Capitalism, Inequality and Labour in India

Jan Breman's book explores labor bondage in India's changing political economy, arguing that capitalism replaced patronage and led to the exploitation of a footloose workforce.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 300 pages
Publication date: 20 October 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

In his comprehensive examination of labor bondage in India's evolving political economy from 1962 to 2017, Jan Breman centers his analysis on the concept of dispossession. In a distant era, tribal and low-caste communities were bound to landowning households, their lack of freedom being perceived as a result of subsistence-oriented dependency. Breman contends that the arrival of colonial rule introduced capitalism into India's agrarian economy, leading to a decline in the notion of patronage in the relationship between bonded labor and landowner. Instead, servitude underwent a transformation into indebtedness. As labor transitioned into a commodity, peasant workers were increasingly displaced from agriculture and rural communities, yet they remained marginalized within the broader economy. This mobile workforce, subjected to exploitation when their labor power is in demand, finds themselves excluded when their contributions are surplus to requirements. Consequently, a progressive inequality emerges, characterized by its capitalist nature.

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Weight: 440g
ISBN-13: 9781108712279