Long-term Agricultural Productivity and Religious Conflict:Evidence from India

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper studies the association between agricultural productivity and religious riots in a setting of an abrupt productivity increase in India. I find heterogeneity in the impacts of the gains across different crop regions. Crop cultivation methods determine the differential allocation of labour to the conflict and agricultural sectors. I show that in the labour-intensive rice growing regions there was a decline in conflict while in the capital-intensive wheat growing regions there was not.