Peasants and the Revolution Prabhat Patnaik
Marxist theory develops with changing times, as capitalism itself develops, which is why it remains a living doctrine. On the question of the role of the peasantry in the revolutionary process that leads to the transcendence of capitalism, there have been significant developments in Marxist theory, which I propose to discuss here. Even though Friedrich Engels in The Peasant War in Germany had already underscored the fact that the proletariat had to enter into an alliance with sections of the peasantry and agricultural labourers in its struggle for a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, Marxist theory had for long still remained…
IMF’s Issue of Fresh SDRs Prabhat Patnaik
The International Monetary Fund has announced a fresh issue of $650 billion Special Drawing Rights in August which would be distributed among member countries in proportion to their IMF quotas. This amount is less than what had been demanded by many, which was a trillion dollars, but it does represent a small temporary comfort for the heavily indebted third world countries. Almost all of it will go into the pockets of the private financial institutions who are the creditors of the heavily indebted third world countries, but within the system as it exists it represents a relief for these countries.…
The Unravelling of the Modi Arrangement Prabhat Patnaik
Liberal commentators see Modi’s rise as being caused exclusively by the ascendancy of Hindutva. But they never explain why Hindutva should suddenly acquire this ascendancy. If this ascendancy is traced to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, then why two decades should pass after the demolition before Hindutva could come to power needs to be explained, as does the phenomenon of the BJP suddenly emerging as the richest political party, and one enjoying overwhelming support in India’s print and electronic media. The matter however becomes somewhat explicable once we bring in the class element. The shift in the position of…
Everything for Sale Prabhat Patnaik
Everywhere in the world people got vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus without having to pay a penny, but not in India. Everywhere in the world, historic landmarks that define a nation, that constitute the warp and woof of a nation’s consciousness, are held sacred and left untouched in their original shape, but not in India. Everywhere in the world, public assets that provide basic services, or cultural and educational services, to the people, are virtually free, but no longer in India. Behind this bizarre Indian exceptionalism is the Modi government’s peculiar agenda to turn everything into a commodity. Nothing is…
The Scandal of Old-age Pensions Prabhat Patnaik
Junior Minister for Rural Development in the central government, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, ruled out in parliament any increase in the amount of monthly pension given by the centre to the elderly under the National Social Assistance Programme (The Telegraph, August 22). The amount currently being given to each beneficiary under this programme is a princely sum of Rs 200 per month for persons between ages 60 and 79, and Rs 500 per month for persons of 80 years and above! It is a shame and a disgrace that the central government offers such an utterly paltry sum to aged citizens.…
Neo-liberalism and Nationhood Prabhat Patnaik
The anti-colonial nationalism that informed the struggle for liberation in third world countries was, as is well-known, of an entirely different genre from the bourgeois nationalism that had emerged in Europe in the seventeenth century. There is a tendency in the West, including even among progressives, to treat all “nationalism” as a homogeneous and reactionary category. They treat even anti-colonial nationalism as if it is no different from European bourgeois nationalism, notwithstanding the several crucial differences between the two. Three at least of these differences are of importance. First, European nationalism was imperialist from the very beginning; second, it was…
Mexico’s Turn away from Neo-liberalism Prabhat Patnaik
President Lopez Obrador of Mexico in his inaugural speech itself had called neo-liberalism a “disaster” and a “calamity”. The Leftist political party, MORENA, to which he belongs, had stated in its programme: “The global economic crisis has revealed the failure of the neo-liberal model. The economic policy imposed by the international financial organizations leads to the fact that Mexico is one of the countries with the slowest growth.” MORENA’s programme had proposed instead that the “State should assume responsibility to lead development without foreign interference”. With this perspective, Obrador has been putting in place a range of economic changes that…
Capital and Imperialism – Theory, History and the Present Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik
6.25 x 9.5 inches (x+382) 392 pages Hardback ISBN: 978-81-947175-9-1 Rs 1200 For sale in India and South Asia only Mainstream economics invariably sees capitalism as an isolated and closed system. In this path-breaking book, authors Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik argue that this is both historically false and logically untenable. An essentially money-using economy like capitalism is inconceivable unless placed within a pre-capitalist setting which it dominates and modifies for its own purposes. Colonialism created such a setting. Metropolitan capitalism transferred massive resources from colonies gratis fuelling industrial revolution, and later found external markets, thus avoiding domestic stagnation, by displacing craft…
The Household and the State Prabhat Patnaik
Simple analogies can be deceptive, even dangerous. An example is the analogy often drawn between the household and the state. Just as a household cannot “live beyond its means” for ever, and sooner or later its creditors not only stop giving loans but take away the assets of the household for defaulting on loan repayment, likewise, the state cannot “live beyond its means” for ever and go on borrowing ad infinitum; sooner or later its creditors stop giving loans and even attach its assets. This is a very common argument. One has heard it innumerable times, from spokesmen of Bretton…
Equality and Scarcity Prabhat Patnaik
Many would remember that the Soviet Union and other Eastern European socialist countries used to be characterized by long queues of consumers for several commodities. This was a source of much derision in the West and was attributed to the inefficiency of the socialist system of production, compared to capitalism where one just had to walk into a supermarket and buy whatever one wanted to. As a matter of fact, far from being a symptom of inefficiency, the long consumer queues were a reflection of the highly egalitarian nature of the socialist societies; likewise, the free access to goods under…