriculture, while getting higher prices for duction, Croom Helm 1982. power" and that "an increase in the size of their produce; it is more easy and convenient Althusscr, L and E Balibar: Reading Capital, Verso 1977. farm does not lead to greater production per to mobilise under a caste rubric because then Powell, Baden: The Indian Village Community, acre".57 economic differences and class antagonism New Haven 1957. The emergence of the Charan Singh-led can be conveniently overridden for their political gains.62 Bardhan, P: Land Labour and Rural Poverty, BKD (Bharatiya Kranti Dal) party as a force Columbia 1984. to be reckoned with in the UP legislative Following this tired logic, we would do Berreman, G D: The Evolutionary Status of assembly elections of 1969 and its successor well to wonder just how long the wily kulak Caste in India' in J Mencher (ed), Social BLD (Bhartiya Lok Dal) party's perfor could continue to hold sway over his in Anthropology of the Peasant, Delhi 1983. mance in the elections of 1974 do indicate nocent caste brethren. After all, as our Brass, P: Caste Faction and Party in Indian an electoral expression of economic interests Khanjawala correspondent ominously con Politics, Vols 1 and 2, Chanakya 1983. by the peasantry58 Yet these developments cludes: "presently the dalits happen to be the Byres, T J: 'The New Technology, Class For victims, but are we sure the victims will not mation and Class Action in the Indian cannot be seen to stand as markers of a shift 63 away from traditional political structures on change?" In fact, the 1980s have been Countryside' in Journal of Peasant Studies the part of the peasantry of the Upper Doab. marked by a series of large and protracted Vol 8, No 4, 1981. In October 1977 while Charan Singh was protests in Muzaffarnagar and Meerut —: 'Charan Singh (1902-87); An Assessment' one of the leading figures in the new Janata districts at which the peasants have submit in JPS, Vol 15, 1988. coalition government a much publicised sarv ted to government officials a list of demands Chatterjee, P: Agrarian Relations and Com- khap was held in the village of Khanjawala almost identical to those presented at rnunalism in Bengal 1926-1935' in R Guha (ed), Subaltern Studies I, Delhi 1982. in the union territory of Delhi. The assembly Khanjawala in 1977. Moreover, this protest —: 'More on Modes of Power and the Peasan was occasioned by the opposition of the movement too, was galvanised by a sarv try' in Guha (ed), Subaltern Studies II, village's Jat peasants to the distribution by khap, held in 1987 in the village of Sisauli, and has been led by Mahendra Singh Tikait, Delhi 1983. the state of the village's "common" grazing chaudhuri of the Muzaffarnagar Jat khap Chaturvedi and Shah: 'Fusion and Fission of land to landless dalit (low caste) families. of Baliyan ever since. A newsmagazine Castes in Elections' in Economic and The issue clearly touched a nerve among the report gives us some idea of the communal Political Weekly, October 30, 1970. "cultivating castes" of the region, thousands character of this agitation. Crooke. W: The North Western Provinces of of whom came to the sarv khap, many India , Oxford 1972. 59 Significantly, the farmers' agitation has among them from western UP. The gathered momentum only after Mahendra Desai, A R: India's Path of Development, Delhi peasant assembly produced a list of Singh stepped into the picture on January 14 1984. demands including: (1) The provision/ this year—the day when chowdhries (heads) Franket, K: 'Problems of Correlating Economic preservation of pasture land in every village. of 18 Jat clans representing some 40 lakh Jats and Electoral Variables' in Weiner and Field (2) An end to caste-based job reservation for in the eight western districts of Uttar Pradesh (eds), Studies in Electoral Politics in the state employees. (3) A reduction in irriga and some areas of Haryana met... Jat Indian States, Vol 3, The Impact of Modernisation 1977. tion rates to pre-1975 levels. (4) A preserva farmers... turned Sisauli into a fortress. A Ghosh, A: 'Caste Idiom for Class Conflict: tion of the price relation between agri 24-hour patrol was mounted by the farmers Case of Khanjawala' in Economic and cultural produce and agricultural inputs such armed with lathis and spears, who ran a Political Weekly, February 3, 1979. as fertiliser, seeds and pesticides at 1970 parallel administration for almost a week. Govind, S: Regional