Egoism, Anomie and Masculinity: Suicide in Rural South India (Andhra Pradesh)

The London School of Economics and Political Science Egoism, Anomie and Masculinity: Suicide in Rural South India (Andhra Pradesh) Kumar Nilotpal A thesis submitted to the Development Studies Institute of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, January 2011 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotations from it are permitted, provided that full acknowledgment is made. The thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Abstract The dissertation offers an examination of the incidence and significance of ‘farmer suicides’ in post-reform India. Based on fieldwork conducted in a village in Anantpur district, Andhra Pradesh, it challenges the notion that the official category of ‘farm- related’ suicides is always characterized by farm-related etiologies. Instead, it shows an etiological continuum underlying these suicides. One end of this continuum does comprise genuine farm-related suicides that are distinguished by high levels of indebtedness on account of non-fructuous investments in groundwater extraction, land-leases, expenditure on marriage(s) of daughter(s) and health related difficulties. But there is also a large sub-category amongst official ‘farm-related’ suicides that includes many that are not exclusively or principally farm-related. Sometimes called “fake (farm-related) suicides”, this sub-category is explained locally in terms of a range of familial or inter-family disputes. It is by systematically creating or inflating the extent of household indebtedness after a suicide, attributing it to ‘farm- expenditures’, and then denying non farm- related causes in collusion with the police during an inquest, that local peasants manage to have such suicides classified officially as ‘farmers’ suicides’. Such a classification is to their financial or social advantage. My analysis of local farming practices confirms the view that the entrenchment of capital-intensive groundwater-based commercial agriculture in a semi-arid zone has intensified various production related risks. However, the dissertation also shows that rural suicides represent significant social and cultural disjunctions. Local inter and intra-family kin relationships are increasingly undermined by rising individualism and its attendant friction. There are also normative tensions that arise out of an acute desire on the part of local peasants to adopt status-enhancing, refined lifestyles and consumption practices. A local ideology of masculinity (paurusham) structures the interaction between these wider economic, social and cultural changes and emergent notions of self amongst the villagers. Local suicides, whether they are principally farm-related or not, represent differential possession of masculine aggression, and one’s capacity and willingness to construe and avenge irreversible dishonour (avamanam). Insofar as the claim of honour is widely democratized now, and insofar as there is an expansion in the scope of social space in which it is claimed now, the possibilities of experiencing dishonour and the need to avenge it by way of suicide has also increased. Acknowledgments I have accumulated debts from a large number of people in course of this research. The first and foremost amongst them are my two supervisors at LSE, Prof. John Harriss and Prof. Stuart Corbridge. The intellectual support, help and kindness that I received from Prof. Harriss was crucial in preparing the ground for this work. Likewise, it is Prof. Corbridge’s generosity in terms of his time, support and patience that has enabled me to complete this work in its present form. It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to work with Stuart. My thanks are also due to Prof. Tim Dyson, Prof. Robert Wade, Prof. Tim Allen, and Prof. Jonathan Parry for their helpful comments at different stages of this work. I am also indebted to Dr. Caroline Osella (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) and Dr. Andrew Wyatt (University of Bristol) for examining this dissertation, and for giving me the benefit of their detailed comments. I express my gratitude to the Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies (FURS) at the University of Essex, J.N. Tata Endowment, Mumbai, and B.D.Bangur Endowment, Kolkata, for having made available to me generous research studentships in 2003 to read for PhD. I remember in particular Prof. Linda McDowell at the University of Oxford and Ms. Jenifer Tucker at Essex for their kind help and support in this regard. I am grateful to the financial support office, LSE, for having made available the Development Studies