CHAPTER - !1.

AGRARIAN STRUCTURE BEFORE THE TELANGANA MOVEMENI'

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Hyderabad State, the 1 argest among the

princely states in colonial India, came into existence

and was shaped along with the decline of Mughal Empire

and the rise of British Colonialism. Being a subah

of the Ivlughal Empire (it was conquered from Qutub

Shahis of Golconda during Aurangazeb 1 s reign)

the Hyderabad was assigned to the rep.resentati ve

of the Hughal Emperor, who acquired the title of

Nizam-ul-Hulk. With the weakening and dis integration '-.../

of the Hughal Empire and the initiation of the process

of formation of independent princedoms, the Hyderabad

came to be a sovereign state under the Asaf Jahi

dynasty. Governed by the indecisive nature of its

relations or rather its constant conflicts with the

neighbouring principalities and the palace intrigues

involving contenders for power within the royal family,

and their affiliation with the European traders, each

succeeding Nizam invariably displayed pro-British

attitude and drew in their support to consolidate

himself. The 1857 Indian Mutiny represents a watershed

in the British-Nizam relations. Playing a pro-British

role in 1857, the Nizam stood out as the major, if not

the sole, exception to tl;le subcontinental feudal­

monarchic revolt against the British colonial supremacy

53

thereby earning him the title of the "Faithful Ally".

This ensured the symbiotic relationship with the British

which subsequently got transformed into one of actively

accepting the suzerainty of the British and the Hyderabad

resultantly being reduced to its satellite.

The Nizam• s state, given its unequal relationship

of subordination with the British imperialism, and the

exigencies of such a relationship, had to experience

serious set-back in its finance. According to the

estimates of Colonel Low, the officiating Resident,

while the annual revenue turnover to the state exchequer

in 1848 A.D. was Rs.15 million, the accumulated state

debt totalled Rs.35 million. Out of this sum the state

owned as much as Rs.4.2m. to the colonial government,

on account of the military contingent, considered to be

the major cause of the state•s indebtedness, while other

large sums were owed to the military personnel and the

public servants as arrears of pay and to sahukars

(private moneylenders) borrowed at a high rate of

interest. Inability of the government to raise loan

on account of its low credit worthiness with the

colonial state as well as with the moneylenders, forced

him to repay the loans partly by disbursing the money

from his private treasure and partly by ceding certain

districts to the British1 (eg., the treaty of 1853 deals

with the transfer of parts of Nizam's dominion) in lieu

of th€ debts it owed and by granting different types of

jagir~ to the pentioners and other officials for the

arrears of 'pay(known as Tankhah jagirs) and for the

individuals who rendered military service. In spite of

all these measures, by the time Salarjung assumed the

Office of Diwan in 1853 the Nizam' s state debt was

estimated at Rs.3 millions. 2

Salarjung• s attempts at administrative reforms

have to be seen in the context of such a deteriorating

financial position marked by mounting indebtedness, low

credibility and a certain slackening of administrative

control as vast area of revenue generating land was

assigned to different types of Jagirdars and mortgaged

to colonial sta"t;·e. Salar Jung' s refonns have to be

appreciated as an effort to improve and stabilise the

financial state of Nizam' s government by redeeming it

from its indebtedness and by seeing to it that it does

not relapse once again into the debt-trap.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ - - - - - - - - -1. The area transferred included the circars-the districts

along coastal Andhra from Srikakulam to Nellore and the ceded districts, ie., the four Rayalaseema districts of Ananthapur, Cuddapah, Kurnool and Chittoor.

2. For a detailed treatment of this issue see, V> .K.Bawa, -The Nizam between Moghuls and British, s. Chand & Co., New Delhi, 1986, Chapter III.

55

For writing the agrarian history of Telangana,

the Revenue Administrative Reforms initiated by Sir

Salar Jung I can serve as a point of departure. It is

these reforms which, for the first time, envisaged and

executed the regularisation of the agrarian contribution

to the state excheqll'e;r and the irregularities in the

agrarian st.ructure through the introduction of bandobust

(land survey settlement); through land survey, the regu-

larisation of ownership rights by enumerating the plots

of land and the settlement of tax due from the landowner

to the state. It also aimed at bringing the peasant into

a direct relationship with the state. In spite of the

professed ideal~ and subjective intentions, objectively,

bandobust had consequently led to the gross misuse of

power and influence by the deshmukhs and other power

holders in the countryside, through manipulation of

records and thereby appropriating the lands of the

peasants.

Without going into the details of financial aspects

of Nizam• s administration, 1 it would be pertinent in the

context of the present discussion to take note of the fact

that it was, the Salar Jung reforms, which brought. about

1. For details see, V .K. Bawa, ill2•,

changes in the agrarian structure. The ·task of . re-constituting the otherwise unorganised and

anarchi~ land revenue administration, in the first

instance, necessitated the abolition of the system

of auctioning the land revenue collection right thereby

dispensing with the institution of intermediaries to

establish a direc-t relationship beb,veen the state

and peasant._ The resistance put up by the jagirdars

and samsthanam-holders frustrated the efforts of

Sir Salar Jung at implementing t~e reforms. Given

the class nature of the state and the support base

the jagirdars and the rajas constituted with a

formidably entrenched interests, the reforms obviously

could not disturb their position. As a result, by

-the turn of this century, vve have Telangana consisting

of Diwani or Khalsa revenue areas and Jagirs. In spite

of the apparent variations in the formal revenue collection,

these systems operating in the specific socio-economic

context of feudal Telangana, resulted in a quite

complex mode of exploitation in the social life. The

variations in the context had, in fact, reinforced and

further contributed to the variegated and complex social

organisation. To capture this complexity, it is

necessary to transcend a mere functional and economic

dress rehearsal 1 and see its interface and interplay

with the social and cultural dimensions, as the mode of

exploitation and dominance cannot be reduced simply to

the economic aspect, though it constitutes the core.

In the following section, we shall discuss the

revenue collection system, legally recognised tenurial

systems, land question, class differentiation, the

social and cultural dimensions of the structure of

domination- subordination, and the nature of relations

between the state, landlord and the peasant.

LAND TENURES

Telangana, consisted of three types of land

revenue systems on the eve of the Telangana A.rmed

struggle. They were:

a) Diwani or Khalsa tenure system,

b) Jagirdari system,

c) Sarf-ekhas system.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -s. Most of the writings seem to be merely doing this.

A.M. Khusroo•s study of Jagirdari Abolition is only a compilation of the data pertaining to different types of jafirs, and their abolition see, his Economic and Social ffects of Jagirdari Abolition and Refonn in Hyderabad, Osmania University Press, Hyderabad, 19 58. The others aiming at the study of agrarian relations in Telangana, also fail to capture the differences in the cultural nuances and social dimension of the

, complex agrarian situation in Khalsa and jagir areas. For instance Inukonda Tiruinali~' .uAspects::'of Agrarian Relations in Telengana, 19 28-19 48 11

, unpublished M .Phil, dissertation, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1979; and Barry Pavier, Telangana Movement, 1944-51, Vikas, Delhi,1981.

a) o Diwani/Khalsa Tenurial System:

It constituted sixty percent of agricultural

land. Khalsa tenure is the counterpart of the ryotwari

system in British India. As mentioned above, this system

v came into being as a result of Salar Jung Reforms. Under

this system, the state assumed the right to direct

collection of land revenue from the peasant-cultivator,

who was known as pattadar, meaning registered occupant.

The pattadar retained rights over the patta land in

his name as long as he paid the land revenue tax. More-

over, he had a right to transmit it hereditarily as

also to sell it. Thus the pattadars for all practical

purposes were proprietors of the land, with all the

rights the property ownership actually bestowed upon

them. 1

In Diwani, as also in Jagir areas, the absenteeism

in land led to quite a complex sub-infeudation markerl

by a differentially defined status of actual tillers

in relation to land by the state, creating enormous

and complex tenancy problems. Theoretically, a pattadar

was an actual cultivator in the eyes of the lawo In the

1. Diwani system was introduced on the lines of Lord Munro's ryotwari system operative in the Madras Presidency. But earlier to this there was a system of land revenue collection through deshmukhs (revenue farmers) in Telangana. In the Marathi­speaking area the revenue fanners were called desai and deshpandes.

