Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

All these show that the tendencies at work are extremely complex. The main trends can
be summarized as follows:
1. Despite being a rural region, agricultural production in Tirurangadi does not seem
to have resulted in sustainable livelihood patterns. The underutilization of land
and resources in the region by a predominantly agro-based population is
intriguing.
2. While agriculture appears to have declined, it has not resulted in the expansion of
industrial activities in the region. The expansion has concentrated on trade,
transport and construction works. The implications of this form of expansion, in
the absence of industrialization have to be studied.
3. The category of non- labourers has expanded substantially, a fact attested to by
the recent census documents. The implications of this phenomenon can be
understood only with reference to the socio-cultural factors that affect the
population, including caste, community and gender.
It was visualized from the inception of the study that these problems would require a
multi- factor, multi- variable analysis, taking into account the geographical, economic
and cultural factors. More importantly, the project was conceived as a historical study, for
the following reasons:
a) Standard discussions on development have concentrated on problems of
space, such as geo-environmental factors, resources, infrastructures, nature
of production and distribution, management of the resources and
enterprises features such as the role of the private and public sector in their
analyses and projections. Temporal factors make only a very brief
appearance, in the form of variations in statistical indices, diachronical