Occupational Shifts and Social Change in Tamil Nadu a Study on a Silent Agrarian Revolution in the Making

Among the organisations that work for the rights and welfare of the dalits in India, there is a strong difference of opinion about 'what has a market-based economy to offer to the dalits?' The point of contention is that market is most often imperfect with a race amongst the unequals where the fittest comes out as winner. Being the poorest of the poor segment in the Indian society, dalits are sure to get hurt, especially, if they are thrown out of agriculture, which they depend on as wage earners for years. However, empirical verification made in 24 villages in Tamil Nadu State reveals that there is a perceptible positive change taking place in favour of dalits. The traditional landed class are shifting to other sectors of the economy - outside agriculture. This has made way for the dalits to fill in the vacuum created by the traditional landed class, and emerge as 'the neo-landed' class. This is wiping out the 'landlessness' character of the dalits.