59

speci fie context of the feudal Telangana, the pattadar,

more often than not~ tended to be a landlord interested

in rent on the land registered in his name by leasing

it out to the land-hungry peasants. This dominant practice

of sub-infeudation had created two more segments within

the peasantry with uneven rights on land cultivation

viz., shikrnidars and asami-shikrnidars. 1

a). Shikmidars: They were the actual occupants of

the patta with secure tenancy rights but not registered

or entrolled in the revenue records. In the absence of

any recorded agreement/' as was the practice in Telangana./

the understanding between pattadar and shikrnidar and all

the obligations implied thereof, were governed by custom

and tradition. As a result, they were most often not

considered as permanent tenants. Only those who had twelve

year standing as tenants were recognised as shikmidars

(protected tenants) with secure tenancy rights.

b) • Asami-Shikmidars: They were tenants-at-will,

and hence could be evicted without any prior notice.

They could be tenants of pattadars or sub-tenants of

shikmidars. They constituted the bulk of cultivating

.z:ural population.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. A. Bobbili, uAgrarian Relations in Telangana, 1911-48 11

unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Kakatiya University, W arangal, 1986, pp. 6 2-68.

[,[j

b). Jagirdari System:

Jagirs constituted 30 per cent of Nizam 1 s State.

They were estates granted to the nobles as vatans for

their loyalty or for the services rendered to the

Nizam, and to ex-military personnel in lieu of their

salaries. There were different types of jagirs. 1 They

were differentiated by the nature of services for

which they were granted and the conditions imposed on

the governance of these jagirs. These jagirs were granted

originally for a definite period (generally for the

lifetime of the grantee) but, in practice, they had ~

come to be hereditary had lasted till their abolition J .

in 19 48. These grantees though were known by different

names depending on the nature of grant but the generic

term jagirdar was applied to all muslim title holders.

The Hindu jagirs, on the contrary, were known as

samsthanams and the grantees were called Raja or Rani.

They were not mere revenue farmers as zamindars of

British India. They could be compared to the vassals

of Europe and thereby seen to be enjoying autonomy

and over-riding powers over the subjects in their

estates but only by being subordinate to the Nizam.

They were, in obligation to the Nizam for the grant

1. The different kinds of jagirs are paigahs altamagha, jat, madmash, mashrooti, tankha, etc. For details, see A.M.Khushroo, op.cit., pp.4-9.

6i

of estate, and they had to express th·eir gratitude,

loyality and subordination through the presentation

of nazrana to the Ni zam periodically. Only in the case

of certain jagirs like sarnsthanarns, there was a fixed

payment called peshkash.

The common feature of these jagirs was that

jagirdars had absolute control over their estates

in almost all respects: they had their own independent

administrat-ive system with full powers over civil,

revenue and police matters; they had ~ judicial

system subordinate to the police administration. It

gave them unlimited power and authority over their

subjects and led to a kind of locational exclusiveness

and administrative autonomy, in the sense that in

practice the jagirs almost tended to behave like

sovereign entities or as "states, within the State. ul

The result was the political peipetuation of medieval

autocracy marked by restriction and surveillance on

the movement of individuals, total denial of civil

and democratic rights and absence of rule of law even

in its fonnal appearance. The reason why jagir adminis-

tered areas were portrayed as the most oppressive in

the social novels on Telangana Movement. 2

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. This is the expression Khusroo chooses to describe

the jagirs, see A.M. Khusroo, ibid., p. 1.

2. See for instance, Laxmikantha Mohan, Simha garjana, Navayuga, Guntur; and Dasarathi Rangacharya, Modugupoolu, Vishalandhra, Vijayawada, 1976.

62

c) • Sarf-e-khas system:

The remaining 10 percent of the area consisted

of sarf-e-khas, or crown lands under the direct

supervision of the Nizam's administration. The revenue

collected on these lands was meant for meeting the

Nizam's household expenditure.

RURAL CLASSES AND DIFFERENI'IATION OF PEASANI'RY

a) • The Landlord Class:

With the introduction of Salar Jung Refonns,

the erstwhile revenue farmers i.e., deshmukhs (in

Telangana) desai and deshpandeys (in Maharastra)

were given land vatans and pension in compensation.

The deshmukhs in the subsequent period were to

emerge and consolidate themselves as rich feudal

gentry in Telangana amassing lands ranging from

thousands to a lakh and half acres. This process of

accumulation of land can be said to have occurred in

different phases.

The first phase of land accumulation occurred

in the wake of the abolition of revenue fanners and

the direct. assumption of land revenue collection function

63

by the state. Being given land as vatan in

compensation for thBir d.ispl acernent as revenue

farmers, the deshrnukhs seized the occasion to

occupy the best and most fertile landso

The second phase of 1 and seizure •;.~as

facilitated by the bandobust (survey settl,3:aent)

system, which was introduced in 1875 Hith the aim

of regularising the land records and revenue

administration. The bandobust took place in tHo

stages; the first is knoHn as bandobust ula

and the second bandobust alia. 1

1. I'he first survey settler:1ent operat.ions vr::re initiated on an e:z.perimental basis j_r, Paithan taluq of the i'larati1i speaking Auranga:Dad district, in 1288F and later in other areas. The last in this series was Sirpur taluq of Adilabad district in 1346 F.

The bandobust alia was com~enced in Ashti taluq of Bhir districtin 1307F, and last taluq surveyed was Sirsilla of Karimnagar district in 1359F, while a number of taluqs of Karimnagar and Adilabad were left untouched. A systematic survey settlement seems to have been conducted, delay not withstanding, only in diwani areas. In jagirs, it either was, delayed inordinately or vms never conducted. For details see, The Hyderabad Survey Settlement Marrual, Government Press, Hyderabad- Deccan, 1952, pp. 7-25.

For an account of the hardships faced by the peasants during bandobust on account of corruption and the anti-people attitudes of the bureaucracy and deshmukhs, see, Dasarathi Ranga Charya, Janapadharn, Part I, Navayuga Book House, Vijayawada, 1976.

During these survey settlements, the deshmukhs,

by using their newly acquired dominant position under

the vatandari system, their knowledge of and

accessibil~ty to the revenue records, and their

contacts with the Nizam•s bureaucracy could

manipulate the land records to their benefit, which

even othenvise were ill-maintained. 1 The ignorance

on the part ·of the actual cultivators,· who were

entitled to the pattadari rights, came handy. It

must be said that the process of land accumulation

in Telangana by deshmukh landlords occurred with

the motive of acquiring control over the village

since in an agrarian society it -v1as the land 'l.vhich

bestowed feudal domination. As the land had got

concentrated in the hands of the rural elite it

became a scarce commodity and the competition

for it grew proportionately, the landlords tended

to use it to reinforce their dominance on the land-hungry

peasantry. The monopoly of land by this numerically

small segment of feudal landlord class was the most

65

important factor for their dominance on the village social life.

- - - - - - - - - - - ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. The discussion in this section is based on the

extensive interviews with the eighty six year old patwari of Kolanupaka (Aler talu,q) Shri Narasimha Chary, dt. May 25-27, 1985. Interview with Shri K• Ramachandra Rao was also helpful, dt. 3-4 March, 1987, Warangal.•.

•

Further, the absence of alternative sources of labour

absorption, limited commercial activity and urbanisation

in Telangana at the turn of this century had reinforced

subjugation and bondage of peasantry and other classes

to the feudal ensemble.

