When identities are ignored: capital, social capital and the failure of the Indian left

Abstract

This article, by examining the social component within capital and analyzing the Marxist discourse of social capital as a neo-liberal agenda that separates the social from capital, addresses the failure of the Indian left to acknowledge the caste system and identity politics in India in its potential for revolutionary political mobilization. The notion of theoretical purity, and the dogmatism that explained caste politics as a reactionary identity politics, is rather a reflection of Hindu sentiments and commonsense, from which the leadership of Indian left organizations are unable to liberate themselves.