Q 1.Explain the transformations in rural society after independence.
(Social Change and Development in India Chapter 4: change and development in rural society)
Ans:
- an increase in the use of agricultural labour as cultivation became more intensive.
- a shift from payment in kind (grain) to payment in cash.
- a loosening of traditional bonds or hereditary relationships between farmers or landowners
and agricultural workers (known as bonded labour).
- and the rise of a class of "free wage labourers".
Q 2.Analyse the negative social effects of green revolution in India.
(Social Change and Development in India: Chapter 4 - Change and Development in Rural Society)
Ans:
- It was primarily the medium and large farmers who were able to benefit from the new technology.This
was because inputs were expensive, and small and marginal farmers could not afford
to spend as much as large farmers to purchase these inputs.
- The farmers who were able to produce a surplus for the market who were able to reap the
most benefits from the Green Revolution.
- Increase inequalities in rural society.
- The introduction of machinery such as tillers, tractors, threshers, and harvesters led
to the displacement of the service caste groups who used to carry out these agriculture-related
activities.
- The ultimate outcome of the Green Revolution was a process of ‘differentiation’, in which
the rich grew richer and many of the poor stagnated or grew poorer.
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Q 3.Explain the concept of contract farming.
(Social Change and Development in India - Chapter 4:Change and Development in Rural Society)
Ans:
- In "contract farming" systems, the company identifies the crop to be grown, provides
the seeds and other inputs, as well as the know how and often also the working capital.
- In return, the farmer is assured of a market because the company guarantees that it will
purchase the produce at a predetermined fixed price.
- Contract farming is very common now in the production of specialised items such as cut
flowers, fruits such as grapes, figs and pomegranates, cotton, and oilseeds.
- While contract farming appears to provide financial security to farmers, it can also
lead to greater insecurity as farmers become dependent on these companies for their
livelihoods.
- Contract farming of export-oriented products such as flowers and gherkins also means
that agricultural land is diverted away from food grain production.
- Contract farming caters primarily to the production of elite items, and because it usually
requires high doses of fertilisers and pesticides, it is often not ecologically sustainable.
Q 4.Explain the impact of land reforms on Indian agriculture after independence.
(Chapter 4: Change and Development in Rural Society)
Ans:
- In the year 1950s to the 1970s, a series of land reform laws were passed – at the national
level as well as in the states.
- After independence the first effective land reforms passed was to abolish the zamindari
system, which removed the layer of intermediaries that stood between the cultivators
and the state.
- The next land reform law passed was tenancy abolition and regulation acts.They attempted
either to outlaw tenancy altogether or to regulate rents to give some security to
the tenants.
- The third major category of land reform laws were the Land Ceiling Acts.These laws imposed
an upper limit on the amount of land that can be owned by a particular family. The
ceiling varies from region to region, depending on the kind of land, its productivity,
and other such factors.
- Land reforms are necessary not only to boost agricultural growth but also to eradicate
poverty in rural areas and bring about social justice.
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Q 5.Land ceiling act proved to be toothless in most of the states.Give reasons.
(Chapter 4: Change and Development in Rural Society)
Ans:
- Land Ceiling Acts is one of the land reforms law started after india got independence.These
laws imposed an upper limit on the amount of land that can be owned by a particular
family. The ceiling varies from region to region, depending on the kind of land,
its productivity, and other such factors.
- Very productive land has a low ceiling while unproductive dry land has a higher ceiling
limit.
- According to these acts, the state is supposed to identify and take possession of surplus
land (above the ceiling limit) held by each household, and redistribute it to landless
families and households in other specified categories, such as SCs and STs.
- There were many loopholes in the land ceiling act that helped many landowners to escape
from having their surplus land taken over by the state.
- Some very large estates were broken up, in most cases landowners managed to divide the
land among relatives and others, including servants, in so-called ‘benami transfers’
– which allowed them to keep control over the land (in fact if not in name).
- In some places, some rich farmers actually divorced their wives (but continued to live
with them) in order to avoid the provisions of the Land Ceiling Act, which allowed
a separate share for unmarried women but not for wives.