Study undertaken as part of the Foundation's Project on Agrarian Relations in India.

This volume traces archaeological research undertaken in Andhra Pradesh going back to the nineteenth century when the cultures of the region were explored and documented. In the 1950s, scholars conducted culture-historic research across the physiographical regions of Andhra Pradesh, following trends in India and Old World. 1970s saw a shift from the historic approach to the development of models for the contextual study of sites, and the explanation of the archaeological record in terms of the adaptive behaviour of past societies.

Agitations and political crises are not new to the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh: its very existence has been challenged by repeated confrontations. This book is a compilation of essays, speeches, and official notes from an individual who has been intimately associated with the state’s development, from its initial formation and its planning and development to the Telangana region’s separatist challenges first articulated in the late 1960s. Without taking sides on the question of Andhra Pradesh’s future, this account examines the basis of its persistent grievances and the social, political, economic, and emotional foundations of its statehood.

This book is an attempt to present the inside story of the Telangana movement that developed due to historical reasons. The movement, in this work, has brought forward the Telangana lower class’s response to the established cultural hegemony of the Andhra linguistic elite and affluent agrarian communities who, in their perception, monopolized the political power and economic resources. The movement voices the democratic yearnings of service castes, artisans, Dalits and nomads who through their instant association with the movement expressed aspirations for their due share in political power and administrative structure. The leadership that has come from the regional elite has, however, articulated only the reasons of 'self-respect and regional autonomy'. This work brings out the two-fold character in the movement. It also gives insights into the possible need of remaking states in India in the interest of the inclusion of these social groups in political structures so that democracy might further percolate downwards. This book is co-published with Aakar Books. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

Tales of Peasants, Traders, and Officials: Contracting in Rural Andhra Pradesh, 1980†“82 stems from a research project in the subfield of rural economic organization, with a focus on credit and irrigation, and on how public policy in these domains influenced agricultural development. The fieldwork was carried out in three states of the Indian Union between 1980 to 1982, including 14 villages in Andhra Pradesh. The survey covered villagers’ dealings in the markets for labor, tenancies, credit, and crops. It revealed not only diverse contractual forms in those markets, but also their interplay with access to credit and its terms. Understanding what motivates agents to contract in a particular way—or not at all—is essential in such a study. At the beginning and toward the close of the survey work, the principal investigators conducted interviews with focus groups, some respondents in the household sample, and various public officials, who were encouraged to speak freely. The first part of the monograph comprises an introductory chapter and two long travelogues, which provide structured accounts of the proceedings of those interviews. Next are formal analyses of various alternative contractual arrangements and the villagers’ choices among them. These are partly inductive; they draw on what respondents had to say about their options and decisions as well as received theory. Four topics are treated in detail: (1) the choice between employment as a casual laborer and as an attached farm servant; (2) the choice between sharecropping and fixed-rents paid in kind, with special reference to land irrigated by percolation wells; (3) the closely related matter of loans, subsidies, and corruption in connection with the profitability of investments in wells; and (4) the tying of loans for the cultivation of commercial crops to the arrangements for marketing them. The central importance of villagers’ outside options and access to credit emerges clearly.

The book discusses the socio-cultural-historical, occupational, educational, employment and discriminatory status of one of the most neglected and marginalised communities: the de-notified tribes or ex-criminal tribes of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Based on primary data collected from 14 communities in 11 districts in these states, it discusses the current state of affairs concerning de-notified tribes. There is no accurate and comprehensive information available on the present socio-economic status of these communities, either in the literature or with government agencies. This book provides valuable information on how they are faring in post-independence India since their de-notification from the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871.