Decoding Subaltern Politics (Asia's TransformationsCritical Asian Scholarship) by James C. Scott

Author:James C. Scott [Scott, James C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136210983
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2012-11-11T18:30:00+00:00

A finely tuned resistance

What are the limits of resistance to the zakat? In addressing this question we must above all realize that the limits are fluid and subject to constant testing and pressure. If those who now pay nothing remain unscathed, others will undoubtedly copy their example, while a burst of prosecution and enforcement could possibly increase the level of grudging compliance. We can, however, say something about the current balance of forces and how it is locally understood.

The existing folk wisdom on the subject, one that speaks for virtually all those with farm sizes at or above the average of 3.3 acres, can be captured in a single phrase: “Give a little bit, and they won’t bother you” (Bagi sedikit, tak kachau). Thus, Haji Kadir, Sedaka’s biggest landowner, whom I quote here, gave the amil only 4 pikul of paddy from a total harvest of roughly 225 pikul, or less than 2 percent of his crop. He resents paying anything at all but is well aware of the possible consequences of total defiance. Roughly a decade ago he was prosecuted and fined for having failed to pay any zakat raja for three successive seasons. Now he walks a fine line, giving as little as he dares but enough to avoid another prosecution. Ten other large farmers with more than 5.6 acres (8 relong), who would each owe at least 11.2 pikul by law, actually contribute an average of 3.2 pikul. Only one defies the zakat by paying nothing. Cultivators of mid-sized farms who would owe on average 8.5 pikul actually deliver an average of less than 1.5 pikul.30 This category apparently feels itself more secure from official scrutiny, for five of the twenty-one farmers in the group pay nothing whatever. For small farmers cultivating fewer than three acres of paddy land, the folk wisdom—and the practice—is: “They don’t need our paddy so we don’t pay.” Knowing from experience that they are evidently immune from prosecution, roughly nine out of ten such cultivators ignore the tax altogether. Taken collectively, these patterns represent the achievements of peasant resistance and the existing modus vivendi.

The limits of resistance are not static. Moves by either state or peasantry elicit counter-moves. The extension of the zakat raja to double cropping was, as we have seen, soon met by a reduction in local receipts that more than offset the double tax claim. The state has also recently responded to the common practice of paying the zakat with paddy that is spoiled, wet (increasing its weight), and dirty, as well as the stuffing of zakat paddy sacks with stones and straw. This problem is hardly new, to judge from the official zakat regulations, which make a point of insisting that the paddy delivered be “good” (elok).31 According to Basir, Sedaka’s amil, villagers used to give fine clean grain, but the tendency has been growing to set aside the worst paddy for the zakat raja. Responding to this ploy, the Zakat Office has now directed the amil to

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