SPECIAL ARTICLE
A Saga of Three Villages in Andhra Pradesh
S A Vidyasagar
A study of the socio-economic situations of three
villages in north-eastern Andhra Pradesh shows that
while times and values have vastly changed, not much
has been transformed in terms of privileges and
opportunities. Those belonging to landowning families
have managed to get a good education and secure
good jobs or set up businesses. But those from the
landless or marginal landowning families and
communities have been left far behind. The
government’s schemes and promises have more often
than not yielded very little.
I am grateful to the people who provided inputs during interviews.
The views expressed here are mine.
S A Vidyasagar (velugu_sagar@yahoo.com) is an independent researcher
based in Visakhapatnam.
Economic & Political Weekly  EPW   january 7, 2012  vol xlviI no 1
A
question that ought to bother most people is how the
intervention of the State, through policies and practices
and the inputs of science, has enhanced the quality of
ordinary people’s lives. To answer this, and a few other ques-
tions, we visited three villages, Kovvada and Maddivalasa in
Andhra Pradesh’s north-eastern district of Srikakulam and Piridi
in the neighbouring district of Vizianagaram. Historically, the
three hamlets share some general characteristics but are distinct
in their own way. In general, agriculture continues to be the
main occupation of the inhabitants. It is therefore interesting to
see how land has changed hands and how the process has
actually helped feed them. The role that caste has played in this
context is also an important one.
Land and Landholding
Like peasantry in other princely states of India, the tillers of the
land in the three villages enjoyed possession of the land and
its produce, paying taxes to the king and later the East India
Company. But the Permanent Settlement Act of 1793, formulated
by the then governor general of India, lord Cornwallis, vested the
rights over the lands in these villages with zamindars.
In the case of Piridi, a village near Bobbili, the raja of Bobbili
was the owner of the entire land and collected revenues through
agents from his own caste. The Bobbili raja was a Velama Dora
and that community, alongside brahmins called Pandas in the
Oriya region, was in control of things in the village, both as owners
of the land and cultural determiners. The Koppula Velama (dif-
ferent from Velama Dora) and Kapu communities produced
wealth as the actual tillers of the land. Groups of artisans such as
blacksmiths, goldsmiths and carpenters supported them, while
barbers and washermen rendered other services. Dalits were
agricultural labourers, feeding their families by toiling for the
tillers. They and the Kurakulas, who sold vegetables and worked
as diggers of wells, had no land or rights.
Among brahmins, the agraharam in Maddivalasa village
enjoyed a dominant position. An agraharam denoted land that was
gifted to brahmins, which chiefly led to people of the same caste
living on it. Forty-seven brahmin families lived in Maddivalasa
and the caste hierarchy, or varnashrama dharma, was religiously
adhered to. None of the famished poor who lived in thatched
dwellings were fully clothed or wore footwear like the brahmins.
The land in Kovvada village in principle belonged to the raja of
Vizianagaram, a large landowner in his own right. People of the
Kapu caste were the raja’s agents and often acted as de facto owners.
The raja of Bobbili became a member of the council of state in
1925 and the chief minister of Madras presidency in 1932. As chief
minister, he opposed the 1933 agitation for abolition of the
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zamindari system and ordered a crackdown on peasants, which
resulted in the police opening fire in many places. The zamindari
system was finally abolished in 1948. The raja had to pause and
ponder, and he decided on making as much money as possible
because he was to lose ownership of the land. This needed “sell-
ing” land in a clandestine manner. Being fully aware of caste
emotions, he sought the aid of Peddinti Ramaswamy Naidu of
Piridi, a Koppula Velama, the largest caste in the village. Naidu
was successful in persuading many of his people to purchase land
and they turned into landowners. Many, because each of them
was able to buy only a small piece of land. The pride of caste
raised its head among these Koppula Velamas, who took a cue
from the Velama Doras, as later incidents indicate. The Kapus
also acquired some plots of land and their holdings ranged from
0.10 acres to 2 acres (a hectare is 2.45 acres). All the other social
groups were mute and hapless witnesses to this process.
Clinging to the Land
In Maddivalasa, an inamdari village, the abolition of zamindari
and inamdari brought the guile of the brahmins to the fore. They
adopted all means to keep as much land as possible in their
possession, in their names, in benami names and in other guises.
Ragala Asirinaidu, who realised what the abolition meant, tried
to enlighten and organise the peasants. But ignorance ruled as
always. Epics and their ethos echoed in the minds of the peasants
and they were firm that the brahmins should not be “harmed”. In
Kovvada, the raja of Vizianagaram personally held so much of
the land in the village that it was virtually left untouched. The
raja’s agents settled in as owners of large areas of land while a
small part remained with the real tillers.
