Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

cultivation which does not require bullocks and ploughs. Cows and she-buffaloes can be
maintained for milk and meat by Paramba holders also. More importantly, the rise in the
tending of sheep and goats again signifies the use of livestock not based on wetland
agriculture. The conversion of dry lands into Parambas, noted earlier, meant that the
livestock are not provided with adequate grazing lands, which might have affected their
productivity and maintenance more troublesome. Although the resettlement figures do
not clearly demonstrate it, paddy cultivation was apparently going into a phase of
stagnation, a point that requires further investigation.
The above results throw light into the basic features of the social and economic condition
of the people during the decades that followed the rebellion. We have already seen that
the rise in paddy and rice prices during the decades preceding and after the First World
War facilitated the immiserisation of the people, and we see now that the tenancy
legislation of 1930 and the changes in the patterns of ownership and production did not
alleviate the problems that the cultivators and laborers of the region faced. The larger
landlords and merchants still survived without difficulty and the small landholders
probably found it difficult to make both ends meet. The rise in the cultivation of
parambas, the conversion of dry lands and efforts to raise that yielded marketable
products such as milk and meat, and later eggs, were the results of this struggle for
livelihood. It is this process that might have facilitated the occupation of elevated regions
in areas like Thenhippalam, Peruvallur and Munniyur.
Apart from the factors discussed above, the general trends all over India subsequent to
the economic depression also had its toll on the people of the region. We have already
seen that the price trends in the region generally benefited the upper strata in society. The
available information shows that throughout the post-First World War period the prices
were fluctuating but never regained the pre-war trends, to fall during the beginning of the
thirties in the wake of the depression.