Agrarian Change and Social Mobility in Tamil Nadu

This is a study of social mobility over 25 years in six villages in the former Tiruchy District in Tamil Nadu. The two most important external drivers are local industrialization and social policy in a broad sense. In a mainly descriptive analysis, it is shown that the overall effect seems to be a centripetal tendency in agrarian structure, with tendencies towards a strengthened position for family farming and for both the topdogs and the underdogs in the old agrarian society to leave agriculture altogether, seeking improved life chances in the non-agrarian economy, both inside the villages and in the wider economy. The descriptive analysis in this article is followed up with a modelling exercise in an accompanying article