By the end of the second stage of bandobust, the

process of accumulation of cultivable land was almost

complete. What needs to be taken note of here is that

the means applied for land grab was the manipulation

of records coupled with coersion. The context in which

it was done had nothing to do with market seen as a

corollary of capitalist tendency in agriculture; neither

there was any land market nor commodity market since

commercial crop cultivation in Telangana- more so, in

Nalgonda - was yet to begin. 1 In addition to this, the

Great Depression {of 1929-36) had its role in the

acceleration of the process of land alienation. Unable

to bear the brunt of the crisis many families, belonging

mostly to the lower echelons of the peasantry, resorted

to distress-selling of land. The scarcity of and in-

accessipility to money by these families caused their

inability to make monetary payment of land tax and their

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

66

1. This observation is necessary and important because some of the writers on Telangana have argued that the objective process of market creation and ex:pantion had led to the growth of the power of this layer of landlord class. See, for instance, Barry Parier, op.cit;and I. Tirumali, op.cit., especially, Chapteriii.

being thrown neck-deep intqindebtedness. The consequence

of this was the selling of land by the middle and poor

peasants to the money-lending deshmukhs, well-to-do

peasants and in some cases, to Komatis {Banias) as well,

for paltry sums and thereby swelling the ranks of jeetha

and agricultural labour. 1

The first phase of land compensation grant and

the second phase of survey settlement has strengthened

and crystallised the se9ffient of deshmukh landlo.rds mostly

-./ belonging to Brahmin, Reddy and Velama castes. It is

the social status springing from their superior caste

position and knowledge of land revenue system together

with their landed property contributed to their dominance.

It must be pointed out that the Reddy and Velama castes

fall into the Shudra varna of the classical Hindu

Chaturvarna system. In tenns of their ritual standing

in the varna hierarchy they occupy a position lower to

that of Brahmins and Vaishyas. In this context it may .j

also be observed that some of the Shudra artisan castes

like Padmasali and Viswa Brahmins - pe.rhaps through the

process of imitation or what M.N.Srinivas calls

• sanskritisation• not only claim the status of dwija

1. Ravi Narayana Reddy narrates an incident that occurred in 1931, when a poor peasant sold two acres of magani {wet) for just twenty five rupees to illustrate the intensity of impact of the crisis on the peasantry. See, his Veera Telangana: Naa Anubhavalu-Gnapakalu, Vishalandhra Publishing House, Vijayawada, 1972, p.16.

67

(twice born castes) but also practice the rituals

associated with the Brahmin varna. Neverthless1 the

textualist chaturvarna system would neither be helpful

in understanding the complexity of the caste system that

has developed subsequently in its variations(except that

it conforms to the general contours of the broad varna

classification) nor in understanding the political

economy of feudal Telangana. The logic of political

economy of classes and structure of domination - subordi-

nation is different from that of varna system. In other

words,· it was the ownership of landed property and the

J nature of development of agrarian social system that

contributed to the dominance of Sudra landlord classes

over the rest of the rural classes including the castes

that are ritually superior to them.

In the subsequent phases, through their dominant

position in the rural society bestowed by the landed

property, and the vatandari system, the deshmukhs

started accumulating whatever land was left with the

peasants. In this the vatandari rights came handy to

them. According to this system1 the deshmukhs were

given vatans in compensation of their previously held

pos~tion as revenue farmers, the Vatandari system in

Telangana was fairly elaborate. It consisted of the trio:

Patwari, police patel and mali patel. Their functions

were clearly demarcated. The patwari was to look after

the village revenue administration, collection of revenue

and maintenance of_ revenue records. The police patel,

who was in-charge of the general administration, looked

after the law and order, registration of the births and

deaths and reporting of crimes in the village to the

higher police officers. The mali patel was to assist

the patwari in collecting the information on the

cropping pattern during abi (kharif) and~ (rabi)

seasons for the purpose of jamabandi and taibandi

(arrangement for the distribution of limited water)and

in computing the revenue demand for different types

of soils and crops.

Each deshmukh was granted from five to ten villages

as vatans in some cases even more, eg., the Vishnur

dora had 40 villages under him - and was bestowed with

an unquestioned authority over the people of his vatan

villages. 1 To put it plainly he could implicate them in

any false case under trumped up charges and the required

evidence in support of such charges, given the logic of

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. P. sundarayya, Telangana Peoples• Struggles and its

Lessons, ¢PI(M), Calcutta, 1972, pp. 10-11.

69

the situation, did not generally prove difficult to

manage. Although the deshmukhs were the asaldars,

(legal owners) of the vatans they used to employ

gumastas (agents) to look after them or to lease

them out to some prospective candidates. This was

done not so much on account of the inability to

loo~fter a large number of villages but more so

because it was in for dig their deshmukh status to

do so. This system of operating through proxy had

in due course become a fairly well-knit and institu-

tionalised hierarchical structure under the deshmukhs,

which further strengthened their hold over the

villages. These proxies acted as henchmen of the

deshmukhs and supplied them with all the day-to-day

information pertaining to the village and kept them

alive to the goings-on therein. Acting on behalf of

the deshmukhs they also benefitted a lot: they accumu.-

lated land and exercised authority in the former• s

absence. As a class they can be characterised as small

landlords. By caste, they were mostly Kapu-Reddies. :1.

.; J)ractically, they (the landlord, patwari, police and

Mali patel) had constituted the four pillars of rural

1. The small Kapu ... Reddi landlords generally being officiating persons (or gumasthas)and not deshmukhs, they had no customary rights over the labour of the peasant, artisan and service castes. The common sense perception of the structures of domination makes a distinction between these two types of land­lords. The deshmukh is referred to as dora and seen

I f1

power structure, the reason why they were often called

the Dhustachatustaya (the evil quartet) after their

notoreity. 1

It was this dominantfi:;egment of rural rich

consisting of deshmukh landlords and their henchmen

../ that fonned the linchpin of the feudal Hyderabad

State at the tu.rn of this century.

b) • Small landlords:

The second segment of rural society consisted

of small landlords. The land under their cultivation,

in most cases was patta land,in some cases, they

also leased in land from deshmukhs or jagirdars,

·---------------- ---------as entitled to total authority over his area and to vetti exaction from all classes of people in his ilaka. In other words, he is seen as a 'state' within the state like jagirdars. But the small landlords functioning as patels were called 'patels', which meant that they were gumasthas of or next to deshmukhs or jagirdars. Thus the distinction between deshmukhs and small landlords is captured by the villagers in their reference to them as 'dora' and 'Patel'respectively. It was only the 'doras' who properly speaking were Reddies, the 'patels' invariably were Kapus (meaning 'cultivators'). The transformation from Kapu to Redd! was symbolic of the former's prosperity as suggested in the following Telugu adage: 'Kapu baliste Reddi avuthadu' (prospered Kapu becomes Reddi).

1. The social novels on Telangana are full of depictions on the cooperation and contradictions among them. See, for instance, Dasarathi Ranga Charya, Chillara Devullu, Vishalandhra Publishing House, Hyderabad, 1987.

,.. .. I 1

as the latter had huge tracts of surplus land being

left fallow. Thus they often combined in themselves

both pattadari and kowldar.i characteristics.

But it must be said that this segment was neither

objectively nor subjectively homogeneous. On the

contrary, it was quite a heterogeneous segment.

Objectively, the differences in this segment were

determined by the ecological variations (soil conditions,

irrigation), caste diversity and socio-cultural

differences. 1 The deshmukh was the point of reference

for the subjective heterogeneity of this segment: the

proximity or distance of the individuals comprising

this segment being the determining factor. As dis-

cussed earlier, the deshmukhs had vatans and their

control over a number of villages. Most often, these

small landlords were employed as gumasthas by the

deshmukhs and hence they were used as the proxies

by the latter. Though these small landlords were

very much part of the Dustachatustaya, they had no

customary claims over the vetti and were not entitled

for any other feudal privileges. This is the reason

why they were referred to as 'patels'. by the villagers,

1. Cf. P.C. Joshi, 11 Field work Experience: Relieved and Reconsidered", in M.N.Srinivas, AM Shah, E.A. Ramaswamy (eds) ., The Field worker and the Field: Problems and Challenges in Sociological Investigation, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1979, pp. 73-99.

_,..., 1.:.

to distinguish them from deshmukh doras.

Equally significant is the fact that this. segment

was not altogether left uneffected by the greed and

notoreity of the doras. Since these landlords were

better lot of the rural population, they often

became targets of the landlords fancy for best lands.

The mode of land exaction was their eviction or

their being dragged into dispute and grabbed of

their land with the pretext of settling the disputes among

.Palollu (·Go-persons), especially at the time of

partition in their families. Adaed to this they were

not exempt from feudal exactions. Thus the relationship,

between this segment and the deshmukh landlords was

contradictory: the former enjoyed the patronage of

the latter and was also simultaneously subjected

to the latter's machinations.

