Paper short abstract:

This restudy of the village Bisipada in Highland Odisha, India, studied by F.G. Bailey in the 1950s, analyses qualitative and quantitative data regarding changed agrarian relations.

Paper long abstract:

F.G. Bailey conducted fieldwork in the village Bisipada in the 1950s. Sixty years later, I have been working in the same village and asking similar questions. Bailey investigated how the state influenced village life through law, tax and work. He suggested that the “administrative frontier” of the state remained, in many respects, outside of the village. Today, the situation has changed as state structures have profoundly transformed the social organisation of the village. Particular governmental schemes aimed at guaranteeing employment, boosting agriculture, improving medical and educational facilities and empowering women have found their way into the daily lives of villagers. The paper presents a quantitative survey and qualitative data in relation to the data we have from Bailey. It analyses the crucial question of how agrarian relations have been transformed by the advancing “administrative frontier” of the state.