Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has to be cancelled.
The master class is for ANU staff and students only.
Is capitalism rural? Understanding farmers' situation in India
India is a land of contradictions. One such is the fifth largest economy has a sharp increase in food insecurity and inequality. To understand the shifts in political economy, the class will look into agrarian transformation in India, particularly commercial and high value crops; these crops have been backed by the argument that it will increase income of small and marginal farmers.
In fact, in recent years, horticulture’s contribution to agriculture and allied sector has been higher than food grain production. ‘These high-value crops are also very popular among the new class of farmers, characterized as the nouveau- riche rural capitalists who want to grow, sell and consume chemical-free foods, with a vision to have a ‘360-degree change in health, wealth and ecology.’ We aim to get a holistic but regionally-disaggregated perspective on the issue of change in the agricultural practices around the urban and peri-urban landscape of India. These spaces have seen rapid urbanization, depletion of green cover, pollution, and disruption of food supply chains due to changes in climate externalities.
This paper is based on the ongoing study undertaken in five regions, Delhi (National Capital Region), Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, where field survey was conducted in about 37 farms and nurseries with high-value crops. Through a foray into changes on the ground, such as changing land relations in these different locations with different socio-political histories and emergent shifts in labour and capital relations, we will reflect on the larger questions about the kind of development and what is the vision of the state.
About the speaker
Dr Sejuti Das Gupta is an assistant professor from Michigan State University in the Comparative Cultures and Politics field. She completed her doctoral studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She received the Felix Scholarship to conduct her doctoral research in Development Studies. Her book Class, Politics and Agrarian Policies in Post-liberalisation India has been published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. Her areas of interest are capitalism, colonialism, agrarian political economy, public policy, class-caste and state-society interactions.
This South Asia Research Institute master class is co-hosted with the Resources, Environment and Development Program, in the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy.