SPECIAL ARTICLE

A Saga of Three Villages in Andhra Pradesh

S A Vidyasagar

A study of the socio-economic situations of three villages in north-eastern Andhra Pradesh shows that while times and values have vastly changed, not much has been transformed in terms of privileges and opportunities. Those belonging to landowning families have managed to get a good education and secure good jobs or set up businesses. But those from the landless or marginal landowning families and communities have been left far behind. The governments schemes and promises have more often than not yielded very little.

question that ought to bother most people is how the intervention of the State, through policies and practices and the inputs of science, has enhanced the quality of ordinary peoples lives. To answer this, and a few other questions, we visited three villages, Kovvada and Maddivalasa in Andhra Pradeshs north-eastern district of Srikakulam and Piridi in the neighbouring district of Vizianagaram. Historically, the three hamlets share some general characteristics but are distinct in their own way. In general, agriculture continues to be the main occupation of the inhabitants. It is therefore interesting to see how land has changed hands and how the process has actually helped feed them. The role that caste has played in this context is also an important one.

Land and Landholding

Like peasantry in other princely states of India, the tillers of the land in the three villages enjoyed possession of the land and its produce, paying taxes to the king and later the East India Company. But the Permanent Settlement Act of 1793, formulated by the then governor general of India, lord Cornwallis, vested the rights over the lands in these villages with zamindars. In the case of Piridi, a village near Bobbili, the raja of Bobbili was the owner of the entire land and collected revenues through agents from his own caste. The Bobbili raja was a Velama Dora and that community, alongside brahmins called Pandas in the Oriya region, was in control of things in the village, both as owners of the land and cultural determiners. The Koppula Velama (different from Velama Dora) and Kapu communities produced wealth as the actual tillers of the land. Groups of artisans such as blacksmiths, goldsmiths and carpenters supported them, while barbers and washermen rendered other services. Dalits were agricultural labourers, feeding their families by toiling for the tillers. They and the Kurakulas, who sold vegetables and worked as diggers of wells, had no land or rights. Among brahmins, the agraharam in Maddivalasa village enjoyed a dominant position. An agraharam denoted land that was gifted to brahmins, which chiefly led to people of the same caste living on it. Forty-seven brahmin families lived in Maddivalasa and the caste hierarchy, or varnashrama dharma, was religiously adhered to. None of the famished poor who lived in thatched dwellings were fully clothed or wore footwear like the brahmins. The land in Kovvada village in principle belonged to the raja of Vizianagaram, a large landowner in his own right. People of the Kapu caste were the rajas agents and often acted as de facto owners. The raja of Bobbili became a member of the council of state in 1925 and the chief minister of Madras presidency in 1932. As chief minister, he opposed the 1933 agitation for abolition of the

I am grateful to the people who provided inputs during interviews. The views expressed here are mine. S A Vidyasagar (velugu_sagar@yahoo.com) is an independent researcher based in Visakhapatnam.
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zamindari system and ordered a crackdown on peasants, which resulted in the police opening fire in many places. The zamindari system was finally abolished in 1948. The raja had to pause and ponder, and he decided on making as much money as possible because he was to lose ownership of the land. This needed selling land in a clandestine manner. Being fully aware of caste emotions, he sought the aid of Peddinti Ramaswamy Naidu of Piridi, a Koppula Velama, the largest caste in the village. Naidu was successful in persuading many of his people to purchase land and they turned into landowners. Many, because each of them was able to buy only a small piece of land. The pride of caste raised its head among these Koppula Velamas, who took a cue from the Velama Doras, as later incidents indicate. The Kapus also acquired some plots of land and their holdings ranged from 0.10 acres to 2 acres (a hectare is 2.45 acres). All the other social groups were mute and hapless witnesses to this process.

brahmins tacitly encouraged dalits to occupy the tank and after a legal battle, the latter received titles to 70 acres of land. In 1971, land was distributed to the landless. Thirty-two families in Pedda Kovvada and Chinna Kovvada were granted ownership papers and their holdings varied from 0.10 acres to 5.74 acres. Most of the land distributed was arid, along the sea coast and unfit for cultivation. Let us look at the present landholding pattern in Piridi, where the Koppula Velamas are the largest community (Table 1). The village has 1,314.12 acres of wetland and 648.59 acres of dry land. Land has changed hands for reasons common elsewhere in the country, but it can be noted from Table 1 that the highest percentage of landless families are dalit, followed by other erstwhile castes of servitude such as the Kurakulas, Goudas, fishermen, barbers, washermen, carpenters and Yadavas. Most Koppula Velama families have land, followed by Kapu ones. As can be seen in Table 1, most brahmins, Velama Doras and Pandas have migrated from the village. The holdings, as of now, are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Community-wise Landholdings in Piridi (Acres)
Social group 0-0.5 0.5-1 1-1.5 1.51-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-7 7-10 >10

