IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/agspub/v4y2015i3p327-370.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Land Question and the Mobility of the Marginalized: A Study of Land Inequality in Kerala

Author

Listed:
  • C. R. Yadu

Abstract

Kerala’s widely acclaimed land reform failed to yield social equality. This article analyzes Kerala’s land question from the perspective of social equity and shows that even after the much touted land reform, land inequality in the state stands very high, whether measured in terms of overall distribution inequality or social inequality. The land reform, along with other factors, resulted in the preponderance of small and marginal holdings. In the social front, the marginalized communities still stand at the bottom of land ownership. The persisting inequality in land ownership has significant stakes in the upward mobility of the marginalized groups. The study reveals that land ownership is an important variable affecting the educational level of households and that land reform in the state widened the opportunities for occupational mobility among the marginalized groups.

Suggested Citation

  • C. R. Yadu, 2015. "The Land Question and the Mobility of the Marginalized: A Study of Land Inequality in Kerala," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 4(3), pages 327-370, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:agspub:v:4:y:2015:i:3:p:327-370
    DOI: 10.1177/2277976016637990
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2277976016637990
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2277976016637990?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ashwini Deshpande, 2000. "Does Caste Still Define Disparity? A Look at Inequality in Kerala, India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 322-325, May.
    2. Oded Galor & Omer Moav & Dietrich Vollrath, 2009. "Inequality in Landownership, the Emergence of Human-Capital Promoting Institutions, and the Great Divergence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(1), pages 143-179.
    3. Deininger, Klaus & Yadav, Vandana, 2011. "Long-term Effects of Land Reform on Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from West Bengal," WIDER Working Paper Series 082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Azam, Mehtabul, 2013. "Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in India," IZA Discussion Papers 7608, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Klaus W. Deininger & Songqing Jin & Vandana Yadav, 2011. "Long-term Effects of Land Reform on Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from West Bengal," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2011-082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. repec:bla:neweco:v:10:y:2003:i:4:p:189-193 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mijo Luke, 2022. "Globalization and the Changing Geography of Social Life in Rural Kerala," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 17(1), pages 7-31, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sonia Bhalotra & Abhishek Chakravarty & Dilip Mookherjee & Francisco J. Pino, 2019. "Property Rights and Gender Bias: Evidence from Land Reform in West Bengal," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 205-237, April.
    2. Souksavanh VIXATHEP & Phanhpakit ONPHANHDALA & Phaythoune PHOMVIXAY, 2013. "Land Distribution and Rice Sufficiency in Northern Laos," GSICS Working Paper Series 27, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University.
    3. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    4. Dietrich Vollrath, 2009. "The dual economy in long-run development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 287-312, December.
    5. Guy Michaels, 2011. "The Long Term Consequences of Resource‐Based Specialisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(551), pages 31-57, March.
    6. Ahmet Faruk AYSAN & Mustapha Kamel NABLI & Marie‐Ange VÉGANZONÈS‐VAROUDAKIS, 2007. "Governance Institutions And Private Investment: An Application To The Middle East And North Africa," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 45(3), pages 339-377, September.
    7. Luis Bauluz & Yajna Govind & Filip Novokmet, 2020. "Global Land Inequality," PSE Working Papers halshs-03022318, HAL.
    8. Foley-Fisher, Nathan & McLaughlin, Eoin, 2016. "Capitalising on the Irish land question: land reform and state banking in Ireland, 1891–1938," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 71-109, April.
    9. Shinhye Chang & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller, 2018. "Causality Between Per Capita Real GDP and Income Inequality in the U.S.: Evidence from a Wavelet Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 269-289, January.
    10. Bobonis, Gustavo J. & Morrow, Peter M., 2014. "Labor coercion and the accumulation of human capital," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 32-53.
    11. Bartels, Charlotte & Jäger, Simon & Obergruber, Natalie, 2020. "Long-Term Effects of Equal Sharing: Evidence from Inheritance Rules for Land," IZA Discussion Papers 13665, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Sascha Becker & Francesco Cinnirella & Ludger Woessmann, 2010. "The trade-off between fertility and education: evidence from before the demographic transition," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 177-204, September.
    13. Modalsli, Jørgen, 2011. "Inequality and growth in the very long run: inferring inequality from data on social groups," Memorandum 11/2011, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    14. Anastasia Litina, 2016. "Natural land productivity, cooperation and comparative development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 351-408, December.
    15. Castelló-Climent, Amparo & Hidalgo-Cabrillana, Ana, 2012. "The role of educational quality and quantity in the process of economic development," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 391-409.
    16. Elizabeth Caucutt & Thomas Cooley & Nezih Guner, 2013. "The farm, the city, and the emergence of social security," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 1-32, March.
    17. Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico, 2017. "De jure and de facto determinants of power: evidence from Mississippi," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 321-345, December.
    18. Svizzero, Serge & Tisdell, Clem, 2014. "Inequality and Wealth Creation in Ancient History: Malthus' Theory Reconsidered," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 183285, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    19. Moshe Hazan & David Weiss & Hosny Zoabi, 2019. "Women's Liberation as a Financial Innovation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(6), pages 2915-2956, December.
    20. Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico, 2011. "Race v. Suffrage The Determinants of Development in Mississippi," Department of Economics 0665, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:agspub:v:4:y:2015:i:3:p:327-370. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.