Political Economy of Land Grab

Author(s): Pranab Kanti Basu

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, No. 14 (Apr. 7-13, 2007), pp. 1281-1287
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 Perspectives

Political Economy
on pursuing a policy that is bound to cost
them a lot of rural votes?
The pithy answer is that they have no

of Land Grab
option. Once the path of development
called globalisation has been chosen, such
eviction was always on the cards. Of course,
they hardly had a choice. Without a grass-
A new phase of capitalist expansion led by "global capital" root level movement with a different ethics

is driving governments, including those of the left, to dispossess and morality based on the local3 (as
opposed to the effortless surrender to that,
and displace peasants from agricultural land, even using
which is globally mobile) this course of
force to break up peasant resistance. The article offers an development was inevitable, no matter
understanding of this new phase, with a focus on the role and what be the public posture of the party or
compulsions of governments. The analysis is in the tradition coalition in power.
of radical political economy, and is based on a revaluation To understand the compulsions of the
Left Front government one must try to
and expansion of Marx's conceptualisation of rent and the
understand the phenomenon of globali-
primitive accumulation of capital. sation, how the meaning of imperialism
has changed in the context of globalisation
PRANAB KANTI BASU The peasants are resisting such virtual
and how the role of the state has undergone
eviction in many places, but the statea drastic transformation in the age of
he question of displacement of governments are using or threatening toglobalisation. These questions can be pro-
farming communities to acquire use a colonial Land Acquisition Act, whichperly addressed only if one revalues and
land for industrialisation has allows the government to acquire "for expands the concepts of rent4 and primi-
assumed great political significance,public purpose"2 any land, on payment of tive capital accumulation.
"compensation", even though the owner It is often said, and quite validly, that
primarily because of the strong resistance
may in
offered by these communities at Singur not be willing to part with the plot.there is a great gulf between the imperi-
West Bengal and Ghaziabad in UP.The Land
acquired land is then handed over toalism of today and that of Lenin's time.
acquisition has become a prime objective
the enterprise at a subsidised rate. That is,But this statement often implies that the
global capital has to pay just a fraction of
of the state governments, as they clamber significance of the state has diminished
over each other to seek the graces ofeven
global
the meagre compensation that is given greatly in this new era of globalisation. It
to the
capital. Following in the true tradition ofpeasants. is true that the flexibility of the state,
the distributors of grace, global capital
This is just the beginning of this newparticularly in economic matters, is being
doles out the goodies to those who phase
offerof capitalist expansion. Critics of gradually eroded, especially in the poor
this policy argue that the compensationcountries, through the process of liberali-
the best tributes in terms of tax exemp-
tions, subsidised provision of natural
beingre-
offered is not "adequate"; that those sation. But this does not mean that the need
sources like land and water, and the like.
who are not landowners but depend onfor state power has been exhausted.
The idea of special economic zonesagriculture (SEZs) for their livelihood are not One of the characteristics that differen-
suits this particular need of governments tiate this age of imperialism from its
compensated; that agricultural production
and of global capital. The SEZs arewill ter-
go down as the proposed SEZs or immediate predecessor (that is the period
ritories demarcated by the state govern- industrial estates are largely Ibcated on
extending right up to the 1960s and 1970s
ments with the concurrence of the central prime agricultural land; that the tax of the last century) is its immense depen-
government. Enterprises located in these exemptions offered to enterprises locateddence on state power for rewriting eco-
territories are exempted from customs in SEZs together with the loss of waternomic laws and for their harsh implemen-
duties, income and excise taxes. They are cess and other payments, which the dis-tation. In the previous period - which used
also enticed with other privileges like free placed farmers used to make, cause heavyto be called the period of neo-imperialism
or subsidised water supply, subsidised elec- revenue losses to the state governments;- imperialist capital's open and observ-
tricity supply and, most importantly, with that severe ecological damage will occurable reliance on the state was not the order
the promise that the right of the labourers where the SEZ is located on what was of the day. While in the present era laws,
to associate in trade unions will be sus- originally forest land. The governments regulations,
of and even principles of juris-
pended. The areas where the SEZs are the states are impervious to such argu-
prudence are being grossly altered with
located are usually chosen by some globalments, whatever the colour of the party impunity to facilitate imperialist plunder.
enterprise or a fraction of global capital.in power in the state. They are also equally
In this overt fight the international eco-
The concerned state government thenready to use force to break up farmers' nomic organisations play a stellar and
acquires the land from the farmers againstresistance. This raises the obvious ques- crucial role, but it is only through state
payment of some meagre compensation.tion: why are the state governments bent power, acting at the behest of global