It was this segment which, structurally located

next to the deshmukhs, saw its economic and political

interests to be in contradiction with the latter;

and joined the anti-feudal and anti-Nizam struggle ana

played a significant role by supplying leadership

and cadre to the movement at the grassroot level.

73

c). Middle and Poor Peasants:

The next segment in the peasantry in Telangana

was the middle peasant stratum. It owned some land

on its own. But as this was not sufficient enough to

feed the family it leased in part of the land under

its cultivation as shikrnidars or more often as asami-

shikrnidars. However, the situation in which it

found itself was not that simple; the nature of its

tenant status coupled with its caste status in the

land-owning peasantry enjoined the complexity and

heterogeneity of its position in the Telangana

agrarian structure.

The peasant families claiming an upper caste

status either on their own (eg. Velamas) or by

identifying with those castes that have upper

status because of their deshmukh position and

landed property (eg. Kapu-Reddys identifying with

the deshmukh-Reddys) augmented their economic

position either by purchasing or by leasing-in land.

1 In addition, these peasant castes have an ideological

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. The important peasant castes in Telangana are:

Kapu, Velama, Reddy, Tenugu (or Mudrasi) and Telaga.

.... -I ·t

aura about them, in the sense that they represent or

embody peasant culture. The concept of izzat (prestige)

is seen to be central to the peasant culture. With

the centrality of the concept of izzat, an outlook

and an image is built around them; that they are

hardworking and honest; that they have self-respect,

and they stand on their word and never go against the

promises they make. This is the way they look at

themselves and are looked at by others. 1 The projection

of this image seems to have made them trustworthy

to the landlord, who preferred to have these caste-

men as his tenants. Thus the peasant caste position.

it must be said, favoured them in attaining shikmidari

.status tenants with relatively better terms of lease.

But in the case of the peasants of lower

caste status. especially the artisans and service

castes with caste-specific traditional occupations.

the caste factor operated as a hindrance in aug-

menting their economic position in the sphere of

agriculture as cultivators. The non-peasant character

1. Vattikota Alwar Swamy. PraJalamanishi, Vishalandhra Publishing House. Vijayawada, 1970.

--I"J

of these castes 1 lowered their bargaining power

in the tenancy and more often lessened or even

denied them accessibility to land. As a result, they

had to settle as share-croppers or as tenants- at-will

i.e., at the mercy of landlords. The landlords in

return for their favour demanded a number of privi-

leges. To win the favour of landlords, these tenants

usually reciprocated. Given the prevalence of joint

family system, a member or two of the family had to

work as jeethas, others had to render the goods and

services related to their traditional occupations and

their women had to work as agricultural workers to

the landed gentry on a priority basis, during the

peak agricultural seasons. Thus labour rent got

neatly woven with rent in kind,often coexisting

simultaneously.

Thus the caste factor operating in favour of

the upper caste peasants augmented their economic

status, so that they could count themselves among

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. The following popular saying, for instance

illustrates the point: 'Chakali Mangali pothu intiki radu ittu'. It means that the cultivation by Chakali and Mangali brings no grain to the granery.

16

the middle peasants. Whereas in the ~ase of lower

castes non-identity of caste pushed them into the

ranks of poor peasants and agricultural labour.

d). Jeethas and Agricultural labour:

Besides the lower caste poor peasants, Malas

and Madigas ( known as Panchamas or Chandalas)

constituted the bulk of agricultural labourers and

jeethas (farm-servants). The Panchamas, it must be

said, were not originally included in the ancient

Hindu Chaturvarna system. The origin and development

of this fifth order corresponds to the process of

formation of stable agrarian society in India. Drawn

essentially from the native tribal communities by

force as agrestic slaves to attend to the labour

intensive and ever expanding agriculture of the

earlier period, their inclusion and presence in

the agrarian society and claims over their labour

was ideologically articulated and justified by

ascribing them the lowest position as untouchables

outside of the hierarchical caste system. As a

his'torical continuity from the past, the men and

women of the untouchable Panchamas still constitute . the bulk of the labouring masses.

~""" I I

The practice in Telangana was that the agricultural

labour was paid in kind and rarely in cash. The disparity

in payment to men and women was well maintained. This

inequal payment of wages was not limited to the sex

criterion alone. To whom one worked was a more important

factor: the labour obligation to the landlord was

governed bY: the feudal customs and enforced by the brutal

coersion through the landlord•s goonda gangs and henchmen.

-The impossibility and unthinkability of bargaining for

better wage terms and the practice of customary labour

service obligations, peatly formalised through the

caste system, characterised the social life of the

labouring classes. The rendering of labour services

whenever the landlord was in need of and on the terms

dictated unilate.rally by him is the point to be taken

note of. Thus the wage-rate depended on the •mercy• of

the landlord concerned.

But in the/case of the well-to-do peasantry -

though the unorganised nature of the labouring castes

kept the wages generally low-the wage situation was

comparatively better. It was attributable neither to

their considerate attitude nor to the prevalance of

7S

competitive labour market. But it was governed by the

nature of agricultural operations and its exigencies.

Only by considering the landlord's customary claim

over the social lubour and the duration for which it

\vas required - determined by \.fiat crops he vlanted to

grow, on how much of lana, etc., - during the brisk

period of agricultural operation, one can understand

the hardships the peasants had to face due to the

labour scarcity cre:::~t2d by the e.h.tra-economic coersion

of landlordism. It is this monopoly over labour

process, which brought them into a contradictory

relationship with the feudal class. This also led to

competition for labour among the rich cultivators, who

rad to complete the agricultural operations faster,

given the precarious seasonal and weather situation

and the labour requirements of traditional agriculture.

The 1 demand' for labour by this stratum during the

peak seasons created favourable wage conditions for

the agricultural labourers. 1 Alternatively, the

1. For instance the proverb: Magila coolie maruvaka cheyale' (In the month of Magha, Coolie ought to be performed without the feeling of tiresomeness) shows the nature of relationship between the month of Magha (approximately January-February) and labour requirements. In this month the days are short, but agricultural operations related to the reaping of rabi crop need to be finished fast, ie., within--rrfteen to twenty days. Hence the demand

~i9

the unevenness or variation in the cultivation, and

monsoons had its impact on the wage situation and

thereby affected the quality of life of the masses;

during the adverse crop years or periods of drought

the worst affected obviously were the poor peasants

and agricultural labour.

Though the lower caste peasants also worked

as jeethas, the bulk of them was drawn from the

untouchable Panchamas. Jeethas are annual farm-servants.

The terms and conditions of a jeetha were quite

'informal': neither there were fixed hours of work

nor was the nature of his work clearly specified. He

"!as tcJoe at the beck and call of the employer all

through: his living time was his working time with

hardly any space left for leisure and privacy. He

was to attend to all kinds of jobs assigned to him:

the nature of work included everything from farming

to domestic chores. More often than not, the entire

household of the £ann-servant was to serve the employer

-------for labour. This is from the point of view of the peasants. But for the agricultural labourers, the Magha demands hardwork from them, for whatever they earn now is what they would be left with to sustain themselves for the next five·lean months ie., till Rohini, when the preparations for Kharif season begin. Thus, from both viewpoints, it is the nece­ssity of agrarian social labour during the peak seasons that is pointed at.

at his house and farm. And, it hardly needs to be

said that there was no concept of holiday for the

farm - servant; in fact, everyday was a working day.

The payment of the jeetha was governed by custom.

He was given a pair of heavy cheppals (called Kirru

cheppulu) specially made for the farm-servants, a

country blanket {gongali) and a fixed quantity of

tobacco, a fixed amount of grain loan at the time of

entering into service plus payment of some amount at

1 the end of each crop, and a meal or two a day.

Generally the landowning castes used to be liberal

in parting with food, especially the left-outs of

cooked food, which has to be explaired by the prevalent

feudal values and customs of patronage and paternalism.

Nevertheless, the life of a jeetha resembled that of

agrestic slave.

But the farm-servants, it seems, had a false sense

of superiority over the agricultural labourers. It was

1. The grain wage of the farm-servants prior to the movement was quite arbitrary and different in different areas. Though it was paid at the end of each crop, when computed on monthly basis, it varied between 40 to 60 kgs. See, P. sundarayya, Telangana People's Struggle and and its lessons, p. 125.

