Wage Labour and Unfreedom in Agriculture

• Some features of the Agrarian economy of the Cumbum Valley; classes and property inequality in Gokilapuram; the labour force - sources of expansion; the demand for labour and sources of employment; the deployment of labour time; some aspects of the material conditions of life of agricultural labourers; labour services and unfree labour; aspects of the labour process in agriculture; resurvey 1968. Appendices: notes on methods of collection of primary data; case study - farming practices in rice; cultivation on surface-irrigated land; case study - Karuppayya Asari, Blacksmith; definitions of asset categories; from peasant to proletarian - a case study of P.Chinnasubbayyan; case study - G.Selvam, farm servant; the Periyar irrigation system in Cokilapuram; case studies of irrigation workers.

'The book is fascinating, the author is highly pragmatic and the effort is pioneering ... Mr. V. K. Ramachandran has done a laudable job. It is no exaggeration to say that this book will prove a valuable asset to libraries and research institutes. Dr. Ramachandran deserves a Nobel Prize for this book.'C.S. Mahadevan, The Hindu, May 5 1992