Abstract
What contribution can village level studies (VLS) make to our understanding of the relation between income and consumption? An array of contested productivist and anti-productivist theories of mass consumption are critically introduced and then applied to polarized, unequal and caste-stratified villages in the rural hinterland of Arni. Changes to cropping patterns, a new generation of labour-sparing high yielding varieties, and mechanization and labour displacement threaten the livelihoods of the mass of labouring households. Water table depletion and a new cost-price scissors have reduced returns to agriculture. Distress-induced migration to Arni and far beyond is the commonest response. Their remittances are exiguous. Quota sampling, focus groups and participatory rural appraisal were deployed in the three survey villages in Arni’s hinterland that were first studied in 1973 to reveal that despite incomes being low enough to threaten food security, positional or status goods such as televisions and mobile phones were preferred over food. The real costs of marriages were reported to be on the increase, as were those of (private) education. Pressured by fashion, by media coverage and by social imitation, households below the poverty line dug into savings, contracted debt or omitted meals to maintain the visible elements of a socially decent standard of living. Cash transfer policies assume poor people will spend their income on what outsiders consider basic necessities—food and wage goods. But that is not a feature of poor agrarian households in the hinterland of Arni.
The author is grateful to Jimi Richardson, Mads Lofvall, Jacqueline Nivet, Henk-Jan Brinkman, Elisabetta Basile and Barbara Harriss-White for their comments. This essay is written in a personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the position of the United Nations World Food Programme.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
There is significant evidence that the upper classes in ancient societies (e.g. the Romans, Greeks, Etruscans, Egyptians) had consumption patterns that were beyond subsistence levels—by which we mean involving goods or services not directly related to the satisfaction of the basic needs, such as, pictures for display on walls, figurines and personal ornaments.
- 4.
This term was coined after the Second World War and is used frequently by authors such as Galbraith, Marcuse, Packard and Baudrillard (Sassatelli 2004).
- 5.
As late as 1901 the Oxford English Dictionary defined “fashion” as “the process of making” (Kawamura 2005). Brenninkmeyer (1963) defined fashion as it is currently understood—the common way of dressing in a given historical time—though fashion is also associated with eating habits, accommodation choices, ways of speaking, music, etc. In 1971, Simmel argued that “fashion is the imitation of a given example and satisfies the demand for social adaptation” (1971, p. 296).
- 6.
- 7.
According to the Italian sociologist Di Nallo (1997), consumption is a way of communicating individual social belonging. Individuals consume as if it were a form of speaking in order to express their social characteristics.
- 8.
- 9.
Evidence of advertisements go back as far as 4000 BC. In ancient Egypt, Rome, China, India and Arabia, advertisements on walls or rocks were used to promote events and commercial products (Testa 2007). Over the course of history, advertisement techniques have been constantly improved—particularly since the invention of printing in the fifteenth century.
- 10.
- 11.
- 12.
The Norwegian economist Thorstein Veblen was the first and most authoritative scholar to study this phenomenon in depth during the 1930s.
- 13.
Lipovetsky (1989) argues that people no longer consume to gain a particular social status, or to differentiate themselves from another group. They consume for personal satisfaction to increase their pleasure or comfort.
- 14.
In the United States of America these include particular types of clothes, a television, a fridge, furniture for the house, etc. The Italian sociologist Alberoni (1964) has also identified a set of goods and services to be consumed in order to avoid feeling marginalized.
- 15.
The three villages belong to the set of 11 villages that have been studied repeatedly since the 1970s to understand the socio-economic impact of the Green Revolution and rural development in the area (Harriss-White and Janakarajan 2004). The secondary data are all taken from this source and from the official Indian Census.
- 16.
That for the whole of India in 2010 is only 0.37 (CIA Factfile).
- 17.
- 18.
For details of the subsidy’s rise, fall—under World Bank pressure in the mid-1990s to 2005—and rise thereafter, see Audinet (2002), Badiani and Jessoe (2011), Grossman and Carlson (2011), von Braun et al. (2005), UNCTAD (2004)—and Fig. 10.2 in the Appendix of this study. The problems related with water certainly did not start in the post-liberalization period. The sustainability of water exploitation was first questioned by Madduma Bandara based on systematic well level measurements in 1973 (1978). And in 1993, Janakarajan (2004) underlined the dramatically deteriorating situation with regard to irrigation and water exploitation. According to Harriss (1982) the declining use of the surface water tank started in the early 1970s after the Green Revolution with the beginning of mechanization and the technological possibility of digging waterholes in the granite.
- 19.
Reported costs of energy per average well in turn averaged about Rs. 1500 ($34) per 6 months.
- 20.
Similar results were observed by Janakarajan (2004).
- 21.
