Q: Explain the implications and the impact of globalization in situating the changing agrarian class structure in India.

Model Answer:

Traditionally, India’s agrarian class structure was categorized by Daniel Thorner into Malik, Kisan, and Mazdoor. Post-1991 globalization accelerated capitalist penetration, transforming these traditional categories into a highly differentiated, market-driven hierarchy.

Impact on Agrarian Class Structure

• Rise of the Rural Bourgeoisie: As Andre Beteille noted, caste and class decoupled. Intermediate castes—termed “Bullock Capitalists” by Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph and “Provincial Darbars” by Surinder Jodhka—leveraged global markets to emerge as capitalist farmers.
• De-peasantization and Crisis: A.R. Vasavi links globalization to an agrarian crisis driven by corporate input monopolies (e.g., Bt cotton). Utsa Patnaik argues WTO norms and reduced state support triggered “De-peasantization,” marginalizing smallholders.
• Proletarianization and “Footloose Labour”: The collapse of traditional Jajmani patronage created what Jan Breman calls “Footloose Labour.” These landless laborers face “neo-bondage,” migrating as highly exploited wage-workers without social security.
• Emergence of a Rentier Class: Dipankar Gupta notes rural economies are no longer strictly agrarian. Michael Levien identifies a new rural rentier class profiting from land sales for SEZs, resulting in “Dispossession without Development.”
• Feminization of Agriculture: Bina Agarwal emphasizes that male out-migration forces lower-class and Dalit women into precarious, low-wage agricultural labor.

Shifting Movements and Perspectives

• New Farmers’ Movements (NFM): Gail Omvedt notes that post-1991 protests are spearheaded by surplus-producing rich farmers demanding favorable “terms of trade,” unlike traditional poor peasant struggles for land.
• Theoretical Debate: Marxists highlight severe class polarization, whereas Subaltern perspectives argue globalization partially liberated lower castes from oppressive traditional village ties.

The rise of contract farming (e.g., PepsiCo in Punjab) exemplifies how global capital integrates local cultivators into multinational supply chains, altering traditional crop choices and heightening class-based vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

Globalization has yielded a dual agrarian reality: a prosperous rural bourgeoisie seamlessly integrated with global markets, coexisting alongside a massive, precarious class of displaced smallholders and footloose laborers.