In line with other states, Andhra Pradesh enacted land ceiling laws
in 1961 and the peasants no doubt expected great change was in the
offing. But, in Piridi, only 6 acres of land was found to be surplus and
it was distributed among 12 families who belonged to the dalit, Goud,
washermen, and Kurakula communities. Nothing much happened in
Maddivalasa. Brahmins tried to occupy the village tank and Asiri-
naidu tried to organise the peasants against this. Scenting danger, the
Table 1: Community-wise Ownership of Cultivable Land in Piridi
Social Group Total Families Landless Landowners Dry land Wetland
(Acres) (Acres)
Koppula Velamas 550 60 490 286.97 840.40
Kapus 189 46 143 41.07 156.24
Yadavas 87 64 23 3.17 19.21
Pandas 35 5 30 14.84 60.07
Washermen 62 35 27 3.73 16.07
Velama Doras 7 – – 2.41 19.70
Patnaiks 8 3 5 2.16 20.90
Carpenters 66 51 15 1.31 13.19
Fishermen 60 55 5 0.90 3.81
Barbers 20 18 2 0.87 0.57
Goudas 97 70 27 0.81 26.94
Telukalis 8 2 6 0.76 6.84
Vysyas 34 32 2 0.52 2.42
Dalits 205 188 17 0.50 8.09
Brahmins 2 1 1 – 2.88
Kammas (absentee landowners) 2 – – – 13.33
Kurakulas 74 67 7 – 3.29
Weavers 10 5 5 – 2.10
Source: Form I-B land records register.
106
brahmins tacitly encouraged dalits to occupy the tank and after a
l­egal battle, the latter received titles to 70 acres of land. In 1971, land
was distributed to the landless. Thirty-two families in Pedda Kovvada
and Chinna Kovvada were granted ownership papers and their hold-
ings varied from 0.10 acres to 5.74 acres. Most of the land distributed
was arid, along the sea coast and unfit for cultivation.
Let us look at the present landholding pattern in Piridi, where
the Koppula Velamas are the largest community (Table 1). The
village has 1,314.12 acres of wetland and 648.59 acres of dry land.
Land has changed hands for reasons common elsewhere in the
country, but it can be noted from Table 1 that the highest percent-
age of landless families are dalit, followed by other erstwhile castes
of servitude such as the Kurakulas, Goudas, fishermen, barbers,
washermen, carpenters and Yadavas. Most Koppula Velama
families have land, followed by Kapu ones. As can be seen in
Table 1, most brahmins, Velama Doras and Pandas have migrated
from the village. The holdings, as of now, are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Community-wise Landholdings in Piridi (Acres)
Social group 0-0.5 0.5-1 1-1.5 1.51-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-7 7-10 >10
Koppula Velamas 42 108 67 67 76 48 21 27 15 7
Kapus 27 40 24 14 16 5 5 3
Barbers 2
Fishermen 3 2
Goudas 13 4 7 3 1
Kurakulas 6 1
Pandas 9 4 9 3 4 1
Patnaiks 3 1 1
Washermen 14 7 4 2
Telukalis 6 3
Vysyas 1 1
Velama Doras 2 1 3 1
Carpenters 5 3 6
Yadavas 10 6 5 1 1
Dalits 10 6 1
Weavers 4 1
Source: Form I-B land records register.
Only Koppula Velama, Kapu and Panda families have land-
holdings larger than 3 acres and the percentage of such holdings
to total holdings is the highest among Koppula Velamas. All other
communities have very smallholdings and the percentage of
smallholdings is the highest among dalits and Yadavas, followed
by washermen. As Table 2 shows, of the 17 dalit families, 10 have
holdings smaller than 0.5 acres (0.20 hectares), and six less than
1 acre. Only one family has more than 1 acre, but it is less than
1.5 acres. Of the 23 Yadava families, 10 have holdings smaller
than 0.5 acres and six more than 0.5 acres, but less than 1 acre. Of
five fishermen families, three have holdings under 0.5 acres. Of
the seven Kurakula families, six have less than 0.5 acres. Thus
the lower castes and dalits have a very small measure of land in
their possession, both in terms of number of holdings and the size
of holdings.
Most of the smallholdings are unirrigated and rain-fed. Given
the nature of the land, a holding of at least 5 acres is necessary to
make a family reasonably self-sufficient. As can be seen from the
table, such families are very few. The majority of families live in
poverty, of varying intensity and dimension.
The migration of brahmin families from Maddivalasa village
began in the early 1970s and was almost over by the 1980s.
