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Please post this call for papers. Thank you.

Anthony D'Costa
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Anthony P. D'Costa, Chair & Professor of Contemporary Indian Studies

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The Return of the Land Question: Dispossession, Livelihoods, and Contestation in India’s Capitalist Transition

 

Call for Papers

 

Conference Organised by the Faculty of Arts and Australia India Institute, University of Melbourne; Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata; and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

 

4-6 March 2014 at the Institute Development Studies Kolkata, India

 

Successful industrial capitalism is predicated upon a transition from feudal to capitalist agriculture through a process of what Marx called ‘primitive accumulation’. In Europe, leaving aside a few exceptions, primitive accumulation lead to two distinct but inter-related outcomes: the transfer of property rights from a ‘backward’ feudal landlord to a ‘progressive’ capitalist farmer on the one hand and the creation of ‘free’ labour through dispossession of the peasantry on the other. The emergence of the capitalist farmer and wage labour therefore facilitated agrarian accumulation, which then formed the basis for successful industrialisation. Given the enormity of social transformation that primitive accumulation entails, the process itself is always intensely contested. Successful primitive accumulation therefore critically rests on a state-capital nexus that midwives the transformation. Primitive accumulation during Europe’s transition to capitalism occurred alongside its imperialist expansion that shaped accumulation and market access and at a time when political democracy as a form of popular representation was largely absent, removing a potential constraint on the state-capital nexus.

 

East Asia’s development experience of late industrialisation tells us that dispossession of peasantry is not a necessary condition for successful capitalist transition. Indeed, in East Asia, successful industrialisation is associated with successful land reform, which gave peasants some form of rights to land, whether due to pressures from above (colonisation or military occupation) or from below (popular movements). Successful land reform then opened up pathways for rural industrialisation, employment generation, rural-urban migration and urbanisation that have been quite distinct from the European experience. East Asia’s industrialisation was also predicated on global integration driven by market access provided by the USA.

 

However, if successful capitalist transitions are not based on peasant dispossession then there are important implications for the patterns of industrialisation, employment generation, rural-urban migration and land-use and therefore equity of growth outcomes. Peasant dispossession in particular and dispossession in general becomes a critical arbiter of livelihood outcomes.

 

Indian independence with limited land reforms implied a path of dispossession through building of Nehruvian ‘temples of modern India’ – irrigation, steel, power etc. by the public sector for which largely adivasi (tribal) lands were acquired. It led neither to agrarian transition nor democratic accommodation of contestation over land even though major public sector projects had come to an end by the end of the 1980s.  It was in the post-reform, neoliberal phase of India’s capitalist transition, particularly in the first decade of the 21^st century when land and dispossession came to the forefront again. In this period the Indian economy witnessed historically unprecedented growth rates driven by private corporate investment. This period was marked by two processes both of which have shaped the contemporary land question -- an agrarian transition marked by a widespread agrarian crisis of profitability and livelihoods and a sharp increase in the globalisation of the economy. The demand by both domestic and foreign capital to meet rising world demand secured access to India’s mineral resources most of which are in adivasi land. This process of land acquisition has been characterised (and by some therefore, implicitly justified) as the phase of primitive accumulation associated with capitalist transition. But as demand for non-agricultural land increased for the creation of special economic zones (SEZs) and urban real-estate, among other things, the agrarian crisis of livelihoods and employment meant that peasants and adivasis resisted acquisition of land and access to mineral resources.

 

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to understand the process of dispossession and its ramifications for the political economy of capital accumulation in the Indian economy. It therefore seeks to address, inter alia, the following sets of issues: what is the nature of agrarian accumulation that has resulted in the unwillingness of peasants to sell land? What are the employment and livelihood challenges faced by the dispossessed? What has been the nature of contestation that this process of widespread dispossession has elicited? What is the nature of state-capital relationship(s) that underpin this process and has this been constrained by contestation from below within the context of a democratic polity? Who are the stakeholders in this transition process? Has the process of contestation and parliamentary democracy materially altered this process of dispossession? If it has, will it materially alter the path of India’s capitalist transition making possible a more inclusive growth process in terms of employment and livelihoods and ending this neoliberal phase of accumulation by dispossession? Or are the recent people-oriented land and forest-related legislations introduced by the state mere window-dressing and hence India will continue on a neoliberal path of untrammelled capital accumulation and its attendant outcomes of rising inequality and marginal decline in poverty?

 

We invite scholars from India and abroad to submit proposals, which cover some facet of the land question in India. For India-based participants selected for the conference we will provide roundtrip economy class airfare and lodging and boarding for the duration of the conference. To our international invitees we will provide accommodation and meals but we encourage international scholars to seek travel funding of their own as we expect to be able to provide only partial travel support.

 

Those interested in participating must provide a title, 750-1,000 word abstract, contact email address, and a one-page CV with a list of recent publications by 8^th December 2013. Please send your proposals to:

 

Mritiunjoy Mohanty [log in to unmask]

 

and cc to Achin Chakraborty [log in to unmask]

and Anthony D’Costa [log in to unmask]

 

 

Last date for abstract submission: 8^th December 2013

 

Acceptance decision: 15^th December 2013

 

Full paper submission: 15^th February 2014