Dominant Caste and Territory in South India:

Migration and Upward Social Mobility of the Kammas from Coastal Andhra

Dalel BENBABAALI
Abstract: This thesis aims at redefining the concept of dominant caste which was first studied
at the village level, in the context of 1950s rural India, to make it relevant by adapting it to the
contemporary evolutions of a rapidly urbanising country, where social and spatial mobility is
increasing. With this objective in mind, this research explores the case of Kammas, a
dominant caste from Coastal Andhra where they continue to control most of the land, even
though they have migrated in large numbers towards the interior and southern regions of the
Indian peninsula, both to newly irrigated areas and to the cities. They now occupy key
positions in politics and in the economy of Andhra Pradesh, and to a lesser extent of Tamil
Nadu and Karnataka. Taking territory into account, a concept which was developed in Social
Geography, is essential to understand this change in the scale and nature of caste dominance
and to study its regional variations. In the 1980s, when the Kamma-dominated Telugu Desam
Party won the elections in Andhra Pradesh, their control over State power helped them
consolidate their influence. They also dominate the Telugu media and cinema, which confers
upon them sociocultural preeminence. These new attributes of dominance, which are
ideological and not only material, have a hegemonic character. However, this hegemony is
threatened by the growing resistance of Dalits to caste and class oppression, while Kamma
cultural domination is contested in the Telangana region by those supporting the creation of a
State separated from Andhra.

INTRODUCTION
Justification of the selected topic
Definition of concepts
Research question
Methodology
Structure of the thesis

Part I - Caste dominance: a research topic in geography?

Chapter 1. Territory, a neglected notion in caste studies by social scientists
I. Village versus caste: the terms of the controversy on the proper unit of study
1. Dumonts position on territory and its critique
2. The absence of territory in India: archeology of a stereotype
II. Village studies: territory as a mere frame for the analysis of caste relations
1. The village as community: an idealised vision
2. The jajmani system: myth and reality
III. Caste studies: an uneven treatment of the territorial dimension
1. The varna pan-Indian system versus the jati territorialised system
2. The place of territory in caste monographies
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Chapter 2. Territoriality of the dominant caste: the contributions of social geography

I. The dominant caste defined through territory
1. An African origin
2. A concept progressively enriched by Srinivas
3. The criticism of the concept
4. Rehabilitation of the concept
II. Socio-spatial mobility of the elites: specific forms
1. Elite studies versus subaltern studies
2. Prevalence of poverty in migration studies
3. When migration and prosperity go hand in hand: socioprofessional mobility of rural
elites
III. The geographical concepts of territory and territoriality applied to a caste society
1 Social geography and territory: how relevant in the Indian context?
2. Territoriality of the dominant as a strategy of control: for a geography of power
3. Caste hegemony: towards a deterritorialisation of dominance?

Part II - Emergence of Kammas as a dominant caste and territorial control

Chapter 3. A mobile peasant-warrior caste in the medieval period
I. Kammas traditional territory: from the Krishna-Godavari delta to the Penner
1. A caste named after a territory: Kamma rashtra and Kammanadu
2. A territory of humid plains and fertile deltas
II. Military migrations under the Vijayanagar empire: the conquest of the Tamil country
1. War of conquest as a migration factor
2. Agricultural activities on conquered lands
III. Movements of agricultural colonisation to the Deccan Plateau: land acquisitions in
Telangana under Muslim rule
1. The Deccan: a semi-arid plateau under Muslim control
2. Kammas agricultural migrations towards Telangana
Chapter 4. An agrarian caste that benefitted from development in Coastal Andhra
under the British rule
I. Agrarian and regional development in Andhra
1. Land tenure systems, revenue policy and introduction of canal irrigation in Coastal
Andhra
2. Development of communication infrastructures and commercialisation of agriculture
3. Urban growth and industrialisation
II. Kammas upward social mobility, from class differenciation to caste unity
1. Emergence of a class of Kulaks
2. Birth of Kamma caste associations, efforts at unification and collective mobility
3. Political organisation and evolution of Kammas position vis--vis British rule
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Chapter 5. Territorial expansion and rise of Kammas since Independence

I. Territorial recompositions and Kamma migrations
1. Kammas participation in the Telangana rebellion (1946-51)
2. Telugu regionalism and formation of a separate Andhra province
3. Creation of Andhra Pradesh and intensification of migrations to the interior regions
II. Economic diversification and Kammas access to political power at the State level
1. A caste that benefitted from agrarian reforms and the Green Revolution
2. The formation of the Telugu Desam Party and the election of N.T. Rama Rao, first
Kamma Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (1983-89)
3. Kammas upward mobility since the economic reforms under Chandrababu Naidu
regime (1995-2004)

Part III - Regional variations in territorial expression of caste dominance

Chapter 6. Kamma territorialities: degrees of rural and urban dominance in three
South Indian States
I. A comparative study of Kammas in Kukatpally (Hyderabad) and in Godavarru village
(Krishna district)
1. Presentation of the urban and rural quantitative surveys through questionnaires
2. Migration profiles, educational levels, family structures
3. Professional mobility, economic position, social and political participation
II. Kamma dominance in urban areas: a comparative study of two regional metropolises,
Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) and Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu)
1. Presentation of the qualitative survey through interviews
2. Two regional metropolises dominated by the same caste
3. Differences in the nature of Kamma dominance in Vijayawada and Coimbatore
III. Kamma dominance in areas of agricultural colonisation: a comparative study of two
irrigated zones of the Deccan, in Karnataka (Tungabhadra project) and in Telangana (Sriram
Sagar project, Nizamabad)
1. Presentation of the fieldwork
2. The migrants of development in the Tungabhadra irrigated belt: teaching paddy
cultivation to the locals
3. Inner colonisation of Telangana: turning the desert green
Chapter 7. Mobilisation of lower castes and the Telangana regionalist movement:
towards a decline of Kamma dominance?
I. The Dalit movement in Coastal Andhra, a consequence of Kamma oppression
1. Methodological problems of perpetrator-oriented studies
2. The Karamchedu massacre and Dalit mobilisation
3. Interpretations
II. Kammas as targets of naxalism and regionalism in Telangana
1. Naxalism in Andhra Pradesh and its repression
2. The separate Telangana movement: a struggle against dominant castes ?
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