John Harriss quotes Athreya et al. (1990) confirming the 1970s and 1980s trend for further south in Tamil Nadu and pointing out that the tightening of agricultural labour markets was the result as much of development in the non-farm economy as in agriculture—together with public employment programmes and subsidized credit (2007, p. 165).
- 22.
- 23.
See Vera Sanso (2010) for the physical effects on ageing of the construction industry in which workers are usually incapacitated by their late 30s or early 40s.
- 24.
In a study of microfinance in villages nearby in Vellore district Guerin et al. (2010), two important findings are likely to be relevant in the Arni region but which have not yet been researched. First, financial outcomes depended as much on women’s control over women as they did to male control over women and second, transfers among female kin from the uterine village could amount to up to a third of annual household income.
- 25.
- 26.
The four elements of food security are: access, availability, utilization and vulnerability.
- 27.
- 28.
http://www.macroscan.org/anl/oct06/pdf/Health_Expenditure.pdf. See Fig. 10.3 in Appendix for further details.
- 29.
- 30.
This phenomenon was spoken of most explicitly in the interviews with Untouchables. However, other people did not seem to like to speak about their food habits. The research has not involved collecting food recall or anthropometric data and so we cannot evaluate the real impact on nutrition.
- 31.
As Polzin showed in the previous Chap. 9, a rapid increase in private transport especially motorcycles has led to the expansion of urban retail credit—and rural debt—for the purchase of consumer durables.
References
Alberoni, F. (1964). Consumi e Societa. Bologna: il Mulino.
Ariely, D. (2008). Predictably irrational. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Ariely, D. (2010). The upside of irrationality: The unexpected benefits of defying logic. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Arrow, K. (1994). Methodological individualism and social knowledge. American Economic Review Papers and Proceeding 84. http://socsci2.ucsd.edu/~aronatas/project/academic/Arrow%20on%20meth.%20indiv.pdf.
Athreya V., Djurfeldt G. & Lindberg S. (1990). Barriers broken: Production relations and agrarian changes in Tamil Nadu. New Delhi: Sage.
Audinet, P. (2002). Electricity prices in India. Energy prices and taxes, 2nd Quarter. http://wenku.baidu.com/view/c02459ef4afe04a1b071de69.html.
Backer, G. S., & Murphy, K. M. (1988). A theory of rational addiction. The Journal of Political Economy, 96(4). https://www.iei.liu.se/nek/730A17/artiklar/1.283076/Becker-Murphy.pdf.
Badiani, R., & Jessoe K. K. (2011) Electricity subsidies for agriculture: Evaluating the impact and persistence of these subsidies in India (Draft). http://econ.ucsd.edu/CEE/papers/Jessoe_4april.pdf.
Bailleux, N., & Remaury, B. (1996). La Moda. Usi e Costumi del Vestire. Milan: Electa.
Baudrillard, J. (1972). Il Sistema degli Oggetti. Milan: Bompiani.
Bauman, Z. (1992). Intimations of post-modernity. London: Routledge.
Becker, G. S. (1990). The economic approach to human behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1995). Ragioni pratiche. Bologna: il Mulino.
Bourdieu, P. (2005). The social structures of the economy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Braudel, F. (1982). Civilta’ Materiale, Economia e Capitalismo. Turin: Einaudi.
Brenninkmeyer, I. (1963). The sociology of fashion. Koln: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Brooks, J. (1981). Showing off in America: From conspicuous consumption to parody display. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Campbell, C. (1987). The romantic ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Cavalcante, M. (2006). La Liberalizzazione nell’India Rurale. Uno Studio su Tre Villaggi nel Nord del Tamil Nadu. http://padis.uniroma1.it/getfile.py?recid=546.
Cavalcante, M. (2009). Income-based estimates vs consumption-based estimates of poverty: Evidence from rural Tamil Nadu after liberalization. In E. Basile & I. Mukhopadhyay (Eds.), The changing identity of rural India. Kolkata: Anthem South Asian Studies.
Chambers, R. (1997). Whose reality counts? London: ITDG Publishing.
CIA (2010) Factfile.
Codeluppi, V. (2006). Manuale di Sociologia dei Consumi. Rome: Carocci Editore.
Colatei, D. & Harriss White B. (2004). Social stratification and rural households. In B. Harriss White & S. Janakarajan (Eds.). (2004). Rural India Facing the 21st Century (Vol. 1). London: Anthem press.
Corrigan, P. (1997). The sociology of consumption. London: Sage Publication.
Davis, F. (1992). Fashion, culture and identity. Chicago: The Chicago University Press.
De, A., & Endow, T. (2008). Public expenditure on education in India: Recent trends and outcomes. http://recoup.educ.cam.ac.uk/publications/WP18-ADfin.pdf.
De Vries, J. (1993). Between purchasing and the world of goods: Understanding the household economy in early modern Europe. In J. Brewer & R. Porter (Eds.), Consumption and the world of goods. London: Routledge.