Clinging to the Land

In Maddivalasa, an inamdari village, the abolition of zamindari and inamdari brought the guile of the brahmins to the fore. They adopted all means to keep as much land as possible in their possession, in their names, in benami names and in other guises. Ragala Asirinaidu, who realised what the abolition meant, tried to enlighten and organise the peasants. But ignorance ruled as always. Epics and their ethos echoed in the minds of the peasants and they were firm that the brahmins should not be harmed. In Kovvada, the raja of Vizianagaram personally held so much of the land in the village that it was virtually left untouched. The rajas agents settled in as owners of large areas of land while a small part remained with the real tillers. In line with other states, Andhra Pradesh enacted land ceiling laws in 1961 and the peasants no doubt expected great change was in the offing. But, in Piridi, only 6 acres of land was found to be surplus and it was distributed among 12 families who belonged to the dalit, Goud, washermen, and Kurakula communities. Nothing much happened in Maddivalasa. Brahmins tried to occupy the village tank and Asirinaidu tried to organise the peasants against this. Scenting danger, the
Table 1: Community-wise Ownership of Cultivable Land in Piridi
Social Group Total Families Landless Landowners Dry land (Acres) Wetland (Acres)

Koppula Velamas Kapus Barbers Fishermen Goudas Kurakulas Pandas Patnaiks Washermen Telukalis Vysyas Velama Doras Carpenters Yadavas Dalits Weavers

42 27 2 3 13 6 9 3 14 6

108 40

67 24 2

67 14

76 16

48 5

21 5

27 3

15

4 1 4 7 1 4 3

3 9 2 3

1 4 1 1 1

1 1 3 1 1 1 6 5 1

2 5 10 10 4 3 6 6 1

Source: Form I-B land records register.

Koppula Velamas Kapus Yadavas Pandas Washermen Velama Doras Patnaiks Carpenters Fishermen Barbers Goudas Telukalis Vysyas Dalits Brahmins Kammas (absentee landowners) Kurakulas Weavers
Source: Form I-B land records register.

550 189 87 35 62 7 8 66 60 20 97 8 34 205 2 2 74 10

60 46 64 5 35 3 51 55 18 70 2 32 188 1 67 5

490 143 23 30 27 5 15 5 2 27 6 2 17 1 7 5

286.97 41.07 3.17 14.84 3.73 2.41 2.16 1.31 0.90 0.87 0.81 0.76 0.52 0.50

840.40 156.24 19.21 60.07 16.07 19.70 20.90 13.19 3.81 0.57 26.94 6.84 2.42 8.09 2.88 13.33 3.29 2.10

Only Koppula Velama, Kapu and Panda families have landholdings larger than 3 acres and the percentage of such holdings to total holdings is the highest among Koppula Velamas. All other communities have very smallholdings and the percentage of smallholdings is the highest among dalits and Yadavas, followed by washermen. As Table 2 shows, of the 17 dalit families, 10 have holdings smaller than 0.5 acres (0.20 hectares), and six less than 1 acre. Only one family has more than 1 acre, but it is less than 1.5 acres. Of the 23 Yadava families, 10 have holdings smaller than 0.5 acres and six more than 0.5 acres, but less than 1 acre. Of five fishermen families, three have holdings under 0.5 acres. Of the seven Kurakula families, six have less than 0.5 acres. Thus the lower castes and dalits have a very small measure of land in their possession, both in terms of number of holdings and the size of holdings. Most of the smallholdings are unirrigated and rain-fed. Given the nature of the land, a holding of at least 5 acres is necessary to make a family reasonably self-sufficient. As can be seen from the table, such families are very few. The majority of families live in poverty, of varying intensity and dimension. The migration of brahmin families from Maddivalasa village began in the early 1970s and was almost over by the 1980s.
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Before moving out, they sold the land they were able to retain possession of despite the new laws. They thus disposed off 275 acres of the 400 acres in the entire village. The peasants of this village could not afford to Table 3: Community-wise Distribution of buy this land but people from Land in Maddivalasa Social Group Area of Land (Acres) nearby villages bought 164.35 Barbers 1.25 acres. In addition, dalits sold Brahmins 15.98 their smallholdings to local Fishermen 1.32 169.58 peasants, notwithstanding the Kapus 16.06 law that the D form titles Scheduled castes Telukalis 3.64 were not transferable. The Vysyas 9.05 village now has 206 families Washermen 12.03 and the area of landowned Weavers 4.22 by each community in acres Yadavas 19.67 Source: Form I-B land records register. is shown in Table 3. The landholding pattern among the different communities in Maddivalasa village is shown in Table 4. Apart from those in the table, four brahmin families from outside the village own 4.75 acres.
Table 4: Community-wise Landholdings in Maddivalasa (Acres)
Social Group Total Landless >0.5 Families Families 0.5-1 1-1.5 1.5-2 2-3 3-5 6-10 10-15 >15

