Labour Tying Arrangements

351 Pages·2016·4.19 MB·English

Labour Tying Arrangements: An Enduring Aspect of Agrarian
Capitalism in India

Taneesha Devi Mohan

Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD
December, 2015

Department of Geography and Environment
London School of Economics and Political Science
University of London

i
Declaration
I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/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 (in which case the extent of any work
carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it).

The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided
that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior
written consent.

I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of
any third party.

I declare that my thesis consists of 1,06,044 words.

I can confirm that parts of my thesis were copy edited for conventions of language, spelling
and grammar by Meredith Whitten and Harsiman Gill.

ii
Table of Contents
List of Figures .................................................................................................................. vi
List of Tables and Boxes .................................................................................................. vii
Abstract .......................................................................................................................... viii
Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................... ix
Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... xi
Glossary .......................................................................................................................... xiii
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1
Theoretical Constructions ............................................................................................................... 3
Chapters .......................................................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 1: Unfree Labour and Agrarian Neoliberalism ..................................................... 13
1.1 The Agrarian Question of Capital and Labour .................................................................. 14
1.2 Unfree labour under Capitalism ....................................................................................... 18
1.2.1 Theoretical Constructions within the Indian Context ............................................... 22
1.2.2 Changing Unfree Labour Relations in India .............................................................. 29
1.2.3 Providing explanations of Unfree Labour through Interlocking Transactions in
Agriculture ................................................................................................................................ 38
1.3 Using Gillian Hart to Understand Tied Labour Arrangements .......................................... 45
1.4 Indian Agriculture and Development................................................................................ 48
1.5 Women in Agriculture ....................................................................................................... 55
1.5.1 Labour relations and Labour Resistance: .................................................................. 65
1.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 68
Chapter 2: An Account of Methods ................................................................................. 70
2.1 The Area of Enquiry .......................................................................................................... 72
2.2 Making Field Choices ........................................................................................................ 74
2.3 Getting down to Fieldwork ............................................................................................... 79
2.3.1 Accessing the field .................................................................................................... 80
2.3.2 Data Collection .......................................................................................................... 88
2.4 Ethical dilemmas ............................................................................................................... 99
2.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 100
Chapter 3: An Overview of Aranthangi and Chinsurah .................................................. 102
3.1 Aranthangi: A Description ............................................................................................... 102
3.1.1 Physiology and Agriculture ..................................................................................... 103
3.1.2 Socio-economic descriptions of Aranthangi ........................................................... 109
3.2 Hooghly: A Description ................................................................................................... 121
iii
3.2.1 Physiology ............................................................................................................... 125
3.2.2 Socio-economic Background of Chinsurah ............................................................. 128
3.3 Labour Relations in Aranthangi and Chinsurah .............................................................. 141
3.3.1 Tied labour relations ............................................................................................... 144
3.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 148
Chapter 4: Tenancy as a Route to Tied Labour? .............................................................150
4.1 Land Reforms and Land Ceilings in Tamil Nadu .............................................................. 152
4.1.1 Tenancy Reforms in Tamil Nadu ............................................................................. 153
4.2 Tenancy Arrangements and Land Transactions in Aranthangi ....................................... 155
4.2.1 Ensuring Production and Controlling Land through Tenancy Arrangements ......... 156
4.2.2 Capitalist Farmers and Multiple Tenancy patterns ................................................. 161
4.2.3 Tenants and Labourers ........................................................................................... 165
4.2.4 Survival and Exploitation ........................................................................................ 174
4.3 West Bengal Land and Tenancy Reforms ....................................................................... 176
4.3.1 Left Rule and Land Distribution .............................................................................. 179
4.4 Tenancy patterns in Chinsurah - Controlling Ownership of Land ................................... 180
4.4.1 Tenancy patterns in Chinsurah ............................................................................... 185
4.5 Conclusion: ...................................................................................................................... 190
Chapter 5: Labour Tying and Credit Relations: Interlinkages of Land Labour and Credit194
5.1 Credit Institutions forging Credit relations ..................................................................... 197
5.1.1 Rural credit Societies .............................................................................................. 198
5.1.2 Accessibility to Banks .............................................................................................. 200
5.1.3 Informal Rural Credit .............................................................................................. 202
5.2 Credit Interlinkage and Indebtedness............................................................................. 205
5.2.1 Loans and Rising Indebtedness ............................................................................... 207
5.3 Informalisation of Credit and Increasing Indebtedness.................................................. 212
5.3.1 Money Lenders, Credit and Indebtedness .............................................................. 217
5.3.2 Credit relations and Pannaiyals .............................................................................. 219
5.3.3 Dadan and the Bandha Kishen ................................................................................ 222
5.4 Self-Help Groups: An Alternative Livelihood Apparatus ................................................. 224
5.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 230
Chapter 6: National Rural Employment: Transformative Impact on Female Labour
Relations ....................................................................................................................... 236
iv
6.1 MGNREGA and Labour Relations: ................................................................................... 238
6.1.1 MGNREGA, Labour Benefits and Labour Control: .................................................. 239
6.1.2 Obstacles to MGNREGA: ......................................................................................... 252
6.2 Social Protection Measures, Power and Politics: ............................................................ 257
6.2.1 MGNREGA, an Aid to Agricultural Labour Movements? ........................................ 261
6.3 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 267
Chapter 7: Bureaucracy, the State and the Ruling Classes ............................................. 270
7.1 Public Distribution System- Ensuring Food Security ....................................................... 272
7.1.1 PDS within a Functioning State ............................................................................... 273
7.1.2 Ambiguous Efficiency of the Food and Supplies Department in Chinsurah ........... 280
7.2 State Allotted Subsidies and Technologies: Minimum Support Price ............................ 286
7.3 Encounters with the State and Labour Dependencies ................................................... 291
7.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 295
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 299
Addressing the Question ............................................................................................................ 300
Key Findings: Female Labour Tying and Interlocking Transactions ............................................ 302
Tenancy ....................................................................................................................................... 304
Credit .......................................................................................................................................... 307
State Policies and Social Welfare ................................................................................................ 309
Contributions, Limitation and Policy Implications ...................................................................... 313
Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 318
Appendix 1 ..................................................................................................................... 334
Appendix 2 ..................................................................................................................... 335

