Paper short abstract:

Rooted in the political economy framework, the paper studies the processes of accumulation and the crisis in rural India and discusses the restructuring of production and exchange relations and reconfiguration of the ways in which agrarian households reproduce themselves.

Paper long abstract:

Rooted in the political economy framework, the paper presents a regional study of agrarian transition and accumulation, and examines the implications of intensifying capitalist development in rural India. Changes in production conditions in agriculture and integration of the agrarian economy with capitalist market economy have resulted in restructuring of production and exchange relations in rural India and reconfiguration of the ways in which households reproduce themselves. The paper draws upon a unique dataset from a village-level study, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, conducted during 2018-19, and contests the claims of an overarching crisis in Indian agriculture. I argue in favour of the class-specific nature of growth and crisis within the sector. Capitalism is capable of exhibiting as well as accommodating diversity and powerful regional structures of capitalist accumulation, tied to agriculture, continue to exist. However, the process of agrarian transition results in unequal possibilities of growth and accumulation. Even as the majority of the agrarian population, comprising of labouring classes and small farmers, battles uncertainty and declining profits, there is a segment comprising of agrarian capitalists that successfully use state institutions and diversification opportunities to bolster their position as the accumulating agrarian classes.

The paper studies the processes of accumulation and the crisis in rural India from the axes of class formation and caste-based divisions, and attempts to provide insights into the contemporary agrarian question.