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Before moving out, they sold the land they were able to retain
possession of despite the new laws. They thus disposed off 275
acres of the 400 acres in the entire village. The peasants of this
village could not afford to Table 3: Community-wise Distribution of
buy this land but people from Land in Maddivalasa
Social Group Area of Land (Acres)
nearby villages bought 164.35 Barbers 1.25
acres. In addition, dalits sold Brahmins 15.98
their smallholdings to local Fishermen 1.32
peasants, notwithstanding the Kapus 169.58
law that the D form titles Scheduled castes 16.06
Telukalis 3.64
were not transferable. The
Vysyas 9.05
village now has 206 families
Washermen 12.03
and the area of landowned Weavers 4.22
by each community in acres Yadavas 19.67
is shown in Table 3. Source: Form I-B land records register.
The landholding pattern among the different communities
in Maddivalasa village is shown in Table 4. Apart from those
in the table, four brahmin families from outside the village
own 4.75 acres.
Table 4: Community-wise Landholdings in Maddivalasa (Acres)
Social Group Total Landless >0.5 0.5-1 1-1.5 1.5-2 2-3 3-5 6-10 10-15 >15
Families Families
Brahmins 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Kapus 87 11 21 17 14 9 6 10 4 1 1
Scheduled castes 62 36 17 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 0
Barbers 3 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fishermen 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Washermen 6 0 2 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0
Telukalis 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
Vysyas 6 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
Weavers 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Yadavas 30 19 0 6 1 0 2 2 0 0 0
Scheduled tribes 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: Form I-B land records register.
In Kovvada village, land is spread over three revenue villages,
Gudem, Ramachandrapuram and Kovvada. The 295.28 acres in
Gudem and 93.78 acres in Ramachandrapuram belong to the
Kapu community of Patharlapalli village and a large part of this
is in various names of the Gorle family. Gorle Sriramulu Naidu
from this clan wielded enor- Table 5: Community-wise Distribution
mous influence and sway of Land in Kovvada
Social Group No of Families Land in Acres
over the area until 1983,
Kapus 163 423.44
becoming the zilla parishad
Kshatriyas 1 3.18
chairman, a member of the Patnaiks 1 3.01
legislative assembly and a Washermen 2 1.08
state cabinet minister. Gudem Satani Vyshnavas 8 27.81
has a mainly floating popu- Setti Balijas 1 0.1
lation from Patharlapalli. Fisherfolk 171 407.42
Ramachandrapuram has a Source: www.apland.ap.nic.in
population of 118 people in 75 households, of which 70 are Satani
Vyshnavas and five are Kapus. Pedda Kovvada has a population
of 1,900 in 700 households and 500 of them are landless. Fifteen
of them are Goudas (toddy tappers), 15 Satani Vyshnavas, one
Vysya and one carpenter. All the others are fishermen families.
Chinna Kovvada has a population of 1,650 people in 600 house-
holds, and except for 100, the rest are landless. All of them are
fisherfolk, but for 15 households of Satani Vyshnavas. The land
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SPECIAL ARTICLE
distribution among the various social groups in the village is
shown in Table 5.
Water
There are 19 tanks in Piridi village and four of them are meant for
irrigation though their only source of water is rain. The dimen-
sions and capabilities of the
Table 6: Irrigation Tanks in Piridi
four are listed in Table 6. Name Area of the Tank Land Irrigated
The waters of Sitarama (Hectares) (Hectares)
Sagaram are used for the land Ranga Sagaram 17.28 74.04
Polavani Tank 36.34 169.51
in Embannavalasa, a revenue
Kollivani Tank 9.30 135.49
village, and the water in the Sitarama Sagaram 35.07 122.71
other three tanks is used for Total 97.99 501.75
land in Piridi. Apart from rain,
there is no other source of water for agriculture. The government
has acquired 95.54 acres of wetland and 48.26 acres of dry land
for construction of the Totapalli reservoir across the Nagavali
River, which is supposed to feed the fields of Piridi. But the
project still remains a promise. The land was acquired for a
meagre compensation of Rs 1.52 lakh for an acre of wetland and
Rs 1.12 lakh for an acre of dry land. The sacrifice of farmers has so
far only resulted in rendering them landless.
Maddivalasa has two irrigation tanks, the Kalyani and Kotta,
supplying water to 60 acres and 30 acres respectively. In 1962,
the right channel of the Nagavali River was extended to this
village and water was available for the kharif season. This canal
tended to silt up and groups of villagers used to clean it to
ensure water supply. This went on for quite some time. Mean-
while, the government, in the name of water reforms, formed
water user associations and representatives to these bodies are
elected on the basis of their political affiliation. This caused di-
visions among the people and the common work of removing silt
from the canal was gradually disowned by all. The canal has
now dried up and has not irrigated an inch of land for more
than four years.
