Also taking advantage of the situation, the rural political elite amassed fortunes in land and rural- based enterprises. Above the bari level, patrilineal kin ties are linked into sequentially larger groups based on real, fictional, or assumed relationships. Among the functions of a samaj might be the maintenance of a mosque and support of a mullah. Factional competition between the matabdars is a major dynamic of social and political interaction. Groups of homes in a village are called paras, and each para has its own name.
Several paras constitute a mauza, the basic revenue and census survey unit.
The traditional character of rural villages was changing in the latter half of the twentieth century with the addition of brick structures of one or more stories scattered among the more common thatched bamboo huts. Although farming has traditionally ranked among the most desirable occupations, villagers in the 1980s began to encourage their children to leave the increasingly overcrowded countryside to seek more secure employment in the towns. Traditional sources of prestige, such as landholding, distinguished lineage, and religious piety were beginning to be replaced by modern education, higher income, and steadier work. These changes, however, did not prevent rural poverty from increasing greatly. The number of landless rural laborers also increased substantially, from 25 percent in 1970 to 40 percent in 1987.