Economic and Political Weekly April 7, 2007 1281

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capital, that the necessary changes can be requirement is balanced by the accompa-
of the latterprocess. If some other economic
implemented. agent wishes to use such monopolised
nying reduction in labour required for pro-
duction. This further adds to the trend science and technology, it has to pay a
towards decrease in the demand for mass subject to royalty. Technology (for ex-
Capitalist Rent
consumer goods. Credit financing of con- ample, genetic engineering) too is used to
The principle endeavour of imperialism sumer purchases is a commonly used generate such monopoly. Seeds are being
in the current age is to extract rent, taking instrument for boosting sluggish demand so engineered that plants that are born of
advantage of natural or imposed immobility under the circumstances. This leads to the such seeds are incapable of reproduction.
and non-replicability. The reason can be expansion of the financial sector dedicatedMonopoly over immobile resources gen-
found in the history of evolution of capi- to financing consumerpurchases. The small erates rent for the owner.
talism. Grossly put, since the 1970s, techno- workforce employed in this segment also The immobility of resources may be
logy and the organisational structure of belongs to the developed enclave. Globali- used in either of two ways to generate rent.
capitalist enterprise have evolved in such sation expands the scope of earning profitThe immobility may be used to depress the
a way that income distribution is becoming in another area - speculation. New instru- payment to some input purchased by capi-
acutely skewed. Technological innovation ments of global speculation emerge. Faced tal, or the right to the immobile resource
is directed towards reducing manpower with this current phase of systemic crisis, may be appropriated by global capital itself
requirement. At the same time the need for global capital is also expanding the scopeto extract a rent from the user of this
technicians with some degree of mechanical of other routes of surplus extortion, whichresource. The immobility of labour is the
competence in the operation of computer- have always been available within the most striking example of the former, while
aided production processes is increasing system. It is increasingly falling back on the appropriation of land by global capital
disproportionately. This technical labour the tried and tested method of investment for realty business is a common example
force has to be compensated for the invest- for colonisation of resources to extract rent. of the latter kind of rent extraction.
ment in acquisition of such training. Though This may be a trifle baffling and so calls Rent generated by the immobility of
they can hardly be differentiated from their for some elaboration. Capital, having labour and appropriated by global capital
older traditional counterpart in the labour acquired proprietary rights over the raises some thorny theoretical issues and
force, in terms of their mechanical defer- resources that were previously under the therefore calls for some elaboration. Since
ence to the orders of the management, they control of the feudal classes used them for its inception, trade in services had been
earn higher wages. For this small segment rent earning which supplements its profit excluded from the purview of the General
of the workforce, as well as for the expand- earning.5 Put very succinctly, rent is earned Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
ing segment of managerial staff, salaries on the basis of immobility of resources and The reason that was generally advanced
and wages are rising. For the large masses of produced goods. It may be extracted was that in the case of services, unlike in
of the population, who cannot afford to the case of goods, production and sale are
through the establishment of proprietary
acquire such skills, unemployment is on rights over immobile resources. Or it may simultaneous events. As a result, insistence
the rise. To maintain the demand-supply be extracted by curbing the mobility of on free trade in services would amount to
balance, the sectoral division of invest- produced goods across the boundary of a the insistence that every country should
ment is adapted to the increasingly unequal designated market. This latter is what is allow every other country to set up service
distribution of purchasing power. An in- usually called monopoly profit. Within providers. This would not require just free
creasing proportion of the workforce is Marxist political economy this is best access for foreign capital, but also the
employed in the production of luxury goods treated as a species of rent.6 This is theo- indisputable right of foreign enterprises to
and services. Demand has to be generated retically reasonable because rent is ex- set up shop with their own personnel. It
for such commodities. Esoteric needs have tracted on the basis of immobility and was argued that this would infringe on the
to be created in the minds of the small monopoly over the rarity that cannot be right of sovereign nations to allow or
fraction of the workforce that can buy. devalued
So or diluted because of immobility. disallow foreign nationals the rigit to enter
there is an expansion in the workforce The additional price that is extracted by the country. However, at the Uruguay round
employed in sales and advertisement. But the monopolist firm originates in just this. of negotiations it was decided to include
this is insufficient for compensating for the The immobility of a resource may be a trade in services within the purview of
sluggishness of demand caused by the natural-characteristic of the resource (as GATT under an agreement called GATS
in the case of land, minerals, etc) or the - the General Agreement on Trade in
phenomenal decrease in the rate of growth
immobility may be created by devising Services. Subsequently, it was also in-
of the demand for mass consumption goods.
suitable laws and regulations (like in the cluded within the scope of the World Trade
The culture of the market-oriented society
case of knowledge, genetically engineered Organisation (WTO). Trade in labour
has mutated to the aid of sustaining/seduc-
ing the exponentially expanding desires varieties
of of plants, etc). Patent laws render services was however kept out of the scope
knowledge and technology immobile and of GATS. One of the reasons offered for
the rich. An elementary aspect of this new
culture is that it breeds a perception of a
non-replicable. The right to such resources this exclusion was the same as that
fast rate of obsolescence of consumer vests with the capitalist enterprises that advanced at the initial stage of formatio
durables. This also causes a fast rate of fund research or are able to use bourgeois of GATT for exclusion of trade in services
obsolescence of technology - both of that legal processes to sanctify the theft of in their entirety.
employed in producing such commodities, knowledge which belonged traditionally The real reason was that the exclusion
as well as that embodied in the durables
to some community. Thefts of rights over of labour services from the purview of
themselves. The cost of increasing R&D traditional
to plant varieties and over tradi- WTO implies that the unemployed in India,
support this fundamental systemic tional herbal medicines are some examples for example, cannot migrate to the US in

