Semi-feodalism or capitalism: The contemporary debate on classes and modes of production in India

Abstract

After a dozen years of heated discussion, Indian Marxist intellectuals have come explicitly or implicitly to acknowledge the increasing importance on the rural scene of a new class of capitalist farmers who utilise scientific methods, invest in equipment, employ wage labourer, produce primarily for the market, and aim above all at realising profits. Various features which have been put forward as criteria of semi-feudalism – concentration of landholding, share-cropping, exorbitant rents, usurious advances to tenants and labourers, the persistence of extra-economic constraints – appear to be compatible with, or at least not to have stood in the way of, the development of capitalism in Indian agriculture. On questions of rural class structure and its implications for political action, opinions still differ sharply.