Cf. "Political and Organisational Report - Andhra Telangana {After the Police Action) Andhra P .c.", 1949, p.10.

Sl

the s.enior jeetha, known as pedda jeetha gadu, who

supervised the cultivation of the landlord's land.

Often it was through him that the landlord exercised

control over and had access to information about the

labourers. The 'closeness' of the pedda jeetha or

his accessibility to the landlord and the confidence

of the latter in the pedda jeetha made his presence

awesome to the agricultural labourers. The farm-servant,

in the subaltern consciousness, was not only considered

to be the better lot among the rural poor, but also was

seen as an enemy for his proximity to the landlord. It

is an instance of obfuscation of the subordinate

classes.

On the basis of the above discussion the following

observations can be made on the class structure:

i) the feudal gentry was a fairly organised class, with

clearly defined political and economic interests; its

formidable significance in the support base of the

Nizam• s state bestowed on it a class unity that Olt

across the caste diversity. In other words, it was

not only a class-in- itself but also a class-for­

itself. ii) But as one goes down to the lower echolons

of the rural class structure it becomes complexly varied

and heterogeneous; the caste situation contributed

to an increasing compositeness and a greater diversity

is added to it by the geographical specificity in the

occurrence of castes and their cultural diffuseness.

The result of this is a multiple or series of identities

based on caste which were viewed in by the peasants as

something naturalised and 'given' rather than as his­

torically evolved social relations. The process in

reference is also characterised by an in-completeness

in the development of the objective class structure as a

result of the interpolation of caste. It rendered,

subjectively, the emergence of class identity cutting

across the empirical caste identities extremely

difficult and arduous, a fact which the peasant movement

·in Telangana, subsequently had to address itself to

and face squarely.

STRUCTURE OF DOMINATION- SUBORDINATION

Symbol of dominance

As argued above, in feudal Telangana, the peasant

classification can•t be understood apart from the

social context in which such 'classes' are found.

In other words, peasant classes defined primarily in

terms of landownership do infonn us about the economic

superiority of the feudal landlords and dependence of

a spectrum of peasant classes, but hardly anything

about the qualitative dimensions of the social relations.

The structure of dominance is one such qualitative

social relationship, which though having the economic

aspect at its core, can~not be measured, weighed

or statistically tabulated; built layer upon layer

to constitute the social fabric it can only be said to -

be some~thing open to experience. It is only through

the unravelling of the social experiences of the men

and women belonging to different strata of the peasant

society, in whose collective memory the past is

burried, that one can unfold the structure of dominance

as a counter-point of subordination by peeling off the

multilayered structure, layer by layer, to reconstruct

the actual structure and the essence of the dominance.

The point of departure for such a narrative has

to be th~bjective embodiment of dominance - the gadi ,

which is an inevitably integral part of the social

ecology of feudal Telangana both in jagir and khalsa

revenue areas. Gadi is a huge fortified mansion built

to serve as the office and residence of jagirdars and

deshmukhs. It is often the architecture that serves

as an interpretative canon to understand social history.

Tel angana undoubtedly proves the point. 'l'he feudal

grandeur and dominance of Telangana landlords was

not only symbolically manifest but also concretely

represented by the imposing presence of the gadi.

Built almost like a fortress, with huge walls and

one or two heavy wooden gates that needed quite a

few men to open and close it. The gadi occupied a

huge area of land, with multiple buildings and a

garden to decorate the space; it was· almost reminis­

cent of the forts of medieval feudatory kingdoms

in the village microcosm.

It is in contrast to it, the few pucca houses

of the well-to-do peasants, with mud walls built with

sun-dried bricks, painted white and roofed either with

tiles made by the village Kummari (potter) called

goonatillu or penkutillu or with sowdu or mud known

as middle or meda; few hundred ugly looking thatched

huts with mud walls painted with cowdung embodying

and signifying poverty. Imagine localities and streets

clearly demarcated by not anything other than caste,

you get the picture of the feudal Telangana villageo

The structure of the village was an expression of the

S5

structure of social relations. The division of the

village into different localities named after different

castes reside by the preponderance of their number

(eg. Mala gudem, Chakaliwada, etc.,), at the core of

the village the gadi and Chavadi as symbols of authority

articulated the division of labour and domination­

subordination. The source~£ authority was, of course,

the economic dominance and extra-economic coersion

sanctioned by property and law, custom and tradition,

and above it by sheer physical force. It must be borne

in mind that the ecology and structure of village not

only manifested the contrast between different caste­

class strata but.j3.lso the complementarity and mutual

in~terdependence as well.

Language and Custans - An expression of Subordination

The language of a society perhaps more effectively

than anything else, expresses the deeper process of

internalisation of the existing social relations. In

a society wherein clearly demarcated social distance

exists between the life and culture of the dominant

and of the dominated, language cannot but capture it:

the culture internalises, language captures, idiom

expresses and gestures manifest it. Thus it is

SG

simplistic to talk of a •single' language in class

society.

The language of the landlords is one of

arrogance and dominance or alteLnatively of

patronage. In their inter:_;.action with their social

inferiors like farm-servants and other segments of

rural poor (the exception being the upper caste

peasantry) their language is full of words and

expressions that signify not merely the social

distance but make explicit the demeanation of the A

subordinate. It is profusely loaded with the abusive

epithets centred around the feminine gender1 and

most often prefixed by caste 2 • The first is an

expression of patriarchy; the second is of the

inferior or degraded status of subaltern castes.

The tone and tenor in the delivery, the gesticu-

lations made express not merely the dominance but

an intensely felt contempt for the subalterns. It

is the explicit and conscious attitude of the landlords

towards the deminated that find an expression in their

language. The repeated usage shows the ~xtent of

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. For instance, Lanja Koduka, meaning •son of a bitch'.

2o For instance, Chakali Lanja Koduka, meaning •son of a Chakali bitch' •

S., f

internalisation. There is homogeneity, consistency and

regularity ofpattern in the world view of the landlord

class, hence in their language.

The language of the subalterns, on the contrary,

is an expression of internalisation of dominance- the

master-slave ·relation; it is a manifestation of the

latent, deep-seated feeling of subordination. Its

concentrated expression can be found in the oft-used

epithets- as a matter of fact, every sentence begins

and ends with them - like dora (meaning lord or master)

and • banchanu nee kallu mokkuta 1 , which means 11 I am

your slave, I prostrate at your feet 1 • The first one

is exclusively meant for the deshmukh landlords and

used by all including the prosperous peasants, the

latter is extended to the big, well-to-do landowners

as well but used only by the lower echelons of the

peasant society. The extent of internalisation of the

subordination can be gauged from the fact that the

epithet is in use among the lower caste-classes today

even after forty years of independence which, in fact,

is a testimony to the tenacious hold of feudal

culture and values.

ss

The gestures of the subaltans were profusely

expressive of the internalisation of subordination that

they were viewed as natural. It was manifest in the

interaction of lower caste man with the landlord, patel

and patwari. When he approached the gadi or their ......._...

residence, he was to bend himself so that his hands

almost touched the ground; and he was never to look at

the landlord's face; he should never be seen wearing

chappals and talapaga (head-wear) and the planks of

the dhoti left loose. On the contrary, chappals and

talapaga should be held in hand and dhoti should be

tied above knees, whenever he happened to meet the

landlord. In the case of women, th~saree had to be

tied above the knees and were never to put tilak

(kumkum) on the forehead and wear ornaments or

flowers. ·rhe men and women were to move side-ways

by bending fully on seeing the landlord from a distance

on the streets. If they happened to see the landlord or

village officers in front of their residence, they

were to move in a different direction to avoid the

attention of the former and reach their destination

through a different lane or bylane.

S9

The social customs reinforced the feudal

dominance. The formalities and rituals observed on

various occasions represent the unquestioned comnon

acceptance of the dominance and superiority of feudal

landlo~ds. ~verything had to begin with the landlord

first. The agricultural operation had to begin on the

landlord's lands first; ploughing the fields sowing

the seeds or planting the seedlings and harvesting

the crops had to first take place on the landlord's

fields and only then to be followed by the peasantry.

