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Paper short abstract:

The racialised nature of contemporary capitalism has been paid relatively limited attention by scholars of critical agrarian studies, or it tends to be treated as an empirical issue. Therefore, this paper tries to centre race and caste in the food sovereignty movement and politics.

Paper long abstract:

The racialised nature of contemporary capitalism has been paid relatively limited attention by scholars of critical agrarian studies, or it tends to be treated as an empirical issue. Within agrarian politics and movements in the global south too, racialisation based on race and caste is often treated as peripheral or unimportant to class struggles. Scholars of racial capitalism have argued how racialisation is built into the very design of capitalist development and accumulation, as it allows for and legitimises the super-exploitation and oppression of the racialised workers. The corporate desire to cheapen food to accumulate surpluses cannot be realised without a constantly racialised labour force.

Against this backdrop, this paper argues that any effective rural-agrarian politics must include anti-racism and anti-casteism as its core agenda, alongside demands for food sovereignty and agro-ecology. This paper further elaborates why it is useful and important to embed food sovereignty studies and politics by centring race and caste. By analysing the food sovereignty struggle of Dalits or 'so-called ex-untouchables of India' in the farmers’ protests in India; this also tries to unravel the post-colonial development of Indian agriculture and how it could challenge capitalist structures as well as social inequalities perpetuated in rural-agrarian settings and advocates for systemic change rooted in equity, self-sufficiency, and ecological sustainability. Lastly, it discusses the methodologies that can be used to advance this understanding of racial capitalism and challenge it.