Author: Sejuti Das Gupta

Publisher:

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781009481328

"Has there been a shift in agrarian policies in India since liberalisation? What has been the impact of these policies on new class formation and consolidation of existing ones? Did proprietary classes with close relations to the state influence the formulation of these policies? Do class-state relations have to be uniform across nations under globalisation? Studying post-liberalisation India, this book answers these questions by scrutinising the tenets of agrarian policies of three states - Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and Karnataka. In doing so, it analyses the political economy of agricultural policy and the class-state relations operating in the country. Two common arguments encountered in post-liberalisation India are that politics ought to be studied through the lens of identity, caste, language, and religion, and that under globalisation, peculiarities of the nation state have been ironed out. While arguments around these themes are seen in existing literature, the way class interest is consolidated as political settlement and the state's role in creating and maintaining classes have received limited attention. Studies on Indian politics have focused mainly on communal and caste identities, and this book adds to the understanding by arguing that class plays a critical role in agrarian politics and politics in general; class is defined as an economic and political criterion. It concludes that class and its relation to the state has come to occupy a defining role in the politics of new India and, thus, it becomes imperative to conduct this study through the lens of political economy"--