The community festivals and festivities had to

be initiated from the landlords' gadi. During Bonalu

festival the women-folk of the village had to congregate

at the gadi, the women of the gadi (mostly adapapas) 1

carrying the bonalu (pots) ahead of the procession to

the site of the deity and make the offerings, and

sing and dance and on the way back once again congregate

at the gadi and only then disperse to their respective

houses. During Dasara festival, it was customary for

the villagers to congregate at the landlords' residence

and go to the Jammi tree and it was the deshmukh who

had to be first offered pranams (revential offerings) and

~.-I~ ieia~g:n:~~a;: ;r:~i~e-o; ~~i~g-t~~-w~m:n-o~ the non-untouchable castes into the gadi to serve the ~ as bonded labourersQ These women were known as adabapas. At the time of marriages in the feudal families, they were also presented to the bride as servants.

90

come back to gadi or alternatively, when the deshmukh

or patel does not walk to the jammi the villagers start

from the qadi and walk upto j ammi and come back to qadi

and offer pranams and then dispense. During Jataras

{the community fairs), it. was the laridlords carts'

which used to take pre cadence over others and the

detail was cautiously maintained and the superiority

of the landlord was reasserted.

The community entertainment like veedi baqotam,

garadi, dramas with epic themes performed by different

beggar castes were quite common in Telanqana. They

were first required to report to the landlord and patel of

the village. Inevitable on such visit was the offering

of mamuls like fowls, mats,etc. such offerings were seen

as gifts to the landlord and patel for the favour

they were doing by allowing them to enter into the

village; and as bribes by the beggars and entertaining

castes. They usually had to reside on the out=skirts J.

of the village {for in most cases they were treated as

untouchables) by erecting tents or hutments under a

tree near an irrigation well for the convenience of

drinking water. The entertainers had to approach the

landlord and the well-to-do peasants requesting them

to patronise the performance of their arts like

91

veedhi bhagotam, burrakatha, veedhi natakam, bahuroopula

veshallu, etc. In the case of certain beggar castes,

they had to given their performance and beg all and

sundry; some other castes were financed by the well-to-

do families individually. In either instance, the first

perfonnance ought to be given at the residence of the

landlord or patel. Perhaps the idea was that the landlords

could not and would not go to the other• s houses to

watch the show. And given the strict maintenance of

purdah system, the women would get a chance to witness

the performance from their janana. What is still mo~

remarkable about it \·Tas the observance of the rit:uals

prior to the commencement of the staging of the art:

. a list of the names _of the patrons was read and their

presence was acknowledged individually and praises

for their generosity were showered; in all through

this ritual istic procedure, it was the landlord,

patel and patwari who were mentioned first and more

time was spent eul~zing them for their generosity

and patronage. In the whole process it was the feudal

gentry who in contrast to the well-to-do of the

peasantry, were projected as the patrons of art. The

projection of this image was s~mething which was seen as

9? ....

J

the exclusive right and privilege of the ruling nobility

in the history of this country. The traces of continuity

of the medieval ruling class practice of patronage

and benovelence could be found in the landed gentry

as well. It gave them an image in their own-self so

that they could imagine themselves to be the inheri-

tors.of the ~edieval kings; the image could bestow

honour and respect towards them in the subaltern.

consciousness. The feudal gentry could never afford

to break the practice and miss a chance to display

its generosity, which was the essence of feudal

dikhava (exhibition).

AnotherjLmportant aspect of the social life in

Tel angana was that nothing was supposed to happen

without the knowledge of the landlords. For instance,

on the occassion of marriage in the family of the

subaltern castes the landlord used to send tali to the -bride, thereby bestowing and displaying his patronage

towards the family. But in villages under the most

notorious landlords and jagirdars there was a practice

of the brid~ bein~sent to the 1 andlo.rd • s gadi to spend

the first night; if he happened to take fancy to her

he would never allow her to go back to her in-laws,

instead retain her as an adabapa, which in essence meant

that she was to lead life as a concubine of the landlord,

and condemned to be a slave of the landlord's house-

hold hencefortho Some landlords were so notorious for

this practice that the parents of the brid~ used to

be reluctant to give their girls in marriage to these

villages. In Dacharam, a village in Huzarnagar taluq

of Nalgonda district, there were estimated to be a

total of sixty men above forty years age still remaining

bachelors. 1 The degree and intensity of forced bachelor-

hood, and the notoreity of feudal landlords can be

understood if one keeps in mind the fact that the

traditional, backward societies have a lower marriageable are

fpr both girls and boys and one would be permanently

disqualified for marriage if one happens to cross the

age limit.

The men of the lower castes were not tolerated

if they sport prominent or conspicuous moustache. The

modern hairstyle was the exclusive privilege of the

•men (and children). of the well-to-do upper castes, the

lower caste men and their children were uniformly

denied of this; on the contrary, they were to get their

lo Field notes, Dacharam, dt. 27.11.1985.

heads cleanly shaved or a square-shaped patch of nair

just above the forehead left unshaved. Any deviation

from this was no·t t0l:erated.

In Telangana villages, every pucca house

generally has arugus (bench-like mud and brick

structures) on either side of its front door. The

general pract~ce with the villagers is to squat on

it to smoke, chat and relax after the day's work and

supper. In one village, a well-to-do person belonging

to an artisan caste sitting on the arugu all alone

and smoking, failed to take note of the patel passing

by. The patel felt this act of ommission to be an

actual (or patential). threat to his dominance in the

village. Reporting this to the landlord he got all

such structures in the village, including those of

the upper caste peasants, dismantled. Such was the

...; arrogance and power of the rural oligarchy in Telangana.

Right to Arbitration

In Telangana, the feudal landlords - both

jagirdars and deshmukhs - had an unquestioned authority

to arbitrate the disputes in the village. In Jagir

areas, it was sanctioned by the law: the firmana which

created the jagir cov~~d the revenue collection and

law and order powers; in•addition to it, the authority

to impart justice was within the purview of the jagirdar.

In diwani areas, though there were separate departments

for law and order, and justice; and the deshmukhs being

given only vatandari rights, but in practice, they

exercised an unrestrained authority to sit in judgement.

It was the right of arbitration that was the major

source of income and property for the deshmukh landlords.

They were known for their flair for litigation, obviously,

with an eye on the monetary income and the control

over the village it begotted them. Often by using their

henchmen and goondas, they used to flare up disputes

in the village. Host often, the target of the deshmukh • s

tactics were the well-to-do peasants and the individuals

known for their independent and assertive nature. The

former had property and assets that was a sight for

the landlord's sore eyes and the lat~er were seen as

• a threat to the landlord's authority. In the case of

exceptionally courageous individuals - eg. Bandagi- 1

Nizam•s bureaucracy and police came to the rescue

of the deshmukhs. This was one of the predominant

means of landgrab. The peasant memory is replete with

instances of such a style of deshmukhs' functioning.

1. For details see Chapter IV.

Vetti, caste system and Feudal authority

~~i or ~egar in Telangana was a universal

mode of subjugation in the hands of jagirdars and

deshmukhs. There are said to be eighty four-kinds

of vetti. So far the literature on Telangana has

attempted a cursory generalisation of vetti. But an -attempt at an anthropological 1 treatment of the

question would be worth its while, for it alone would

capture the nature and essence of the subjugation of

the peasantry, artisan and service castes, and the

agricultural labourers in flesh and blood. In the

following passages an attempt is made to reconstruct

the all-pervasive phenomenon of vetti on the basis

of documents, social novels and field work.

The term vetti is used here comprehensively to

denote all forms of feudal demands for exaction of

both goods and labour services produced in the rural

society. It must be said that they were sanctioned by

law neither directly nor iridirectly. In other words,

its illegality is the point to be taken note of given

all the limitations of laws and their implementation

in the Nizam' s state. Thus its sanction has to be found

1. For the concept of anthropological method, see, Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, Peregrine, Harmondsworth, 1977, esp., Ch.I.

97

in the structure of feudal authority with its double

folded character: one, social practices ordered and

regulated by custom and tradition; and two, alternatively,

or rather more often simultaneously accompanied by

coersiori and force. Both put together pre-empted any

possibility of resistance or rather even a trace of

it; on the contrary, they reinforced the comformity of

the rural masses to the feudal social practices.