distribution among the various social groups in the village is shown in Table 5.

Water
There are 19 tanks in Piridi village and four of them are meant for irrigation though their only source of water is rain. The dimensions and capabilities of the Table 6: Irrigation Tanks in Piridi four are listed in Table 6. Name Area of the Tank Land Irrigated (Hectares) (Hectares) The waters of Sitarama Ranga Sagaram 17.28 74.04 Sagaram are used for the land Polavani Tank 36.34 169.51 in Embannavalasa, a revenue Kollivani Tank 9.30 135.49 village, and the water in the Sitarama Sagaram 35.07 122.71 other three tanks is used for Total 97.99 501.75 land in Piridi. Apart from rain, there is no other source of water for agriculture. The government has acquired 95.54 acres of wetland and 48.26 acres of dry land for construction of the Totapalli reservoir across the Nagavali River, which is supposed to feed the fields of Piridi. But the project still remains a promise. The land was acquired for a meagre compensation of Rs 1.52 lakh for an acre of wetland and Rs 1.12 lakh for an acre of dry land. The sacrifice of farmers has so far only resulted in rendering them landless. Maddivalasa has two irrigation tanks, the Kalyani and Kotta, supplying water to 60 acres and 30 acres respectively. In 1962, the right channel of the Nagavali River was extended to this village and water was available for the kharif season. This canal tended to silt up and groups of villagers used to clean it to ensure water supply. This went on for quite some time. Meanwhile, the government, in the name of water reforms, formed water user associations and representatives to these bodies are elected on the basis of their political affiliation. This caused divisions among the people and the common work of removing silt from the canal was gradually disowned by all. The canal has now dried up and has not irrigated an inch of land for more than four years. The Madduvalasa reservoir on the Vegavati and Suvarnamukhi Rivers, subsidiaries of the Nagavali River, was constructed in 1977 and 90 acres of land, which already had a water source in the Thotapalli right channel and an assured crop, was acquired for a paltry compensation of Rs 0.64 lakh an acre while the market price was around Rs 1.5 lakh. This reservoir has not in any way increased the area of land irrigated in Maddivalasa. Falling in line with the Indian paradox, this peninsular village, surrounded by the Nagavali and Suvarnamukhi Rivers and streams such as the Vattigedda, faces acute water shortage in summer and the women are compelled to walk long distances in search of potable water. The land in Kovvada was primarily rain-fed. Then some big farmers from among the Kapus, who had access to the institutional credit, dug borewells. This encouraged others to follow suit and the dependence on groundwater steadily increased. Now, both big farmers and sharecroppers struggle. The increase in the number of borewells has meant that the output of groundwater has drastically declined. Wells have now to be bored as deep as to 250 feet against 50 feet a few years ago. On the whole, there are about 60 borewells in operation in the village. Of those,

Brahmins Kapus Scheduled castes Barbers Fishermen Washermen Telukalis Vysyas Weavers Yadavas Scheduled tribes

2 87 62 3 4 6 2 6 1 30 3

1 11 36 1 3 0 0 2 0 19 3

0 21 17 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 0

0 17 4 1 0 0 0 1 0 6 0

0 14 3 0 1 2 0 1 0 1 0

0 9 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

0 10 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Source: Form I-B land records register.