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search of jobs, though the provisions of (BPO) enterprises located in the low wage only because the working classes have
GATS ensure that an American insurance regions enjoy a cost advantage on account been dispossessed of all means of produc-
company can set up an establishment in of the low labour cost. This generates renttion other than the ability to labour. Without
India as a service provider. The company that is attributable to the immobility this of the component that is common to all
cannot be barred from employing person- labour. But this rent does not accrue to theproduction processes - labour power -
nel from the US either. Because labour is BPO enterprise. It is appropriated mostly would not become apurchasable commod-
immobile the wages in high unemploy- by the enterprise owned by global capital ity. This process of dispossession, which
ment areas like India are less than the that puts out work to the BPO unit. The simultaneously creates capitalist property
wages in say, the US. This is also com- distribution of rent is determined by the relations, together with the laws and regu-
pounded by the difference in-the socially distribution of economic power. In the lations for contract and exchange, is called
present age this is entirely the preserve the
conditioned needs of labour. This culturally of process of primitive capital accumu-
global capital.
determined difference, in turn, is sustained lation. This is, of course, a commonplace
partially by the immobility of labour. The The question of power, with all of itsMarxism, but one whose deep signifi-
wage difference allows global capital to
"unscientific" connotations, is something;cance has conveniently been forgotten by
earn super-normal profit by fragmenting that the discourses of both neoclassical andmany Marxists, particularly those running
the production processes controlledtraditional
by Marxist political economy treat
states, which are trying to curry favour with
as an
them, outsourcing parts of the process global capital. How else can one explain
to aberration in the age of capitalism.
the low wage areas. If we designateAanyrevaluation of rent in the age of capital
the eagerness, verging on greed, with which
however-shows power, which cannot abe
earning above the normal that originates state government run by Marxists is
in the immobility of resources as rent reduced
then to any economic index, as an
displacing farmers to provide land for
the additional profit that is earned inseparable
by a aspect of the capitalist eco-
setting up industrial ventures, up market
nomy. This is global capital's "feudal
publishing house in an advanced country housing complexes, and so on.
by outsourcing editing, proof reading,plunder".8
etc, The Tatas have reached an agreement
to some concern in the low wage areas can with the Leftist government in West Bengal
be called rent. Such rent earning isPrimitive
not Capital Accumulation to set up a car-manufacturing unit at a place
restricted to parent concerns located in the called Singur. The land earmarked for the
advanced countries alone. Enterprises
In order to facilitate rent earning of global project is very fertile and produces multiple
owned by global capital and located in the state must actively ensure both
capital crops. Conversion of multiple-crop land to
poor countries like ours can also earn the proprietary rights of capital over re-
rent non-agricultural land has violated the state
sources and also the immobility of these
from the immobility of labour by putting government's own announced policy, but
resources. The process of acquisition of
out parts of its production process to smaller that is a separate issue. The farmers were,
these rights is what constitutes primitive
enterprises which are exempt from statu- by and large, vehemently opposed to the
capital accumulation (PCA). So rent extrac-
tory regulations relating to minimum wages government's plan to acquire their lands
and other benefits for labour, environmen-
tion and PCA are fundamental aspects of for handing over to the Tatas. A major
tal standards, etc, which are applicablethe
foreconomy in this era of globalised capital. opinion, which comes through in the inter-
larger concerns to which laws like the A concept, that is central to our analysis views given by the farmers is that all the
Factories Act apply. This has a significant
of the international economic organisations talk of compensation - even if one were
is PCA.
implication, which we have mentioned in Let us elaborate this concept and to ignore the failure to keep the promises
passing.7 The "first world" is not its geo-
centrality in the current phase of capi- made previously by the state government
graphically specific any longer. This istalist
one development. Since the demise of the in similar cases - was quite meaningless
instance of the impact of globalisation of
primitive tribal communities,9 society has to these peasants. What was the correct
been divided into the surplus producing
capital. There is little point in distinguish- quantum of compensation? They led a life
ing big capital in terms of origin, even if classes and the surplus appropri-
working that quite satisfied their material and
this were actually possible. Their objec-
ating classes. In each society, surplus is cultural demands. For this they were totally
tives are the same and therefore their appropriated in a specific way. For a par- dependent on their plots of land. It was as
operations would cause the same kind ticular
of mode of appropriation to be viable, much a part of their culture and life, as it
impoverishment. a particular state structure, containing a was a means of livelihood. The peasants
specific legal apparatus is necessary. The
Rent extraction by global capital origi- had a holistic culture that directly opposed
nating in the immobility of labour has modem capitalist state and its legal system the commodity culture of globalisation.
may appear to be non-discriminatory
another important theoretical implication. The concept of land as a commodity was
Immobility of resources generates rent. because, in a formal sense, they are im- thoroughly alien to their culture. From our
The so-called scientific laws of demand personal. 10 But this blase indifference can cultural perspective, which refuses any
be sustained only by a very crude and
and supply do not decide the distribution holistic or ecological position, we can
fundamental discrimination below the
of the rent originating in the immobility invent a justification of their stand: loss
of a resource. This shows up the claim surface.
of A process that is both prior and of land will deprive the peasants of the
the scientific logic of the marketplacesimultaneous
to to the working of the "non- opportunity to work (which is the realis-
be part of the ideological apparatus that
discriminating" capitalist market consti- ation of human existence), even if they can
is generated in the course of capitalisttutes this discrimination. The capitalist earn
is sufficient interest income from the
able to earn profit through the process monetary
growth and which is essential for persuad- of compensation without doing
ing the doubters, of the efficiency of the
buying and selling in the market, which any work! The state government was defi-
system. The business process outsourcing
just requires this neutral state apparatus,nitely using violence to intimidate the