The Madduvalasa reservoir on the Vegavati and Suvarnamukhi
Rivers, subsidiaries of the Nagavali River, was constructed in 1977
and 90 acres of land, which already had a water source in the
Thotapalli right channel and an assured crop, was acquired for a
paltry compensation of Rs 0.64 lakh an acre while the market
price was around Rs 1.5 lakh. This reservoir has not in any way
increased the area of land irrigated in Maddivalasa. Falling in
line with the Indian paradox, this peninsular village, surrounded
by the Nagavali and Suvarnamukhi Rivers and streams such
as the Vattigedda, faces acute water shortage in summer and
the women are compelled to walk long distances in search of
potable water.
The land in Kovvada was primarily rain-fed. Then some big
farmers from among the Kapus, who had access to the institu-
tional credit, dug borewells. This encouraged others to follow
suit and the dependence on groundwater steadily increased.
Now, both big farmers and sharecroppers struggle. The increase
in the number of borewells has meant that the output of ground-
water has drastically declined. Wells have now to be bored as
deep as to 250 feet against 50 feet a few years ago. On the whole,
there are about 60 borewells in operation in the village. Of those,
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only six belong to fisherfolk, which, unsurprisingly, mean that
only six fisher families continue to cultivate land.
Other Inputs
In the past, agriculture involved a fair amount of human labour.
Though ploughs and bullocks played important roles, humans
had to direct them. Yadavas (shepherds) reared goats for meat and
organic manure. Tank silt, sheep excreta and farmyard manure were
considered valuable. The last was from wastes in farms, houses
and cattle sheds, which were usually piled up together before
being applied to fields. Farmers also grew green, leaf-yielding
plants and the leaves could be ploughed into the soil as manure.
Indigenous seeds were used and very rarely did someone have to
buy seeds. Agricultural productivity was low, but so was the cost of
inputs. The average production of paddy was 15 bags an acre and
each crop matured in four to five months. Agriculture thus occupied
the people for almost 10 months a year and the produce was mar-
keted by local traders. By and large, much of it was self-sufficient.
While paddy was the main crop, the other crops grown were
basically dry ones such as ragi (finger millet), ganti (bajra), ooda
(echinoclca) and sesamum, as also pulses. As mentioned, produc-
tion and the productivity were low but tillers and their families
ate two square meals a day. Coarse cereals such as ragi, ooda and
bajra needed less investment and more labour. That latter was
available in plenty. According to the 1971 Census, ragi was the
staple food in the three villages.
The late 1960s and early 1970s coincided with the green revo-
lution. High-yielding variety (HYV) seeds and chemical fertilisers
gained great publicity and were seen as a panacea to the ills of
Indian agriculture. The increased use of chemicals in fertilisers
and pesticides needed more water which was lacking in the three
villages. As seen, little was done to augment irrigation and the
steps taken were often counterproductive. After the introduction
of HYV seeds, the farmers became dependent on seeds from cor-
porate entities and had to queue up for them at the revenue head-
quarters. The cost of seeds skyrocketed from Rs 150 to Rs 375 a kg
and even sold for Rs 500 a kg on the black market. In 1986, Phal-
guna, an HYV seed, was attacked by the ullikodu (a gall midge of
the Cecidomyiidae family) pest and that was a major blow
b­ecause the loss of crop was total.
However, the increase in output was rewarding till the early
1990s. But the lifting and reduction of subsidies on seeds and
fertilisers has now rendered HYV cultivation costlier and non-
rewarding. HYV seeds require chemical fertilisers and pesticides
and the cost of cultivation has touched Rs 7,000 for an acre of
paddy. Given a good harvest, what a farmer can hope to earn is
around Rs 8,000. The peasants cannot afford to pay higher
wages and low wages are insufficient for labourers, who have
more “modern” lifestyles. The overall result is that many farmers
have lost interest in cultivation. They feel that labour is too costly,
unavailable on time and input costs have gone up while the sur-
plus, if any, is unpredictable and paltry. The breaking up of the
common family system, which intensified in the 1990s, has
enhanced the need for paid labourers, thus adding to input costs.
The custom of mutual help has faded out in the villagers’ pursuit
of individual earning and “prosperity”.
108
A jute mill was opened in Bobbili and this led to a change of
crops, from groundnuts to mesta. The Rs 2 a kg rice scheme has
also gradually pushed out coarse cereals from circulation and
consumption. A change in the paradigm also helped this. Caste
pride percolated down to create a desire to emulate the eating
habits of the “upper” castes. Thus the demand for and acceptance
of dry crops such as ragi and ooda fell, almost driving them out
of cultivation.
