Articles by K C Alexander

in South India K C Alexander This paper attempts to (i) examine the social background in which organisations of agricultural workers, tenants and farmers have emerged in Kerala and Tamil Nadu; (ii) give an account of the activities and achievements of these organisations; and (iii) assess the impact of their activities on agrarian social structure.

Some Characteristics of the Agrarian Social Structure of Tamil Nadu K C Alexander This paper examines certain characteristics of the agrarian social structure of Tamil Nadu, and attempts to explain the reasons for the emergence of these characteristics. These characteristics are the outcome of certain sociological forces which can be identified. The fact that among the four Dravi- dian linguistic states of South India, only the Tamil speaking people (except in Kanyakumari district) were not divided into different political entities, gave an extra force to these sociological elements in Tamil society, by facilitating greater geographical mobility of the people.

The first democratically elected Communist government in India came to power in Kerala in 1957. Though this government was overthrown in 1969, a other communist-dominated leftist government came to power in the state in 1967, and since then coalition governments led by either the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) or the Communist Party of India (CPl) have been ruling the state. The emergence of communism as a major political force in Kerala is a manifestation of fundamental changes taking place in its social structure, This paper endeavours to describe the change that have occurred in the farmer-labour relations in Kuttanad, in the old princely state of Travancore, and to identify some of the factors which contributed to these changes. The changes in farmer-labour relation in Kuttanad may not be at the moment typical of the whole of Kerala, but this may be indicative of the pattern of relationship likely to emerge between these two important sections of the rural community in Kerala, and probably in other parts of India, in future.

been cheaper to have a cistern providing water from the hill streams (p 34).
The author gives a detailed analysis of the financial position and income and expenditure pattern of the gram pan- chayats in these two blocks. In Narayan- patna the panchayats' income was miserably low and so were the grants from the government for development because "most of the schemes were executed directly by the authorities of the block" and only "a few were entrusted to the panchayats for execution" (p 22). This defeats the very purpose of local self-government. On the other hand, Runiban, being a special multipurpose tribal block, received more liberal grants. According to the author, the spread of Panchayati Raj in Ruruban has helped in weakening the political power of the feudal chiefs and the caste Hindus. It has made the tribals politically and socially conscious and has encouraged them to participate in political and social activities (p 77). Road development has also helped in increasing political and economic activity among the tribals of Ruruban, where school attendance has also increased significantly (p 95). On the other hand, Narayanpatna continues to experience a political vacuum "mainly because of the inaccessibility of these areas" (p 110).

Employers and their organisations are an important component of the industrial relations system of any modern society.
However, while labourers and their organisations have attracted wide attention, employers and their activities have failed to attract similar attention both from scholars mid laity alike.