v
List of Figures
Figure 1: Location Map of Aranthangi, Pudukkottai ........................................................................ 77
Figure 2: Location Map of Chinsurah, Hooghly................................................................................. 78
Figure 3: Focus Group Discussion with female agricultural labourers in Chinsurah ........................ 98
Figure 4: Layout of Village Karaimedu- Aranthangi ........................................................................ 105
Figure 5: Layout of Village Thirasu- Aranthangi .............................................................................. 106
Figure 6: Crop Calendar for Karaimedu and Thirasu ...................................................................... 107
Figure 7: Making use of every square inch: Paddy fields in Aranthangi that are lined by coconut
and banana plantations. ................................................................................................................. 108
Figure 8: Displacing Paddy: Large fields taken over by eucalyptus plantations. ............................ 109
Figure 9: Distribution of Households based on Religion in Aranthangi. ......................................... 110
Figure 10: A typical tiled roof with straw walls of a Pallar house and a thatched roof and mud
house of an Ambalakar in Aranthangi. ........................................................................................... 115
Figure 11: Layout of Village Madhabpur- Chinsurah ...................................................................... 123
Figure 12: Layout of Village Bardhanagar- Chinsurah .................................................................... 124
Figure 13: Agricultural Calendar of Chinsurah ................................................................................ 126
Figure 14: Transplanting Paddy in Chinsurah: Female dominated task with a male labourer to
oversee the group. .......................................................................................................................... 127
Figure 15: Number of Hindu and Muslim Households in Chinsurah .............................................. 129
Figure 16: A Santhal basti (locality) in Bardhanagar with mud floors and walls. ........................... 133
Figure 17: MGRENA Work: Digging a Pond in Chinsurah ................................................................ 253
Figure 18: Writing on the wall: The front wall of the ration shop in Karaimedu specifying quantities
of item sold and the price of goods. ............................................................................................... 274
Figure 19: Ration Shop in Madhabpur that opens for two hours from 8am to 10 am .................. 282
Figure 20: Encounters with the State: Female Agricultural Labourer and Big Farmer ................... 292