Perspectives in levels. (5) The redistribution of land held in The sight of policemen was greeted bv the excess of the official ceiling to marginal 6 Agricultural Development, Concept 1986. blowing of 'ransighas' (war bugles). * Gupta, D: 'Country-Town Nexus and Agrarian cultivators. (6) An upward revision of state Such an event evokes impressions of Mobilisation, BKU as an Instance' in procurement prices for agricultural produce. rebellions of another era—for example Economic and Political Weekly, December (7) A ban on the acquisition of cultivable William Crooke's assesment of the 17, 1988. land by the state.60 recalcitrant peasants of the Upper Doab in The fact that such economistic demands pre-Mughal times: Jha, S N: Leadership and Local Politics: A Study of Meerut District, 1923-1973,1979. were being presented in such a 'traditional' If the peasant community or the local chief- tain under whose protection they lived could Joshi, P C: 'Perspectives on Poverty and Social setting provoked some scepticism in scholar Change' in Economic and Political Weekly, ly circles. As one writer commented in the keep their ragged militia in tolerable effici ency, they might hope for a time to baffle Annual Number, February 1979. pages of a respected Indian journal: Marx, K: Capital, Vol 1, Penguin 1976. Originally, sarv khap means a meeting of the (revenue) collector altogether, but sooner or later, the deficiency was realised in a fierce —iGrundhsse, 1973. the all-clan council which controls a par Marx, K and F Engels: Selected Cor ticular area. But here caste and communal raid, when the torch was applied to the that ched roofs, and the community extirpated for respondence, Progress Publishers, 1975. solidarity was being expressed for secular 65 Mukherji, A B: Cultural Geography of the Jats 61 a time. ends. of the Upper Doab, unpublished doctoral Yet the huts of Sisauli are unlikely to be In fact, communal solidarity was being ex thesis, Louisiana State University and raised by the provincial constabulary. The pressed for communal ends, and the sarv Agricultural and Mechanical College, 1960. administration of Uttar Pradesh cannot af khap was very much in keeping with tradi Nadkarni, M V: 'Crisis of Increasing Costs in ford to antagonise the Jats or disrupt their tion. The communal structures of the Agriculture' in EPW, Vol 23, No 39,
Economic and Political Weekly September 29, 1990 A-141 September 24, 1988. 9 Patnaik, 1979, pp 411-12. best when he described the situation of a Neale, W C: Economic Change in India, Yale, 10 Patnaik, 1979, p 415. bania landlord facing a community of jat 1962. 11 Byres. 1961, P 443. tenants: 'he might go to shear and per Omvedt, G: The 'New Peasant Movement' in 12 Byres. 1981. chance come away shorn'. India' in Bulletin of Concerned Asian 13 After suggesting that a number of castes in 28 Ibid, p 119. Scholars Vol 20, No 2, 1988. cluding the Jats, Ahirs, Kunbis and 29 Singh and Misra. 1964 op 121, 122. Omvedt, O and C Gala: 'Peasant Question is Bhumihars, have acquired new strength 30 Khap and denotes the area traditionally a Class Question', EPW, July 2, 1988. after independence Desai notes that only *a controlled by a particular clan (khap) in this Papola, T S et al: Studies in the Development small section of each of these castes is case the Jat clan of Baliyan. of Uttar Pradesh, Giri Institute of Develop becoming prosperous while the rest ait 31 Pradhan. 1966, p 186. ment Studies, 1979. being steadily pauperised'. Of the dominant 32 Ibid, p 187. Pradhan, M C: The Political System of the Jats section of these castes, he writes: They are 33 Marx, 1973, p 495. of Northern India, Oxford, 1966. taking over a number of functions like pro 34 W Irvine; cited in Stone, op cit, p 279. Prakasa Rao, V L Set al: Development Strategy vision of credit, moneylcnding, trading 35 Ibid, p 279. for an Agricultural Region: A Case Study from rival castes, sharing their interests 36 See I Rudolph and Rudolph 1987, p 486, of Muzaffarnagar District UP, Institute of when necessary to fight elections to pan n 23. Development Studies, University of Mysore, chayats, in legislatures; to further their trade 37 Stone, 1984, pp 110-11. 