Informal Labor, Formal Politics, and Dignified Discontent in India (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics) by Rina Agarwala

Author:Rina Agarwala
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2013-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

4.2 Communism: A Radical Class Agenda for Social Justice

In Tamil Nadu, caste-based social movements did not at first yield benefits to informal workers, but the resulting political and economic framework from above created a context in which informal workers’ movements could eventually succeed. In West Bengal, social movements that expressly addressed class-based inequalities (alongside Bengali ethnic nationalism) offered initial hope to informal workers, but the political and economic framework from above undermined the ability of informal workers’ movements to succeed.

Scholars of South Asia have written extensively on how West Bengal's class-based movements arose from its unique class and caste structure (Chakrabarty 2000; Franda 1973; Kohli 1987, 1990a, 1990b; Park 1949; Sen Gupta 1989). As in Tamil Nadu, there were few Brahmins in Bengal, and other high castes were virtually nonexistent; together Brahmins and other high castes formed only 6 percent of the state's population before independence (Mallick 1998).14 Unlike in Tamil Nadu, the majority of the population did not organize against Bengal's high-caste members. Some have argued that the material heterogeneity among intermediate castes, or jotedars, across villages undermined their ability to organize. Because some jotedars controlled rural production and labor and had access to education, Brahmins did not have a monopoly over land ownership and rural intelligentsia.15 Others have argued that the ethnic heterogeneity of urban elites prevented their forming a coalition and undermined urban workers’ ability to direct their resentment toward a single group of privileged Bengali Brahmins.16

Rather than forming upper-caste parties, urban Bengali elites mobilized lower and intermediate classes to resist rural landowners and non-Bengali, urban industrialists (neither of whom shared interests with the urban Bengali elites).17 Part of the inspiration for these radical turns came in the early nineteenth century when Bengali elites, who migrated to cities to gain access to education and to work in the British civil service, arts, and academia, became influenced by the ideals of modernism. In a statement against landed privilege, some elites stopped financing their lifestyles with income from their land and launched social movements to reform the exploitative aspects of Hinduism, increase public education, and overthrow British imperialism. In the early twentieth century, some Bengali elites went to study in England, where they became attracted to the principles of Marxism; others joined Bengali nationalists who went to Mexico and Moscow to meet members of the Comintern. After converting to communism, they returned to Bengal in the 1930s and led radical movements that provided the rural masses and a growing industrial proletariat with a socially just, Bengali alternative to British, Muslim, and INC rule (Franda 1973). The partition of Bengal after independence forced Muslim party leaders (who also attempted to meet the needs of low-caste Hindus) to leave India, and most large landholdings ended up outside the borders of India.18 Having few ties to either land or industry, being newly influenced by intellectual trends from abroad, and facing little opposition in the state, the Bengali elite became instrumental in leading a radical movement that combined an ethnic Bengali heroism with concern for class-based justice.

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