Articles by jeemol Unni

Rural Labour in India: Role of State and Markets Jeemol Unni Empowering Rural Labour in India: Market, State and Mobilisation edited by R Radhakrishnan and Alakh N Sharma; Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, 1998; pp 440, Rs 450 (hard), Rs 195 (paper).

alternative systems of taxation based on the identification of objectively measurable indicators of physical or human capital or input use in each occupation. These can be used to establish not merely taxability, but also average taxable income generated per unit of the chosen indicator/s. Methods such as these have been successfully practised in the developing world [surveyed i n Rajaraman 1995], but are seen as fiscally primitive and are therefore resisted by tax adminstration elites (rained in western methods, tuned to a different stage of fiscal and informational evolution, The Report sees the VAT as the re venue substitute for reduced import levies, but a VAT is also informationaly demanding.

Non-Agricultural Employment in Rural Gujarat Jeemol Unni A household may diversify its activities by increasing the number of workers in the household or by the participation of each member in more than one economic activity. The latter is the focus of the discussion here. This paper views diversification of economic activities and participation in non-agricultural employment from the perspective of an individual worker in a rural household. His/her decisions regarding whether to participate in economic activity, the number of activities to undertake and the sector (agriculture or non-agriculture) of activity are combined and analysed in a single multiple choice model.

Regional Variations in Rural Non-Agricultural Employment An Exploratory Analysis IN the third world, the rural economy has until recently been equated with the agricultural economy. In addition to crop production, fishing, forestry, etc, members of rural households may engage in a certain amount of agro-processing, transporting and marketing of agricultural produce as secondary activities. This view of the rural population's exclusive dependence on agriculture has begun to change in the past few years. There is a growing recognition that non-agricultural activities in rural areas play a crucial role in providing simple consumer goods and services to the rural households. Such activities also provide a humble but critical income to the landless labour [Kilby and Liedholm, 1986], Rural households engage in a variety of activities, both agricultural and non-agricultural. Few households in any category derive their income exclusively from agriculture. However, the non-agricultural activities they engage in are likely to be quite different at the two ends of the income distribution spectrum. For the low income rural households, wages from working on construction work, brick kiln, etc, and personal services are the predominant source. There is evidence from many countries that the extent of secondary employment in non-farm work also is extensive and important for small and landless farm families [World Bank, 1978]. For the high income rural households manufacturing or other-business activities and salaried income tend to predominate. These latter activities have higher entry barriers and yield higher returns than agriculture or other non- agricultural activities [Kilby and Liedholm, 1986J. Some non-farm activities are clearly rooted in tradition and continue even today such as blacksmiths, carpenters, potters, weavers, etc, in the rural communities of the third world.

By the first quarter of the 19th century, the Ancient Model had fallen from grace. By then it was "scientifically proved' that philosophy and civilisation had indeed originated in Greece. This was very convenient for the psychological well-being of the ruling tlass in Europe, 'After the rise of black slavery and racism, European thinkers were concerned to keep black Africans as far as possible from European civilisation'. Gradually with the rise of anti-Semitism, a sustained attack was also made on the Phoenician contribution and by the 1930s the anti-Phoenician position had also been "scientifically proved!' After World War II the old geo-political order began to change. The Eurocentric order was being dismantled geographically through decolonisation and this had intellectual repercussions. The resultant post-World War II rethinking gave rise to attempts at revisionism of the handed truths. These efforts were partly under way by the 1950s and the 1960s. Bernal describes how with the help of Israeli scholars and under a new environment, the anti-Semitic elements in the given histories were now being closely reexamined and history was being restructured.