The social origins or antecedents of vetti

system can be traced to what sociologists and

anthropologists call the Hindu jajmani arrangement. 1

In fact the formerua deformed version of the latter.2

According to jajmani, there exists cooperation and

mutual complementarity between different castes with

defined occupations in agrarian social formation.

Based on the principle of exchange, the peasant,

artisan, service and labouring castes-classes interact ~

with each other in a commonly accepted manner; the

terms and conditions of transactions are qetermined

by local customs and practices (not by market contract

relations) and they take place in kind-goods and

- - - ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ - - - - - - - - -1. For an account of the jajmani system, see Pauline

Kolenda, Caste in Contemporary India: Beyond Organic Solidarity, Benjamin/Cummings Pub.Co., California, 1978, pp. 46-54. .

2. D'.N. Dhanagare, op.cit., p. 185.

services. Though this principle still determined and

governed the relationship between the different strata

of peasantry an,d other occupational castes, but in the

case of the gentry, because of its accumulated economic

and social power, its relationship with the entire

population of rural society - which included peasantry

besides the occupational castes - came to be increasingly .

characterised by domination and subjugation.

Thus vetti system constituted an abrogation of

the moral economy and a blatant violation of the

principle of mutual exchange and displayed gross

disregard for tacit acceptance and consent implicit

in agrarian customs and practices. As ~ consequence

the transactions between the gentry and the rest of the

population in the production process was·;seen--a.S a~one-sidedtr

affair unilaterally determined by the might of the

landlord,dictation replacing mutual exchange, force

replacing consent and feudal dominance replacing the

agricultural custom and prac-tices based on equality.

The ret' result was the destruction of moral economy t

of an agrarian society.

99

To simply state that vetti is a defonned version

of jajmani system is to leave the story incomplete

because vetti was often justified on the ground that

the artisan and service castes along with the labouring

castes were given inams or manyams (land as ·gift). 1

The balothadars (the title-holder) had hereditary

rights over these vatans and they were exempted from

paying the land tax, partially in some cases, completely

in others. Initially the. vatans were intended to be

incentives to these castes to remain in the village to

cater the needs of the village, especially in the

field of agriculture - the major source of land revenue;

and to be at the disposal of the officials to attend

to their needs through their goods and services and

whenever their services were made use of they would

be paid duly. In other words, inams were meant to

assure the availability of services and were not

considered as payment for the actual services rendered.

But in practice, inams were actually considered as

pre-payment for the services to be sought, and the

hereditary rights over the inams guaranteed permanent

claims over the labour of these castes. The landlords

·and governnent officials often playing this· trick threa­

tened the balothadars to cancel their inams to extract - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ - ~ - - - - -1. The inarns lands were known as balotha inams and

title holders were called balothada:rs.

lOU

more labour. The phenomenal and all - pervasive nature

of vetti drew the attention of the Nizam as well, who

through a firmana issued dated 15.6.1332 F. ( 20.3.19 23)

attempted to abolish vetti. 1

- - - - - - - - - - - - -1. The non-implementation of this firmana caused a

modified r_eassertion of it after four years through an order dt.6.4.1339 F. (8.1.1927 AD), which specified the code of conduct. They are: i) vetti shoU.Id be extracted only by the government officials only when they were on tour; ii) the people from whom vetti could be extracted have to be either ballotadars or daily wage-labourers; iii) vetti should be meant only to carry luggage from one village to another and no one should be forced to perform anything other than this; iv) The luggage to be carried by men, women and children should not weigh more than 12, 8 and 6 seers respectively, and children under 10 years of age should not be engaged and women should not be forced to do vetti; v) the, payment for the vetti work should be made prior to its perforrnanceo In the case of non-pre-payment ballotadars can refuse to do the work. It was through the collective non-compliance of bureaucracy and the deshmukh landlords, the firmana, was not merely rendered ineffective, but grossly violated in practice.

Then one should hardly be. surprised at it as lawlessness was quite common under the Nizam's rule that the 'laws• (firmanas)in general and those meant for the bett~t of the common man in particular either died a natural death or were given a quite burial. See, Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Telanganalo Andhrodhyamam, Vol.I, Andhra Chandrika Grandhamala, Hyderabad, 1949, pp. 77-82.

101

The caste system is something universal to

Indian feudalism. It served as the locus of division

of labour in the agrarian society by clearly defining

the occupations of different castes (jatis)for the

agrarian production •• ~is not merely based on an

economic-principle and ordered division of labour but

it also provided an ideological justification and

rationalisation for such a specification of or caste­

identified differentiation of social labour. It is

the Karma siddanta through its hereditary principle

sought to regulate and order the division of labour

and prevent any deviation from it. In other words,

the caste system not only differentiated social

organisation of agricultural production but also

provided rationalisation on the principle of birth

as against merit or achievement.

It is this inbuilt ideological content

and power of the caste system that guaranteed its

continuity despite a series of peasant revolts and

religious reforms. The peasant revolts either

questioned the economic and class dimension of

domination implied in the caste system .. without

attempting a critique of ideology or even made use

of caste in its mobilisation; and, the D3ligious

movements in the different phases of Indian history

focussed their attention on the ideological aspects

lU~

of caste system i.e., untouchability, pollusion,

hereditary principle, without questioning the economic

system that sUJ.:::lported it. It is the dialectical unity

of caste as an ideology and caste as a class, that is

the point which needs to be taken into account for a

proper understanding of the agrarian society in India.

The caste system, hence, served as an organiser

of labour and the hierarchy implicit in it determined

the division of labour in the agrarian society. Thus,

it is the caste system which specified the caste-wise

vet·ti; the all-pervasiveness and universality of

vetti system conformed to and confirmed by the

~niversality of caste syst~n.

For the purpose of analysis, the following

categories of castes can be identified, on the basis

of ·the commonality among them in the labour process

and nature of services: (a) the Brahmins, (b) the

peasant castes, (c) artisan castes, (d) service castes,

(e) the untouchable castes.

Befor~e go into a detailed narrative of the

vetti system, it must be pointed out that vetti is

103

..

systematised in different types of activities and

operations in the agrarian social life both in the

process of production and outside of it. Thus any

discussion on the feudal vetti system has to take

into account, firstly, the different agricultural

operations regulated by the agrarian almanac; ploughing,

sowing and reaping and correspondingly the seasonal

and crop-variations; secondly, the structure of

everyday life, the different aspects of \'lhich demanded

different types of vetti from different castes.

The system of vetti in the process of agrarian

production was governed primarily by the specificity

df caste, and secondarily, by the economic status of

a family. With the beginning of the agricultural

operations, the peasants of the village had to keep

their agricultural implements of various kinds

{gorru, dante, nagali etc.) and bulls at the disposal

of the dora to till and prepare his fields for

cultivation. These implements, supplied free of cost,

despite the variety, were singularly referred to as

vetti-nagallu. It was customary on the part of the

poor and middle peasants, on the occasion, to be

behind his implement and operate it. In the case of the

well-to-do peasants and small landlords of upper

peasant castes (like Reddy and Velama), their jeethas

were employed for this purpose. ·rhe term vetti-nagali,

thus meant the combinatio~of the instrument, the . animal and the man behind. At the beginning of the

agrarian calendar, ·the peasants were also required

to cart out their manure to the dora's fields,

irrespective of their own requirements. It was the

needs of the dora that v;as primary; even the

capacity to me·3t the demand was secondary. There

were instances of peasants supplying manure to the

dora by borrowing or purchasing from others.

After attending to the dora's fields the

peasants 1.vere to begin the operations on theirs.

As was with the tilling, so also with sowing and

reaping: the dora first and peasants next.

The artisans allied to agriculture like

"adla (carpenter) and Kammari (backsmith) were

required to repair the implements and make new ones,

free of cost. These castes had inarns and the vetti

by them was just"i fied on this ground. In the case of

Golla and Kurma, the shepherd community, the practice

wo.s called ve·tti-mandalu: they had to rest their sheep

in the fields of the dora, free of d1arge and

regardless of the duration'aemanded for. Sut the rest

were to pay for it. In return for the vetti mandalu,

the dora, used to allow them to graze their sheep in

his beedu (fallow) and village common land and protect

them in the event of any tresspassing.

