Neoliberal reforms, agrarian capitalism and the peasantry

摘要

Understanding of agrarian change in India started with the analysis of relationship between capitalism and peasantry. Though peasant farming was a characteristic feature of Indian agriculture for long, the question of survival of peasantry under capitalist development has been an issue of enduring controversy. Recently, it assumed greater significance in the context of economic reforms in the 1990s intended to bring about major changes in the macroeconomic policy framework of the planned economy to globalise agriculture after the signing of the Agreement on Agriculture under the Uruguay Round of Negotiations of GATT (subsequently the WTO) by introducing reforms particularly in the spheres of production and marketing. This was supposed to acceleratecapitalist agriculture leading to promotion of exports and rapid agricultural growth. However, the available empirical evidence on the response of peasantry to the emerging trend of capitalist development is limited and largely inconclusive.1 Hence, an attempt is made in this chapter to analyse the level of capitalist2 growth in Indian agriculture in the context of neoliberal reforms and its consequent impact on the existence of peasantry3 across major states.