Capitalist Development in India’s Informal Economy

249 Pages·2013·3.077 MB·English

by  Elisabetta Basile

Capitalist Development in India’s
Informal Economy
This book explores the economy and society of Provincial India in the post-
Green Revolution period. It argues that the low ‘quality’ of capital development
in India’s villages and small towns is the joint outcome of the informal economic
organisation, that is strongly biased in favour of capital, and of the complex
stratification of the workforce along class and caste lines.
Focusing on the processes of growth induced by the introduction of the high-
yield varieties in agriculture, the book demonstrates that a low-r oad pattern of
capitalist development has been emerging in Provincial India: firms compete
over price and not over efficiency, with a constant pressure to reduce costs, in
particular labour costs. The book shows that low-s killed employment prevails
and low wages and poor working conditions are widespread.
Based on original empirical research, the book makes a valuable contribution
to the debate on varieties of capitalism, in particular of the Global South. It is of
interest to academics working in the fields of Development Studies, Political
Economy and South Asian Studies.
Elisabetta Basile is Professor of Applied Economics in the Faculty of Eco-
nomics at the University of Rome, Italy. She is co- convenor of the Europe- Asia
Working Group of the European Association of Development and Training Insti-
tutions (EADI), and has worked extensively on capitalist change in Europe and
in India.
Routledge contemporary South Asia series
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State
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Recasting classics
Edited by Heidi R.M. Pauwels 13 Himalayan Frontiers of
India
7 Islamist Militancy in Bangladesh Historical, geo-p olitical and
A complex web strategic perspectives
Ali Riaz K. Warikoo
14 India’s Open- Economy Policy 22 Maoism in India
Globalism, rivalry, continuity Reincarnation of ultra-l eft wing
Jalal Alamgir extremism in the 21st century
Bidyut Chakrabarty and
15 The Separatist Conflict in Sri Rajat Kujur
Lanka
Terrorism, ethnicity, political 23 Economic and Human
economy Development in Contemporary
Asoka Bandarage India
Cronyism and fragility
16 India’s Energy Security Debdas Banerjee
Edited by Ligia Noronha and
Anant Sudarshan 24 Culture and the Environment in
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17 Globalization and the Middle Arjun Guneratne
Classes in India
The social and cultural impact of 25 The Rise of Ethnic Politics in
neoliberal reforms Nepal
Ruchira Ganguly- Scrase and Democracy in the margins
Timothy J. Scrase Susan I. Hangen
18 Water Policy Processes in 26 The Multiplex in India
India A cultural economy of urban
Discourses of power and leisure
resistance Adrian Athique and Douglas Hill
Vandana Asthana
27 Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka
19 Minority Governments in Ethnic and regional dimensions
India Dennis B. McGilvray and
The puzzle of elusive majorities Michele R. Gamburd
Csaba Nikolenyi
28 Development, Democracy and
20 The Maoist Insurgency in the State
Nepal Critiquing the Kerala model of
Revolution in the twenty-fi rst development
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21 Global Capital and Peripheral Karachi conflict
Labour Nichola Khan
The history and political
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India War Crimes in South Asia
K. Ravi Raman Bina D’Costa
31 The State in India after 39 Microcredit and Women’s
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Interdisciplinary perspectives A case study of Bangladesh
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32 National Identities in 40 South Asia in the New World
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Cara Cilano
41 Explaining Pakistan’s Foreign
33 Political Islam and Governance Policy
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36 The Labour Movement in the Sangeeta Dasgupta
Global South
Trade unions in Sri Lanka 44 Re- Orientalism and South Asian
S. Janaka Biyanwila Identity Politics
The oriental other within
37 Building Bangalore Edited by Lisa Lau and
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transformation in India’s Silicon
Valley 45 Islamic Revival in Nepal
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38 Conflict and Peacebuilding in
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Caught in the peace trap? India
Edited by Jonathan Goodhand, A classroom view
Jonathan Spencer and Manabi Majumdar and
Benedict Korf Jos Mooij
47 The Culturalization of Caste in 56 Nation, Territory, and
India Globalization in Pakistan
Identity and inequality in a Traversing the margins
multicultural age Chad Haines
Balmurli Natrajan
57 The Politics of Ethnicity in
48 Corporate Social Responsibility Pakistan
in India The Baloch, Sindhi and Mohajir
Bidyut Chakrabarty Ethnic Movements
Farhan Hanif Siddiqi
49 Pakistan’s Stability Paradox
Domestic, regional and 58 Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict
international dimensions Identities and mobilization after
Edited by Ashutosh Misra and 1990
Michael E. Clarke Edited by Mahendra Lawoti and
Susan Hangen
50 Transforming Urban Water
Supplies in India
59 Islam and Higher Education
The role of reform and
Concepts, challenges and
partnerships in globalization
opportunities
Govind Gopakumar
Marodsilton Muborakshoeva
51 South Asian Security
60 Religious Freedom in India
21st century discourses
Sovereignty and (anti) conversion
Sagarika Dutt and Alok Bansal
Goldie Osuri
52 Non- discrimination and
61 Everyday Ethnicity in Sri Lanka
Equality in India
Up- country Tamil identity politics
Contesting boundaries of social
Daniel Bass
justice
Vidhu Verma
62 Ritual and Recovery in
53 Being Middle-c lass in India Post- Conflict Sri Lanka
A way of life Eloquent bodies
Henrike Donner Jane Derges
54 Kashmir’s Right to Secede 63 Bollywood and Globalisation
A critical examination of The global power of popular Hindi
contemporary theories of cinema
secession Edited by David J. Schaefer and
Matthew J. Webb Kavita Karan
55 Bollywood Travels 64 Regional Economic Integration
Culture, diaspora and border in South Asia
crossings in popular Hindi cinema Trapped in conflict?
Rajinder Dudrah Amita Batra
65 Architecture and Nationalism in 69 Displacement and Resettlement
Sri Lanka in India
The trouser under the cloth The human cost of development
Anoma Pieris Hari Mohan Mathur
66 Civil Society and 70 Water, Democracy and
Democratization in India Neoliberalism in India
Institutions, ideologies and The power to reform
interests Vicky Walters
Sarbeswar Sahoo
71 Capitalist Development in
67 Contemporary Pakistani Fiction India’s Informal Economy
in English Elisabetta Basile
Idea, nation, state
Cara N. Cilano 72 Nation, Constitutionalism and
Buddhism in Sri Lanka
68 Transitional Justice in South Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne
Asia
A study of Afghanistan and Nepal
Tazreena Sajjad
Capitalist Development in
India’s Informal Economy
Elisabetta Basile
First published 2013
by Routledge
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© 2013 Elisabetta Basile
The right of Elisabetta Basile to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
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registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Basile, Elisabetta.
Capitalist development in India’s informal economy / Elisabetta Basile.
pages cm. – (Routledge contemporary South Asia series ; 71)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Rural development–India. 2. Informal sector (Economics)–India.
3. Social stratification–India. 4. Marxian economics–India–Case
studies. I. Title.
HN49.C6.B375 2013
307.1'4120954–dc23 2012049012
ISBN: 978-0-415-64268-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-77714-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
In loving memory of my mother Bina