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Caste and crops
AUG 26 -
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Nepal’s agricultural sector is stagnating. Its growth rate has not been commensurate with population growth. As a result, the country has lost its self-sufficiency in food production leading to a bigger problem of food insecurity. Moreover, the agriculture sector has lost its social status and young people do not want to get involved in farming as far as possible. Why is there general decline in agriculture, particularly hill agriculture? The explanation could be given from different perspectives. The geographical-demographic perspective could point to declining access to resources due to population growth and land degradation, and difficult geography making it hard for the development of basic infrastructure and marketing facilities. Another perspective could be the political-economic, which seeks to find reasons for failed agricultural development in the unequal distribution of resources and power within the Nepali society, the rent-seeking behaviour of the landed class, state’s irresponsibility, failed planning process and the external forces destroying local farming. Yet another perspective could be the cultural which looks at cultural values that help or impede agriculture.
The popular book Fatalism and Development: Nepal’s Struggle for Modernization by late Dor Bahadur Bista (1993) clearly argues that fatalistic value inherent in hierarchical social (caste) system of Bahunism is responsible for the decline in agriculture. The fatalistic belief that comes from this ideology is that one has no personal control over ones’ life circumstances as these circumstances are determined through a divine or powerful external agency. This is considered to have devastating effect on work ethics and achievement motivation. Moreover, Bista argues that people with this ideology hate hard work or any manual work, but prefer idleness with the belief that it is the low castes who have to work on the soil. This could also be considered a reason for the lack of development of capitalism in agriculture in Nepal, as argued by many authors on the development of Nepal. According to them, this sector is not guided by rationalistic principles of modern economics or by the value system that could inculcate capitalist spirit as expressed by Max Weber in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In fact, this protestant ethic, especially the doctrine of predestination and calling, is also ‘fatalistic’ in real sense, but it seems to generate capitalist spirit in Europe. In Nepal’s case, as Bista has argued, hierarchic caste system is not conducive for work ethic, frugality, hard work and a tendency to save which could be ploughed back into the economy.
Bista seems particularly concerned about the role of trained Bahun-Chettri as policy makers and practitioners of farming. He writes “many of the people who go to agricultural colleges have absolutely no interest in agriculture. Instead they are hierarchic high caste people for whom agriculture labour, and work of any kind, is unthinkable. Consequently, Nepal is training people who loathe agricultural work and hate soiling their hands with earth to become agricultural specialist who ought to form the vanguard of an agricultural revolution”. Training on agriculture is considered as a way to get a salaried job, and an escape from manual work of touching the soil.
Bista is right in exposing the fact that many agricultural graduates who are/were trained by government do not work as real farmers and are involved in salaried jobes. But it is still not clear as to whether the basic reason for escaping the farming is their thinking influenced by hierarchical caste society. I argue that Hindu hierarchic society is not a cause for this. I, a son of a Brahmin doing priestly work apart from farming, am also a graduate of agricultural science, and I, along with many other friends of mine, who also came from Bahun-Chettri background, had a romantic dream of using the knowledge and developing modern farms. I was particularly encouraged as I was good in the practical aspects of farming. But most of us changed our profession and became economists, filmmakers, photographers, geographers and social scientists. Most of us found it difficult to get land, infrastructures, credit and market support. Without these basic things, it would be difficult, in general, to run a farm on a profit basis. Most Nepali farmers are not operating farming on a profit basis and they are pursuing this as a tradition or as a way of using the unused labour. Of course, it is slightly different in few semi-urban areas where farmers grow vegetables and run dairy enterprises on a commercial basis and have earned considerable amount of profit. Most of them, except in Kathmandu, are Brahmin-Chettris.
There are other than the socio-cultural reasons that are primarily responsible for the under-development of agricultural sector. Basically, political-economic factors are more responsible for the decline of agriculture. For example, the government has not prioritised agriculture in terms of budget allocation. This is not only so in recent times when government is spending only about 2.5 to 3 percent of its budget on agricultural sector, but also in the past. The book Planning for People (1979) by Stiller and Yadav clearly shows this. These authors also mention that hill agriculture was severely neglected in the development planning until the mid 1970s. As a result, basic infrastructures were not developed and continuous support for farmers was not provided. The land reform, which is considered a prerequisite for agricultural development, could not take place due to lack of political commitment.
Therefore, the decline in agricultural is certainly not due to, as Bista argues, the fatalistic attitude inherent in hierarchic caste system. It, however, does not mean that hierarchic caste system is any better. But blaming it as a cause for decline in agricultural development will mislead development intervention.
(The author is associated with Martin Chautari and researches food security in Nepal)
Posted on: 2010-08-27 08:50
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