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- Convenor:
-
Shreya Sinha
(University of Cambridge)
- Stream:
- J: Structural transformation
- Location:
- G6
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2018 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
This panel will explore how existing socio-economic inequalities in India are sustained, exacerbated and challenged in the 21st century. Hierarchies of caste, class and gender persist in both rural and urban societies but are far from unchanging. At the same time, the macroeconomic shift to neoliberalism since the 1990s has unleashed new social forces in this landscape. Through papers on agriculture, land markets, informal sector workers and everyday politics in India, this panel will discuss the changing structures, actors and struggles shaping the nature of inequalities in this region of the world.
Long Abstract:
Currently considered to be the fastest growing economy in the world, India is marked by increasingly extreme social and economic inequalities. India’s overall human development indicators are considerably worse than those of other emergent economies and indicators such as child malnutrition are worse than poorer regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Hierarchies of caste, class, religion, ethnicity and gender persist in both rural and urban societies, although they are not static. At the same time, the macroeconomic shift to neoliberalism since the 1990s has unleashed new social forces in this landscape. Resistance to inequalities manifests in both major political mobilisations, such as mobilisations by farmers’ unions and Dalit-rights organisations in recent years, and in everyday forms of politics documented by many scholars.
This panel will explore how existing socio-economic inequalities in India are sustained, exacerbated and challenged in the 21st century. The first paper will explore the everyday struggles of street vendors in Mumbai. Through an ethnographic study of their livelihoods and interaction with the state, the paper will present a glimpse of the inequalities embedded in India’s urban informal sector. The second paper moves the discussion to the rural landscape of north India. It studies how the accumulation strategies of capitalist farmers in Punjab have changed under a liberalised policy regime, especially in terms of their negotiation of agricultural markets. Through these two cases, the panel will discuss how the changing structures, actors and struggles are shaping the nature of inequalities in India today.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Meghamrita Chakraborty (Tata Institute of Social Sciences)
Paper short abstract:
Street vendors are thus a part of the city and help the city in many ways. The study attempts to use an Ethnographic lens to understand the streets of Mumbai from the perspective of the street vendors.
Paper long abstract:
Street vendors are defined as 'self-employed workers in the informal sector who offer their labour to sell goods and services on the street without having any permanent built-up structure' (National Policy on Urban Street Vendors [NPUSV], 2006, p. 11) (Saha, 2011).
Street vendors are a lively part of the urban informal economy. Various studies have shown they play a dynamic role in the economy providing supply of necessary and essential goods and services at an affordable rate. In spite of this, street vendors are often considered a nuisance to the city life. They have to regularly pay bribes in order to keep their profession running. They are considered to be a reflection of the poverty and the illiterate migrants who come to the city searching for better jobs. Many times they are forcefully evicted from their vending spots in the name of constructions and "beautification".
What becomes important for a city like Mumbai is that street vendors have been a part of the city for many years and therefore any development policy or scheme will not be successful without their inclusion. Street vendors are thus a part of the city and help the city in many ways. This fact has often been neglected.
With the help of discussions with Street Vendors and observations, the study attempts to use an Ethnographic lens to understand the streets of Mumbai from the perspective of the street vendors and how they struggle daily with the state to assert their livelihood rights.
Shreya Sinha (University of Cambridge)
Paper short abstract:
Against arguments of an overarching crisis for farmers under liberalisation, this paper unpacks the processes sustaining and exacerbating agrarian inequalities in northwest. It shows that capitalist farmers continue to accumulate and this poses challenges for progressive agrarian politics.
Paper long abstract:
Even as the mainstream discourse of the Left in India, and to some extent globally, is of farmers in crisis under neoliberal globalisation, there is growing evidence that the crisis does not extend across all classes of farmers. Rooted in agrarian political economy and based on research on capitalist farmers in northwest India, this paper argues that capital accumulation is ongoing but is also exacerbating socio-economic inequalities in the countryside. Drawing on a year of doctoral fieldwork conducted in 2014-15 in one major market town and surrounding villages in Punjab, India, the paper will unpack the processes through which agrarian inequality is sustained and increased. It will focus on the production and marketing dynamics of multiple commodities, the relations between farmers and traders (including corporate agri-businesses), and land and credit relations. It will show how these relations and processes are resulting in growing inequalities and class differentiation not only between large and small farmers, but also within the rural elite, i.e. between large farmers and agricultural traders. I will combine this with an analysis of how caste dynamics, in particular the relations between and within agrarian and mercantile castes, can work to obfuscate or reinforce class hierarchies. Finally, given the focus of mainstream political and policy discourse on small farmers, this paper will reflect on the challenges for progressive agrarian politics.