Peasant class differentiation : a study in method with reference to Haryana

Dr Utsa Patnaik's writings on the development of rural capitalist production have sparked off a lively and continuing debate on the nature of agrarian change in India during the pre- and post-Independence periods. The discussion thus far has pointed to the need for empirical work using Marxist categories: this book is an introduction to such an attempt.

Arguing that existing methods of classifying data are inadequate for analysing the agrarian structure and changes in it, the author formulates an empirical criterion based on labour use for capturing class status, and applies it to farm households in Haryana. Alternative methods of aggregating the same data suggest that many preconceptions regarding the characteristics of 'peasant' and 'capitalist' farms need critical re-examination. The adoption of 'Green Revolution' technology is found to be much more concentrated with the labour-hiring classes than conventional analysis has suggested so far; correspondingly, income gains are also concentrated, and the problem of rural poverty has become more acute than is usually acknowledged.

Dr Utsa Patnaik studied at Indraprastha College, Delhi, the Delhi School of Economics and at Oxford. At present she is Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.