Read the passage carefully and answer the questions based on the passage:
The term agrarian structure is often used to refer to the structure or distribution of landholding. Because agricultural land is the most important productive resource in rural areas, access to land shapes the rural class structure. Access to land largely determines what role one plays in the process of agricultural production. Medium and large landowners are usually able to earn sufficient or even large incomes from cultivation. But agricultural labourers are more often than not paid below the statutory minimum wage and earn very little. Their incomes are low. Their employment is insecure. Most agricultural labourers are daily-wage workers. And do not have work for many days of the year. This is known as underemployment. Similarly, tenants have lower incomes than owner-cultivators. Because they have to pay a substantial rent to the landowner – often as much as 50 to 75 per cent of the income from the crop. Agrarian society, therefore, can be understood in terms of its class structure. But we must also remember the structure is itself through the caste system. In rural areas, there is a complex relationship between caste and class. We might expect that the higher castes have more land and higher incomes. And that there is a correspondence between caste and class as one moves down the hierarchy. In many areas this is broadly true but not exactly. For instance, in most areas the highest caste, the Brahmins, are not major landowners, and so they fall outside the agrarian structure although they are a part of rural society. In most regions of India, the major landowning groups belong to the upper castes. In each region, there are usually just one or two major landowning castes, who are also numerically very important. Such groups were termed by the sociologist M.N. Srinivas as dominant castes. In each region, the dominant caste is the most powerful group, economically and politically, and dominates local society.
Who are the tenants in the agrarian class structure?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Cultivators who have access to land through lease.
Option (1) Cultivators who have migrated in other areas. — Incorrect. A tenant is defined by how he gets his land, not by where he moves. Workers who move between their villages and prosperous farming areas are migrant labourers, a different group in rural society.
Option (2) Labourers who work against daily wages. — Incorrect. These are the agricultural labourers of the passage: daily-wage workers who are paid below the minimum wage. They cultivate no land of their own, owned or leased.
Option (3) Cultivators who have access to land through lease. — Correct. Tenants are cultivators who lease their land from landowners. Because they have to pay a substantial rent to the landowner, often as much as 50 to 75 per cent of the income from the crop, their incomes are lower than those of owner-cultivators. The passage keeps the rent paid to the landowner but leaves out the bracket after ‘tenants’ that gives this meaning.
Option (4) Cultivators who are bound by ‘hereditary’ labour relationships. — Incorrect. In many areas the working poor were tied to landowners in ‘hereditary’ labour relationships, working for the same family generation after generation, often because of debt. That describes such bonded workers, not tenants, who hire land on rent.
NCERT (2025-26): “4.1 Agrarian Structure: Caste and Class in Rural India … The term agrarian structure is often used to refer to the structure or distribution of landholding. Because agricultural land is the most important productive resource in rural areas, access to land shapes the rural class structure. Access to land largely determines what role one plays in the process of agricultural production. Medium and large landowners are usually able to earn sufficient or even large incomes from cultivation (although this depends on agricultural prices, which can fluctuate greatly, as well as other factors such as the monsoon). But agricultural labourers are more often than not paid below the statutory minimum wage and earn very little. Their incomes are low. Their employment is insecure. Most agricultural labourers are daily-wage workers. And do not have work for many days of the year. This is known as underemployment. Similarly, tenants (cultivators who lease their land from landowners) have lower incomes than owner-cultivators. Because they have to pay a substantial rent to the landowner – often as much as 50 to 75 per cent of the income from the crop.” |