An Exploratory Study G Parthasarathy Shameem Though there are several accounts of the suicides of cotton farmers in Andhra Pradesh, particularly in Telugu newspapers, no comprehensive account of the phenomenon is available. This paper makes such an attempt and concludes that the main reason for the strain on the cotton peasant is the growing indebtedness to the agriculturist to moneylender-cum-trader. But this does not entirely explain the suicides; one has here to understand the social milieu in which an individual gets alienated front the family and the society.