BIHAR Death of a Share-cropper Arun Sinha CROP-SHARING being conventionally a verbal contract, the peasant is all the time walking on a tight rope. A mere wave of the landlord's hand means ejectment and penury. Working in such conditions, the share-croppers of Tilkari village in the Kharagpur block of Monghyr district are pitted against a lew absentee landlords. Notable among these landlords is Deoki Mandal who, according to a non-official claim, owns 5,000 acres of land. In Tilkari he has 125 bighas. Land in Tilkari, one-half of whose population of 2,500 depends on -sharing, is classified as the most fertile in Monghyr district. This deserves to be noted, for Monghyr is known for its poor agriculture; while its northern part is annually visited by floods, the south is plagued by droughts. The peasants of Monghyr are very poor, only a little better off than the rural tribal workers. Wages for agriculture work are very low: by convention 1.25 seers of coarse grains a day.