38 SOCIAL SCIENTIST survey undertaken by Bardhan and Rudra (1978). We ourselves undertook a survey on tenurial arrangement in Naxalbari, Kharibari and Phansidewa regions of West Bengal (Chatto-padhyay and Ghosh, 1983). We, however, found a strong interlinkage between tenancy contracts and credit contracts. We also observed that the existence of an interlinkage between tenancy and credit contracts could be explained more efficiently by the lack of entrepreneurial and innovative role of the landlords. Most of the studies cited above have viewed the interlinkage approach narrowly, i e, in terms solely of tenancy and credit contracts. Their analyses in this context rest on the view that sharecropping is a device for extracting a surplus from the peasantry on the basis of two modes of exploitation—exploitation based on the landowner's traditional property in land as well as that based on usury. The essential features of the interlinkage approach however are associated with the appropriation of surplus not only in the form of ground rent and usury, but also in the form of unpaid labour services of the labourers by the landlords through providing loans. This aspect of labour relations has received little importance in the studies described above. Except for Bardhan and Rudra (1978), the empirical relevance of the interlinkage approach has not been examined in a comprehensive manner, i e, in terms of studying the problem through the ^erms and conditions of contracts in tenancy, wage-labour and, credit transactions. The purpose of the present paper is to examine the interlinkage approach in terms of a comprehensive framework of land^ labour and credit relations. While judging the empirical ^relevance of such an approach, one should note that the, said approach purports to consider the imperfections in the relevant factor markets which might get reinforced by backward production conditions as well as by the political events and social situations of conflict in the countryside.4 The movement belt-specific survey which also characterises the backward production conditions can therefore be advantageously utilised for judging the empirical soundness of the interlinkage approach. Data and Selection Criterion Our present paper on land, labour and credit relations is based on a socio-economic survey in a frontier region of Siliguri Sub-division (covering Phansidewa, Kharibari and Naxalbari police stations). This region was characterised by large-scale peasant mobilisation and revolt which occurred a decade and a half ago. In an earlier phase of our survey as we have mentioned" in our previous paper (Ghattopadhay and Ghosh 1983) the area under investigation was classified into two broad strata according to the relative presence or absence of the peasant movement in 1967. We found that some villages under these three police stations weie influenced greatly by the peasant mobilisation and some villages were relatively or absolutely free