Land and Credit Market in a Bodo Village of Assam

Abstract

The Bodos, as peasants, have featured significantly in the colonial agrarian history of Assam. However, there is a massive research gap on the transformations surrounding the Bodo peasantry in more contemporary times. The plains tribes of Bodos, despite a long history of identity politics, cannot be claimed as a homogenous group. Private ownership of land, which marks capitalist agriculture, features significantly among the Bodo peasantry. A free land, labour, and credit market are the mainstay of capitalist agriculture. How has capitalist agriculture advanced and transformed the Bodo peasantry in recent times? This thesis studies agrarian relations among the Bodo community through an examination of the land and credit market in an all Bodo village of Assam. The objective of this research is to investigate the socio-economic differences within the Bodo peasantry as opposed to discontentment between the Bodos and others. The fieldwork is in an exclusively Bodo dominated revenue village named Majrabari located in the Baksa district of Assam. The method of fieldwork is through a survey of Bodo peasant families, with the help of structured interview schedules interwoven with selected case studies.