Misconceptions about Agriculture Prabhat Patnaik
There are a number of misconceptions about Indian agriculture which, if not removed forthwith, can have potentially adverse effects on the ongoing kisan agitation against the three farm laws. The first of these is the belief that corporate encroachment on peasant agriculture is a matter concerning only the corporate encroachers and the peasants. This is wrong: corporate encroachment on peasant agriculture is a matter that affects the economy as a whole; it concerns everybody. This is not a rhetorical statement; it is literally true. In this sense the kisan agitation against corporate encroachment is not a bilateral issue like industrial…
The Homogenization of Education Prabhat Patnaik
Education in post-independence India was supposed not just to provide knowledge and skills to students, but also to facilitate the process of “nation-building” (to use a clumsy word). Since the concept of an “Indian nation”, although it existed in a rudimentary form earlier (going back even to the writings of Amir Khusrau), came into vogue only during India’s anti-colonial struggle, the “nation-building” role of education requires above all an awareness of this struggle, which in turn demands familiarity with the condition of India under colonial rule, and the facts of exploitation of its people. It is not just students of…
Foodstocks, Bio-Fuels and Hunger Prabhat Patnaik
The Modi government’s attempt to “explain” away India’s slipping from being 94th on the world hunger index in 2020 to 101st in 2021, a rank well below that of neighbours Pakistan, Nepal or Bangladesh, by questioning the “methodology” of the index, is jejune enough; but even more shocking is its total inability to see the reason behind the acute hunger in the country. Precisely when India has been slipping on the hunger index, the country has had more foodgrain stocks than are required by it according to official “norms”; in fact on September 1, 2021, the FCI had 50.2 million…
Measuring Unemployment Trends in India Prabhat Patnaik
Unlike in the advanced capitalist countries, a reduction in employment opportunities in India takes the form not of a larger proportion of the work-force being shut out of employment, but of almost everyone having lesser number of days of work. This is a reflection of the fact that only a tiny segment of the work-force is employed on a full-time basis. Most are either self-employed, like peasants or shop-keepers, where many more or fewer family-members can share a given amount of work; or are causal workers who may get work on a given day but not on another. The same…
Finance Capital and the World Economy Prabhat Patnaik
The period of neo-liberalism witnesses an increase in the share of economic surplus in total output both in individual countries and also for the world as a whole. This is because the “opening” up of the economy to freer trade in goods and services leads to a rapid introduction of structural-cum-technological change, which, because of its labour-displacing character, keeps down the growth rate of employment, to even below the natural growth-rate of the work-force. The resulting increase in the relative size of the reserve army of labour restrains the level of real wages everywhere, even as labour productivity grows massively,…
Peasants and the Revolution Prabhat Patnaik
Marxist theory develops with changing times, as capitalism itself develops, which is why it remains a living doctrine. On the question of the role of the peasantry in the revolutionary process that leads to the transcendence of capitalism, there have been significant developments in Marxist theory, which I propose to discuss here. Even though Friedrich Engels in The Peasant War in Germany had already underscored the fact that the proletariat had to enter into an alliance with sections of the peasantry and agricultural labourers in its struggle for a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, Marxist theory had for long still remained…
IMF’s Issue of Fresh SDRs Prabhat Patnaik
The International Monetary Fund has announced a fresh issue of $650 billion Special Drawing Rights in August which would be distributed among member countries in proportion to their IMF quotas. This amount is less than what had been demanded by many, which was a trillion dollars, but it does represent a small temporary comfort for the heavily indebted third world countries. Almost all of it will go into the pockets of the private financial institutions who are the creditors of the heavily indebted third world countries, but within the system as it exists it represents a relief for these countries.…
The Unravelling of the Modi Arrangement Prabhat Patnaik
Liberal commentators see Modi’s rise as being caused exclusively by the ascendancy of Hindutva. But they never explain why Hindutva should suddenly acquire this ascendancy. If this ascendancy is traced to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, then why two decades should pass after the demolition before Hindutva could come to power needs to be explained, as does the phenomenon of the BJP suddenly emerging as the richest political party, and one enjoying overwhelming support in India’s print and electronic media. The matter however becomes somewhat explicable once we bring in the class element. The shift in the position of…
Everything for Sale Prabhat Patnaik
Everywhere in the world people got vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus without having to pay a penny, but not in India. Everywhere in the world, historic landmarks that define a nation, that constitute the warp and woof of a nation’s consciousness, are held sacred and left untouched in their original shape, but not in India. Everywhere in the world, public assets that provide basic services, or cultural and educational services, to the people, are virtually free, but no longer in India. Behind this bizarre Indian exceptionalism is the Modi government’s peculiar agenda to turn everything into a commodity. Nothing is…
The Scandal of Old-age Pensions Prabhat Patnaik
Junior Minister for Rural Development in the central government, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, ruled out in parliament any increase in the amount of monthly pension given by the centre to the elderly under the National Social Assistance Programme (The Telegraph, August 22). The amount currently being given to each beneficiary under this programme is a princely sum of Rs 200 per month for persons between ages 60 and 79, and Rs 500 per month for persons of 80 years and above! It is a shame and a disgrace that the central government offers such an utterly paltry sum to aged citizens.…