The labouring masses 1 were forced to \vork for

the dora, on a priority basis till the completion of

the operations on his fields for a grain \vage much

2 lower than what the peasants used to pay. In the case

of women, thEfPayment was not only lesser than that

1. Excepting the Brahmins, Karnams, Reddy, Velama, ViS\qabrahmin castes, generally all others worked as agricultural 1 abourers. It was only in the case of the above castes, especially their \vomen, irrespective of their economic position, were not required to work as labourers for dora. Hen and women of other castes were to work compulsorily.

2. The grain \vage varied from area to area, but it was never more than 2 to 3 Kgs, prior to the struggle P. Sundarayya, op.cit., p. 125.

of men, but also lesser than vlhat was paid by the

peasants. The labourers used to be intimated about the

demand for their services by the dora, and any failure,

let alone non-compliance, on the part of anybody,

regardless of the reasons,~ould be met with severe

punishment and quantity of grain double the wage would

be extracted from the labourero

In ·the case of Hadigas (leather \·lOrkers), they

were required to supply Kirru cheppulu for the dora's

jeethas and repair the leather sacks of the mota on the

wells and supply ner,v ones free of cost. In return, they

were usually allO\·l8d to take the skin of the carcass.

The Mal as, who had inarns meant for assuring

their service to the patel and patwaris in discharge

of the latter's duties, were to be at the beck and

call of the ~ to render their services whenever

they were required by him. They, for all practical

purposes, '1.-vere the 1 slaves • of the dora. 'l'heir

structural dependence and slav~like existence made

them to be the most oppressed. It was reflected in

their lack of consciousness as well.

' .- ""' 1 U I

The follo\ving poem captures the com:::>ulsion

of vetti:

Damn it, this bondage dear my ryotanna: Hore said is less said hear me cool anna:: The barber, the but~her and the wetter of the field, You all hapless begars ~ cover or shield Lo} listen its Dora's call dear my ryotanna: Off with your home or hearth, rush to gadi, hear me coolannall ...

The structure of everyday life in feudal

Telangana, though on the surface was simple, but

with regard to vetti, it \vas delineated into a myriad

of elements and functions, with a specificity about

each caste. Vetti demanded from each caste outside

. the sphere of agrarian production vlas marked by the

considerations of ritual purity and pollusion and

exclusiveness of the services \vith minimum scope

for overlapping. On both these counts, vetti outside

the production process defied the gene.::::-alit y and

absence of taboos th2t characterised the ve~.:.:ti ..

system in the production process. It vlas oriented

to the private needs of the person of dora and the

visiting officials, and was reflective of the generic

structure of domination-subordination.

ro be0in v1ith, the Bruhmins \vcre re<..Juired to

supply ishtarakulu. 1 The rcc1uirements of the dora • s

household, of course, determined the quantum. On

special occasions like birth, marriage and death in

the dora's family, they were even asked to work as

cooks. The caste of the dora however ivas an important

factor here. If the dora were to be a Brahmin it was

the Brahmins alone who used to be the cooks; and if

he were a Reddy or Velama, even Huslims and Kummaris

were employed as cooks.

The peasants were required to provide their

carts (when used for domestic purposes it is called

Kachadam) to the dora anc visiting officials, with

bullocks to pull and jeetha to operate whenever they

were needed. Specially occasions like marriage used to

.1m.Jl.tiply the plight of the peasants. for on such

occassions, the dora with his flair for dikhava and

to demonstrate his doratanam (deshmukh status) used

to summon all the peasant families to accompany the

1. 'Ishtarakulu' are leaves stiched with small pieces of sticks made into plates for eating food. They are generally used in parts of south India, where banana leaves are not available.

1&9

caravan with gest ancl. ethusiasm as if it was their ovm

family affair. 'I'he p~asants were also re~ired to

supply their carts to carry loads for the construction.

For instance, to construct the huge mansion in Visnur

(its plan was drawn by by V.B .Raju) during 1935-36,

the vetti carts of the peasants and services of the

labouring masses of fifty and odd villages in this

il aka were kept at the disposal of the ~ by name

Ramchandra Reddy. The cost of the fortress was estimated

2 1 akh s in 19 36 I 1 f

The artisan castes \vere required to supply the

products and services specific to their occupations.

From the Padmashali were demanded vetti daptharalu

(cloth for ·x_yi:ng; the official files in bundles) for

official purpose, and from the Vadla their carpentry

services by dora, patel and patwari. The ](ummari,

besides supplying vetti kundalu {earthen pots) were

required to fetch w2ter for the dora and the visiting

officials, as well as to attend to the household chores

like grinding chilli powder, preparing pickles and

other chores relating to the dora•s kitchen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. Arutla Ramchandra Reddy, op.cit., p.32.

Among the service castes, Chakalis were to

attend to the household chores of the dora like -· brooming, cleaning and dusting the house and cleaning

the utensils and alongwith Kummaries, to look after

the cooking and food arrangements for the dora and

the officials visiting the village. Chakalis were

employed as messengers on all occasions, both

auspicious and inauspicious, as captured by the following

proverb: 1 Chachchi na batikina Chakili 1 (

1 For death

or birth it is ~hakali 1 )

The Mangalis \vere to shave the dora, and his

buffaloes. In addition to this, they were also

required to render certain services outside their

occupation. They were to clean and light the laterns

in the qadi and run in front of the kachhadam with a

1 at ern. While the Chakali was required to prepare

the bed for the dora and his family members, the

Hang ali was to massage the dora • s legs in the night.

He was also requirec. to be ·present at the qadi

every morning to massage and bathe him. In the rural

medical system, Magalis were considered traditional

surgeons. Whenever the surgical services were needed

Mangali was to attend to the ~ vlithout any payment.

Ill

1·1angali families being a few in the villages,

the doras claims on their services usually created

problems for others. For instance, in Kadar village,

under a Velama landlord Kadar Ram Chandra Rao, due

to the non-availability of barbers 11 one sa\Y" the

spectacle of an entire village population with long

hair, beards and moustaches 11•

1

In the case of the Golla shepherds, vetti gorlu

(free sheep) were to be customarily supplied during

festiv::'JS and functions in the dora's family.

The harijan untouchables, though not allowed

into the dora's residence, were forced by the system

to attend to the domestic chores like fetching fire

wood from forest ana: cutting it, and other menial

' duties like carrying away human excreta and cleaning

latrines. Added to it, the vetti Madigas were

customarily required to run behind the kachchadam.

In return for these services, they used to get

bichcham, gratis or a beggarly quantity of grain at

the end of crop season. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. Ibid. , p • 37 •

... 1 ? ll ....

Thus vetti system was all-pervasive. Corresponding

closely to it, there was in practice a system called

mamools-illegal exactions. On special occassions like

marriage, birth and death, and when the dora was

intending to go for construction of a bungalow, the

people in his ilaka were forced to supply the goods

and labour services specific to their caste occupation.

In the collection of the mamools, the headman of each

caste used to act as a middle man to the dora. On

receiving the news and.instructions regarding the

celebration of an occasion in the gadi, they were to

rally all the fellow caste people and collect the

gifts. The mamools collected for each occassion had a

specific term. The mamool collected for cradle ceremony

was called totle patti, for marriage ceremony -

shadi patti, for obsequies dafan patti.

The exaction of mamools was not limited to the

celebrations in the dora's family.alone. They were

extended to the villagers as well. These exactions

were known as dandugalu. If somebody were interested

in going for construction of a house, he had to pay

inti patti. The small vendors intending to set up

shops to sell their goods in the weekly market were

to pay danduga, viz., hat bajari. Even cattle were

not exempted. The owners of cattle were to

pay bhains patti for the animals in his possession.

113

There was.yet another dimension to the obnoxious

vetti mamool system. It was on the occassion of birth

in a customarily vetti performing family. If the newly

born were to be a male child, then the ~ used to

ritually send the provisions for the mother; if it

were to be female, then the practice was to impose

fine on the family. The intention behind this was that

the arrival of a male child was looked upon as an addition

to the existing vetti force and the female, on the

contrary, as a subtraction.

The anti-feudal struggle in Telangana has to

be seen against such a multi-dimensional domination-

subordination and oppressive socio-cultural system.

11~