Economic Change and Agrarian Organization in ‘Dry’ South India 1890–1940: A Reinterpretation

1983 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Robert
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Rural Economy ◽  
South India ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Rural Politics ◽  
Common Theme ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Agrarian Structure

Recent historiography of India has focused much needed attention on rural economy and society. The literature has dealt with a number of issues, such as merchants, credit, impact of communications, land-tenure (revenue), rural politics, rich peasants and general essays on the ‘agrarian structure’ of various regions of the sub-continent. In many of the studies a common theme emerges. It is suggested that with the establishment of an integrated market economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries rural wealth and power tended to concentrate in the hands of relatively few rich peasants or a rural elite. In the case of south India, the contention of increased rural stratification on these lines is most convincingly put forth by David Washbrook and Christopher Baker in a series of articles and books. The present analysis will concentrate on Washbrooks' writings in reference to the agrarian structure of the ‘dry’ districts. His works provide the most comprehensive and coherent statement of the ‘rural magnate’ interpretation of agrarian organization.

Law as Institution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Loughlin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Anglo American

Institutionalism is a theory that maintains that law is neither norm nor command but institution. It emerges in the late-nineteenth century primarily through the work of Hauriou in France and Romano in Italy. Their innovative studies are shaped by reflecting on the effects of social and economic change on law, which manifests itself primarily in the emergence of administrative law. In this chapter the importance of institutional jurisprudence is assessed by examining its historical context and offering reflections on its continuing significance. It argues that, partly because of the lack of English translations of its leading exponents, institutionalism has been relatively neglected in Anglo-American jurisprudence, and that it continues to offer acute insights into contemporary juristic controversies.

The Car and the Palanquin: Rival Accounts of the 1895 Riot in Kalugumalai, South India

1999 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Good
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
South India ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Hindu Temple ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Town ◽  
Main Streets

The 1895 riot at Kalugumalai in the Tirunelveli District of Madras Presidency, South India, pitted the local Nadar community, then newly-converted to Roman Catholicism, against the main Hindu castes of Kalugumalai, particularly those associated with its Hindu temple and the Ettaiyapuram zamindari estate within which the town lay. It was the violent climax to a long-running dispute over the Nadars' right to take processions through the main streets, and one of the bloodiest episodes in a conflict which posed a severe threat to public order throughout South India in the late nineteenth century.

A Strategy for Conserving the Biodiversity of the Uttara Kannada District in South India

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Ranjit Daniels ◽  
M. D. Subash Chandran ◽  
Madhav Gadgil
Keyword(s):  
Rural Economy ◽  
South India ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Deciduous Forests ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Mangrove Forests ◽  
Sacred Groves ◽  
Evergreen Forests

Taking the various values ascribed to biodiversity as its point of departure rather many years ago, the present study aims at deriving a conservation strategy for Uttara Kannada. This hilly district, with the highest proportion of its area under forests in South India, is divided into five ecological zones: coastal, northern evergreen, southern evergreen, moist deciduous, and dry deciduous. The heavily-populated coastal zone includes mangrove forests and estuarine wetlands. The evergreen forests are particularly rich in the diversity of plant species which they support — including wild relatives of a number of cultivated plants. They also serve a vital function in watershed conservation. The moist deciduous forests are rich in bird species; both moist and dry deciduous forests include a number of freshwater ponds and lakes that support a high diversity of aquatic birds.Reviewing the overall distribution of biodiversity, we identify specific localities — including estuaries, evergreen forests, and moist deciduous forests — which should be set aside as Nature reserves. These larger reserves must be complemented by a network of traditionally-protected sacred groves and sacred trees that are distributed throughout the district and that protect today, for instance, the finest surviving stand of dipterocarp trees.We also spell out the necessary policy-changes in overall development strategy that should stem the ongoing decimation of biodiversity. These include (1) revitalizing community-based systems of sustainable management of village forests and protection of sacred groves and trees; (2) reorienting the usage-pattern of reserve forests from production of a limited variety of timber and softwood species for industrial consumers, to production of a larger diversity of non-wood forest produce of commercial value to support the rural economy; (3) utilizing marginal lands under private ownership for generating industrial wood supplies; and (4) provision of incentives for in situ maintenance of land-races of cultivated plants — especially evergreen, fruit-yielding trees — by the local people.It is proposed that this broad framework be now taken to the local communities, and that an action-plan be developed on the basis of inputs provided — and initiatives taken — by them.

Some Swazi Views on Land Tenure

Africa ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. B. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphVirtually all sub-Saharan Africa is in the throes of rapid social and economic change. The recent fashion for meteorological allegories has merely served to stress the fact that these changes are also causing very considerable problems. The dilemma facing most administrations throughout the continent is that while much of the old way of life must inevitably disappear if the tribal groups involved are to hope to survive as viable populations in the modern world, this same process can, if it occurs too fast, threaten the whole social order and the systems of social control and social organization, which have hitherto bound them together as groups and governed the day-to-day lives of their members.

Community, Capitalism, and Rebellion in Chiapas

1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Whitmeyer ◽  
Rosemary L. Hopcroft
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Primary Effect ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Tenure System ◽  
Community Solidarity ◽  
Land Tenure System

In this paper, we examine the role of local land tenure, community solidarity, and recent commercialization in the 1994 rebellion in Chiapas. We find that neither the ejido land tenure system, nor community solidarity, nor community disruption and proletarianization due to recent economic change, may be considered as primary causal factors behind the revolt. We find the best explanation for the revolt to lie in the desire of certain groups, notably immigrants to the Lacondón rain forest area, for land, and in recent changes in land tenure law which have ended their hopes of acquiring land. The primary effect of economic change was indirect. It promoted population growth, which has led to increasing pressure on land.

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