Revision summary
Green Revolution technology raised yields and a commercial farmer class. Labour became more hired and mobile. Gains were regional and caste-land skewed. Later machines and seeds continue differentiation. Technology changes the farm; it does not by itself calm rural unrest.
Model answer
Introduction
Agrarian technology in India has changed who grows what, who hires whom, and who captures surplus. The Green Revolution is the classic case; machines, seeds, and phones now extend that story.
Body
Green Revolution package
- HYV seeds, fertiliser, irrigation, and later tractors raised yields in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh.
- A rich-peasant class thickened; labour became more hired and seasonal, recasting Thorner’s malik–kisan–mazdoor map.
- Dominant castes with land rode the technology; dryland and Adivasi tracts were left as another agrarian India.
Later technologies
- Tube wells, GM and hybrid seeds, and market apps change risk and information, but debt and procurement politics remain social facts.
- Mechanisation cuts some labour demand and feeds circular migration, which COVID reverse flows then revealed in reverse.
Sociological role
- Technology is not a neutral tool. It is a class and region sorter inside planned development.
- Unrest over prices and farm laws shows that technology without secure bargaining still leaves the countryside tense.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD T[HYV irrigation machines] --> Y[Yield surplus] Y --> RP[Rich peasant mechanisation] Y --> LAB[Hired migrant labour] REG[Irrigated vs dryland] --> UNEV[Uneven agrarian change]
Conclusion
Technology’s role in Indian agrarian change has been to raise surplus and differentiate classes and regions. It transformed the farm without equalising the village.
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