Dependence and dominance: political economy of a tribal commodity c.2

The present study, arising from a consultancy assignment and based on a good deal of primary material, explores the working of Haats and its various opera tors like the tribal and non-tribal growers, paikers, etc., dealing in lac, their inter relations and their links with the higher levels of lac processing and exports, government policies concerning lac, particularly in respect to price support and the mechanism of its implementation.
The study is concerned with questions concerning the economy of the lac region, production and exports of lac and the socio-economic profile of the lac growers and traders, albeit only to provide essential support to the major thrust of the study, i.e., the lac marketing system and the role and efficacy of public policies concerning lac. In all the recent policies, the major concern appeared to be the interests of the millions of growers of lac, many of whom are tribals. Hence the central concern guiding the formulations in the study is also the same.
"The significance of the study goes far beyond the analysis of the economics and process of Lac marketing in Chhota Nagpur; its wider significance lies bringing out a deeply entrenched feature of our economic system, namely, one of dependence and dominance-dependence of the weak and dominance of the strong. Though at the primary level, it is the weaker sections of the community whose sweat and toil provide the foundation of the economic enterprise in our country, the fruits of the enterprise are often cornered by the dominant elements in trade and industry." "...There is an imperative need for a radical modification of our plans and policies in arious fields of which collection of lac and its marketing and export is only one. If we have decided to publish this study, it is because of its deeper implications in terms of the modification of the national plans and policies mentioned above. We hope that this deeper significance of the study would not be lost on readers in general and planners and policy-makers in particular."