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Uttar Pradesh was the second State to be studied as part of the Project on Agrarian Relations in India. Census-type surveys were conducted in July 2006 in two villages, one from Bijnor district in the West, and one from Ballia district in the East. Harevli village is located in Najibabad block, Bijnor district, western Uttar Pradesh. There is no all-weather road to the village and the main means of transport from the village to Mandavli, the nearest town and about 4 km away, are bullock-cart and horse-cart. Harevli is a small village: the population was 668 persons at the Census of 2001. At the time of our survey, 115 households and 674 persons were resident in the village. The dominant caste in the village was Tyagi. Dalit households constituted 38 per cent of total households. It is noteworthy that, although a small village in terms of population, the area of land in the jurisdiction of Harevli village is large, about 505 hectares A substantial part of the land was owned by residents of neighbouring villages and by persons belonging to the Tyagi caste who had migrated from Harevli to cities for salaried jobs or to set up businesses. Many of these non-resident landowners leased out their land for cultivation to the residents of Harevli. Agriculture was the mainstay of the economy of Harevli. In the Census of 2001, 90 per cent of workers were reported to have been cultivators or agricultural labourers. Sugarcane was the most important crop; wheat, paddy and fodder crops were also cultivated. Irrigation from a public canal, part of the Eastern Ganga canal project, provided water during the kharif season. Tubewells (fitted with diesel or electric pumps) were used for additional irrigation, particularly in the rabi season. Most of the tubewells were owned by large landowning Tyagi households. The distribution of land among households is very unequal. About 33 per cent of households in Harevli were landless at the time of the survey. Mahatwar village is in Rasra tehsil, Ballia district, eastern Uttar Pradesh. There are three agro-ecological areas in Ballia district. The tracts of the north, covering Belthara Road (Sear) and Sikandarpur tehsils, are irrigated by the Doharighat canal system. These areas also have groundwater irrigation. The crops grown in these areas are paddy, maize, arhar, wheat and gram. The eastern part of the district, known as Doaba, is a part of the Gangetic delta. The soil here is sandy and unsuitable for paddy cultivation. Maize, red gram and wheat are grown here. Although a part of this region is in the command area of the Surha canal system, very little irrigation water is received from it. In the west, the Rasra tehsil is almost entirely dependent on groundwater. Mahatwar is located on the side of the highway linking Rasra and Mau, and the people of the village have access to bus and jeep services to nearby towns as well as to larger cities such as Varanasi. At the time of our survey, there were 159 households and 1,114 persons resident in the village. Mahatwar is a multi-caste village, with 10 different castes. Dalits accounted for 60 per cent of all households. The dominant land-owning caste was Rajput. The major crops grown in Mahatwar were paddy during the kharif season and wheat (sometimes inter-cropped with mustard) during the rabi season. Irrigation was from groundwater, using tubewells energized by diesel or electricity. Land distribution in the village was characterised by the prevalence of very small holdings. About 20 per cent of the households in the village did not own agricultural land, and about 71 per cent owned less than 1 acre each. Non-agricultural occupations, within and outside the village, provided an important source of income to resident households. |