1976. commercial and agricultural interests; to 38 W C Neale, 1962, p 143. Rudolph and Rudolph: In Pursuit of Lakshmi: press for increased recruitments of caste 39 Stone, 1984, p 302. He also mentions ad The Political Economy of the Indian State, members to the services and for cultural and vancements in animal husbandry and the Orient Longman, 1987. educational opportunities'. A R Desai 1984, development and spread of improved Saint, G R: Farm Size, Rescourcevse Effeciency pp 187-88. ploughs in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar and Income Distribution, Allied, 1979. 14 Bardhan describes the other side of the pp 298-99. Sen, C: 'Commercialisation, Class Relations same coin: "Even when an individual 40 W C Neale, (1962, p 144) cites the follow and Agricultural Performance in UP' in peasant does not find the terms of exchange ing figures for increase in yield between the K N Raj (ed), Essays on the Commercialisa within the existing stratification tolerable periods 1827-1840 and 1897-1921 in tion of Indian Agriculture, New Delhi, and feels exploited, his sense of outrage Muzaffarnagar—Rice: 70 per cent; Jowar; 1984. usually takes on as social dimension only 52 per cent; Bajra: 29 per cent; Gram: 76 Shankar, K: Uttar Pradesh in Statistics, Ashish, when he perceives it to be shared by the kin per cent; Wheat: 83 per cent. 1987. ship or ethnic group with which he easily 41 Patnaik, 1972, p 205. Singh, A K: Pattern of Regional Development: identifies. His sense of exploitation can thus 42 'Not only the rate of increase in output of A Comparative Study, Sterling, 1981. be diffused by prospering, upwardly mobile several crops has declined after 1970-71, the Smelser (ed): Karl Marx on Social Change, members of his own caste, who sometimes actual output of foodgrains failed to register 1973. offer him patronage on kinship lines." an increase. This slackening in growth trend Stokes, E: The Structure of Landholding in Bardhan, 1984 p 186. is more marked in west UP, where all major Uttar Pradesh' in Indian Economic and 15 Cited in Joshi, 1979, p 365. crops with the exception of rice show a Social History Review, April-June 1975. 16 Nothing at any rate that goes beyond decline after 1970-7F. A K Singh, 1981, —: The Peasant and the Raj, Cambridge, 1978. presumptions of some sort of 'false con p 121. Stone, I: Canal Irrigation in British India, sciousness' mechanism—'as when high-caste 43 'Between 1820 and 1888, the North Western Cambridge, 1984. capitalist landlords reinforce their economic Provinces received some 5,601 miles of Tokei, F: Essays on the Asiatic Mode of Pro- exploitation of Harijan labourers by using channels and distributaries irrigating duction, Budapest, 1979. the latter's Harijan status to browbeat them 1,459,938 acres at a total cost of construc Government Publications. into a cowed and submissive labour force, tion (excluding interest) of 4,338,384 Government of India: Census of India 1981: A thus making organisation that much more pounds', C Whitcombe cited in Sen, 1981, Portrait of Population, Government of the difficult', Patnaik, 1987, p 5. p 330. United Provinces of Agra and Oudk 17 Tokei, 1979, p 27. 44 Between 1901-40 the area under sugarcane —.Muzaffarnagar District Gazetteer, 1903, 18 Pradhan, 1966, pp 21-22. in Meerut increased from 9 to 13 per cent 1926. 19 I have put a rather quick gloss over a com of the net cultivated area (nca) and double- —: Meerut District Gazetteer, 1908. plex issue which could occupy an entire cropping from 21 per cent to 28 per cent —: Department of Land Records: Season and paper. It may be noted that in the last years of the nca. Stone 1984, p 289, Crop Reports, various years. of Mughal rule the feudal powers of 45 Dasgupta, (1977) notes that the level of trac —: Report of the United Provinces Zamindari jagirdars were on the rise (as one may torisation was high in this district, even Abolition Committee, Vol 1 and 2, 1948. observe in the fascinating history of Begum before the green revolution, pp 97-98. Government of Uttar Pradesh. Samru who inherited the estate of Budhana 46 Patnaik, 1979, p 415. — Board of Revenue: Agricultural Census in west of Meerut. But the question whether 47 I am aware of two studies that investigate Uttar Pradesh, 1971. this indicates a tendency towards a full trends in the relationship between farm size —: Season and Crop Report, various years. blown feudal mode of production in the and income in the Upper Doab. Saint's —: Meerut District Gazetteer, 1965, region is in any case rendered academic by regression analysis of data from two farm —: Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board: the onset of colonial rule. management surveys in 1956 and 1969, finds Annual Financial Statement, various years. 