ABSTRACT
An analysis of Indian agriculture in the Modern period must con-
front many interesting and important issues. In this chapter and in
Chapter IV, our study focusses on the period since independence. The
analytical and empirical literature on this subject is vast, compared
with the colonial period. A much larger quantity of information (though
not always complete or fully reliable) is available for this period from
government statistical publications and private surveys. We have, there-
fore, found it possible to expand our domain of analysis to Indian agri-
culture as a whole for this period. The division of tasks between Chap-
ters III and IV is as follows: In Chapter III, we analyze the structure
of Indian agriculture, abstracting from the problem of change. Our ob-
jective is primarily to theoretically grasp the nature of differentiation
among agriculturists and to explain their consequences for variations in
patterns of economic activity. In Chapter IV, we concentrate our attention
on the process of agrarian transformation which has been occurring and on
explaining it in the context of the agrarian structure analyzed in Chap-
ter III and in relation to different mechanisms of transformation. His-
torically, the process of change has been more rapid since the mid-1960ls,
being associated with the 1 green revolution*. On the other hand, our analysis
CHAPTER III
of structure in Chapter III is based to a large extent on data pertaining
to the mid-1950fs. Thus, there is implicit a temporal sequence between
the analyses in Chapters III and IV.
