Changing Land Relations in Eastern and Western Uttar Pradesh: A Comparative Regional Political Economy Perspective

India’s economic transformation in the past decades has changed the rural, agrarian economies in diverse and uneven ways. Following a comparative regional political economy approach, this paper analyses the changing land relations in the eastern and western regions of Uttar Pradesh. Data collected from structured household surveys in four districts of the state have been analysed to understand the changing agrarian structure and its implications. More precisely, the study attempts to analyse the distribution of land owned and land operated, the extent of landlessness, the extent of land tenancy, and the nature, forms, extent and reasons for tenancy for the different agrarian classes and caste groups in the two regions. The study also attempts to examine the role of caste in determining access to land and tenancy contracts and how the persistence of these caste-based land inequalities can cause uneven capitalist development in agriculture.