Implements
Livestock played a pivotal role in the economic and social life of
these villages in earlier decades. Even cow dung and the excreta of
sheep and goats had an economic value and children of the low-caste
communities earned small amounts by collecting it. While children
were mainly in charge of rearing and grazing livestock, women
made a little income by cleaning and maintaining cattle sheds.
The dalits and Segidis of Piridi were attached labourers
(palerus or kambaris). What they got for their toil was food three
times a day and an annual wage of 5-6 tonnes of cereals, compris-
ing mainly dry crops and some paddy. Pulses and oil seeds were
never a part of their wages. Families of palerus led an almost
nude life and squeezed themselves into very small huts that could
hardly shelter two. Some dalits earned their livelihood as rick-
shaw pullers. Many of the Koppula Velamas who were landless
and marginal peasants also worked as agricultural labourers but
they worked as a separate group from the dalits. The work they
undertook was different in nature, as were their returns.
Children below the age of 14 or 15 years were called chinna
kambaris and the grown-ups were pedda kambaris. Wages for the
two groups of course differed but they were all given a pair of
clothes once a year and food three times a day. Pedda kambaris
took care of agriculture while the chinna kambaris herded cows
and ran errands. They also played the role of sweepers. Some
agricultural work such as transplanting, weeding and picking up
the remnants of harvests were carried out by women, which
brought them some income, albeit not on par with the men.
The dalits of Maddivalasa made mats from jute twine and sold
them in the market. This work was usually done by women. Two
mats could be made in a day from a kilogram of jute twine.
Umbrellas made of palm leaves (gubba godugu) were marketed
by the men for additional income. The Telukalis were occupied in
extracting oils using the traditional rotary process, buffaloes
moving the pestles around. Clay utensils were used in all house-
holds and the Kummaris sustained themselves making them.
Carpenters eked out a living making ploughs and other agricul-
tural implements while the Kammaras made sickles and other
cutting implements. Incomes were very low and, in the general
course, so were expenses and needs.
In 1999, a rich peasant in Maddivalasa bought a tractor, the
first in the village, which was followed by two more. The oppor-
tunity cost of using tractors has pushed the wooden plough into
the dark. While a tractor tills an acre of land in an hour and 15
minutes, the wooden plough needs about two days and the
expense goes up to Rs 600. A pair of good bullocks costs about
Rs 50,000 and fodder is hard to come by. Needless to say, the use
of tractors has meant the disappearance of native manure.
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Machines and unremunerative prices have led to more unem-
ployment, resulting in the migration of people from the villages.
Fifty-two families of various communities have already left Mad-
divalasa. Of the migrant families, 30 are dalits, five are washer-
men, five are carpenters, two are fishermen and one each Telu-
kali and barber. Almost all of them are engaged in the construc-
tion sector on a daily-wage basis in various towns such as Vijaya-
wada, Hyderabad and Chennai. They visit the village twice a
year for festivals and leave with heavy hearts.
As mentioned, labourers were subjugated socially and eco-
nomically in the old days while the peasants themselves were
hardly self-sufficient. The early years of high productivity meant
an increased surplus for the peasantry, but that did not translate
into higher wages for labourers. The high cost of inputs in recent
years has reduced the surplus to the peasantry. And a spurt in
investment in the infrastructure sector has created employment
opportunities for labourers in the construction sector, speeding
up migration.
Credit
Until the 1970s, the situation in the three villages was similar to
that in most parts of the country with the farmer fated to be
“born in debt, live in debt and die in debt” while usurious money-
lenders made hay. The cooperative system made an entry to
Piridi in 1969. But lack of awareness and proper records inhibited
debt expansion and the dormant society was soon closed. The
other two villages did not have even this.
The fishermen of Kovvada formed a society in 1970 and made
demands for better facilities but they all fell on deaf ears. How-
ever, in 1983-84 a fibreglass boat was sanctioned to the society on
the basis of a bank loan. It was used for sometime before a
cyclone in 1986 broke it to pieces. The bank that financed it has
refused to give the society any further loans because it has
d­efaulted on the first one. The society had no insurance and there
is no institution to help them when they most need it.
