Accumulation in Post-Colonial Capitalism Accumulation in Post-Colonial Capitalism
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Iman Kumar Mitra · Ranabir Samaddar Samita Sen Editors Accumulation in Post-Colonial Capitalism Accumulation in Post-Colonial Capitalism [email protected] Iman Kumar Mitra · Ranabir Samaddar Samita Sen Editors Accumulation in Post-Colonial Capitalism 1 3 [email protected] Editors Iman Kumar Mitra Samita Sen Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group School of Women’s Studies Kolkata, West Bengal Jadavpur University India Kolkata, West Bengal India Ranabir Samaddar Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group Kolkata, West Bengal India ISBN 978-981-10-1036-1 ISBN 978-981-10-1037-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1037-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016939042 © Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (MCRG) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Science+Business Media Singapore Pte Ltd. [email protected] Acknowledgement This volume would not have been possible without the encouragement from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS), Germany. Some of these essays were presented in their initial forms at the Fifth Critical Studies Conference, 2014, in Kolkata, organized by the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (MCRG) with support from the RLS. We are grateful to Anirban Das, Arup Kumar Sen, Dipankar Sinha, Immanuel Ness, Ingo Schmidt, Kalpana Kannabiran, Mouleshri Vyas, Paula Banerjee, Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chaudhury and Sanjay Chaturvedi for their inval- uable comments on these essays. We also thank the two anonymous referees for their comments. We thank Rita Banerjee for her help in preparing the manuscript. The authors, needless to say, are all indebted to each other, for this volume is not a mere collection of essays conceived and written in isolation; they are fruits of endless discussions and deliberations, fights and struggles, cajoling and collaborat- ing, all done collectively. Our colleagues at CRG, as always, have been immensely helpful in every step of the journey. Finally, we dedicate this volume to the memory of Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919). v [email protected] Contents Introduction: A Post-Colonial Critique of Capital Accumulation Today ............................................ 1 Iman Kumar Mitra, Ranabir Samaddar and Samita Sen Part I New Dynamics of Accumulation Flexible Labour and Capital Accumulation in a Post-Colonial Country ....................................... 27 Byasdeb Dasgupta Law, Statistics, Public–Private Partnership and the Emergence of a New Subject ............................................... 59 Mithilesh Kumar Security and the City: Post-Colonial Accumulation, Securitization, and Urban Development in Kolkata ............................... 75 Ilia Antenucci Accumulation by Possession: The Social Processes of Rent Seeking in Urban Delhi ................................................. 93 Sushmita Pati Accumulation at Margins: The Case of Khora Colony ................ 109 Shruti Dubey The Politics of Bank Nationalization in India ....................... 125 Suhit K. Sen Part II Caste, Gender, Race: Axes of Accumulation Life, Labour, Recycling: A Study of Waste Management Practices in Contemporary Kolkata ....................................... 149 Debarati Bagchi and Iman Kumar Mitra vii [email protected] viii Contents Ayurveda Tourism: Issues of Development and Gender in Contemporary Kerala ........................................ 165 Rashmi Gopi Caste and the Frontiers of Post-Colonial Capital Accumulation ........ 189 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay and Ranabir Samaddar Governmentalizing NRI Philanthropy in Andhra Pradesh: A Transregional Approach to India’s Development ................... 215 Sanam Roohi The Postcolony and ‘Racy’ Histories of Accumulation ................ 233 Atig Ghosh Bibliography .................................................. 249 Index ......................................................... 259 [email protected] Editors and Contributors About the Editors Iman Kumar Mitra has studied economics and is a research associate at the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group. His doctoral dissertation explores the history of dissemination of economic knowledge in colonial Bengal through various peda- gogical and institutional networks. His research interests include history of econom- ics, migration, urbanization and labour issues. He is currently involved in a research project on the interconnectedness between rural-urban migration, urbanization and social justice in post-liberalization India. Ranabir Samaddar is distinguished chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group. He has worked extensively on issues of forced migration, the theory and practices of dialogue, nationalism and post-colonial statehood in South Asia and new regimes of technological restructur- ing and labour control. His most recent publication in the form of a co-authored volume on new town and new forms of accumulation Beyond Kolkata: Rajarhat and the Dystopia of Urban Imagination (Routledge, 2013) takes forward urban studies in the context of post-colonial capitalism. Samita Sen was the first vice-chancellor of the Women’s University atDiamond Harbour. Currently she teaches at the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University. She has worked extensively on labour and gender issues. Her publica- tion includes Women and Labour in Late Colonial India: The Bengal Jute Industry (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and the co-authored monograph Domestic Days: Women, Work, and Politics in Contemporary Kolkata (Oxford University Press, 2015). She is a member of the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group. ix [email protected] x Editors and Contributors Contributors Ilia Antenucci Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Richmond, Australia Debarati Bagchi Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, India Byasdeb Dasgupta University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Bengal, India Shruti Dubey Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Atig Ghosh Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India Rashmi Gopi Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, Chanakyapuri, India Mithilesh Kumar Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Richmond, Australia; Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, India Iman Kumar Mitra Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, India Sushmita Pati Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Sanam Roohi National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, India; Amster- dam Institute for Social Science Research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Ranabir Samaddar Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Calcutta, India Samita Sen School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India Suhit K. Sen Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, India [email protected] List of Tables Flexible Labour and Capital Accumulation in a Post-Colonial Country Table 1 Number of trade unions in the formal sector (1991–2008) ........ 51 Table 2 Membership of trade unions (1991–2008) (in thousands) ........ 52 Table 3 Average membership of trade unions ........................ 53 Caste and the Frontiers of Post-Colonial Capital Accumulation Table 1 Transfer of land, 1930–1942 ............................... 200 Table 2 Rice mills in undivided 24 Parganas and Burdwan: Identity of owners ....................................... 208 xi [email protected] Introduction: A Post-Colonial Critique of Capital Accumulation Today Iman Kumar Mitra, Ranabir Samaddar and Samita Sen Abstract The introduction makes three main points, which characterize this volume. (a) It looks at how accumulation under post-colonial capitalism tends to blur various geopolitical boundaries of space, institutions, forms, financial regimes, labour processes, and economic segments on the one hand and creates zones and corridors on the other. In this context, it draws our attention to the pecu- liar but structurally necessary coexistence of both primitive and virtual modes of accumulation in the postcolony. With increasing inflow of virtual capital in the form of offshore funds, venture business, hedge funds, Internet-based investment and banking, and forward trading, more people are forced to accept precarious work conditions in the unorganized sectors resulting in massive de-peasantization and creation of footloose labour, otherwise known as migrant