Revision summary
Agriculture employs many and contributes less surplus. Youth and labour leave; the village becomes a reserve. Rich peasants diversify; smallholders squeeze. Family and gender adapt through remittance and women’s field work. Politics defends farm identity while the economy urbanises.
Model answer
Introduction
Agriculture’s falling share of GDP, with still-large employment, means a declining significance of the agrarian economy as surplus and status. Impact is a squeezed village, a migrant labour force, and farmer politics of price rather than a peasant civilisation.
Body
Economic and class impact
- Youth seek non-farm work. The village is a labour reserve, which Desai’s class map now stretches to the city.
- Rich peasants diversify into trade and education. Smallholders face a cost-price squeeze after the Green Revolution’s uneven gift.
- Land remains honour, as Srinivas’s dominant caste still shows, even when it is not the main national surplus.
Social impact
- Circular migration and slums are the household form of agrarian decline.
- Family fission and delayed marriage follow remittance, yet Seed and Earth can survive the empty field.
- Women’s farm work may rise as men leave, without title.
Political impact
- Farmer movements demand the state market. Landless politics is weaker.
- Food remains politically sacred; the economy has moved on.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD DEC[Agrarian GDP share down] --> MG[Migration informal] DEC --> SQ[Smallholder squeeze] DEC --> POL[Price politics] LAND[Land as honour] --> POL
Conclusion
- Declining agrarian significance produces a hybrid India: farm as identity and fallback, city as wage. The impact is transformation of rural class, not the end of the village.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Examine the impact of industrialization and urbanization on family structure.
Next question in the 2016 paper (Q7). View answer →
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Does this mean India is industrial?
It means India is informal-urban more than classic industrial. The farm still absorbs shocks, as COVID return showed.
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Is land reform now irrelevant?
Land still structures rural power. Reform of title and tenancy remains live even if GDP share falls.
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