The widespread aspect of Globalisation of agriculture is the entry of multinationals into this sector as sellers of agricultural inputs such as seeds, pesticides and fertilisers. Over the last decade or so, the Govt. has scaled down its agricultural development programmes, and agricultural extension agents have been replaced in the villages by agents of seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides companies. These agents are often the sole source of information for farmers about new seeds or cultivation practices with of course interest in selling their product. This increased dependence of farmers on expensive fertilisers and pesticides, which has reduced their profits and put many farmers into debt and created ecological crisis in rural areas.
Due to these economic and ecological crisis the spate of farmer's suicide have been occurring in different parts of the country since 1997-98. These suicides can be linked to changes in economic and agricultural policies. These include : the changed pattern of landholdings, changing crop patterns, shift to cash crops, liberalization policies that have exposed Indian agriculture to the forces of Globalisation; heavy dependence on high-costs inputs and individualisation of agricultural operations. According to official statistics, there have been 8,900 suicides by farmers between 2001 and 2006 in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra.
Choose the transformations that happened in rural society after independence.
(A) Increase in intensive cultivation
(B) Rayatwari system was adapted
(C) Rise of free wage labourers
(D) Payment shift from cash to kind (grains)
(E) Bonded labour was banned
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
(1) (A), (B), (E) only
(2) (A), (E), (C) only
(3) (A), (C), (D) only
(4) (A), (D), (E) only
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A), (E), (C) only
(A) Increase in intensive cultivation Correct. After Independence, especially in the Green Revolution regions, cultivation became more intensive, and so the use of agricultural labour increased.
(B) Rayatwari system was adapted Incorrect. The raiyatwari system was a colonial system of land settlement in areas under direct British rule, in which the ‘actual cultivators’, not the zamindars, were responsible for paying the tax. It belongs to British rule, not to the changes after Independence.
(C) Rise of free wage labourers Correct. As the old ties between landowners and workers loosened, there was the rise of a class of ‘free’ wage labourers, who work for a wage and can move from one employer to another.
(D) Payment shift from cash to kind (grains) Incorrect. The statement turns the change round. The shift was from payment in kind (grain) to payment in cash.
(E) Bonded labour was banned Correct. One of the transformations was a loosening of traditional bonds or hereditary relationships between farmers or landowners and agricultural workers, known as bonded labour. The old hereditary tie that bound a worker to one landowner gave way.
NCERT (2025-26): “4.4 Transformations in Rural Society after Independence … Several profound transformations in the nature of social relations in rural areas took place in the post-Independence period, especially in those regions that underwent the Green Revolution. These included:
“4.2 The Impact of Land Reforms … Many districts of colonial India were administered through the zamindari system. In other areas that were under direct British rule had what was called the raiyatwari system of land settlement (raiyat means cultivator in Telugu). In this system, the ‘actual cultivators’ (who were themselves often landlords and not cultivators) rather than the zamindars were responsible for paying the tax.…” |