Indian Capitalism in Development

Recognising the different ways that capitalism is theorised, this book explores various aspects of contemporary capitalism in India. Using field research at a local level to engage with larger issues, it raises questions about the varieties and processes of capitalism, and about the different roles played by the state. With its focus on India, the book demonstrates the continuing relevance of the comparative political economy of development for the analysis of contemporary capitalism. Beginning with an exploration of capitalism in agriculture and rural development, it goes on to discuss rural labour, small town entrepreneurs, and technical change and competition in rural and urban manufacturing, highlighting the relationships between agricultural and non-agricultural firms and employment. An analysis of processes of commodification and their interaction with uncommodified areas of the economy makes use of the ‘knowledge economy’ as a case study. Other chapters look at the political economy of energy as a driver of accumulation in contradiction with both capital and labour, and at how the political economy of policy processes regulating energy highlights the fragmentary nature of the Indian state. Finally, a chapter on the processes and agencies involved in the export of wealth argues that this plays a crucial role in concealing the exploitation of labour in India. Bringing together scholars who have engaged with classical political economy to advance the understanding of contemporary capitalism in South Asia, and distinctive in its use of an interdisciplinary political economy approach, the book will be of interest to students and scholars of South Asian Politics, Political Economy and Development Studies.

Introduction Barbara Harriss-White and Judith Heyer Primitive Accumulation and Capitalist Development in Neoliberal India: Mechanisms, Resistance, and Persistence of Self-Employed Labour Shapan Adnan Regional Patterns of Agrarian Accumulation in India Jens Lerche Agrarian Relations and Institutional Diversity in Arunachal Pradesh Deepak Mishra First Transaction, Multiple Dimensions: The Changing Terms of Commodity Exchange in a Regulated Market in Madhya Pradesh Mekhala Krishnamurthy The Political Economy of Microfinance and Marginalised Groups: Implications of Alternative Institutional Strategies D. Narasimha Reddy Labour in Contemporary South India Isabelle Guerin, G. Venkatasubramanian and Sebastien Michiels Emerging Spatio-Technical Regimes of Accumulation in the Globalising South and Implications for Labour M. Vijayabaskar Commodification, Capitalism and Crisis Umar Salam A Heterodox Analysis of Capitalism: Insights from a Market Town in South India after the Green Revolution Elisabetta Basile Money Laundering and Capital Flight Kannan Srinivasan Power Hungry: The State and the Troubled Transition in Indian Electricity Elisabeth Chatterjee Technology and Materiality: South Asia in the 21st Century Sanjeev Ghotge

Barbara Harriss-White was formerly Director of Oxford University’s Contemporary South Asian Studies programme, and Director of the Department of International Development at Queen Elizabeth House. She is now Emeritus Professor of Development Studies and Senior Research Fellow in Area Studies, Oxford University, UK. Since 1969 she has been studying and teaching Indian political economy focussing on rural development, informal capitalism and many aspects of deprivation. Judith Heyer was formerly a Tutorial Fellow of Somerville College, and Lecturer in the Department of Economics, at Oxford University. She is now an Emeritus Fellow of Somerville College. She has written extensively on Kenya and India, specialising in rural development and political economy.