Political economy of agrarian change and migration in Northeast India: a study of villages in Tamenglong district, Manipur

This paper examines the interlinkages between agrarian change and labour migration in a mountain context. Evidence from four Rongmei villages in Tamenglong district reveals changing agrarian relations and identifies the drivers and outcomes of outmigration from the hills. Our political economy framework integrates questions of ethnicity and identity to demonstrate that transformations in traditional community institutions facilitate the selective, informal privatization of common resources. The increasing commercialisation of the agrarian economy and the diversification of livelihoods enable indigenous elites to accumulate land and power, effectively dispossessing some peasants. This shift creates a differentiated migration process, in which better-resourced households access non-farm employment opportunities, while others migrate out of necessity. The study links informal land privatisation, agrarian differentiation, and rural – urban migration, highlighting the uneven nature of capitalist transition in the region. We argue that rural-urban migration is not simply a consequence of agrarian change but is intrinsically embedded within it.