Overview
Agrarian Relations in Lower Cauvery Delta
In 2018, The Foundation initiated a study titled “Agrarian Relations in the Lower Cauvery Delta.” The objective of the study was to understand the nature and characteristics of agrarian relations in two villages, Palakurichi and Venmani, in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu, locating them in their unique historical context of agrarian struggle and change.
The project has two broad components that will contribute to understanding the nature and characteristics of agrarian relations in the region. They are:
(a) a study of agrarian relations in Palakurichi and Venmani villages, based on data collected through village surveys in 2019.
(b) a detailed reconstruction and review of the Keelavenmani atrocity that took place on December 25, 1968, based on extensive archival material.
The Foundation published a book on the contemporary agrarian relation in the region based on the survey data. The book has been edited by V. Surjit, Madhura Swaminathan, and V. K. Ramachandran. It is a part of the Agrarian Studies Series published by the Foundation.
A monograph on the social and political history of the atrocity based on archival material is under preparation.
Agricultural productivity and production in India grew steadily in the post-green revolution period. Public institutions of agricultural research and education, and the community of agricultural scientists, were at the forefront of the transformation of Indian agriculture. This facet of agricultural development is somewhat recognised in scholarship. However, there has been limited work on the evolution of agricultural science and its adoption in actual production in independent India from the perspective of the history of knowledge. The history of the science and the practice of agricultural production has not been adequately studied in the context of the global flow of knowledge and the contemporary economic and political history. It is this gap in scholarship that the oral histories project aims to fill.
As part of the project, the Foundation, in collaboration with the Bangalore International Centre (BIC) and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), organised an event titled “Voices from the Lab and the Field: Oral Histories of Agrarian Change” on September 24, 2025, at BIC, Bengaluru. The event explored the agricultural transformations of the 1960s, drawing on oral histories from agricultural science and agrarian movements in India. This discussion is part of the 69th edition of the Archives Public Lecture Series, which features explorations in and around the NCBS archives. The speakers for the event were Parvathi Menon, Former Resident Editor of The Hindu, Bengaluru, and Sandipan Baksi, Director at the Foundation for Agrarian Studies.
Know more about the event here.