Di Nallo, E. (1997). Il Significato Sociale del Consumo. Bari: Laterza.
Duesenberry, J. S. (1949). Income saving and the theory of consumer behavior. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Enzensberger, H. M. (1999). Zig Zag. Saggi sul Tempo, il Potere e lo Stile. Turin: Einaudi.
Fabris, G. (Ed.). (1971). Sociologia dei Consumi. Milan: Hoepli.
Fairchilds, C. (1993). Consumption in early modern Europe. A review article. Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 35(4), pp 850–858.
Fallers, L. A. (1971). Consumi e “Trickle Effect”. In G. Fabris (Ed.), Sociologia dei Consumi. Milan: Hoepli.
Fernandez-Huerga, E. (2008). The economic behavior of human beings: The institutionalist//post-Keynesian model. Journal of Economic Issues, 42(3).
Frank, R. H. (2008). The economic naturalist. Why economics explains almost everything. London: Virgin Books Ltd.
Gentilini, U. (2007). Cash and food transfer: A primer. Occasional Paper no.18. Rome: WFP.
Gladwell, M. (2002). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Boston: Back Bay Books.
Grossman, N., & Carlson, D. (2011). Agriculture policy in India: The role of input subsidy. http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/executive_briefings/EBOT_IndiaAgSubsidies.pdf.
Guerin, I., Kumar, S., & Agier, I. (2010). Microfinance and women’s empowerment: Do relationships between women matter? Lessons from rural Southern India. https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/68292/1/wp10053.pdf.
Harford, T. (2013). The undercover economist. London: Abacus.
Harriss, J. (1982). Capitalism and peasant farming: Agrarian structure and ideology in Northern Tamil Nadu. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Harriss-White, B. (2002). India’s informal economy, facing the 21st century. http://www.arts.cornell.edu/econ/indiaconf/Harriss-White2.pdf#search=%22Rural%20India%20Facing%20the%2021st%20Century%22.
Harriss-White, B. (2004a). Labour, gender relations and rural economy. In B. Harriss-White & S. Janakarajan (Eds.), Rural India facing the 21st Century. London: Anthem Press.
Harriss-White, B. (2004b). Food nutrition and the state in Northern Tamil Nadu. In B. Harriss-White & S. Janakarajan (Eds.), Rural India facing the 21st century. London: Anthem Press.
Harriss-White, B. (2008). Rural commercial capital. New Delhi: OUP.
Harriss, J. (2007). Power matters: Essays on institutions, politics and society in India. New Delhi: OUP.
Harriss-White, B., & Colatei, D. (2004). Rural credit and collateral question. In B. Harriss-White & S. Janakarajan (Eds.), Rural India facing the 21st century. London: Anthem Press.
Harriss-White, B., & Janakarajan, S. (2004). Rural India facing the 21st century. London: Anthem Press.
Harriss-White, B., Janakarajan, S., & Colatei, D. (2004) Introduction: Heavy agriculture and light industry in South Indian villages. In B. Harriss-White, & S. Janakarajan (Eds.), Rural India facing the 21st century. London: Anthem Press.
Hodgson, G. M. (1988). Economics and institutions. A Manifesto for a modern institutional economics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kawamura, Y. (2005). Fashion-ology. An introduction to fashion studies. New York: Berg.
Kotler, P., & Scott, W. G. (1993). Marketing management. Turin: Isedi UTET.
Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Wong, V., & Saunders, J. (2008). Principles of marketing (5th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Janakarajan, S. (2004). Irrigation: The development of an agro-ecological crisis. In B. Harriss-White & S. Janakarajan (Eds.), Rural India facing the 21st century. London: Anthem Press.
Jayaraj, D. (2004). Social institutions and the structural transformation of the non-farm economy. In B. Harriss-White & S. Janakarajan (Eds.), Rural India facing the 21st century. London: Anthem Press.
Leibenstein, H. (1950). Bandwagon, Snob and Veblen effect in the theory of consumer’s demand. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 64, 183–207.
Leonini, L. (2000). Consumo. In A. Melucci (Ed.), Parole Chiave. Per un Nuovo Lessico delle Scienze Sociali. Rome: Carocci Editori.
Levitt, S. D., & Dubner, S. J. (2009). Freakonomics. New York: Harper Perennial.
Levitt, S. D., & Dubner, S. J. (2011). Superfreakonomics. New York: Harper Perennial.
Lipovetsky, G. (1989). L’Impero dell’Effimero. La Moda nelle Societa’ Moderne. Milan: Garzanti.
Maddumma Bandara, C. M. (1978). Hydrological consequences of Agrarian change. In B. H. Farmer (Ed.), Green revolution? Technology and change in rice growing areas of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. London: Macmillan.