vi
List of Tables and Boxes
Table 2.1: Number of households in selected villages/ hamlets in Aranthangi and Chinsurah ....... 89
Table 2.2: Respondents selected from each caste and class group ................................................. 93
Table 3.1: Land Use Pattern of Pudukkottai District ....................................................................... 104
Table 3.2: Distribution of Caste Groups in Aranthangi ................................................................... 111
Table 3.3: Percentage Distribution of Landholdings According to Caste in Aranthangi. ................ 112
Table 3.4: Caste-Wise distribution of Households according to Economic Status in Aranthangi .. 114
Table 3.5: Caste-Wise Percentage Distribution of Different Occupations Taken up by Women in
Aranthangi. ..................................................................................................................................... 118
Table 3.6: Caste-Wise Percentage Distribution of Different Occupations Taken up by Men in
Aranthangi. ..................................................................................................................................... 119
Table 3.7: Caste-Wise Percentage Distribution of Work Most Preferred in Aranthangi. ............... 120
Table 3.8: Land Use Pattern of Hooghly District ............................................................................. 125
Table 3.9: Distribution of Caste Groups in Chinsurah ..................................................................... 130
Table 3.10: Percentage Distribution of Landholdings According to Caste, Chinsurah ................... 131
Table 3.11: Caste-Wise distribution of Households according to Economic Status in Chinsurah .. 132
Table 3.12: Caste-Wise Percentage Distribution of Male Occupations in Chinsurah ..................... 136
Table 3.13: Caste-Wise Percentage Distribution of Female Occupations in Chinsurah. ................ 138
Table 3.14: Caste-Wise Percentage Distribution of Work Most Preferred in Chinsurah ............... 140
Table 3.15: Wage structure and Wage Gaps in Aranthangi and Chinsurah. .................................. 142
Table 4.1: Class Wise Distribution of Number of Persons Engaged in Tenancy in Aranthangi ...... 156
Table 4.2: Land Tenancy Arrangements in Aranthangi ................................................................... 157
Table 4.3: Caste-Wise distribution of Land Leased ......................................................................... 181
Table 4.4: Land Tenancy Arrangements in Chinsurah .................................................................... 184
Table 5.1: Cooperative Banks and Rural Credit Services in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal ............. 199
Table 5.2: Sources of Credit in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal......................................................... 202
Table 5.3: Respondents who Accessed Banks for the purpose of Cultivation ................................ 204
Table 5.4: Sources of Informal Credit among Classes of Labour .................................................... 204
Table 5.5: Class-Wise Distribution of Reasons for Taking Loans in Aranthangi and Chinsurah ..... 208
Table 5.6: Number of Respondents from the Classes of Labour (including Small and Marginal
farmers) accessing different Sources of Informal Credit Aranthangi and Chinsurah ..................... 213
Table 6.1: Caste Wise Distribution of Job Cards in Aranthangi ...................................................... 243
Table 6.2: Caste Wise Distribution of Job Cards in Chinsurah ........................................................ 244
Table 6.3: Number of Days of MGNREGA Work Received in Aranthangi and Chinsurah ............... 253

Box 3.1: Percentage of Different Categories of Workers to Total Workforce ................................ 117
Box 3.2: Percentage of Different Categories of Workers to Total Workforce ................................ 134
Box 6.1: Aranthangi ........................................................................................................................ 241
Box 6.2: Chinsurah .......................................................................................................................... 242

vii
Abstract
This thesis explores the persistence of labour tying arrangements among female labourers
in agriculture in India. This research is a comparative study of women’s labour tying in
Aranthangi (Tamil Nadu) and Chinsurah (West Bengal). I argue that these labour
arrangements are driven through familial/gendered relations, exercise of power at the
village level, and macroeconomic and political forces. Set against the backdrop of rising
feminisation of agricultural wage employment coupled with growing insecurity of work
and survival, this study identifies that rural female labour (which is predominantly agrarian)
is commoditized and under-valued. Consequently, the female labourer is often drawn into
exploitative labour contracts. I identify rural labour in this thesis through Bernstein’s
category of ‘classes of labour’ (1996; 2010).
In this study, I identify the ways in which the classes of labour enter labour tying
arrangements in agriculture. The presence of labour tying is often understood through the
ideological divisions of Classical Marxist and Neo-classical analyses. Classical Marxist
analysis understands these labour arrangements as remnants of pre-capitalist society,
which withers away with commercialization of agriculture. Neo-classical theorists identify
these labour arrangements as mutually beneficial relations for both the employer and
labourer. Moving away from this binary understanding of the presence of tied labour, I use
Hart’s analytical framework to show how the presence of tied labour among female
‘classes of labour’ are an outcome of multi-scalar power relations in rural society. I posit
that these multi-scalar power relations in rural society create relations of dependency,
obligation and privilege that draw female labourers into tied labour arrangements. I
identify, these multi-scalar power relations as regimes of labour tying, where unfreedom
experienced therein, are differentiated along gender, class and caste identities. The
regime of labour tying, therefore, needs to be understood as a process that is here to stay,
and of which female agrarian labour occupy an unfair share.