In Kovvada village, land is spread over three revenue villages, Gudem, Ramachandrapuram and Kovvada. The 295.28 acres in Gudem and 93.78 acres in Ramachandrapuram belong to the Kapu community of Patharlapalli village and a large part of this is in various names of the Gorle family. Gorle Sriramulu Naidu from this clan wielded enor- Table 5: Community-wise Distribution mous influence and sway of Land in Kovvada Social Group No of Families Land in Acres over the area until 1983, Kapus 163 423.44 becoming the zilla parishad Kshatriyas 1 3.18 chairman, a member of the Patnaiks 1 3.01 legislative assembly and a Washermen 2 1.08 state cabinet minister. Gudem Satani Vyshnavas 8 27.81 has a mainly floating popu- Setti Balijas 1 0.1 lation from Patharlapalli. Fisherfolk 171 407.42 Ramachandrapuram has a Source: www.apland.ap.nic.in population of 118 people in 75 households, of which 70 are Satani Vyshnavas and five are Kapus. Pedda Kovvada has a population of 1,900 in 700 households and 500 of them are landless. Fifteen of them are Goudas (toddy tappers), 15 Satani Vyshnavas, one Vysya and one carpenter. All the others are fishermen families. Chinna Kovvada has a population of 1,650 people in 600 households, and except for 100, the rest are landless. All of them are fisherfolk, but for 15 households of Satani Vyshnavas. The land
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only six belong to fisherfolk, which, unsurprisingly, mean that only six fisher families continue to cultivate land.

Other Inputs
In the past, agriculture involved a fair amount of human labour. Though ploughs and bullocks played important roles, humans had to direct them. Yadavas (shepherds) reared goats for meat and organic manure. Tank silt, sheep excreta and farmyard manure were considered valuable. The last was from wastes in farms, houses and cattle sheds, which were usually piled up together before being applied to fields. Farmers also grew green, leaf-yielding plants and the leaves could be ploughed into the soil as manure. Indigenous seeds were used and very rarely did someone have to buy seeds. Agricultural productivity was low, but so was the cost of inputs. The average production of paddy was 15 bags an acre and each crop matured in four to five months. Agriculture thus occupied the people for almost 10 months a year and the produce was marketed by local traders. By and large, much of it was self-sufficient. While paddy was the main crop, the other crops grown were basically dry ones such as ragi (finger millet), ganti (bajra), ooda (echinoclca) and sesamum, as also pulses. As mentioned, production and the productivity were low but tillers and their families ate two square meals a day. Coarse cereals such as ragi, ooda and bajra needed less investment and more labour. That latter was available in plenty. According to the 1971 Census, ragi was the staple food in the three villages. The late 1960s and early 1970s coincided with the green revolution. High-yielding variety (HYV) seeds and chemical fertilisers gained great publicity and were seen as a panacea to the ills of Indian agriculture. The increased use of chemicals in fertilisers and pesticides needed more water which was lacking in the three villages. As seen, little was done to augment irrigation and the steps taken were often counterproductive. After the introduction of HYV seeds, the farmers became dependent on seeds from corporate entities and had to queue up for them at the revenue headquarters. The cost of seeds skyrocketed from Rs 150 to Rs 375 a kg and even sold for Rs 500 a kg on the black market. In 1986, Phalguna, an HYV seed, was attacked by the ullikodu (a gall midge of the Cecidomyiidae family) pest and that was a major blow because the loss of crop was total. However, the increase in output was rewarding till the early 1990s. But the lifting and reduction of subsidies on seeds and fertilisers has now rendered HYV cultivation costlier and nonrewarding. HYV seeds require chemical fertilisers and pesticides and the cost of cultivation has touched Rs 7,000 for an acre of paddy. Given a good harvest, what a farmer can hope to earn is around Rs 8,000. The peasants cannot afford to pay higher wages and low wages are insufficient for labourers, who have more modern lifestyles. The overall result is that many farmers have lost interest in cultivation. They feel that labour is too costly, unavailable on time and input costs have gone up while the surplus, if any, is unpredictable and paltry. The breaking up of the common family system, which intensified in the 1990s, has enhanced the need for paid labourers, thus adding to input costs. The custom of mutual help has faded out in the villagers pursuit of individual earning and prosperity.

