Looking, but not seeing: The state and/as class in rural India

Abstract

Reasserted here is the class view of the Indian state. Because capitalism is the dominant mode of production in India, in rural areas and nationally, the state is a capitalist state and thus an agent of capitalist development. Its policies are accordingly influenced both by the dominant classes and by the lower class struggles. The fact that the Indian state has to support capitalist class relationships, even through the deployment of violent methods where necessary, paradoxically, prevents it from successfully addressing the agrarian question through national-level policy instruments, such as land reforms. Because of a continuing failure on the part of the state to promote development in the interest of workers and peasantry on the one hand and because of its current neoliberal policies supportive of domestic and foreign capital, this apparatus may face a legitimation crisis, especially in rural areas. Whether the potential for such a crisis will be realized depends on how the lower classes and middle peasants respond to the situation politically. And to the degree that a crisis does take shape, much will also depend on how the state responds, in particular its use of coercive power at its disposal, and how in turn lower classes respond to this.