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Socio-Economie Surveys of Three Villages in Andhra Pradesh: A Study of Agrarian Relations, V. K. Ramachandran, Vikas Rawal and Madhura Swaminanthan, Tulica Books, New Delhi, 2010. Pp. xxii +230. Rs. 295.00.
The term agrarian relations admits of a wide variety of interpretations. In a narrow technical sense, it includes the study of tenancy relations like magnitude and terms of tenancy, in particular share tenancy. However, in a broader sense the term encompasses many more interconnected agrarian issues like structure and pattern of land ownership, functioning of lease market in terms of incidence and types of tenancy, functioning of labour market in terms of level and mode of wage payment, inter-linkages of land-labour and land-labour-credit markets, functioning of credit market including indebtedness, and so on. Most of the available studies on agrarian relations take a narrow view of the term and have largely focused on land distribution patterns and tenancy relations. Again, most of the available studies have used published data emanating from NSS reports on Iandholdings and agricultural census. However, while studies on land ownership patterns based on published data do capture to a large extent the magnitude of inequalities in the distribution of ownership and operational holdings in rural India, those on tenancy relations and wage levels seldom bring out the true dimensions of different aspects of the functioning of land lease and labour markets. As a matter of fact, studies of agrarian relations based on aggregate published data conceal more than what they actually reveal. It is against this background that the empirical studies of agrarian relations using detailed micro/village level survey data assume importance and are essential to understand the diverse aspects of agrarian realities. The present volume, an outcome of the implementation of Project on Agrarian Relations in India, is based on the detailed household survey of three villages, one each from South Coastal Andhra, North Telengana and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh. It throws up valuable insights on the important interconnected agrarian issues and their effect on the livelihoods of different sections of the rural population. The volume is organised in ten chapters along with a detailed statistical appendix. The topics covered include inequality in land, asset and property, tenancy relations, household incomes, profitability of agriculture, employment of manual workers,...