The cultural logic of work: Explaining labour deployment and piece-rate contracts in Matar Taluka, Gujarat - parts I and II

Gidwani seeks to explain why group-based and individual piecework arrangements have become the modal form of payment for a variety of agricultural tasks in central Gujarat, India. The recent surge in piece-work employment must be viewed as part of an ongoing tussle between the dominant Lewa Patel caste and the subordinate Baraiya/Koli caste to alter their relative standings in the social order.