A jute mill was opened in Bobbili and this led to a change of crops, from groundnuts to mesta. The Rs 2 a kg rice scheme has also gradually pushed out coarse cereals from circulation and consumption. A change in the paradigm also helped this. Caste pride percolated down to create a desire to emulate the eating habits of the upper castes. Thus the demand for and acceptance of dry crops such as ragi and ooda fell, almost driving them out of cultivation.

Implements
Livestock played a pivotal role in the economic and social life of these villages in earlier decades. Even cow dung and the excreta of sheep and goats had an economic value and children of the low-caste communities earned small amounts by collecting it. While children were mainly in charge of rearing and grazing livestock, women made a little income by cleaning and maintaining cattle sheds. The dalits and Segidis of Piridi were attached labourers (palerus or kambaris). What they got for their toil was food three times a day and an annual wage of 5-6 tonnes of cereals, comprising mainly dry crops and some paddy. Pulses and oil seeds were never a part of their wages. Families of palerus led an almost nude life and squeezed themselves into very small huts that could hardly shelter two. Some dalits earned their livelihood as rickshaw pullers. Many of the Koppula Velamas who were landless and marginal peasants also worked as agricultural labourers but they worked as a separate group from the dalits. The work they undertook was different in nature, as were their returns. Children below the age of 14 or 15 years were called chinna kambaris and the grown-ups were pedda kambaris. Wages for the two groups of course differed but they were all given a pair of clothes once a year and food three times a day. Pedda kambaris took care of agriculture while the chinna kambaris herded cows and ran errands. They also played the role of sweepers. Some agricultural work such as transplanting, weeding and picking up the remnants of harvests were carried out by women, which brought them some income, albeit not on par with the men. The dalits of Maddivalasa made mats from jute twine and sold them in the market. This work was usually done by women. Two mats could be made in a day from a kilogram of jute twine. Umbrellas made of palm leaves (gubba godugu) were marketed by the men for additional income. The Telukalis were occupied in extracting oils using the traditional rotary process, buffaloes moving the pestles around. Clay utensils were used in all households and the Kummaris sustained themselves making them. Carpenters eked out a living making ploughs and other agricultural implements while the Kammaras made sickles and other cutting implements. Incomes were very low and, in the general course, so were expenses and needs. In 1999, a rich peasant in Maddivalasa bought a tractor, the first in the village, which was followed by two more. The opportunity cost of using tractors has pushed the wooden plough into the dark. While a tractor tills an acre of land in an hour and 15 minutes, the wooden plough needs about two days and the expense goes up to Rs 600. A pair of good bullocks costs about Rs 50,000 and fodder is hard to come by. Needless to say, the use of tractors has meant the disappearance of native manure.
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Machines and unremunerative prices have led to more unemployment, resulting in the migration of people from the villages. Fifty-two families of various communities have already left Maddivalasa. Of the migrant families, 30 are dalits, five are washermen, five are carpenters, two are fishermen and one each Telukali and barber. Almost all of them are engaged in the construction sector on a daily-wage basis in various towns such as Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Chennai. They visit the village twice a year for festivals and leave with heavy hearts. As mentioned, labourers were subjugated socially and economically in the old days while the peasants themselves were hardly self-sufficient. The early years of high productivity meant an increased surplus for the peasantry, but that did not translate into higher wages for labourers. The high cost of inputs in recent years has reduced the surplus to the peasantry. And a spurt in investment in the infrastructure sector has created employment opportunities for labourers in the construction sector, speeding up migration.

were exorbitant and the loans took on many shapes, with rice for cash a common mode of repayment. In 1986, the State Bank of India (SBI) opened a branch in Sitaramapuram and granted agricultural loans. It was closed in 2005 and poor recovery was stated to be the reason. Now, the SBI has a branch at Vangara but bank finance is beyond the reach of ordinary tillers and the usurious moneylender always has his hour. The interest charged is 30% and grains for cash are still a prevalent arrangement, making loans costlier.

