Mysore Villages in 1955

Abstract

Wangala and Dalena are situated in the Maidan, the plains of Mysore State. Both villages are in the vicinity of Mandya, a rapidly growing town at the centre of an irrigated region. Wan-gala is about four miles away on a secondary road; Dalena lies a few hundred yards off the major highway six miles out of Mandya on the way to Mysore. Both villages are multicaste with Peasants occupying a position of dominance (Srinivas, (b); 1955:18); in 1955 almost 90 per cent of the land owned by Wangala inhabitants belonged to Peasants, who made up 66 per cent of the village households (see table 2). In Dalena Peasants constituted 80 per cent of village households and owned as much as 98 per cent of the land (see table 3). In both villages the panchayat, or village council, had been composed of the hereditary elders of the ‘major’ Peasant lineages residing in the village; the patel, or village headman, was also a Peasant. Moreover, Peasants had important roles in village rituals. Dalena was in 1955 a slightly smaller village than Wangala. It had a population of 707 living in 153 households whereas Wangala had 958 people living in 192 households.