Alongside machines and the much-hyped green revolution,
came lending institutions. A commercial bank opened a branch
in Piridi in 1983 and Maddivalasa in 1986. By this time, absentee
ownership of land in the villages had increased. These banks
concentrated on improving their figures for agricultural advances
given, inspired by stories from elsewhere and following diktats
from above. Tractors proved to be attractive investments for
those taking loans from banks and this displaced labour. Banks
have rooted their lending in documents showing ownership of
land. They are neither inclined nor compelled to finance actual
tillers of the land. Many from Piridi who left for jobs and busi-
nesses elsewhere have leased out their land on a crop-sharing
basis and this has been done through oral agreements. The actual
sharecropper cannot access institutional credit and continues to
be at the mercy of moneylenders. The only notable change is that
many traditional moneylenders and rich peasants have been dis-
placed by members of the peasant community who reside and
work in other places. They save from their incomes to lend out at
very high rates of interest in their village.
The villagers of Maddivalasa depended on usurious lenders
from among the Vysyas and rich peasants. The rates of interest
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SPECIAL ARTICLE
were exorbitant and the loans took on many shapes, with “rice for
cash” a common mode of repayment. In 1986, the State Bank of India
(SBI) opened a branch in Sitaramapuram and granted agricultural
loans. It was closed in 2005 and “poor recovery” was stated to be
the reason. Now, the SBI has a branch at Vangara but bank finance
is beyond the reach of ordinary tillers and the usurious money-
lender always has his hour. The interest charged is 30% and grains
for cash are still a prevalent arrangement, making loans costlier.
Welfare Schemes
The villagers of Kovvada were offered houses under the Indira
Awaas Yojana, but they could not take advantage of it because
they did not have the funds to meet the remaining expenditure,
which would be far more than the Rs 40,000 subsidy. The state’s
Apadbandhu scheme offers a compensation of Rs 1 lakh in case of
the loss of life of a breadwinner. But this does not apply to fisher-
folk because they come under another compensation scheme
implemented by the department of fisheries. According to this,
the next of kin is eligible for an amount of Rs 50,000. Despite the
formalities and procedures being completed, half the amount
reaches the claimant after a year or two.
Piridi village got a safe drinking water scheme in 1989 and it
was constructed at a cost of Rs 10 lakh. It is now defunct and the
village faces a severe shortage of potable water in summer, forc-
ing women to wake up early and trek long distances. About 750
toilets were sanctioned to the village at a cost of Rs 3,200 each
and a Sulabh complex was also constructed. All of them do not
function today. However, with funds from the Jawahar Rozgar
Yojana and food for work, roads have been laid in the village.
Piridi had adopted a principle of not allowing arrack or liquor
shops within it till 1999. But the promotion of liquor by the state
in recent years has seen rampant growth of the drinking habit in
the village, endangering social relations. The bid amounts for
liquor shops in Piridi have been growing the fastest among the
three villages. What was Rs 75,000 in 1999 for a shop is now
around Rs 35 lakh.
Education and Employment
In Piridi, the economically better-off groups such as brahmins
and Velama Doras sent their children to schools in Bobbili and
Vizianagaram. The more prosperous among the peasant commu-
nity, the Koppula Velamas, saw a purpose and value in this and
also began sending their children to school. To the dalits and
other serving groups, schools were part of an alien world.
Economic constraints and their ignorance about the reservation
system saw to it that it remained so for long.
In 1956, a high school was established in Piridi. The Koppula
Velamas who had become landowners sent their children to the
school along with brahmins and Velama Doras. The children of
the landless and the lower castes, however, continued to work as
chinna palerus. So, the children of those who owned land and
were able to employ labourers, pursued studies, producing a
section of educated people, who became “social capital” when they
found employment. The first employee from the Koppula Velama
community joined the high school as a clerk in 1956, while quite a
number of Velama Doras had already secured jobs elsewhere.
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A college was opened in Bobbili on the 61st birthday of the raja
in 1961 and those who could afford to pay labourers for work on
their farms began enrolling their children in it. The college was
set up with money raised from sugar cane growers in the locality
and it followed a system of reserving some seats for this section.
The practice further helped many landowners educate their
children. Later, reservations were extended to backward class
communities and the Koppula Velamas were included in this
category, again aiding families with land educate their young.
A primary health centre and a veterinary centre were also
opened in Piridi.
It can be seen from Table 7 that the fisherfolk and Kurakulas
have not managed to get through the door to employment even
today despite belonging to backward classes that are eligible for
reservations. Only a few dalits, washermen, barbers, weavers
and Yadavas are employed in the organised sector. Interactions
revealed that almost all from these communities are in low-paid
jobs such as anganwadi and health workers, attenders, nominal
mazdoor roll (temporary) labourers, security guards, and so on,
while most Koppula Velamas and Kapus are in secure and reason-
ably well-paid jobs. Further investigations revealed that some of
those from families with extensive landholdings, irrespective of
community, have good jobs in the west, such as in the software
sector. This must have been because of their access to better quality
education compared to those from families with no land or very
smallholdings. The data very clearly denotes that employment,
both in number and stratum, has a direct link to the economic
background of families, which in turn is directly linked to the
extent of their landholdings and size.
