Changing Labour Patterns in Kashmir Agriculture: A Case Study of Village Bugam

Agrarian society is predominantly based on agriculture and agriculture involves the cultivation of various crops for meeting the basic need of food for the survival of mankind. The productive activity on land cannot take place without the application of labour. The application of labour involves the interaction of individuals, whose rights and obligations are socially defined. This in turn gives a particular pattern to the interaction of the people in the process of productive activity. Such a pattern of relations give social orientation to the productive activity i.e. agriculture. These groups of people are drawn into institutional framework of relationships with each other in the process of productive activity in order to meet their food, income and occupational requirements. The various labour patterns mostly used in the cultivation of land are family labour system, hired labour system, exchange labour system and tenancy or sharecropping. The present study is descriptive in nature and has been carried out in line with the case study research strategy and the village has been taken as a case for conducting this study. It is intended in this study to discuss various labour patterns used in the utilization of land in Kashmir valley at micro level also to analyze the various changes that have occurred in it.