Agrarian Relations In The Lower Cauvery Delta - A Study Of Palakurichi And Venmani Villages (Agrarian Studies)

The essays in the book explore the nature and direction of socio-economic change in the lower Cauvery delta. They draw primarily on the results of two census-type, schedule-based surveys of all households conducted in the villages of Palakurichi and Venmani in Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu, in 201819. The region in which the villages are located is historically associated with large agricultural surpluses from rice cultivation, in turn sustained by punishing forms of caste and class oppression. Recent decades, however, have seen great changes to the crop regime and to relations of agrarian production. The sharp decline in the supply of Cauvery water for irrigation to the region in the last two decades has accelerated this change and given it new dimensions.