Marshall, A. (1920). Principles of economics. London: Macmillan. http://www.econlib.org/library/Marshall/marPCover.html.
Marx, K. (1887). Capital: A critical analysis of capitalist production. http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/MarCapi.html.
McCracken, G. (1988). Culture and consumption: New approaches to the symbolic character of consumer goods and activities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
McKendrick, N., Brewer, J., & Plumb, J. H. (1982). The birth of a consumer society: The commercialization of eighteen-century England. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Merton, R. K. (1957). Social theory and social structure. New York: The Free Press.
Mukerji, C. (1983). From Graven images: Patterns of modern materialism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Pareto, V. (1965). Manuale di Economia Politica. Rome: Bizzarri.
Picherit, D. (2012). Migrant labourers’ struggles between village and urban migration sites: Labour standards, rural development and politics in South India. In J. Lerche, I. Guérin & R. Srivastava (Eds.), Special Issue on Labour Standards, Global labour journal (Vol. 3 Issue 1). http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1091&context=globallabour.
Prychitko, D. (Ed.). (1998). Why economists disagree: An introduction to alternative school of thought. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Reinert, E. S. (2010). How rich countries got rich… and why poor countries stay poor. London: Constable & Robinson Ltd.
Riesman, D. (1969). A Che Serve l’Abbondanza. Milan: Bompiani.
Roche, D. (1991). Il Linguaggio della Moda. Turin: Einaudi.
Samuelson, P. A. (1938, February). A note on the pure theory of consumer’s behaviour. Economica, New Series, 5(17), 61–71.
Sassatelli, R. (2004). Consumo, Cultura e Societa. Bologna: Il Mulino
Sassatelli, R. (2007). Consumer culture: History, theory and politics. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Simmel, G. (1971). On individuality and social forms. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Simon, H. A. (1955, February). A behavioral model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99–118. http://www.math.mcgill.ca/vetta/CS764.dir/bounded.pdf.
Simon, H. A. (1957). Models of man: Social and rational. New York: Wiley.
Simon, H. A. (1983). Reason in human affairs. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Simon, H. A., Egidi, M., Viale, R., & Marris, R. (1992). Economics, bounded rationality and the cognitive revolution. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Spencer, H. (1967). In Principi di Sociologia. Original title: The principles of sociology. Turin: UTET.
Swaminathan, M. (2001). A further attack on the PDS. Frontline, 18(02).
Swaminathan, M. (2008). Programmes to protect the hungry: Lessons from India. UNDESA Working Paper No.70. http://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2008/wp70_2008.pdf.
Swaminathan, M., & Rawal, V. (2011). Income inequality in rural India: The role of caste. Society for the study of economic inequality ECINEQ Working Paper 2011-207.
Testa, A. (2007). La Pubblicita’. Bologna: il Mulino.
Thaler, R. H. (1994). Quasi rational economics. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2009). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. New York: Penguin.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1986). Rational choice and the framing of decision. Journal of Business, 59. http://www.cog.brown.edu/courses/cg195/pdf_files/fall07/Kahneman&Tversky1986.pdf.
Veblen, T. (2007). The theory of the leisure class. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
UNCTAD. (2004). Trade liberalization and poverty in India. Geneva: UNCTAD.
Vera-Sanso, P. (2010). Ageing, poverty and neoliberalism in urban South India. NDA Findings Paper 5, Birkbeck College, University of London. http://www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk/nda-findings-5.html.
von Braun, J., Gulati, A., Hazell, P., Rosegrant, M.W., & Ruel, M. (2005). Indian agriculture and rural development : Strategic issues and reform option. Washington, D.C.: IFPRI. http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/pubs/pubs/ib/ib35.pdf.
Walras, L. (1993). The equilibrium economics. London: Routledge.
Weber, M. (2002). The protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism and other writings. London: Penguin Classics.
Yesudian, C. A. K. (2007). Poverty alleviation programmes in India: A social audit. Mumbai: Tata Institute of Social Sciences. http://www.icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2007/October/1013.pdf.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
Electricity prices in India 1988–2005. Source Badiani and Jessoe (2011, p. 25)
Public expenditure on education and health. a Education. Source Planning commission. b Health. (i) Health spending as percent of household consumption expenditure, 1993–1994 to 2004–2005. Source NSSO surveys of consumption expenditure, 50th, 55th and 61st Rounds. (ii) Health expenditure of central and state governments as percent of GDP. Source http://www.macroscan.org/anl/oct06/pdf/Health_Expenditure.pdf
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cavalcante, M. (2016). Feeling Rich on an Empty Stomach: Agrarian Crisis and Rural Consumption Choices. In: Harriss-White, B. (eds) Middle India and Urban-Rural Development. Exploring Urban Change in South Asia. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2431-0_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2431-0_10
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-2430-3
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-2431-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)