Welfare Schemes
The villagers of Kovvada were offered houses under the Indira Awaas Yojana, but they could not take advantage of it because they did not have the funds to meet the remaining expenditure, which would be far more than the Rs 40,000 subsidy. The states Apadbandhu scheme offers a compensation of Rs 1 lakh in case of the loss of life of a breadwinner. But this does not apply to fisherfolk because they come under another compensation scheme implemented by the department of fisheries. According to this, the next of kin is eligible for an amount of Rs 50,000. Despite the formalities and procedures being completed, half the amount reaches the claimant after a year or two. Piridi village got a safe drinking water scheme in 1989 and it was constructed at a cost of Rs 10 lakh. It is now defunct and the village faces a severe shortage of potable water in summer, forcing women to wake up early and trek long distances. About 750 toilets were sanctioned to the village at a cost of Rs 3,200 each and a Sulabh complex was also constructed. All of them do not function today. However, with funds from the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana and food for work, roads have been laid in the village. Piridi had adopted a principle of not allowing arrack or liquor shops within it till 1999. But the promotion of liquor by the state in recent years has seen rampant growth of the drinking habit in the village, endangering social relations. The bid amounts for liquor shops in Piridi have been growing the fastest among the three villages. What was Rs 75,000 in 1999 for a shop is now around Rs 35 lakh.

Credit
Until the 1970s, the situation in the three villages was similar to that in most parts of the country with the farmer fated to be born in debt, live in debt and die in debt while usurious moneylenders made hay. The cooperative system made an entry to Piridi in 1969. But lack of awareness and proper records inhibited debt expansion and the dormant society was soon closed. The other two villages did not have even this. The fishermen of Kovvada formed a society in 1970 and made demands for better facilities but they all fell on deaf ears. However, in 1983-84 a fibreglass boat was sanctioned to the society on the basis of a bank loan. It was used for sometime before a cyclone in 1986 broke it to pieces. The bank that financed it has refused to give the society any further loans because it has defaulted on the first one. The society had no insurance and there is no institution to help them when they most need it. Alongside machines and the much-hyped green revolution, came lending institutions. A commercial bank opened a branch in Piridi in 1983 and Maddivalasa in 1986. By this time, absentee ownership of land in the villages had increased. These banks concentrated on improving their figures for agricultural advances given, inspired by stories from elsewhere and following diktats from above. Tractors proved to be attractive investments for those taking loans from banks and this displaced labour. Banks have rooted their lending in documents showing ownership of land. They are neither inclined nor compelled to finance actual tillers of the land. Many from Piridi who left for jobs and businesses elsewhere have leased out their land on a crop-sharing basis and this has been done through oral agreements. The actual sharecropper cannot access institutional credit and continues to be at the mercy of moneylenders. The only notable change is that many traditional moneylenders and rich peasants have been displaced by members of the peasant community who reside and work in other places. They save from their incomes to lend out at very high rates of interest in their village. The villagers of Maddivalasa depended on usurious lenders from among the Vysyas and rich peasants. The rates of interest
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Education and Employment

In Piridi, the economically better-off groups such as brahmins and Velama Doras sent their children to schools in Bobbili and Vizianagaram. The more prosperous among the peasant community, the Koppula Velamas, saw a purpose and value in this and also began sending their children to school. To the dalits and other serving groups, schools were part of an alien world. Economic constraints and their ignorance about the reservation system saw to it that it remained so for long. In 1956, a high school was established in Piridi. The Koppula Velamas who had become landowners sent their children to the school along with brahmins and Velama Doras. The children of the landless and the lower castes, however, continued to work as chinna palerus. So, the children of those who owned land and were able to employ labourers, pursued studies, producing a section of educated people, who became social capital when they found employment. The first employee from the Koppula Velama community joined the high school as a clerk in 1956, while quite a number of Velama Doras had already secured jobs elsewhere.

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A college was opened in Bobbili on the 61st birthday of the raja in 1961 and those who could afford to pay labourers for work on their farms began enrolling their children in it. The college was set up with money raised from sugar cane growers in the locality and it followed a system of reserving some seats for this section. The practice further helped many landowners educate their children. Later, reservations were extended to backward class communities and the Koppula Velamas were included in this category, again aiding families with land educate their young. A primary health centre and a veterinary centre were also opened in Piridi. It can be seen from Table 7 that the fisherfolk and Kurakulas have not managed to get through the door to employment even today despite belonging to backward classes that are eligible for reservations. Only a few dalits, washermen, barbers, weavers and Yadavas are employed in the organised sector. Interactions revealed that almost all from these communities are in low-paid jobs such as anganwadi and health workers, attenders, nominal mazdoor roll (temporary) labourers, security guards, and so on, while most Koppula Velamas and Kapus are in secure and reasonably well-paid jobs. Further investigations revealed that some of those from families with extensive landholdings, irrespective of community, have good jobs in the west, such as in the software sector. This must have been because of their access to better quality education compared to those from families with no land or very smallholdings. The data very clearly denotes that employment, both in number and stratum, has a direct link to the economic background of families, which in turn is directly linked to the extent of their landholdings and size.
Table 7: Community-wise Employment in Organised Sector in Piridi
Social Group Total Families Employed Families Government Public Sector Professional Companies (Doctors)

