Peasant SocietyConcepts, , major features, of peasant society, general

features of peasant economy

Dr. Kazi Abdur RoufDepartment of SociologyUniversity of Chittagong

Definitions, concepts of Peasant Society

• Peasants (Krishoks) are attached and integrated with soil cultivations• They have plantation economy and customary agricultural economics activities in the

villages• Krishoks of Bangladesh are small scale local producers• Peasants are rural natives• They have strong kinship, but simple equipments, relaying on substance produce• They are miserable marginal peasants in rural Bangladesh• Peasants sell and buy their cultivated products in cities, but the prices are determined by

the market• Periodic festival gathering at different occasions in the villages, they have their specific

rituals, values, believes, and practices

Concepts-Continue-2

• Some scholars substituted peasant society as Folk society, folk culture• Peasants together generate national economy• Land lord peasants have strong ties among them , but marginal peasants are isolated.• Peasant society is often described as intermediate-transitional • Redfield says, “The peasant is a half-way house and a stable village structure-. • This society is often described as static-unchanging• Transitional meaning folk-urban continuum- cultural lag- peasant adjust them with

the city commercial dynamics

Concepts Continue-3

• Their agricultural knowhow treated as traditional / backdated• They are not autonomous to communicate (primary relationships) with their

communities • They are the producers of agricultural products, control and use their own land • Peasants have developed their own songs, music, sports and festival, beliefs, rituals,

but now they are depending on peasant-city relationships• They automatically loss their power • However, still they maintain close contact with people in neighboring villages• Commercial farmers are profit oriented at the cost of Krishoks

Feudal Society

• Land lords and land cultivators (peasants, serfs, Krshoks)• Feudal land tenure system:

• Land lords (land owner, rural elites, rural power structure in the villages• Serfs (land cultivators)

• Subsistence agricultural food producers • Self -sufficient village community in Bengal• Different agricultural groups/categories• Powerful land lords and powerless peasants- exploiters and sufferers• Peasants livelihoods and village traditional agricultural management system• Not segmented society-whole society in village• Turned to industrialization and capitalist society –accumulation and concentration of

powers and resources

Absentee landlords development

• Each society has two dimensions: Vertical and Horizontal• Horizontal peasants- equal status in the peasant society• Vertical-up class, powerful people influential people, absentee landlord• Pre-industrial society- developed urban centers, money is commonly used and

developed market procedures and market efforts • Source of non-agricultural innovation and diversified products.

Peasants positions in the capitalist society

• If agricultural production hampered, they suffered from starvation and miserable life, no food security for peasants from the state

• Peasant are losing their own cultural forms and norms• Non-agricultural groups are dominant • Peasant are rural proletariat and became urban worker, relatively powerless• Peasant survive in the modern world because of cultural lag, dependent on modern

elites• Change rural institutions-family, clan, serfs, community • Peasant leadership is normally weak-inefficient in meeting their traditional and

domestic demand• Decaying peasant traditions

Peasant social structure

• Two types of peasant social structure: Patron-client patterns and Fictive kinship• Patron-client pattern: villagers seek out more powerful people-city dwellers, wealthy

owners and religious leaders with powers to aid• Fictive Peasant: The second common structural device –peasants fortify their positions

in their communities and in their wider societies. • In the economic sphere peasant is also a subject to his larger social unit• Peasants rarely set the prices that they sell and buy. Prices are fixed by international

forces/corporations• Elites drain off most of the economic surplus• Peasants hate and fear cities because city dwellers control over them

Village Aid Program

• Now peasants are dependent on city for their non-agricultural products and needs• Increasing landless, marginal and small peasants are increasing• V-Aid program started in 1950 based on agricultural extension model to serve

peasants• This program differentiated gender division of labor-male’s work (agricultural work)

and women’s work (home economics)• Women are also involved in harvesting, gardening, poultry raising and livestock care

apart from domestic work• Women were given training on smokeless chulas, proper health care, home sanitation

or nutrition

Problems of the peasants in Bangladesh

• Traditional agricultural practice treated primitive• Income from agriculture are lesser than non-agricultural occupation• No organizational outlets at the grass root level• No agricultural training for mass people• Agricultural development agents are outsiders of the village• Initiated the social welfare approach-mother’s club in 1960s and onward• Peasant programs are controlled by outside organizations, • Target groups are mainly women-sewing, weaving, handicraft making• No peasant community centers• Started Cooperative movement approach: IRDP, BRDP, Thana Training Development

Center (TTDC) in 1960s, 1970s and continue but cooperative managers cheating general cooperative members

Peasant problems -continue

• Cooperative members are cheated by cooperative managers• Women are relying on repaying loans, irregular supply of goods and services from

the government• Agricultural credit for marginal farmers are few, but if credit is available , incurred

high interest rate• Industries and housings are continuously occupying and destroying agricultural lands• Destroying village self-sufficient concept• Destroy the ecological balance in the village , nature and society• Diminishing village leadership and village informal Shalishi (non-formal Justice)

System

Next Class• Peasant Economy theories • Peasant social sphere theories • Please read Bangladesh Krishok Samaj by

Monirul Islam Khan- Third article of the book

• Comments/ Questions• Group Discussions•Wrap up• Nest Class- Thursday, November, 27, 2014

at 10:00 am-12:00 noon