The Poverty of (Marxist) Theory: Peasant Classes, Provincial Capital, and the Critique of Globalization in India

This paper maps the geographical contours of socio-economic transitions that are currently underway in India that link caste and capital, rural and urban, peasants and the state in diverse ways. It explains regional variations in the emergence and impacts of provincial capital and how these affect patterns of (primitive) accumulation, and argues against common Marxist derivations of the relationship between capitalism and de-peasantization. Emphasizing the persistent significance of political and economic dominance by sections of the peasantry in India, their capacity to determine the nature and future of capitalist development in India through control of provincial capital and the state is highlighted. Political power of rural elites and a large labor force dominated by informal sector workers with persistent rural roots, impact both the spatial manifestations of capital investment and flows, and the nature of labor processes and relations. Encompassing sectors at different stages of capitalist development, and with different rural-urban demographics, the Indian social formation reflects unique class fractions and caste divides crucial for understanding the specific manifestation of ongoing economic transformations and crises. A comprehension of rural-urban connections, cleavages and conflicts is essential to humanize the history of contemporary struggles of and around the working class in India. A set of propositions are offered for theorizing provincial capital in India, in the course of discussing three inter-related themes: a) debates about current agrarian crisis, b) provincial capital and urban processes, and c) the socio-cultural and political implications of informality and informal labor.