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The State of Bodo Peasantry in Modern-Day Assam: Evidence from Majrabari Village in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts

Author

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  • Mizinksa Daimari

    (Indian Institute of Technology)

  • Rajshree Bedamatta

    (Indian Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Indian agriculture is under crisis. However, the degree of distress is experienced differently by the various agrarian classes across different regions. This paper studies the state of Bodo peasantry in modern-day Assam. Having been shifting cultivators with community ownership of land at a certain point in history, we find a differentiated Bodo peasantry with private land ownership in the present, mainly due to extraneous interventions. However, in conceptualizing the transformation of tribes into a peasant production stage, scholars collapse the tribes into the dominant community of the region they cohabit. We maintain that peasantization does not lead to the collapse of tribes into other regionally dominant communities; that they are a society in their own right. In contrast to scholarship that reports the prevalence of an egalitarian social structure among tribes, we maintain that, at least among the plains tribe, such a view is far from the truth. In this paper, we first locate the Bodo tribe in India's peasant economy and then situate them to fit the prevailing agrarian classes. We deal with two questions in this paper: (a) Is there evidence of differentiation among the Bodo peasantry? (b) In an environment of increasing market integration, are the Bodo peasantry undergoing agrarian distress and proletarianization like the rest of the country?

Suggested Citation

  • Mizinksa Daimari & Rajshree Bedamatta, 2021. "The State of Bodo Peasantry in Modern-Day Assam: Evidence from Majrabari Village in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(3), pages 705-730, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:64:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-021-00328-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-021-00328-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mishra, Srijit, 2008. "Risks, Farmers’ Suicides and Agrarian Crisis in India: Is There a Way Out?," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 63(1), pages 1-17.
    2. Haque, T., 2000. "Contractual Arrangements in Land and Labour Markets in Rural India," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 55(3), September.
    3. Amit Basole & Deepankar Basu, 2010. "Relations of Production and Modes of Surplus Extraction in India," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2011-01, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
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    1. Mridusmita Bordoloi & Rajshree Bedamatta, 2022. "Gender Gap in the Labour Market of India’s North-east: 2011–2012 to 2019–2020," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(4), pages 1083-1098, December.

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