viii
Acknowledgement
The individual endeavour of completing my PhD is not conceivable without the help and
support family, friends, colleagues and numerous people I have interacted with over the
last five years.

First and foremost, I would like to extend my gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Sharad Chari,
whose resolute dedication guided an idea that I had to a complete study. Not only did he
provide me with the much required intellectual supervision but through times both high
and low, has been patient with me and supported me through these four years. I would
also like to thank Prof. Sylvia Chant whose support, feedback and kind and gentle words
of encouragement have been instrumental towards the completion of my PhD.
A special thanks goes out to Indrani Mazumdar and Prof. Butola- the two people I could
always turn to for help, whether it is through incessant emails or late night phone calls.

I would also like to thank my examiners Prof. Judith Heyer and Prof. Henry Bernstein who
took the time out and to carefully go through my work, and provide me with insightful
suggestions to help improve my work.

This PhD would not have been possible without the appropriate and much needed funding.
I am grateful to the J.N. Tata Endowment and the Asia Research Centre - Bagri Fellowship,
for providing me with necessary funding for my study. I would also like to thank LSE for
that grants I received and for providing me with the opportunity to go to the University of
Cape Town (UCT). I would like to thank Dr. Sophie Oldfield (UCT) and Prof. Dilip Menon
(CISA- University of Witwatersrand) for their support. At the Department of Geography
and Environment in LSE I would like to thank Elaine, without whose help I would not have
come this far in my PhD.

The fourteen months I spent on fieldwork was made possible with the help of certain
people- I would like to take this opportunity to thank Chitra, Mannikaam, Lenin K., Palanni,
Meenatchi, and Jacinta who helped me in carrying out fieldwork in Aranthangi. A special
thanks goes to my sister Shobana, who I dragged all across Aranthangi for over two
months, and my thambi Lenin who initiated this entire process for me. My fieldwork in
Chinsurah would not be possible without the help of Nasim and his family, Priyanka
Bhattacharya, Priyanka Basu, Prasanjit Dutta, and Shubrata.

I take this opportunity to thank my family- my grandmother Srini Bai, my parents Anand
and Sheila, my much loved second mother Sushma Aunty, my brothers Dhritimaan and
Kirtimaan and my sister-in-law and dear friend Sejuti. Their faith, effort, encouragement,
strength, nagging and love, always got me back on track. Mummy you get extra credit for
being the only other person who has read my thesis cover to cover! I would like to thank
my extended family, Lara, Ed and Caroline. Thank you for opening your home and your
ix
heart to me, looking out and carrying for me every step of the way. Thanks to you guys I
could come back to a home every day!

Sukhendu Kaku, Sushmita Aunty, Sohini di, Hari, Tulsi Di, Debo Da, Trivik, Mamchu,
Malika and Arjun, thank you for all the love and warmth.

To my friends old and new- time and time again you have all borne my bad temper and
provided me with much care, love and support. To my pillars of strength Ishaan, Bhai
Sejuti, Regina, Anokhi and Jayaraj- you guys have been there every step of the way
supporting me, cheering me on and made sure I get this done!!! Meredith and Sin Yee my
two lovely friends, thank you for your constant words of encouragement and never ending
support. To Shruti, thank you for always being there. Priyanka, Debanjali, and Rajpal thank
you for all your help. Manamee, Indrani, Chandrani, Ishita, Sejuti B. Ananya, Abhi and Aditi,
from your comments to gossip and most of all love, thank you guys for coming through for
me every time.

x