IMPACT OF TENANCY LEGISLATION & CHANGING AGRARIAN RELATIONS 85 in bringing agrarian transformation in Dakshina Kannada district. By using the available secondary data, the paper throws light on the gravity of the tenancy issue in the pre-land reforms period in Dakshina Kannada district. The conditions of insecurity and proletarianisation of tenants, the unionisation and organised resistance posed by the tenants to secure occupancy rights on their leased-in lands; changes, if any, in the land and labour relations and in the structure of land control in Dakshina Kannada district are the issues which have been discussed in this paper. Dakshina Kannada district (here after D.K. district) is the southernmost of the two coastal districts of Karnataka state. South India. It is about 117 kms in length and about 40 to 80 kms wide with a total geographical area of 8436 sq. kms. Paddy has been the dominant crop of cultivation on the western coastal belt and interior plain regions of the district. But the hills and valleys of the interior and the Eastern Ghat regions is characterized by the commercial cultivation of arecanut, cocoa, cashew, rubber, etc. Though the raiyatwari system of land settlement was prevalent here, the pattern of landownership was bound to breed tenancies and sub-infeudation. The district is predominantly agricultural with 62.2 per cent of the population dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The total percentage of cultivators and agricultural labourers to the total working population is 74 per cent. The per capita landholdings works out to just half an acre in this district. More than 50 per cent of the total proprietory holdings are small and uneconomical.11 The interface between caste structure and agrarian classes in D.K. district has been quite significant. The class of intermediaries (landlords) consisted mostly of upper castes such as Brahmins, Bants and Gowdas. The tenants came from middle castes traditionally associated with cultivation such as Mogaveeras, Naikas, Patalis, Ganigas, Billavas, Devadigas, etc., and labourers came largely from low castes including untouchables. The caste supeiorify had heightened the dominant position of high castes in the agrarian setup. The steadily growing concentration of landownorship on the one hand and the expansion of tenancy on the other were the two unabated processes throughout the British rule. These processes were accelerated particularly during the economic depression of 1929-34 and the Second World War, 1938-45. The two commonly found classes of tenants in D.K. district were the mulagenigars or permanent tenants and chalagenigars or tenants-at-will. The former type of tenants were proprietory tenants with written lease agreements and their rights on land were perpetual. They could not be evicted except for the non-payment of rent and even then not until they were fully recompensed by the landlord for the permanent improvement they might have made on the lands. The mulagenigars, however, were at liberty to alienate holdings by way of sub-rent or mortgage.12 Ordinarily the rent was given in cash and was fixed