50 SOCIAL SCIENTIST To what extent does this explain the agrarian structure in the terai region of North Bengal? If we can argue that the landowner combines in him both the roles of the lessor and the creditor, and that these roles are pervasive enough to include not only his tenants and labourers as debtors but also to include other debtors, then, empirically, the interlinkage model stands undiluted. However, in the North Bengal terai we find, from the above analysis, that generally the landowner, when he happens to extend credit, does so only to his own tenants and refrains from extending any credit even to his labourers. Thus while he is extending credit to selective individuals linked with him in the productive process, he is not a usurer. Hence the interlinkage model falls short of a satisfactory characterisation of the agrarian structure in the terai region. We are inclined to believe that it may be more fruitful to denote this phenomenon as one involving "delinking" or "selective linking" of credit with land and labour. That the situation here seems to be different does not look all that odd when we examine the historicity of the settlement pattern in a non-regulated area composed of distinct ethnic communities, and where inter-class transactions are often circumscribed within the same ethnic community. However, this aspect of the observations requires detailed treatment. This paper is based on the data collected fiom the ongoing project, ^Conflict, Structure and Change: Explorations in the Study of Agrarian Social Systems", jointly directed by Professor Partha N Mukherji and Dr Manabendu Chattopadhyay. We are thankful to Professor Mukherji for his valuable comments and suggestion. 1 Some of the note\\oithy works are: P Bardhan. and A Rudra, "Interlinkage ofLind, Labour and Credit Relations: An Analysis of Village Survey Data in East India", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 13, No 6 & 7, February 1978. A Bhaduri, "A Study in Agricultural Backwardness under Semi-feudalism "5 Economic Journal^ March 1973. K Bharadwaj, Production Conditions in Indian Agriculture: A Study Based on Farm Management Surveys, London,^ Cambridge University Press, 1974; On Some Issues of Method in the Analysis of Social Changes, Prasanga, University of Mysore, 1980» M Chattopadhyay, Mahalanobis Survey Revisited, Prospects of Agrarian Change in West Bengal, Calcutta, Indo Overseas Publications, 1982. M Ghattopadhyay ?nd S Ghosh, "Tenurial Contracts in a Peasant Movement Belt: Field Survey Data on Naxalbaii, Kharibari and Phansidewa Regions". Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 1/8, No 26, June 1983. N Chattopadhyay and A Chatterjee, "Agrarian Relation in a North Bengal Peasant Movement Belt: Historical Evolution and Contemporary Situation", working paper of Sociological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, 1983. R Khasnabis and J Chakravarty, "Tenancy, Credit and Agrarian Backwardness: Results of a Field Survey", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 17, No 13, March 1982. T V N Kurup, "Price of Rural Credit: An Empirical Analysis of Kcrala", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 11, No 27, July 1976. P H Prasad, "Reactionary Role of Usurers* Capital in Rural India", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 9, Special Number, August 1974.