Rise Of Rich Peasantry and Growth of Agricultural Wage Laborers -

According to the scholars the Agrarian classes were categorized as the

following-

i. Landlords

ii. Rich Peasantry

iii. Middle Peasantry

iv. Poor Peasantry

v.Agricultural Laborers

The Agricultural Laborers again were sub divided into two classes – Wage laborers
and Farm laborers. The agriculture was mainly carried on by the peasants who
possessed a hired cattle and tools, and made the decisions about which crops to
grow when and where . the landlords obtained their income mainly out of rents
paid to them by the peasants and only rarely farmed their lands themselves with
the help of laborers. The laborers derived their income out of wages earned from
working on other people’s fields.

The Rich peasantry acted both as a wage laborer and the Landlord. The rich
peasantry held more than 40 acres of land and cultivated 100 acres of land by
himself sometimes. They recruited both wage and farm laborers for cultivation.
The rich peasants also acted a s a moneylender where he used his money derived
from the agriculture for money lending process. The rich peasants made huge
profits from their agricultural produce who often sent the produce in large
markets . They concentrated more on cash and commercial crops.

Rich peasantry developed in the strong agricultural areas like Bombay , Madras
presidency , Krishna- Godawari Gangetic river , Punjab (Sarda colonies).

The Middle Peasantry on the other hand they accumulated less profit as
compared to the Rich peasantry however their wealth was enough for maintain
their family during the famines. This class of peasantry can also be classified as a
Petty Bourgeoisie class. The small peasantry held not more than 4 acres of land
and had meager income. They were the most to suffer from famines as they could
not maintain their family due to less income.

The agricultural laborers as discussed were categorized into two types- Farm
laborers and Wage laborers. The farm laborers were given an annual payment as
a salary . Apart from the cultivation of the land they supervised the cattle as well
as the land. The wage laborers increased with the increase in the plantation
economy in the period. As daily wage laborers were employed occasionally for
specific works, their wages were higher than those of the farm laborers. Crop
yields railway works, droughts etc. influenced the wages of the laborers. In those
cases the wages were generally high. During the famines wages declined and
prices went up a phenomenon which was called a failure of exchange
entitlements by A.k .Sen. Therefore , whenever wages in kind was substituted by
cash wages, the laborers suffered due to the decline in his real wages on account
of the entitlement failure. Since the wages and prices were not favourable to the
laborers in other words the wages were declining and prices were increasing
many laborers migrated to various countries . In year between 1865-66 the large
number of agricultural laborers particularly male laborers migrated to Burma,
Ceylon , Bourbon and Mauritius.

Dharma kumar in this light stated:

‘ what is clear that everywhere wages were near the subsistence line.
The agricultural laborers generally earned just enough to feed himelf and his
family . if he earned enough to save these savings would be wiped out in aperiod
of famine or crop failure when real wages were sharply cut’

There are arguments among the scholars whether there was an increase in the
wage laborers by the end of the 19th century. Surendra J. Patel a Marxist writer
argues that the number of agricultural laborers increased in India by the end of
the 19th century due to the colonial policies. Many agriculturalists became
agricultural laborers. However ,Dharma kumar refutes this argument and argues
that there was no substantial growth as such . She however, shows that the
increase of agricultural laborers were from 17-25 to 27-9 percent. Dharma kumar
also argued that the caste and profession of a person were interlinked. y

We can see that the agrarian structures in different regions displayed

considerable diversity in the period immediately after the Company rule in India.
There were regions like Bengal , Bihar, Oudh where landlords owned the ulk of
the land ; others like the ryotwari areas in the Madras and Bombay Presidency
and Mysore where considerable peasant proprietorship existed; elsewhere
,condition ranged between these two types of situations.