Emerging Farmer-Labour Relations in Kuttanad

The first democratically elected Communist government in India came to power in Kerala in 1957. Though this government was overthrown in 1969, a other communist-dominated leftist government came to power in the state in 1967, and since then coalition governments led by either the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) or the Communist Party of India (CPl) have been ruling the state. The emergence of communism as a major political force in Kerala is a manifestation of fundamental changes taking place in its social structure, This paper endeavours to describe the change that have occurred in the farmer-labour relations in Kuttanad, in the old princely state of Travancore, and to identify some of the factors which contributed to these changes. The changes in farmer-labour relation in Kuttanad may not be at the moment typical of the whole of Kerala, but this may be indicative of the pattern of relationship likely to emerge between these two important sections of the rural community in Kerala, and probably in other parts of India, in future.