The Pattern of Agrarian Structure in Rural Bangladesh: An Ethnographic Study of a Village in Rajshahi District

Abstract

Debate and discussion on the nature of agrarian structure of rural Bangladesh in the political and academic arena has been continuing for a long time. There are huge controversies among the scholars regarding the pattern of agrarian structure of this country, and they put emphasis on different elements of agrarian structure. This ethnographic study aimed at a relatively comprehensive investigation about the pattern of agrarian structure of a village in Rajshahi District of Bangladesh. In line with the ethnographic nature of the study, intensive field work was carried out staying at the village in two phases for a total period of 10 months from January 2010 to December 2010. In order to explore the pattern of agrarian structure with total social reality, this study concentrated on the socio-economic and technological elements of agrarian structure; social organization, cultural and political condition of agrarian community along with its interaction into the wider society. It is evident that the agrarian structure of Bangladesh is marked by continuity and change throughout its history. The stratification and differentiation existed in agrarian society in pre-British Bangladesh. The differentiation in agrarian society of Bangladesh shaped a complex character during the British period. During the Pakistani and Bangladeshi period, some sorts of land reform initiatives were taken along with technological improvement in production techniques. But the differentiation in relation to control over land was accelerated along with concentration of land into fewer hands. The tenant and agricultural day labor households represent the major proportion of rural household in present Bangladesh. This historical process is also applicable to village Chabbishnagar. The village, Chabbishnagar was identified as one of the oldest villages in the history of Barind region, and it belongs to the west-central high Barind tracts. The village is well connected by the puce road as well as railway with nearby urban centres. It is fully covered by electricity and modern irrigation system, which have largely changed its agricultural activities. The agro-based economy was found to dominate the village, but an increasing trend towards the multiple economic activities was noticeable. The socio-economic condition of the households of this village gave the impression of a stratified rural society. The economy and local politics were dominated by urban inhabited households of the sarkar gosthi of this village. The land ownership structure revealed the concentration and the differentiation which materialized the polarization in rural agrarian society. The absolute landless and marginal land owner households constituted the majority of the villagers and most of them were actual farmers depending on the land owned by the rich and absentee land owners. The rich and absentee land owners let out their land for sharecropping, and accordingly sharecropping was observed as the dominating tenancy system. Irrespective of farmer categories, the use of hired labor had been increased in the agricultural activities, but farming was not yet treated as business venture due to the dominance of tenant farmers and absence of the entrepreneur type of farmers. The agricultural day laborers constituted a significant proportion of rural people and initially appeared to be free wage labor. In rural credit market, formal and semi-formal sources were found functional. The marginal farmers who needed credit mostly had least access to the cheap institutional (formal source) credit and thus the semi-formal source of credit became dominating in rural Bangladesh. The rich and absentee landowners were the largest beneficiaries of institutional credit, and they did not use the credit in agricultural purpose. The 'water-seeds-fertilizers' package, popularly known as 'green revolution', has been adopted by all group of farmers. The modern technologies have brought the changes in the production techniques and increased the productivity in agriculture along with year round activities, but it could not bring any change in its social fabric. The formation of a new entrepreneur type of farmer seemed to be absent in this village that has been noticed in a number of studies at different pockets of this country. But the development of market principles in agriculture has been noteworthy in relation to agricultural inputs and outputs. The investigation of the social organization, cultural and political feature showed that the traditional elements have been disintegrating. The domination of nuclear family indicated the declining trend of traditional joint family of the agrarian community. The traditional lineage base homestead and traditional kin ties have already been disrupted, and interest and profitability have increasingly become the basis of the relationship. The role of samaj as a traditional social organization seems very loose. The traditional control systems became very weaker because of formal institution, but the land owner elites occupied leadership in all formal institutions. The patronage-based faction and political interaction persisted as the mainstream trend in the village politics which turned into the factions of party politics. This patron-client relationship in rural Bangladesh contributed to strength and solidarity of the ruling classes. The modernization of agriculture highly integrated the agrarian community of rural Bangladesh with the national and international economic and political arrays as regards the inputs and outputs market. In many ways, the agrarian community of Bangladesh interacted with the national policies and national and transnational agencies. The government increased the agricultural and rural development activities that also accelerated the process of integration of the agrarian community with the wider society, but the character of the state remained unchanged in regard to bringing any structural change. The scenario about the pattern of the agrarian structure m rural Bangladesh, particularly in Chabbishnagar seems very complex. The objective conditions are not in favor of defining the agrarian structure as 'peasant mode', 'feudal mode' and 'capitalist mode'. But the market capitalism in relation to the input market seemed as a matter of reality which has integrated the agrarian community of Bangladesh with the national and transnational forces. The peripheral position under the dominance of centre of capitalism makes its agrarian structure as 'deformed capitalist mode'.