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Paper short abstract

Based on fieldwork conducted in the mandis of central India, the paper examines the interaction of social inequalities, power relations and market exchange and brings out insights on how technological advances reproduce the inequalities of caste, class and gender.

Paper long abstract

Indian agriculture mostly falls in the informal sector and is characterised by small land holdings, increasing marginalisation of land, highly unequal growth across crops and regions, heavy monsoon-dependence, low infrastructural investment, and a very small class of accumulating large landowners. Given this, agricultural marketing has been a contentious issue in India. State-run primary agricultural market yards or mandis were set up in the 1960s to facilitate the sale of agricultural produce and facilitate better price discovery. Mandis have been sites of major technological interventions over the years. The day-to-day working of mandis has now been completely digitalised, with payments and orders being recorded on the portals managed by the state governments. Empirically rooted in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, this paper maps the exchange in the mandis through the lens of political economy and highlights that instead of breaking the stranglehold of information asymmetries and social hierarchies, new technologies often work to the advantage of the relatively stronger players and translate into unequal outcomes. Based on fieldwork conducted in the mandis of central India, the paper examines the interaction of social inequalities, power relations and market exchange and brings out insights on how technological advances reproduce the inequalities of caste, class and gender.