From Primitive Accumulation to Regimes of Dispossession

Abstract

In order to analyze land alienation in contemporary India, Shapan Adnan follows a theoretical approach in which mechanisms of primitive accumulation are not restricted to use of force, but include land transfer by agreement, as well as indirect mechanisms that are concerned with very different objectives. Reviewing evidence on land grabs, resistance, and workforce trends, he argues that primitive accumulation under neoliberal globalization has not been substantially followed by the absorption of the dispossessed in regular capitalist employment. Adnan puts forward a set of hypotheses to explain why the self-employed constituted at least half or more of the Indian workforce over 1999–2012. While such trends indicate a partial and short-run divergence from the classic Marxian schema of the transition to capitalism, Adnan argues that, given ongoing trends in the national and global economy, the long run outcome in India remains an open question.