and they had the means to send their children for higher studies. A good many of them got jobs in the 1940s itself and one of them settled in the US as a scientist in 1957-58. In 1961, a school opened in Sitaramapuram. Nevertheless, universal education is a distant dream for the people of Maddivalasa and whatever little has been provided has not been all that helpful. Only three persons from the Kapu community are employed, one as a constable and two in the health department. Worse off are the dalits. From among 62 families, only one person is employed as a primary schoolteacher. The lone tribal family has one employee, a constable. Women are still largely illiterate. There is still no hospital and local practitioners attending on the ailing have at the most been to the primary health centre at Bitivada. Kovvada village has no high school and there are no literates. And it has nobody who is in regular employment. However, a hostel was sanctioned to the village in 1970 but no building for it has been constructed so far. Children are now provided afternoon meals in a cyclone relief shelter.

Occupational Pattern
In the three villages, changing circumstances have led to the people adapting to new vocations. For instance, in Kovvada, most of the people used nylon fishing nets. They then began buying nylon thread and making cradles from it. From living, fishing and sleeping in the same place, this has made them travel to find buyers for their nylon cradles. Those who cannot afford to do so, work for others on daily wages and are thus employed. Buses plied only up to Kosta and the rest of the way to Kovvada had to be covered on foot. Some fishermen saw a livelihood opportunity in this and financiers were quick to recognise its potential. About 40 autorickshaws now run between Kosta and Kovvada and many of them are operated by fishermen who have switched trades. In Piridi, many are still dependent on traditional occupations or work as labourers. Dalits find it very difficult to rear cattle as they do not have land and grazing has become nearly impossible. About 200 of them now eke out a living as rickshaw pullers and some as autorickshaw drivers, many on a rental basis and a few as owners. Usurious moneylenders remain their only resort in hours of need and interest rates are known to have gone up to 120%. A majority of dalits, Kurakulas and fishermen are dailywage earning labourers. The traditional teams of Koppula Velamas have disintegrated and there are now four groups of labourers. Two of them exclusively comprise members of the Kurakula community, whose traditional occupation of digging wells has vanished. The others are led by a dalit and a Yadava. Kapus join in both these teams. All the teams mainly work as construction workers in nearby towns. The 60-odd washermen families in Piridi have to serve all the people in the village. Each of them has 30-40 families as clients and their wages are paid in kind, usually 90 kg of paddy from a family for a years service. Barring a few, they have no rights to land and have to carry the mantle (kagada) during the Ramnavami and Ugadi festivals. The washermen wanted rights over the water of a tank they had been using for long and the gram panchayat resolved to allot it to them. But a family claimed
january 7, 2012 vol xlviI no 1
EPW Economic & Political Weekly

Koppula Velamas Dalits (mala) Dalits (maadiga) Washermen Kapus Barbers Viswa brahmins Telukalis Weavers Pandas Vysyas Telagas Patnaiks Scheduled tribes Yadavas Fisherfolk Kurakulas
Source: Household surveys.

550 113 92 62 166 15 42 7 10 9 33 12 8 2 85 60 74

208 17 5 1 28 2 7 4 2 9 3 2 8 1 3 0 0

101 15 4 1 5 2 5 3 0 1 1 0 11 0 2 0 0

24 2 1 2 4 0 2 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

144 1 0 3 20 0 2 2 4 4 2 2 2 1 1 0 0

Maddivalasa village had a primary school way back in 1930s that taught children up to the fifth standard. The school was under the aided management of Choppalla Suryanarayana, who later sold it to Kolluru Satyanarayaana. There were only two teachers and the students were predominantly brahmins. While children of other castes went to work, almost everyone in the brahmin community secured a primary education. Most of the brahmin families recognised the need and value of education

