ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the changes that took place in the rural economy, namely, agrarian economy, of the Brahmaputra valley during the first half of the twentieth century. Meanwhile, introduction of jute cultivation in the first few decades of the twentieth century further exposed the valley's peasant economy to market forces. Land reclamation and subsequent expansion of area under jute cultivation resulted in localized clashes between migrant and Assamese peasants. As the peasant society tried to withstand the Great depression set in the western world despite expansion of area under peasant holding, both sharecropping and landlessness became dominant features of agrarian economy and relations. The extent of sharecropping in the raiyatwari areas of Assam can be ascertained from the official enquiries made during the two rounds of land resettlement operations in the first half of the twentieth century. In the twentieth century, the agricultural labour force chiefly came to be comprised of the migrant labourers and the recently pauperized landless peasants.
