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'Bourgeois-Landlord' State? Author(s): Vijayamohanan Pillai N. Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 23, No. 10 (Mar. 5, 1988), p. 438 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4378184 . Accessed: 23/02/2011 00:46 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=epw. . 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To quote Lenin whose dialectical demanded 'first define your terms'. materialist methodology of cognising the The inescapable 'necessary evil' of state SANJAYA BARU (EPW, January 23) on the true natureo f imperialisms till stands:" Im- intervention in the post-colonial capitalist seeming strength of a flimsy argument in perialism is a specific historical stage of countries, the perturbingp roblem posed by terms of the so-called 'fiscal crisis of the capitalism... The supplantingo f free com- the position of the privileged proletariat- state' which allegedly reflects the inability petition by monopoly is the fundamental all these become interestinga nd easy targets of the Kaleckian fantastic concept of 'in- economic feature, the quintessence of im- of analysis in the light of dialectical termediater egime't o get realisedo n Indian perialism.M onopoly manifests itself in five methodology.O ne need not strugglet o seek soil, argues that "what has come into ex- principal forms: (1) cartels, syndicates and far and wide help from so-called authorities istence in post-colonial India is essentially trusts-the concentrationo f productionh as to patch up arguments;j ust see how poorly a 'bourgeois-landlords' tate dominated by a reached a degree which gives rise to these misconceived is the idea of 'intermediate surplus producing rural oligarchy and big monopolistic associations of capitalists; regime' which Sanjaya Baru conjured up business.. .", etc. (2) the monopolistic position of the big from Kalecki-what is the real class charac- These two words, 'bourgeois and land- banks-three, four, or five giant banks ter of these lower middle classes and rich lord', connote two distinct ideas dissemi- manipulate the whole economic life of peasantry? It is not only intellectual in- nated along the length and breadth of the America,F rance,G ermany;( 3) seizureo f the sincerityb ut also injusticet o socio-economic social consciousness as related to two dif- sourceso f raw materialb y the trustsa nd the reality,t o smell fundamentald ifferenceb et- ferent historical stages; it is simply that financial oligarchy (finance capital is ween those on the upperr ungs and those on bourgeoisie represents capitalism while monopoly industrial capital merged with the middle rungs of the same echelon (of landlord, feudalism. As India has become bank capital); (4) the (economic) partition capitalism). Time so works that, given the characteriseda s predominantlya n agricul- of the world by the internationalc artelsh as laws of 'naturals election',t he middle rungs tural economy, the existence of feudalism begun. There are alreadyo ver one hundred climb up to change into the upper ones- has been merelyt akenf or granted-primary such internationalc artels, which command monopoly capitalist. economy getting identified with feudalism! the entire world market and divide it VIJAYAMOHANAN PILLAI N Or the misconception may have stemmed 'amicably' among themselves-until war Madras from taking the prevalenceo f the remnants redividesi t. The exporto f capital,a s distinct of the superstructurefo r the existenceo f the from the export of commoditiesu ndern on- correspondinge conomic base-if one recall monopoly capitalism, is a highly charac- Lenin'sb rilliant observationt hat in the pre- teristic phenomenon and is closely linked SUBSCRIPTION RATES sent era of imperialism and proletarian with the economic and territorial-political Effective from October 1, 1987 revolution,t he bourgeoisie,h aving come to partitiono f the world;( 5) the territorialp ar- the throne and establisheda national state, tition of the world (colonies) is completed!" Inland cannotf ully accomplisht he anti-feudalt asks Suffice it to look at the position and beha- (including Bangladesh and Nepal) of the bourgeois-democraticr evolution,t he viour of Indian capitalismw ith referencet o Institutions TOwneo yyeeaarrs RRss 537050 tasks now devolving on the proletariat,o ne its membershipi n the internationala ssocia- Three years Rs 850 can easily look into the feudal habits and tions, and trade agreements,t he monopolis- Individuals Six months Rs 120 customs allegedly mysteriouslyf elt in some tic position of its banks, financial oligarchy One Year Rs 225 agriculturalf ields in India. and the export of capital. In spite of all this Two years Rs 425 Even if we accede, for the sake of argu- the economy is characteriseda s a bourgeois- Concessional TRharetees y ears Rs 625 ment, to the mixed phenomenon of bour- landlord one. One year geois-landlord state, Marxist-Leninist The dangerous diffusion of such messy Teachers/Researchers Rs 175 methodology determinest he charactero f a Students Rs 125 misconceptioni n the subjectives phereo f the mixed phenomenon by reference to its Concessional rates are available only in predominant character. When the state society is largely due to the propagandao f India. To avail of concessional rates, certi- wrong programmesb y the so-called Com- ficate from relevant institution is essential. power in Russia was handed over from the munist Parties in- India; for example, Remittance by money order/bank draft/ Tsart o the bourgeoisiew ho werea llied with paragraph5 6 of the programmea dopted at postal order requested. Inv iew of revision by the 'landlords',L enin did not hesitate to of collection charges by banks, please add the seventhc ongress of the CPI(M) charac- characterisei t as a bourgeois state, instead Rs 14 to outstation cheques. terisest he .presentI ndians tate as "the organ of dubbingi t 'bourgeois-landlordst ate'.T he Foreign of class rule of the bourgeoisie and land- natureo f an economic system is determined Annual by analysing the prevalent production lords, led by the big bourgeoisie,w ho are in- Institutions Individuals relations-simply speaking,t he relationship creasinglyc ollaboratingw ith foreignf inance Surface mail between the hands that own the means of capital in pursuit of the capitalist path of (aliJc ountries) US S 60 US 5 40 productiona nd the hands that use them; in development".C ompare this with Sanjaya APairk imstaainla nd Baru's argument. capitalism it is the relationship between Sri lanka 5 60 5 40 capital and hired (wage) labour. Even a cur- One can disagree with the application of Other Asian sory look at-the productionr elations reign- dialectical methodology in the analysis of countries 5 70 5 60 ing in the agriculturals ector in India where concreteh istoricalc onditions, providedo ne Africa, Australia, Europe and freel abouri s hiredb y the so-calledl andlords does one's duty by lightening up a better Japan $ 85 5 75 led by profit-motive, is enough to confirm alternative. Dispensing with a scientific South and North the concreter eality of capitalistst hrivingi n methodologya ltogethere speciallyi n serious America and that field. The truth any serious study along studies is undesirable.M oreover,i t amounts New Zealand 5100 $ 90 the line of the Marxist-Leninismt ethodology to a culpable commission of negligence to Allr emittancetso Economica nd PoliticalW eekly. perforcer eveals,i s that, the Indiane conomy, use such terms out of their context as have however, relatively backward it is, has become identified with particular pheno- 438 Economic and Political Weeklv March 5. 1988