Economic and Political Weekly April 7, 2007 1283

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organisation formed by the peasants to nobility was the child of its times, for Marx's Capital.12 In reality this process is
resist the attempts of the government to which money was the power of all powers. endlessly entwined with capital's expan-
evict them from their land. But also "left- Transformation of arable land into sheep- sion. Marx discussed the process of dis-
ist" mass organisations had been asked to walks was, therefore, its cry (ibid, p 672). possession in the context of right to land,
"explain" to the peasants that the money In place of wool one has tojust substitute but the process of dispossession/occupa-
being offered was more than sufficient "cars". True, there is no produce of the soil tion, which is essential to the survival, and
compensation. In other words, these that the car manufacturer, Tata, directly expansion of capital can be treated as a
organisations were being deployed to carry needs. None the less, every materially theoretical concept. For its expansion
out the task of cultural transformation - productive activity requires land. From capital does not appropriate just land. It
from a holistic culture to the commoditythis point of view, it is immaterial whether acquires rights over knowledge, culture,
culture that is consistent with the needs of agricultural land is transformed into pas- nature and even the games that people
global capital. This experience also teachestures or is converted into the site of a play. In fact the process of acquiring control
over markets can also be seen, theoreti-
another important lesson - the significancefactory shed or is traded off as real estate.
of an overdeterministic or interdependentFurther on Marx quotes Bacon: cally, as a part of PCA.
approach. It is not just a question of eco- Inclosures (sic) at that time (1489) began
nomic transformation that was involved, to be more frequent, whereby arable land
Importance of Rent
but changes at all levels of social existence (which could not be manured (sic) without
and perception. people and families) was turned into pas-
One is aware that this is a somewhat
ture, which was easily rid by a few herds-
The recent spate of state violence against different way of looking at PCA than was
farmers to force them off their land in order men; and tenancies for years, lives and at
proposed by Marx. Never the less, one
will (whereupon most of the yeomanry
to hand it over to global capital for real lived) were turned into demesnes (ibid, feels that expropriation of the right of a
estate business or for setting up industrial p 673). community to any resource and the simul-
enterprisesll reminds one vividly, of the So we see a re-enactment of the same taneous conversion of that resource to
passages on primitive capital accumula- employable physical capital can be termed
sequence of events that occurred in Britain
tion in Marx's Capital. The passages on PCA without violence to the essential mea-
in the 16th and 17th centuries. The attempt
the transformation of arable land into ning of the term. One is also conscious that
to prevent the expropriation of the peas-
pastures in Capital read eerily like a de- the concept of PCA is being deployed here
antry that was attempted by Henry VII,
scription of the eviction of farmers for the to understand a process that has not been
could not withstand the onslaught of PCA
creation of SEZs. analysed through PCA. To us what is
in the late 17th and the 18th centuries. By
Marx quotes Bacon on an Act of Henry important is that on the basis of exclusive
the time of Elizabeth I, it was officially
VII, promulgated in 1533 and comments rights acquired by global capital, it appro-
recognised that these laws had fallen into
on it: priates rent, which is concealed as profit.
disuse and that pauperism was rampant.
The device... was profound and admirable, The laws of the state and economic rules
This was implied in the passage of the poor
in making farms and houses of husbandry and regulations are changed, even drasti-
rates. Of course, the poor laws were to be
of a standard; that is maintained with such cally, whenever necessary to facilitate this
used to wring out the maximum hours of
a proportion of land unto them as may war of occupation. Marx did not discuss
work from those who had been dispos-
breed a subject to live in convenient plenty,
this significance of PCA. But, as we have
and no servile condition, and to keep sessed
the as a result of the enclosure move-
discussed, rent earning is perhaps the most
ment and the general tendency of land
plough in the hands of the owners and not
mere hirelings' what the capitalist system significant aspect of global capital today.
concentration in that period (ibid, p 667).
demanded was on the other hand, a de- So we find the repetition of history
We even find parallels to the privileges
graded and almost servile condition of the somewhat as a farce. The grotesque aspect
that are being offered to the capital
mass of people, and the transformation of is that the "leftists" who had once de-
invested in the SEZs.
them into mercenaries and of their means
manded land reforms that were expected
of labour into capital [Marx 1954, p 674]. After the restoration of the Stuarts, the
to give some security of tenure to the actual
This Act was a sort of act, which we landed proprietors carried, by legal means,
cultivators (though understandably there
an act of usurpation, affected everywhere
nowadays call a "Land Reform Act". This was never any legal measure adopted to
on the continent without any legal formal-
Act even contained a clause that limited
ity. They abolished the feudal tenure on give land to the tiller) are now champion-
the number of sheep that could be ownedland, i e, they got rid of all its obligations
ing the expropriation of peasant rights.
to 2,000, where it was reported that someto the state, "indemnified" the state by There is a significant difference between
even owned as many as 24,000. If a cottagetaxes in the peasantry and the rest of the
the course of economic history that is
was built for an agricultural labourer it hadmass of the people, vindicated for them-
unfolding in India today and the course
to have an attached plot of arable land ofselves the rights of modern private
narrated by Marx. PCA was supposed to
at least four acres in size. property...(ibid, p 676). constitute the prehistory of capital, but we
the cry of the people and the legislationThe owners of the enclosed lands, there-
find that it is also a simultaneous event.
directed, for 150 years after Henry VII,fore, were exempted from the normal This is not much of a surprise. In these
against the expropriation of the small financial obligations to the state, much postmoder
in times we have long ceased to
farmers and peasants, were alike fruitless
the same way that the enterprises within believe in purity. The idea of society moving
(ibid, p 673).
...The rapid rise of the Flemish wool the SEZs are exempted today. through fated stages, where each stage is
manufactures and the corresponding rise There is a widely held view that PCA born through the dialectical supersession
in the price of wool in England gave the occurs prior to the establishment of capi- of one stage by another, is no longer
direct impulse to these evictions... The new talism. The seeds of this idea are there in generally accepted as a valid proposition.

