Using rich and previously unavailable data, this comprehensive study analyzes the interrelationship between peasant struggles, land reforms, and social change in Malabar, North Kerala. At the macro level, Radhakrishnan describes the historical processes of peasant struggles and land reforms in Malabar from the early nineteenth century up to 1970, when these processes culminated in the Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act of 1969. At the micro level the study analyzes the change brought about by this Act in the land and ...
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Using rich and previously unavailable data, this comprehensive study analyzes the interrelationship between peasant struggles, land reforms, and social change in Malabar, North Kerala. At the macro level, Radhakrishnan describes the historical processes of peasant struggles and land reforms in Malabar from the early nineteenth century up to 1970, when these processes culminated in the Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act of 1969. At the micro level the study analyzes the change brought about by this Act in the land and society in a selected village. This book will provide valuable reading for scholars and students in political science, history, sociology, anthropology and development studies. "[The reader] will be well rewarded since the theme of the book, the connection between peasant struggles and land reform, together with the extensive material covered provide an interesting framework within which to consider land reform programmes....he avoids the error found in many studies of this type in which land reforms are considered in isolation from peasant struggles or which cover the nature and characteristics of peasant movements but ignore their impact on land reform....The value of this book is that it seeks to show how the various rural social classes have related to land reform movements. Of particular interest in the section covering colonial India is the linkiage Radhakrishnan describes between the struggle for nationalism and land reform....very useful to those who question the contribution that so-called free market forces can make to the resolution of problems facing the majority of the world s population. These books show that the world is a far mroe complicated place than the free-marketeers would have us believe."
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