Institute (DESTIN) research studentship awards towards my PhD. My big thanks are due to Ms. Stephanie Davies, the DESTIN departmental manager, for helping me sort out various administrative aspects of the doctoral work. In India, I am indebted to Dr. Leena Abraham at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. To her indulgent kindness I owe the first seeds of my intellectual fascination for the subject of suicide, and to her I also owe my first introduction to the people of Anantpur. At TISS, I also fondly remember Late Dr. Vikas N. Pandey who first encouraged me to read Emile Durkheim and Jack Douglas, and who oversaw my first academic writing on suicide in 1999. My thanks are also due to the librarians of the Nehru Memorial Library, Ratan Tata Library, and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and Sri Krishnadevraya University, Anantpur for enabling me to benefit from their facilities. In Anantpur, I have benefitted greatly from the friendship of Bablu, Subba Rao and Narayana at the Timabktoo Collective. But I have my greatest debt to Dr. Geyanand, Dr. Prasuna, Mr. Jayachandra, Mr. Narsimha Reddy (Enadu publications, Hyderabad) , and the entire Praja Vaidshala family. The help and support that I received from Dr. Geyanand and the family throughout the course of my field work has meant a lot to me. I also wish to thank Mr. Vishweshar Reddy (Congress I), Mr. Imam Basha (Human Rights Forum, Anantpur), Mr. Chandrashekhar (Human Rights Forum and Govt. Arts College, Anantpur), MV Ramana (Communist Party of India-Marxist, Anantpur), Dr. Malla Reddy (Rural Development Trust, Anantpur) and Dr. R. Chandrashekar Reddy (Sri Krishnadevraya University, Anantpur) for their help in the course of my fieldwork. My thanks are also due to Narayan Reddy, Irrappa and Venkatramdu in Kuderu mandal, and a number of other CPI (M) cadres in Raptadu, Kadiri and Uravkonda mandals of Anantpur who gave selflessly of their time to take me to their villages and enabled me to speak with local peasants. I am also greatly indebted to the people of NRP – the primary field-site for the study. Thank you, Jaimma amma and Mahanand Reddy anna for making me a member of your family. Although every one in the village was extremely friendly and helpful, I cherish in particular the help, love and affection that I received from my friends in “our street” (ma geru). It is a pleasure to say that they are too many in number to name here. Similarly, in KK village, my thanks are due to the entire Durgam family including Suri anna, Ujinappa anna and Rama akka. Amongst my friends, Rajib, Meenakshi, Nandini, Sunder, Swagato, Praveen, Neha, Gus, Mili and Sunil have heroically borne the barrage of demands I have made on their time (and on their minds!). I also thank the Whitting family in London, and Suzanne and Anthony in particular, for their unwavering warmth and generosity during the writing up period. Thank you Anthony for patiently proof-reading a large part of this dissertation. Ma, Babujee, Nalini and Kanad; without you I could not possibly have written this work. And I know that Nani would have loved to see and touch this dissertation! Contents List of contents i Diagrams and tables iv Statement of ethics vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1. ‘Farmers’ suicides’; the thesis 1 1.2 The dissertation; epistemological considerations 9 1.3 Theoretical considerations; the peasantry, modernity and identity 24 1.4 The method of data-collection 38 1.5 Main findings and the organization of chapters 44 Chapter 2: Ecology, Risk and Cash Crop Cultivation; agrarian change in NRP 2.1 Introduction 47 2.2 The ecological specificity of Anantpur 50 2.3 Relative equality in access to land; sharp inequality in access to groundwater 58 2.4 Declining mixed-farming practices 68 2.5 The agrarian structure of NRP 74 2.6 Crop production; capitalistic intensification under distress 79 2.7 Declining yield and the non-viability of dry land groundnut cultivation 98 2.8 Conclusion 103 Chapter 3: Aham, Swartham and Poti; rising individualism in the village 3.1 Introduction 105 3.2 The household as a dimension of family; the preponderance of elementary families 106 3.3 Kutumbam; increasing individuality and contestation 113 3.3.1 Father-son relationship 114 i 3.3.2 Husband-wife relationship 127 3.3.3 Relationship amongst brothers; rising swartham and quicker household partition 139 3.4 Inter-Kutumbam relationships ; swartham and poti 153 3.5 Conclusion 159 Chapter 4: The Desiring Village; consumption, status and identity construction 4.1 Introduction 161 4.2 Food and drink; “enjaying class”, leaving

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