Abstract
Emphasizing on the patterns of social mobility that emerge in the face of increasing land transactions in rural regions located at the ever-expanding peripheries of cities, Singh’s work endeavours to arrive at a sociological understanding of the effect of such transactions on the social structure of rural areas and its association with social mobility, based on an intensive study of two villages of Bakshi ka Talab block in Lucknow district of Uttar Pradesh. Through interviews and case studies, the study locates the concept of mobility within the structures of caste, class and its relation to gender, bringing to light the significance of external factors that shape the nature and extent of transformations in the agrarian landscape in contemporary times.
Highlighting on the tendencies of generalization present in most studies related to urbanization and its impact on the rural way of life, the author emphasizes on the importance of intensive research in revealing the connections between increasing land transactions in rural areas and the patterns and repercussions of social mobility in those regions. She initiates the discussion by asserting on the need to engage in a deeper understanding of the complexities of the agrarian social structure in India, keeping in mind the diversity of rural spaces, and its manifold manifestations of continuity as well as change. Moving ahead, the text elucidates the significant elements of social mobility in rural India as understood historically through the land reforms, the Green Revolution and the transformations brought about by growing urbanization in these areas. Commenting on the increasing prices of land in rural regions and the decreasing sense of emotional attachment to their agricultural land, the author argues that the sale and transfer of land is often contingent on a variety of factors, most of which are socio-economic in character. For the villages located at the fringes of the metropolitan cities, such land transactions therefore not only reflect on its increasing utility for non-agricultural purposes but also on the nature of transition of such spaces. Deliberating on the political economy of land, the author then moves on to discuss the role of the State in land transactions through the presence of laws on ownership and taxes, the expanding market for selling land, and the relevance of caste networks in negotiating its sale and purchase. Referring to the rise in land transactions in the two villages of Nandana and Kotava in Lucknow district, her study explores the main factors that have been responsible for the increasing value of land in these peri-urban areas in contemporary times. The expansion of the city, marked with the shortage of land for residential purposes and the increasing demand for industrial projects, Singh asserts, thus presents land as a precious and scarce commodity, and thus accounts for the increase in the value and price of land in Lucknow.
In order to arrive at a comprehensive explanation of the patterns of social mobility in the region, the book provides a detailed description of the socio-economic background of the villages of Nandana and Kotava, highlighting on the social composition of the population, the organizational structure of the panchayat, the dominant economic practices in the locality, impact of government-sponsored schemes like the MNREGA, and the link between prevailing caste networks and land transactions. Exploring the interconnections of caste and the existing practices of land ownership, it discusses how the transformation of agricultural lands for industrial activity and the shift towards employment in the non-agricultural sector has challenged traditional rural hierarchies in these villages in Lucknow. It stresses on how an increase in land price for a wide range of commercial activities has also led to transformations in the power structure of the agrarian economy, facilitating changes in the distribution and redistribution of land, and thereby making way for possibilities of upward social mobility for different sections of the population in these areas. Continuing this discussion on growing urbanization and increasing land transactions in the peripheral areas of the ever-expanding city, the author further incorporates the observations on the changing class structure of these villages to explain the nature of social mobility in the region. She argues that rapid urbanization of these areas have encouraged many agricultural landowners and workers to shift to other middle-class occupations or engage in share-cropping or even lease out their land, although few of them have also been rendered landless and thus forced to work as daily wage labourers. Not only economic but such transformations, owing to the changes in occupations, have also reflected on the consumption pattern of residents in terms of their ownership of material goods, property and even the nature of their leisure activities.
Caste hierarchies, Singh states, continue to play an important role in ensuring political participation of, and support from, the rural middle-class population in Nandana and Kotava. An analysis of caste dynamics in the villages, therefore, remains essential for understanding the nature of social mobility and the composition of the mobilized classes in the region. Reflecting on the gendered meanings and implications of social mobility, alongside caste, the author also incorporates empirical information and reflective observations dealing with the participation of women in agricultural production, the effect of state policies on land ownership among them, the influence of caste networks in ensuring the purchase of land by women and economic independence as a significant factor in influencing such transactions. Examining the interconnections of caste relations, economic class groups, and traditional gender roles in the context of the expansion of the metropolitan city, the increasing urbanization of rural and peri-urban areas, the changing political economy and the need for coherent planning policies, this book seeks to throw light on theoretical and methodological questions confronting the analysis of social mobility. By positioning land at the centre of a changing agrarian economy, it provides an insight into how urban spaces, development policies, and the capitalist market restructure agrarian relations, identity and mobility; and how social mobility in rural areas need to be comprehended in terms of their relation to changing patterns of land use, their interaction with traditional networks of authority, structures of hierarchy and processes of development.