2 SOCIAL SCIENTIST leasing, as agricultural labourers in search of a more certain income stream are willing to undertake cultivation on a fixed cash rent basis, as land offers meagre returns above the imputed cost of labour. The question of the diversification of rural economic activity is taken up in other contexts in the papers by Nandita Khadria and Shyamala Devi. Examining trends in the occupational structure of Assamese rural activity in the 19th century, Khadria focuses on: the decline during the colonial period of a wide range of artisanal and household industries that existed under the earlier Ahom administration; and the fact that the tea plantations which were encouraged under colonial rule could not attract Assamese labour, despite the decline of the crafts and lack of any significant commercialisation during this period. Many factors account for this lack of diversification. To start with, there was no noticeable participation in commerce linked to the crafts under the Ahom administration, when the artisanal sector primarily catered, on the basis of revenue paid in personal services, to the consumption needs of the royalty and nobility. The consequent backwardness of technology in these sectors was not corrected under colonial rule, when imperial interest and the need for returns on investment were the governing motivations. This made it impossible, despite the transportation cost advantage, for many non-agricultural, artisanal sectors to survive competition from factory-produced goods from Britain. The principal exception to this were the tea plantations, which were not merely fostered by the British, but supported, when faced with labour shortages, with policies aimed at channelising labour to the tea gardens. However, what is remarkable is that despite these policies and the decline of employment opportunities in the crafts, the plantations, which relied on labour from Chhota Nagpur, Ghazipur, Bcnaras and Bihar, could not attract adequate Assamese labour. This, according to Khadria, was essentially because earnings in agriculture, though far from spectacular, were attractive when compared with the wages and poor working conditions in the plantations. As a result, the decline of the artisanal industries in the 19th century resulted in a rise in employment shares in agriculture rather than elsewhere. Shyamala Devi's examination of the integration of the Lambada population of Poosala Thanda as gangmen in the railways suggests that, when offered a break from the uncertainties associated with casual agricultural labour or low productivity cultivation, in the form of regular employment at relatively high wages and benefits, the tribals are willing to sell their land or take on high interest loans, to pay the 'price* for such employment. Although this does not snap all links with agriculture, it has resulted in substantial social changes in the Lambada community. These regional variations in the influences acting to determine occupational structure render far more complex the character of the development process in India.