Rethinking Marxism

Anjan Chakrabarti is currently Professor of Economics, University of Calcutta, India. His co-authored book with Anup Dhar is titled Dislocation and Resettlement in Development: From Third World to World of the Third. He is also the recipient of Dr. V. K. R. V. Rao Prize in Social Science Research in Economics.Anup Dhar is former Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi, India. His co-authored book with Anjan Chakrabarti is titled World of the Third and Hegemonic Capital: Between Marx and Freud.

“Marxism, India, and indeed the world are constantly changing. The importance of this book is its engagement with all three changes, their interactions, and their implications. These include how they shape one another as global capitalism faces historic geo-political crises. Th e hegemony of western capitalism is dying. Th e global east and south are emerging.Capitalism’s costs and Marxism’s systematic criticism once again raise the basic questions about our present and our future. This book speaks directly to those questions.”— Richard D. Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.“This comprehensive collection brings together the joint work on India of Anjan Chakrabarti and Anup Dhar who have been pushing the boundaries of Marxism for over two decades. The contents of this volume reveal the thoroughness of their holistic analysis of the different aspects of the Indian economy all the while questioning, expanding and transforming the fundamental concepts of Marxism towards new horizons.This much-needed rigorous and reflective reworking of Marxism freed from its determinist chains and its use in understanding of contemporary India by these brilliant scholars will inspire Marxists not only in India but everywhere in the world.”— Serap A. Kayatakin, Professor, School of Humanities and SocialSciences, American College of Thessaloniki, Greece.“This compilation of some of the articles published by two of the most prolific current Indian contributors to Marxist theoretical explorations today, should be an exciting acquisition for researchers and scholars. To those conversant with the work of the Rethinking Marxism school this should be a handy reference.It contains both a theoretical engagement with other Marxist approaches and insights into the way in which problems relating to Indian economy and polity can be analyzed from this particular class focused Marxist perspective.”— Pranab Kanti Basu, Former Professor of Economics and Politics, Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan, India.“By reconfiguring Marxism theory centered on the class process and overdetermination and applying it to the postcolonial Indian context, the authors present a fascinating postcapitalist alternative for the World of the Third.”— Seongjin Jeong, Professor of Economics at, Gyeongsang National University (GNU), South Korea.

• IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionSection I: Beyond Received MarxismChapter 1: Introduction to Historical Materialism: A Theory of Society and HistoryChapter 2: Class Trouble: From Identity to Subject-Position (with Stephen Cullenberg)Chapter 3: Introduction to Class-Focused Marxian TheoryChapter 4: Class and the Question of Transition: Redrawing the Contour of Marxism in India (with Stephen Cullenberg)Chapter 5: Class, History and Value Theory: Marx's Critique of Trinity FormulaChapter 6: Market System of Capitalism on TrialSection II: What is the Working Class?Chapter 7: Labour, Class and Economy: Rethinking the Trade Union StruggleChapter 8: Disinterring the Report of the National Commission on Labour: A Marxist Perspective (with Byasdeb Dasgupta)Chapter 9: The Condition of the Working Class in IndiaSection III: Deconstructing Agriculture, Informal Sector and RuralChapter 10: A Post-Colonial Critique of Economic Dualism and its PoliticsChapter 11: The Making and Unmaking of the (In)formal Sector (with Atanu Thakur)Chapter 12: Global Order and the New Economic Policy in India: The (Post)colonial Formation of the Small-Scale Sector (with Ajit Chaudhury and Stephen Cullenberg)Chapter 13: When Our Lips Speak 'Genderlabour' Together (with Byasdeb Dasgupta)Section IV: Rethinking Capitalist DevelopmentChapter 14: Primitive Accumulation and Historical Inevitability: A Postcolonial Critique (with Stephen Cullenberg)Chapter 15: Rethinking Poverty: Class and Ethical Dimensions of Poverty Eradication (with Stephen Cullenberg)Chapter 16: Social Funds, Poverty Management and Subjectification: Beyond the World Bank ApproachSection V: State, Nationalism and ImperialismChapter 17: Rethinking and Theorizing the Indian State in the Context of the New Economic MapChapter 18: Gravel in the Shoe: Nationalism and World of the ThirdChapter 19: The Particularity of Imperialism in the Stage of Neoliberal Globalization and Global Capitalism: A Dialogue Between Nikolai Bukharin and Aimé CésaireSection VI: Postcapitalist PoliticsChapter 20: Rethinking Postcapitalist PraxisChapter 21: What If, the 'Rural' is the Future; and Not the Past?Index