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What were previously the dominant posi-
tions in society are distorted and appro-
priated by the dominant positions in the
succeeding order. The new dominant
position also mutates in the process. There
is no purity in the positions of the dominant
and the subordinate positions within a
society, either. Both mutate in the interest
of systemic stability to generate a modified
kind of hegemony of the dominant. This
has been called "synthetic hegemony"
[Chaudhury, Das and Chakrabarty 2000].
Capital does not, therefore, abrogate pre-
capital. It distorts and appropriates it. In
the process it too is modified. (This of
course begs the question whether one can,
even theoretically, conceive something
called "pure capitalism". Quite obviously
our position would be that this is not
possible.) Our discussion of the impor-
tance of rent to global capital is rooted in
such a conception of transition.
calculated at market prices that the capi-
to displace these traditional right holders
and construct dams. In general terms the talist is concerned. The capitalist has no
alternative must emerge out of the clash qualms about shutting down a factory to
between the ethics of the local and the construct luxury apartments on the land if
ethics of the globalised. We do not think this business promises greater profit. One's
identity as capitalist, what we can after a
that the beginnings of an alternative lie in
ensuring global mobility for one who fashionis call capitalist class position, remains
locally confined. The entirety of what is unscathed but the working class position
ceases to exist if the factory shuts down.
rooted in a local space can never be globally
mobile. If that were possible then this The characteristic of a factory is to
essentialism would be correct - nature, produce manufactures. The bearer of this
culture all have but one essence, which is characteristic is the labourer engaged in the
expressed in market price. Culture cannot factory. The characteristic of agricultural
be globalised. It either dominates or is land is to produce agricultural crops. That is
dominated. The manifestations of so-called why when the government takes over agri-
fusion cultures involve a hierarchy bet- cultural land for construction of industry
ween the fused cultures. I think even appre- or amusement parks the peasants oppose
ciation of a culture by one who belongs such moves. Does it mean that one is
to another culture involves a relation of opposed to all change, to the production
domination or fragmentary appropriation.of new goods and services, to all relocation
Nature, too, cannot be globalised. The localof labour? No. But we do insist on the nee
community had rights over what was part offor working out a participatory change.
the natural balance of the locality. ActuallyEven the development of science and tech-