Table 7: Community-wise Employment in Organised Sector in Piridi
Social Group Total Employed Government Public Sector Professional Companies
Families Families (Doctors)
Koppula Velamas 550 208 101 24 6 144
Dalits (mala) 113 17 15 2 0 1
Dalits (maadiga) 92 5 4 1 0 0
Washermen 62 1 1 2 0 3
Kapus 166 28 5 4 0 20
Barbers 15 2 2 0 0 0
Viswa brahmins 42 7 5 2 0 2
Telukalis 7 4 3 1 0 2
Weavers 10 2 0 0 0 4
Pandas 9 9 1 4 0 4
Vysyas 33 3 1 0 0 2
Telagas 12 2 0 0 0 2
Patnaiks 8 8 11 0 0 2
Scheduled tribes 2 1 0 0 0 1
Yadavas 85 3 2 0 0 1
Fisherfolk 60 0 0 0 0 0
Kurakulas 74 0 0 0 0 0
Source: Household surveys.
Maddivalasa village had a primary school way back in 1930s
that taught children up to the fifth standard. The school was un-
der the aided management of Choppalla Suryanarayana, who
later sold it to Kolluru Satyanarayaana. There were only two
teachers and the students were predominantly brahmins. While
children of other castes went to work, almost everyone in the
brahmin community secured a primary education. Most of the
brahmin families recognised the need and value of education
110
and they had the means to send their children for higher studies.
A good many of them got jobs in the 1940s itself and one of them
settled in the US as a scientist in 1957-58.
In 1961, a school opened in Sitaramapuram. Nevertheless, uni-
versal education is a distant dream for the people of Maddivalasa
and whatever little has been provided has not been all that
helpful. Only three persons from the Kapu community are
employed, one as a constable and two in the health department.
Worse off are the dalits. From among 62 families, only one per-
son is employed as a primary schoolteacher. The lone tribal
family has one employee, a constable. Women are still largely
illiterate. There is still no hospital and local “practitioners”
attending on the ailing have at the most been to the primary
health centre at Bitivada.
Kovvada village has no high school and there are no literates.
And it has nobody who is in regular employment. However, a
hostel was sanctioned to the village in 1970 but no building for it
has been constructed so far. Children are now provided after-
noon meals in a cyclone relief shelter.
Occupational Pattern
In the three villages, changing circumstances have led to the
people adapting to new vocations. For instance, in Kovvada, most
of the people used nylon fishing nets. They then began buying
nylon thread and making cradles from it. From living, fishing and
sleeping in the same place, this has made them travel to find buy-
ers for their nylon cradles. Those who cannot afford to do so,
work for others on daily wages and are thus “employed”. Buses
plied only up to Kosta and the rest of the way to Kovvada had to
be covered on foot. Some fishermen saw a livelihood opportunity
in this and financiers were quick to recognise its potential. About
40 autorickshaws now run between Kosta and Kovvada and many
of them are operated by fishermen who have switched trades.
In Piridi, many are still dependent on traditional occupations
or work as labourers. Dalits find it very difficult to rear cattle as
they do not have land and grazing has become nearly impossible.
About 200 of them now eke out a living as rickshaw pullers and
some as autorickshaw drivers, many on a rental basis and a few
as owners. Usurious moneylenders remain their only resort in
hours of need and interest rates are known to have gone up to
120%. A majority of dalits, Kurakulas and fishermen are daily-
wage earning labourers. The traditional teams of Koppula Vela-
mas have disintegrated and there are now four groups of labour-
ers. Two of them exclusively comprise members of the Kurakula
community, whose traditional occupation of digging wells has
vanished. The others are led by a dalit and a Yadava. Kapus join
in both these teams. All the teams mainly work as construction
workers in nearby towns.
The 60-odd washermen families in Piridi have to serve all
the people in the village. Each of them has 30-40 families as
clients and their wages are paid in kind, usually 90 kg of paddy
from a family for a year’s service. Barring a few, they have no
rights to land and have to carry the mantle (kagada) during the
Ramnavami and Ugadi festivals. The washermen wanted rights
over the water of a tank they had been using for long and the
gram panchayat resolved to allot it to them. But a family claimed
january 7, 2012  vol xlviI no 1  EPW   Economic & Political Weekly

ownership of the tank in court. The sarpanch deposed in court in
favour of the washermen and the court verdict endorsed it. But
the issue remains unresolved because the right to fish in the tank
will follow that to water. So the funds that have been granted for
a dhobi khana lie idle.