20 Marx, Grundrisse, p 493, cited in Chatter- a shift from an inverse relationship between Farm Management Survey Muzaffarnagar: jee 1983, p 333, size and income to a positive one, but notes Combined Report. 21 Baden Powell, 1957, p 216. that the tendency is statistically insignificant 22 Alavi, 1982, p 64. (Saini 1979, p 138). Govind's 1975 field Notes 23 Stone, 1984, p 310 study, by contrast, reveals a strong inverse 24 Mukerji, I960, p 135. The reference is to relationship. She also found a higher in 1 Ganges-Jamuna interfluve between Sharan- Gadana, a village purchased from bania's cidence of HYV and fertiliser use among pur and Mathura districts. and then expanded through acquisition of small farmers (Govind 1982, pp 164-66). 2 Balibar 1970, pp 212-16. other villages' land. Kanungo records in 48 By 1982-83, 87.20 per cent of the net area 3 Marx, 1973, p 472. dicate that the bulk of the plots (82 per cent) sown in Muzaffarnagar and 93.36 per cent 4 New York Daily Tribune, June 1853. were purchased between 1857 and 1908. of that in Meerut was irrigated. Shankar, 5 Omvedt, 1988, p 1391. 25 Bhaduri, 1981, p 313. 1987, p 72. 6 Patnaik, 1972, pp 204-05. 26 Stone, op cit, pp 308-09. 49 Marx, 1973, p 495 7 Patnaik, 1979, p 415. 27 Ibid, p 307. Countless examples could be 50 Assembly of representatives of all peasant 8 Patnaik, 1972, p 209. found. Crooke summed up the situation castes. Pradhan, 1986 notes that due to
A-142 Economic and Political Weekly September 29, 1990 British apprehensions such assemblies had not been held in the Upper Doab since the rebellion of 1857. 51 Pradhan, 1966, p 233. 52 Frankel, 1977, p 153. 53 Frankel, 1977, p 153. 54 S N Jha, 1979, pp 27, 52. 55 The history of Bhagpat parliamentary con stituency, in the territory of Singh's Daiya khap is revealing. In 1962, the seat was con tested by an independent Jat candidate, who, allegedly with Singh's surreptitious support, won 27.22 per cent of the vote. In 1967, the same candidate, now on the BKD ticket, took 50.15 per cent of the vote, In 1977, Charan Singh himself stood, and pol led 63.47 per cent of the vote, repeating this victory in the face of the 'indira wave' of 1980 with 64.45 per cent of the vote. Finally, in the 1984 elections held in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assassination, Charan Singh held his constituency for the last time with 53.72 per cent of the vote. 56 Brass (1983), describing a confrontation between Singh and his colleague in the UP cabinet over a proposed increase in irriga tion rates, argues that the Jat politician identified himself here as a spokesman of three interests—rural as against urban in terests, western region peasant as against eastern region peasant interests and peasants who took up bhumidari rights against those who did not. 57 Charan Singh, cited in Brass op cit, vol I, p 313. 58 In both elections, the BKD/BLD had its greatest successes in the western districts where the impact of the green revolution had been heaviest. The party carried 31.35 per cent of the electorate in the Upper Doab in 1969 (surpassing even the Congress in the region) and 28.29 per cent in 1974. In 1974 (Brass 1984, vol 2, p 146), the party's vote shares were strongly correlated with land- holding sizes between 5 and 125 acres in the 'wheat districts—which in contrast to the rice districts had been significantly affected by the new technologies. (We may note that for Brass, the Upper Doab is the Quintes sential region' of the 'wheat districts'. Ibid, p84) 59 Times of India, August 28, 30,31, 1977. 60 Cited in Swamy 1978. It is worth noting the similarity between these demands and the peasant agenda that Charan Singh had always championed. The demands would be echoed in subsequent peasant demonstra tions including the famous Kisan Rally in Delhi in December 1978, and more recent ly the agitations led by Mahendra Singh Tikait, a leader of the Baliyan khap of Muzaffarnagar, between 1986-88. 61 A Ghosh, 1979. 62 A Ghost 1979, p 185, Omvedt and Patankar, 1978, express a similar perception of the events in Khanjawala. 63 Ibid, p 186. 64 India Today, April 30, 1987. 65 Crooke, 1972, pp 298-99. 66 The farmers of west UP know how impor tant their agriculture is to the government of UP. Of the 20 lakh tons that the govern ment of UP intends to purchase in 1988, about 6 lakh tons will come from Meerut district alone: Gupta, 1988, p 2695.
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