Imagining an Alternative "right" is a misnomer in this context.nology is responsive to the power structure.
Perhaps one can say that the relation ofSo a cooperative relation must grow bet-
In conclusion we will talk about ima- nature with the local people was one ofween science and technology and an alter-
gining an alternative. We have remarked mutual dependence. Wood becomes thenative development. It is now almost a
that the ruling left does not really haveproperty
an of one who uproots the tree. Thiscliche that education and the pursuit of
option. It has to expropriate the rights property
of owner appropriates rent. Treesknowledge and science must be adapted to
become wood. And the one who initiates
the peasants. There is no point, other than the needs of production. I would not dis-
that it has some rhetorical worth, to blame
this metamorphosis after death becomesagree. But I would be specific: the relation
this party and that leader. If one goes the rent-appropriating owner. must be cooperative. In the present situation
through the large number of leaflets pub- The project of constructing an alterna-this slogan simply amounts to the demand
lished by the various left-of-left-front tive path of development must stop rentthat education, knowledge and science
groups criticising the ruling left front, extraction
one by the global while respectingmust all be subservient to the needs of
local differences. The locally rooted
can sense their theoretical discomfort. They global capital.
working people are the bearers of these This proposal for exploring alternatives
criticise the government for lying, for sup-
pressing truth, for police repression, differences.
and Cooperative-based production is rather inchoate and, therefore, likely to
such other violations of what are broadly must emerge from the initiative of the be confused with various kinds of civil
liberal bourgeois ethics. It is important to
labouring people. And some kind of machi- society movements. A possibility that is
nery for direct interaction will have to be rather unpalatable is to be equated with
criticise the violations of bourgeois human
values. The barbarity of the government, created to prevent rent extraction. The radical environmentalists. So let us mark
its violation of the constitution must be alternate globalisation that we are talking at least some of our distance from them.
highlighted. Such critiques can serve theabout is the globalisation of the relations They have a tendency to forget history and
rhetorical purpose of showing up the heart-between these cooperatives. present some position in time as if it was
lessness of the system. But if there is no The proposal perhaps begs more ques- the original, unsullied, natural situation.
possible alternative path of development tions than it answers. A basic question - So when one talks of "locality" one must
then in the current age of global capital why should the labouring people be the remember that it is also the result of some
what is happening is inevitable. Unfortu- bearers of local specificity? Consider one complex historical process through which
nately, the left has also abdicated its re-who is employed in a factory. The person some communities had been displaced.
sponsibility of imagining an alternative. can no longer be identified as a worker if The current natural and demographic struc-
And this goes for almost all shades of left.
this factory shuts down. So if the particular ture has a history, which includes displace-
One proposes that the search for anregion or locality, the factory, loses its ment of adivasis and spoliation of a past
alternative should start from this clash specific characteristic-that of producing a natural balance. The attempt to disown
particular good - the worker ceases to exist history or the complex process that has
of ethics involved in the process of primi-
tive capital accumulation - the ethics quaof worker. On the other hand, the owner brought the present into being may work
the peasantry versus the ethics of the of the factory is not the bearer of this in favour of some self-seeking interests.
regional specificity. The capitalist's calcu- Just as we should not disown history, so
market, of global capital; the ethics of the
forest dependent people versus the ethics lations are based on the generality of market also we cannot reject the present. Modern
of the market which proves with its "cost- existence, on the expression of this uni- development creates refugees of develop-
benefit" analysis that it is efficient policy
versal - the market price. It is with profits ment by constructing industry or housing

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resorts for the rich on agricultural land; by Categories spring traps which analysis binary or the related "global/local" binary.
the loss of fertility caused by modern cannot avoid. But an alternative ethics can But we should be conscious that in the age
farming that cannot be replenished; by the be established only by transcending the of globalisation the greater danger lies, in
loss of occupation of the fishermen caused categories of the dominant culture, which being blinded by the seduction of the global,
by the discharge of chemical effluents into cloud our thoughts. Transcendence occurs which includes, among other devices, the
water bodies; by the displacement of forest through the daily conflicts of our life. glorification of universality against the
dwellers and agriculturists on account of Transcendence is a process, which the tyranny of the locality. Globalised produc-
construction of large dams. The displaced dominant categories cannot capture, analy- tion and consumption are not conditioned
crowd cities in search of livelihood. They sis cannot pin down. It occurs in our desires, by any societal norms. The market can
construct marginal communities in the which build, and are built, into our dreams. only register "demand", i e, need backed
"illegal" shanties lining railroads, leaving If it were an analytical process then intel- by purchasing power. It has no way of
