Thomascombi doc

CPI
2(6.7)
1(3.0)
3(3.3) INC
10(33.3)
11(33.3)
5(33.3)
3(25.0)
29(32.2)
KCJ
3(10.0)
1(3.0)
2(13.3)
4(33.3)
10(11.1) Not revealed
4(13.3)
14(42.4)
8(53.3)
4(33.3)
30(33.3) Total
30(100.0)
33(100.0)
15(100.0)
12(100.0) 90(100.0)
Note: Percentages are given in parentheses
3.3 Changes in Farming Practices in Ramankari Village
By the dawn of the nineteenth century most of the arable lands in the study area were owned by the Mancombu Numboothiris (Brahmins) who had gained it from the king as tax exempted lands (karamozhivu bhoomi). These landowners gave out most of their lands to certain Nair and Syrian Christian families on lease. In those days paddy cultivation was profitable and gradually the lessors became rich enough to purchase the leased in lands. In course of time most of the paddy growing lands in Ramankari village came under the ownership of a few rich landlords. After retaining a portion of the fields for self-cultivation these landlords used to lease out their paddy lands to other tenants. Each landlord had a supervisor called krishikaran to conduct the day today farm affairs. He was a regular employee of the landlord who was given 30 paras of paddy as monthly wages. Usually the
krishikaran was very loyal to his landlord and was treated as a household member of the latter. In addition to the regular wages he was given other benefits like free meals and free straw as fodder to his cattle. The strenuous paddy farm works were done by agrestic slaves who belonged to the low caste Pulaya community under the leadership of ahead worker called thalapulayan. Every year the landlords used to give some money or paddy as advances to their workers during the Onam season and the workers who received such advance payments were called onapanikar. They had to work under the landlords as bonded labourers. Practically these agrestic slaves were deprived of education and other human rights and they were so meek that they seldom looked at the face of their master
(yajamanan). In order to meet the cultivation costs, local farmers used to take loans from
Maancombu Pattars (Tamil Brahmins) who had migrated to Travancore from Tamilnadu to perform poojas and other rites in temples. The payment and repayment of loans were in

terms of paddy and the rate of interest varied from 10 to 25 percent. Forgiving out loans and receiving it back different measures were used the defacto rate of interest often amounted to
50 percent. For the first time default in paying back the debt farmers had to pledge their landownership documents as panayadharam to the Pattars. If they failed to giveback the loans fora second time in succession, then the lenders were entitled to cultivate or lease out the pledged lands until all dues were cleared. In many instances unable to repay their debts farmers had to forfeit their lands by giving the permanent documents (theeradharam) to the moneylenders. Usually the moneylenders sold the thus appropriated lands to other farmers. During the year 1942 ME) the then Travancore Divan C P Ramaswami Iyer imposed agricultural income taxon moneylenders and gradually the barter system of lending came to an end. Until the beginning of the second world war paddy lands in the study area had been sown once in two or three years. Houses of landlords were situated in patches of elevated dry lands called thuruths. During the non-crop seasons farm labourers worked in dry lands with mud dug from wetlands. The process of the conversion of wetlands into dry lands through filling was known as kattakuthipokkal. At the time of the formation of the United Kerala State (Ayika Keralam) in 1956, a major portion of the paddy lands in the study area was under the ownership of some Nair and Syrian Christian families and the prominent among them were the Thayil Menons who owned 2400 acres of paddy fields in Ramankari. Over the past several decades paddy farming activities in Ramankari village remain more or less the same. In early days, the entire farming operations from the construction and repair of ring bunds to the harvesting of the crop were done exclusively by using manual labour. Mechanically operated pump sets using kerosene and diesel as fuel were introduced in the study area during the sand it was the first step towards the process of mechanization of farming activities. Important farming operations related to paddy cultivation in the study area are the repair of outer bunds, dewatering, ploughing, clearing and levelling of fields, erection and repair of inner bunds, sowing, weeding, application of pesticides and harvesting. The changes that have taken place in the mode of these operations over the past decades are discussed in this section.

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