Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

of the capitalist form of development, and this means that even the objective factors
assisting patams and parambas, are subject to the logic of commodity production. It has
now become futile to think about recovery of the pristine nature of the land surface, as
the entire land is becoming part of the built environment. However, it is possible to think
about a strategy by which land is freed from the wanton methods of the speculators and
used for providing the livelihood of large share of population.
Industries
We have already seen that there has not been any significant industrial development in
the region. Not only that there is no major industry in the area (except for the IOC
bottling plant), but the traditional crafts are disappearing. We have also seen that a
number of the existing crafts have been accessories to agricultural production and have
declined along with agriculture itself. There are new crafts that have developed, in
connection with construction work, electronic equipments, vehicles, mechanical
workshops (normally called industrials), tyre resoling, fixing various kinds of household
equipments, repairing fishing equipment, plumbing and electrical work, computer
hardware, and a number of other similar professions. All these professions are also
accessory professions, based on the demand for the equipments they are dealing with, and
once the demand for such articles decline and spate of construction activities now visible
today reach an optimum point, there is a possibility that many of these professions will
also be in danger. None of these professions are in the production sector, and even efforts
at reassembling and making new products are very few. It is possible to produce a
number of household appliances and electronic goods at a cheap cost, but there is no
effort to promote such efforts at the local level, and the traders and consumers both prefer
brand names rather than the local manufacturer. Hence, the local professionals can only