behind old settlements, old community lectuals could competently draw up blue- taking cognisance of the need to live of
identities. They find odd jobs in the the poor who do not have the wherewithal
prints of social change. Certain terms that
unorganised sector, remain unemployed or we have deployed in this paragraph indi- to buy what they need to survive. The
engage themselves in "anti-social" activi- cate our inability to theorise transcendence harsh individualistic culture that sus-
ties to eke out a living. They form new in the same way as we theorise materiality. tains support for the market, would find
communities. Their desires and demands Terms like "cloud", dreams', "desires", this refusal to judge the need to survive
change. We cannot turn back the wheels "cooperative relation", etc, are terms that as intrinsically superior to the desire to
we do not use as economists.
of this inhuman progress by rejecting the satisfy a whim to be ethically correct. If
present. To which past shall we return?Our proposal for an alternative rests the survival of the poor family had been
largely on a binary - general/specific.
Which historical situation shall we desig- desired by the society, the family would
have been able to earn sufficient income
Unfortunately, in spite of trying to evade
nate as original? We have to start from the
the issue through various linguistic
present - from the current demands of the by selling the resources at its command in
juggleries, one is forced to admit, at the
labouring communities. This must be the themarket.
Building the alternative will entail,
end of the day, that ultimately, a major
starting point of the movement to construct
lacuna of all analytical exercises dealing
a cooperative human psyche so that one day among other things, recovering human-
the worker in the armaments factory willwith the nature of society and changeism,
is a concern for others in society, which
has been buried deep under decades of
the inability to transcend binary thought
also march for peace. The alternative does
market hedonism. The alternative does not
categories. The particular binary that we
not lie in the imposition of some leader-
ship's dreams and schemes, ignoring thehave deployed has its own limitations. We
consist of just changing the policies of the
present demands of the community of have said that the labouring people are government.
the We will all have to partici-
working people, which are expressed bearers of their local specificity. We have
pate in the construction of a new humanity
advanced some arguments in supportand
mainly in their economic struggles. Rather, ofa society. It is but inevitable that global
this proposal. But even an exploitative
one can attempt to limit the scope of market capital and the state will resist the con-
class with a localised power base isstruction
centrism by joining in the economic strug- a of the alternative - cooperative
gles of such communities. If one can mobi- construction, that is. Counter resistance
bearer of local specificity in some sense.
The landed aristocrats, say the zamindars,
lise public pressure to compel the govern- in self-defence will follow. The details of
extracted/extract feudal rent on the basis
ment to increase its social welfare spend- the alternative will ultimately be worked
of feudal landed property rights over aout in the course of this construction
ing, for example, the orientation of health
and education towards the demands of defined territory. So this lord was/is the and struggle. IG
market worthy individuals may be partly bearer of local values. It follows that we
balanced. are not proposing an alternative based onEmail: pranabkbasu@gmail.com
The little that we have been able to the dreams and desires of the labouring
the simply because they are the agencyNotes
articulate by way of an alternative topeople
of the local. Faith in the working people
devastating course of globalisation simply
is an autonomous, fundamental characte- [I have benefited greatly from my conversations
constitutes a preliminary proposal based
with Dipankar Das and Sumit Chowdhury while
on a theoretical understanding. It hasristic
no of our position. Opposing the con-
this piece was evolving. I am also grateful to
crete, which has a specific, character thatDipankar for meticulously going through the
pretension to constituting a plan of action,
however sketchy. Indeed such cannot cannot
be be dissolved in any generality orinitial draft.]
the product of an intellectual exercise,
essence, against a faceless entity that dis- 1 By the term "global capital" we are referring
individual or collective. solves into a particular manifestation of an to capital that has crossed a certain threshold,
We will end on a self-critical note. The essence, may lure the analysis into some in terms of size, to acquire the passport to
proposal is for the construction of a diffe- snares. We often tend to ignore the exist- global mobility. The significance of this
categorical separation will become obvious as
rent economy and society based on an ence of a power structure at the level of
we go along. For the time being it is sufficient
alternative set of ethics. Ethics is born of the local community. Our hope is that the to note that this type of capital is not geocentric
morality, which is constituted in the pro- local working people's cooperatives will in either source or area of investment. It has
cess of living, of dreaming, of dreaming be able to transcend local sectarianism therefore little or no national allegiance.
of a different living. But we have based also. One must, of course, be constantly 2 "Public purpose" is a vague term, which can
be suitably interpreted to suit the needs of
our proposals on our theoretical analysis. alive to the other possibility.
global capital. For example the government of
Analysis is inevitably limited by the cate- We should be watchful about the limi-
West Bengal has used this Act to acquire land
gories it uses, by its structure of logic. tations of using the "general/concrete" that will be handed over to the Tatas for