In the 1980s, the carpenters pleaded for a hike in their wages.
The Koppula Velamas felt that their “identity and supremacy”
were at stake and the farmers under them stood as one to oppose
this. The carpenters were boycotted and workers from other vil-
lages were employed. Ultimately, the carpenters swallowed their
pride and continued on the old wages. Even today, washermen
and barbers have to run around as couriers, inviting relatives and
friends of the higher castes for feasts and functions. This service
is done gratis. What barbers get for their professional services is
only 24 kg of paddy a year. These communities get paid sepa-
rately if they provide music for marriages and such other func-
tions. A group of musicians usually comprises five to eight people
and has to play during the Ramnavami and Ugadi festivals. The
remuneration is a ridiculous Rs 10 a year.
Capital and Investment
As can be seen from the discussion so far, people from families
with reasonable landholdings in Piridi have ushered themselves
into employment and a comfortable level of life. Such employee
households naturally have some surplus and this finds its way
into what can be called “balloon capital” – mutual funds, share
markets, real estate, and the like – because many of them, from
the Velama Dora, brahmin and Koppula Velama communities,
now have no strong bonds with the village. But there are
exceptions to this. A person from the Koppula Velamas has
opened a jute factory with his savings as an employee abroad.
Another individual from the same community makes sanitary
pipes and yet another manufactures engineering goods, both of
whom are doing very well.
Women
The less said about the injustices women have had to put up with
in the three villages the better. The same families that could
afford to send their male children to school at one time or the
other never considered doing so in the case of their female chil-
dren. This discrimination continued till well into the late 20th
century. Only in 1983 did the first female student enter the
premises of a junior college in this area. However, matters seem
to be improving since then and there are about 20 women em-
ployed in regular jobs in Piridi today.
Social Fabric
At about the time of Independence, Kolli Kurminaidu led the dal-
its onto the main streets of Piridi village, which they had been
forbidden to use during the rule of the Velama Doras. This sig-
nalled the end of Velama Dora hegemony and endeared Kurmi-
naidu to the dalits, who began rallying around him. Yet, seen
from a long-term perspective, the achievements of those heady
days have faded considerably.
Four dalits are appointed as village servants (baraka) to run
errands besides doing everything for everybody. Caste “pride”
Economic & Political Weekly  EPW   january 7, 2012  vol xlviI no 1
SPECIAL ARTICLE
took its toll as late as in 1991 when farmers manhandled a baraka
on a petty issue and imposed a social boycott on them. A post-
graduate from a Koppula Velama family found a solution to the
“labour problem” by bringing the first tractor to the village in
1999. This led to an alienation of agricultural labourers, chiefly
dalits, from the land and they turned to working in nearby urban
areas. The dalits, who for long had stood with the Koppula
V­elamas, felt let down and this has had far-reaching conse-
quences. In brief, the dalits have made only two concrete gains;
one, the right to have their haircut and beards shaved in the same
places as all others, and two, a stop to the practice of teashops
and restaurants serving them in glasses separate from the ones
used for other communities.
Industrialisation
No fish-processing industries or cold storages were set up any-
where near Kovvada, a fishing village. Neither was fishing on the
reserved or protected list like some other industries. Nor was
anything done to encourage fishing cooperatives or create export
opportunities for them.
But bulk drug manufacturing factories, so highly polluting
that many in the west have been closed down, flourish. About 10
such companies exist today in and around Pydibheemavaram
village. Treating their chemical effluent is costly and would cut
into profits. So pipelines have been laid from Donipeta to let the
effluent into the sea. Fish die because of this and fishermen are
forced to venture further out if they want to catch anything.
Besides this, large and highly mechanised boats operating on a
commercial basis from other places are speeding up the process
of driving traditional fishermen away from the sea.
Let us now turn to another serious issue over which tension is
simmering around Pedda Kovvada and Chinna Kovvada villages.
At a time when campaigns against pollution and ecological de-
struction have ensured that many countries in the west face
fierce opposition to setting up new nuclear power plants and
older plants are closing down (about 60 in the US alone in recent
years), the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) plans to
establish a plant with six light water reactors of 1,500 MW each
near Kovvada. The know-how is to come from General Electric
and Hitachi and the project will uproot people from 12 villages.
Against the present total installed capacity of 4,500 MW of
nuclear energy in the country, the Kovvada plant alone, when
completed, is expected to generate 10,000 MW. If this comes to
pass, Kovvada village will disappear into the pages of history.
The villagers are now resisting the idea and at election time, even
political parties assure them of support. But work on the mega
project is moving ahead.
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