Paper short abstract:

My aim in this presentation is to try and explore the links between the contemporary forms of rural mobilisations in India - in the spheres of agriculture and caste - and the continuing relevance, as in my argument, of the "agrarian question".

Paper long abstract:

The history of development in India is characterised by the persistence of mass poverty and aggravating inequality, with a large part of the population virtually excluded from the 'growing' spheres of economy and society. The roots of India's abysmal record is removing poverty and deprivation lie in the historic failure of the Indian state to resolve the "agrarian question". Deprivation by virtue of class status continues to be a reality in Indian villages. At the same time, "class" has interacted with caste in myriad ways to produce social systems that are not only exploitative in economic, but also in socio-cultural and political, terms.

After 1991, the fundamental contradictions of the post-independence agrarian economy have persisted; on the other hand, some of the soft pillars on which the earlier regime rested have been undermined. The latter has led to what many authors call an "agrarian crisis".

In this context, I try to relate the demands underlying new forms of mobilisations - particularly in the spheres of agriculture and caste - as well as the social bases of these mobilisations to the elements of the "agrarian question". First, I stress the continuing relevance of agrarian class differentiation in understanding new agrarian mobilisations. The simplistically assumed linear relationship between agrarian crisis and agrarian mobilisations needs serious rethink. Secondly, I stress the continuing importance of land concentration as the material basis for caste discrimination. However, the inter-penetration of class and caste renders the problem complicated, and necessitates finer analyses from complementary perspectives.