The Thai Peasant’s Struggle : A Representative Case Study

Abstract

The study is attempted to demonstrate the means of the Thai peasants’ survival. In analyzing the data, the study has been put into the theoretical frame of Robert Redfield who finds two types of relationships in the peasant society. One is the horizontal relations in which the kinship tie and the reciprocity have played the greatest role. The other is the vertical relations in which the social oppression, inequality and disadvantages have played the greatest role. The data of the study was collected from various sources. The interviews were done at the District of Lardkrabang, Bangkok Metropolis and the District of Lardlumkaew, Pathumtani. The observational sources were collected from the intensions observations done at Lardkrabang, Bangkok; Haangchat, Lampang and Muang, Udornthani. The Thai peasants’ problems found in the study are poverty which has resulted from 1) being deepty in-debted; 2) the loss of lands; 3) the middlemen’s economic pression; and 4) lack of education. Among these problem the most serious one is the middleman traders. In fact this problem has not been perceived by the peasants. This trouble has been shaded by the reciprocal relations actually practiced in the interaction between the farmers and the middlemen. All disruptive events have been thought to be caused by the Government. Universally whenever the peasants are socially oppressed they rebel, and many times the rebellion leads to a severe peasant revolution. The Thai peasants react differently. They solve their problem in two ways: (1) they take it as if it is their luck. This is the influence of the Buddhist values held strongly in the Thai society: (2) they leave their agricultural occupations and immigrate to Bangkok, becoming industrial labors. By this means, the true peasant revolution has not occurred in the Thai society. The further analysis of the study reveals that the true peasant revolution has not been initiated because of the following social factors: (1) Thais are not aggressive; (2) Thais do not practice a lot of team-working; (3) The leadership personality has not been developed among the rural Thai; and (4) The catalyst situation has rarely been initiated among the peasants. What has really protected the Thai society from encountering the peasant revolution is the kinship relationship within the peasant society, and within the “patron-client”, relationship between the rural and urban societies.