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ownership of the tank in court. The sarpanch deposed in court in favour of the washermen and the court verdict endorsed it. But the issue remains unresolved because the right to fish in the tank will follow that to water. So the funds that have been granted for a dhobi khana lie idle. In the 1980s, the carpenters pleaded for a hike in their wages. The Koppula Velamas felt that their identity and supremacy were at stake and the farmers under them stood as one to oppose this. The carpenters were boycotted and workers from other villages were employed. Ultimately, the carpenters swallowed their pride and continued on the old wages. Even today, washermen and barbers have to run around as couriers, inviting relatives and friends of the higher castes for feasts and functions. This service is done gratis. What barbers get for their professional services is only 24 kg of paddy a year. These communities get paid separately if they provide music for marriages and such other functions. A group of musicians usually comprises five to eight people and has to play during the Ramnavami and Ugadi festivals. The remuneration is a ridiculous Rs 10 a year.

took its toll as late as in 1991 when farmers manhandled a baraka on a petty issue and imposed a social boycott on them. A postgraduate from a Koppula Velama family found a solution to the labour problem by bringing the first tractor to the village in 1999. This led to an alienation of agricultural labourers, chiefly dalits, from the land and they turned to working in nearby urban areas. The dalits, who for long had stood with the Koppula Velamas, felt let down and this has had far-reaching consequences. In brief, the dalits have made only two concrete gains; one, the right to have their haircut and beards shaved in the same places as all others, and two, a stop to the practice of teashops and restaurants serving them in glasses separate from the ones used for other communities.

Industrialisation
No fish-processing industries or cold storages were set up anywhere near Kovvada, a fishing village. Neither was fishing on the reserved or protected list like some other industries. Nor was anything done to encourage fishing cooperatives or create export opportunities for them. But bulk drug manufacturing factories, so highly polluting that many in the west have been closed down, flourish. About 10 such companies exist today in and around Pydibheemavaram village. Treating their chemical effluent is costly and would cut into profits. So pipelines have been laid from Donipeta to let the effluent into the sea. Fish die because of this and fishermen are forced to venture further out if they want to catch anything. Besides this, large and highly mechanised boats operating on a commercial basis from other places are speeding up the process of driving traditional fishermen away from the sea. Let us now turn to another serious issue over which tension is simmering around Pedda Kovvada and Chinna Kovvada villages. At a time when campaigns against pollution and ecological destruction have ensured that many countries in the west face fierce opposition to setting up new nuclear power plants and older plants are closing down (about 60 in the US alone in recent years), the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) plans to establish a plant with six light water reactors of 1,500 MW each near Kovvada. The know-how is to come from General Electric and Hitachi and the project will uproot people from 12 villages. Against the present total installed capacity of 4,500 MW of nuclear energy in the country, the Kovvada plant alone, when completed, is expected to generate 10,000 MW. If this comes to pass, Kovvada village will disappear into the pages of history. The villagers are now resisting the idea and at election time, even political parties assure them of support. But work on the mega project is moving ahead.

Capital and Investment

As can be seen from the discussion so far, people from families with reasonable landholdings in Piridi have ushered themselves into employment and a comfortable level of life. Such employee households naturally have some surplus and this finds its way into what can be called balloon capital mutual funds, share markets, real estate, and the like because many of them, from the Velama Dora, brahmin and Koppula Velama communities, now have no strong bonds with the village. But there are exceptions to this. A person from the Koppula Velamas has opened a jute factory with his savings as an employee abroad. Another individual from the same community makes sanitary pipes and yet another manufactures engineering goods, both of whom are doing very well.

Women
The less said about the injustices women have had to put up with in the three villages the better. The same families that could afford to send their male children to school at one time or the other never considered doing so in the case of their female children. This discrimination continued till well into the late 20th century. Only in 1983 did the first female student enter the premises of a junior college in this area. However, matters seem to be improving since then and there are about 20 women employed in regular jobs in Piridi today.

Social Fabric
At about the time of Independence, Kolli Kurminaidu led the dalits onto the main streets of Piridi village, which they had been forbidden to use during the rule of the Velama Doras. This signalled the end of Velama Dora hegemony and endeared Kurminaidu to the dalits, who began rallying around him. Yet, seen from a long-term perspective, the achievements of those heady days have faded considerably. Four dalits are appointed as village servants (baraka) to run errands besides doing everything for everybody. Caste pride
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