The Foundation for Agrarian Studies’ data archive is the most detailed of its kind in India and elsewhere. It is a unique storehouse of information on socio-economic conditions in Indian villages at the turn of the century. The archive contains both comprehensive village-level statistical data and photographic documentation.
Village-level statistical data
This archive covers the data collected as part of the Project on Agrarian Relations in India. In addition, members of the Foundation’s network have donated their databases, which cover another 21 villages, to the archives. This is the most extensive archive of Indian village data of its kind.
At this time access is restricted to permanent members of the Foundation, and to outside researchers and activists who apply to work with the Foundation. The purpose of this restriction is to ensure that the data is used for purposes that are consistent with the Foundation’s vision and mandate (see About FAS for more information).
The villages covered by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies archive of statistical and other data include the following:
The Foundation has archived a digital database of thousands of photographs, covering every village surveyed in the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI) Rounds and others. The photos document different aspects of village life. Persons who want to high-resolution copies of photographs for publication may write to the Foundation.
A thumbnail gallery of the PARI photo archive is currently under construction:
Andhra Pradesh Round, PARI (December 2005) (June-July 2006)
Ananthavaram, Guntur district Bukkacheria, Anantapur district Kothapalle, Karimnagar district
Uttar Pradesh Round, PARI (July 2006)
Harevli, Bijnor district Mahatwar, Ballia district
Rajasthan Round, PARI (May-June 2007)
Dungariya, Udaipur district 25 F Gulabewala, Sri Ganganagar district
Maharashtra Round, PARI (May-June 2007)
Warwat Khanderao, Buldhana district NImshirgaon, Kolhapur district
Madhya Pradesh Round, PARI (May-June 2008)
Gharsondi, Gwalior district Badhar, Anuppur district
Karnataka Round, PARI (May-June 2009)
Alabujanahalli, Mandya district Siresandra, Kolar district Zhapur, Gulbarga district
Rajasthan Round PARI (May 2010)
Rewasi, Sikar district
West Bengal Round PARI (May-June 2010)
Panahar, Bankura district Amarsinghi, Malda district Kalmandasguri, Cooch Behar district
Potential Applications of the Foundation’s Work and Data Archives to Policy and Action
The data archives of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies are unique. Our research and documentation do not duplicate the work of any other organisation, government, quasi- government or private.
A recent meeting, attended by, among others, Professor Abhijit Sen, Member, Planning Commission, senior officers of the National Sample Survey Organisation, Members of State Planning Boards, the Chairperson of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices, and the Chief Statistician of India, discussed the potential applications of the work and data archives of the Foundation to policy and action.
There was a clear consensus that village studies can play a crucial role in complementing the part played by sources of state-collected large-scale macro-data. First, village studies often provide statistical and qualitative information on variables and issues that are not the subject of official enquiry but are needed by policy-makers. A good example is that of rural household incomes, on which national data are not collected at all.
Secondly, village society and economy can be characterised as a web of interrelationships, and village studies provide crucial information on inter-relations between variables. Our village data permit us to look at the relationship between, say, housing, sanitation and water supply interventions on the one hand, and caste, gender, occupational or asset-holding and wealth categories on the other. Village studies can thus help to calibrate and fine-tune rural policy initiatives, particularly the policy actions of panchayati raj institutions.
Thirdly, village studies provide a useful test and corroboration (or non-corroboration) of sources of large-scale government-collected data. It is well known, for instance, that all village studies and micro-level time and work-studies show substantially lower numbers of days of paid employment per rural worker than official macro-data. To take another example, the share of the informal sector in the total principal borrowed by rural households is consistently higher in micro-studies than in official data. There are many such examples.
Fourthly, as a consequence of the kinds of discrepancies mentioned above, micro-studies are invaluable in refining the methodologies used in macro-studies. We hope, for instance, to be able to discuss the methods of calculating agricultural costs and farm business incomes in order to help fine-tune the methodology currently used to compute these parameters in India.
Library
In November, 2009, The Foundation for Agrarian Studies received a gift of about 300 books and the other publications from the family of Dr. Jayoti Gupta (1957-2007), Reader in the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. Dr. Gupta was a leading scholar of agrarian relations and women and society in rural India.
Her career was distinguished by three main features: an abiding interest in agrarian relations and rural labour; a parallel commitment to a passionate activism inspired by the vision of a society free from exploitation; and an enduring engagement with fieldwork methods.
Both her M.Phil dissertation and her Ph.D. thesis focussed on aspects of agrarian relations -- the first a historical study of Ludhiana, Punjab, and the second on Midnapur District, West Bengal. In her doctoral work, Jayoti studied the relationship between agrarian movements, radical reform programmes, and the labour process. Her subsequent work retained a common thread even as it spread out in different directions within the fields of agrarian relations, gender, and the sociology of law. She undertook extensive and intensive studies on women and land rights in Bengal, including such subjects as law and dispute resolution in rural areas, property ownership and inheritance rights as factors in the social security of women, and issues of dowry and domestic violence in the context of agrarian change. Other themes she was working on included influences on the land market and the impact of globalisation on land laws.
- From the tribute to Dr. Jayoti Gupta by Professor Rajni Palriwala, head of the Department of Sociology, University of Delhi.
The Foundation expresses its gratitude to the family of Dr. Gupta for the gift in memory of an outstanding scholar of agrarian studies.
