A Deeper Understanding of the Process of Doing Paddy Cultivation

Our main aim is to question and try to understand what we saw on the small family farm in Rudravali, with reference to historical, empirical, and theoretical research that others have done. In this chapter we will analyse and present a synthesis of what is actually happening on this farm. First we will apply what we have learned about the historical development of agriculture to the farming family, clarifying how and why a number of dialectical contradictions arise in the production of paddy. Then we will summarise the dialectical conflicts we found in how the family learns and develops paddy cultivation. This will lead us to a definition of the process of doing science that we found on the farm, and we will contrast it with capitalist science. We will show ways in which what we saw on the farm might be called historical dialectical materialist (HDM) science. Next we will discuss this definition of the process of doing science and the process of learning, in connection to relevant research on learning that others have reported.