Review article - Class, Capitalism and Agrarian Transition: A Critical Review of Some Recent Arguments

Abstract

This article shows the salience of class analysis through a critical review of some recent books on agrarian conditions in India. It discusses how extant class relations and class struggle affect, directly and/or through state mediation, the emergence of new class alliances and the development of the productive forces, topics which have been an integral part of the debate about agrarian transition. The theoretical parameters of this debate, however, need to be expanded in order epistemologically to accommodate the current impact of imperialism on Third World agriculture. This requires that debates about imperialism/'globalization' and agrarian transition are linked in turn to (and recognize the political importance of) issues raised by the 'fettering' of the productive forces by national and international capitalism. Author: PATNAIK, UTSA; The Long Transition: Essays on Political Economy; Author: HELLER, PATRICK; The Labour of Development: Workers and the Transformation o