ABSTRACT

This book evaluates the relevance of classical debates on agrarian transition and extends the horizon of contemporary debates in the Indian context, linking national trends with regional experiences. It identifies new dynamics in agrarian political economy and presents a comprehensive account of diverse aspects of capitalist transition both at theoretical and empirical levels. The essays discuss several neglected domains in agricultural economics such as discursive dimensions of agrarian relations and limitations of stereotypical binaries between capital and non-capital, rural and urban sectors, agriculture and industry, and accumulation and subsistence.

With contributions from major scholars in the field, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of agriculture, economics, political economy, sociology, rural development and development studies.

chapter |40 pages

Introduction

Agrarian transition: from classic to current debates

part I|72 pages

Agrarian transition: theoretical discourse

chapter 1|24 pages

Back to the future?

Marx, modes of production and the agrarian question

chapter 2|25 pages

Revisiting agrarian transition

Reflections on long histories and current realities

chapter 3|21 pages

Contours of the agrarian question

Towards political question of ‘the peasantry' in contemporary India

part III|95 pages

Agrarian transition: regional responses

chapter 8|23 pages

Agro-ecological double movements?

Zero Budget Natural Farming and alternative agricultures after the neoliberal crisis in Kerala

chapter 9|31 pages

Stressed commerce and accumulation process

A farm-level study of agrarian transition in West Bengal

chapter 10|17 pages

Punjab's small peasantry

Thriving or deteriorating?