1286 Economic and Political Weekly April 7, 2007

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 construction of a small car factory. This has is a virtual monopoly in the short run. Marx I give ten rupees to the shopkeeper and the
been interpreted as a public purpose because it discusses the converse case [Marx 1959, p 629]. shopkeeper gives me a ball-pen. They are of
is claimed that it will provide employment to The owners of worst grade small plots were equal worth, in the sense that we have both
the people of the state. Even if one does not able to extract absolute ground rent because agreed to this. Otherwise the transaction would
contest the veracity of this highly improbable of the competition among a large number of not have taken place. This exchange is possible
claim, one can still ask how the employment small capitalist farmers for such plots. This because I was recognised as the legitimate
of workers by a profitable enterprise in order owner of rupees ten, and the shopkeeper was
was not out of their pockets but squeezed out
to enhance its profits can be termed as a deed of the labourers, who could be paid low wages recognised as the owner of the ball-pen. Also
with a public or social purpose. because of the unavailability of alternate once, the shopkeeper and I had agreed to the
3 We will elaborate this alternative later. employment. In the long run, however, such price, exchange required that we kept the
4 Rent is earned on the basis of monopoly of rent could not be paid because the emigration contract to exchange the ball-pen and the
rights over resources that are not replicable. of labourers led to wage increase. money. In plain words, it was necessary that
Marx discusses this in volume III of capital If these attributes are present in other fields I did not run away with the ball-pen when it
[Marx 1959]. Primitive capital accumulation the right owners can extract rent. We discuss was handed over to me. Thus, for the market
(PCA) is discussed in volume I of capital [Marx just one example. The free flow of knowledge to function only the laws of private property
1954]. There are now three classes of economic (i e, its mobility) is cut off through the and contract are necessary. These laws are
functionaries. There are the landlords who have imposition of suitable patent laws. This renders impersonal. Anyone who has the money can
dispossessed the traditional right holders of knowledge, science and technology non- own property (the state does not designate by
their rights and established sole proprietary replicable. The owners of patents then have name who can own property). Any two persons
rights over land. There are the capitalists who monopoly of rights in these fields that can be who own property can contract to exchange
take this land on lease against payment of rent used to extract rent. (the state does not bar any property owner
to the landlord to use the land for profit. And Another direction in which we have expanded from exchanging the property).
there are of course the labourers who work on Marx's idea of rent is that though the functions 11 Ultimately it will be impossible to prevent land
payment of wages. of the owner of rights that entitles one to rent handed over to capital for industrial ventures
Discussing the basis of the ability to extract and the function of the capitalist are separated, from being transformed into real estates if it
rent, Marx says, "...the monopoly of the so- in our discussion they vest in the same entity. is more profitable. All indications are in that
called landed proprietor of a portion of our Marx treats this as an exceptional case, direction. Accordingto the projections of Merrill
planet, enables him to levy such a tribute"[Marx rather than as the rule [Marx 1959, p 751]. Lynch, the Indian realty sector will grow from
1959, p 625]. Marx then goes on to divide rent This is simply caused by the changed $12 billion in 2005 to $ 90 billion in 2015. The
into two analytical parts: differential rent (that historical circumstance, which also explains fact that Merrill Lynch has invested $ 50 m
is generated by the extra productivity of some the simultaneity of global capital's expansion in Panchsheel Developers, a regional deve-
plots, which causes the product to fetch more and PCA. loper, Morgan Stanley has invested $ 68 m in
revenue than is sufficient to cover normal wage 5 There is some difference between this and the Mantri Developers, a medium-sized Bangalore-
charge, material cost, other charges and profit discussion in Capital. See fn 4. based developer, indicates that this is not all
at the normal rate); and absolute rent (that is 6 Marx calls this surplus-profit and treats it as hype. Real estate funds set up abroad for
generated by diminishing wage and/or rate of a kind of absolute ground rent [Marx 1959, investment in India alone totals $ 2.7 billion
profit on capital invested on such plots). This p 775]. currently ('Land Grab and Development Fraud
latter is rendered possible because such capital 7 See footnote 1. in India', Analytical Monthly Review, editorial,
or labour has no alternate field of employment. 8 The term "feudo-capital" has been used to September 2006).
Marx cites the case of the small farmers who designate this symbiosis [Chaudhury and 12 "...but the accumulation of capital
cannot hire in large plots of land. Because of Raychaudhury 2003]. presupposes surplus-value: surplus-value
the large numbers of such farmers in comparison 9 Such societies, which are arguably the earliest presupposes capitalist production; capitalist
to the number of such plots available, the owners form in which humans organised themselves, production presupposes the pre-existence of
of such plots were able to depress the profit have been characterised as classless. Class considerable masses of capital and of labour-
on capital of the small farmer and so extract division, that is the division into surplus
power in the hands of producers of com-
absolute rent. modities. The whole movement, therefore,
producers and surplus appropriators, can occur
To my mind the key factors that allow rent seems to turn in a vicious circle, out of which
only when society produces a surplus over and
extraction are barriers to the ability to replicate above its subsistence requirements. In other we can only get by supposing a primitive
- this aspect Marx mentions explicitly [Marx words, surplus production is a necessary accumulation (previous accumulation of Adam
1959: 633] - and monopoly. The planet earth condition for the existence of class divisions. Smith) preceding capitalist accumulation; an
is not replicable and so monopoly over fractions Since science and technology were (are) very accumulation not the result of the capitalist
of this earth allow the owners of these titles rudimentary in these societies, such societies mode of production, but its starting point"
to extract a payment, called rent from the did not (or do not) produce any surplus. Hence [Marx 1954, p 667].
capitalist who would employ this resource. But class divisions do not exist.
if these attributes exist or are created in other 10 The capitalist has the necessary financesReferences
to
fields then rent could be extracted from these purchase the inputs (including labour power)
fields too. The discussion that follows may be that are required for production. The lawsAMR
of (2006): 'Land Grab and Development Fraud
simpler to follow if we introduce another aspect: private property ensure that the inputs belong to in India', Analytical Monthly Review,
the aspect of immobility at this point. Let us the capitalist because he/she has purchased it September, Kharagpur.
elaborate. Suppose all the landowners in India in the market. So the output produced from Basu, Pranab Kanti (2001): Asiatic Feudalism,
get together and decide to charge at least a these inputs also belong to the capitalist. The Capitalism and (non)Transition, PhD disser-
minimum rent, irrespective of productivity of money earned by selling this final product in tation, Department of Economics, Calcutta
land. The capitalists who are land dependent the market constitutes the revenue of the
University, Kolkata.
capitalist. The excess of the revenue over Chaudhury,
have to foot the bill because land being immobile the Ajit Dipankar Das and Anjan
across market boundaries cannot be obtained cost of purchase of the inputs is the surplus, Chakrabarti (2000): Margin ofMargin: Profile
within the geographic area of India without which, naturally belongs to the capitalist. Soof an Unrepentant Postcolonial Collaborator;
payment of such absolute rent. If land could for appropriating the surplus as profit, all thatAnushtup, Kolkata
be imported competition among rentiers would seems to be necessary is that the market shouldChaudhury, Aj it and Sarthak Raychaudhury (2003):
reduce this component of rent ultimately to function. Feudocapitalism, Other Voice, Kolkata.
zero. Like in the case of what is called quasi- The market is the place where exchange of (1954): Capital, Vol I, Progress Publishers,
Marx
rent in neoclassical economics - free entry of goods and services occurs. In an act of exchangeMoscow (reprint 1974).
firms into the competitive markets force down two parties simultaneously give and take -two (1959): Capital, Vol III, Progress Publishers,
rent to zero in the long run by wiping out what properties that are of equal worth. For example,Moscow (reprint 1974).

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