Everyday Forms of Class Struggle between Ex-Patrons and Ex-Clients
| DOI | 10.1177/019251218300400407 |
| Author | James C. Scott |
| Published date | 01 October 1983 |
| Date | 01 October 1983 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
537
EVERYDAY
FORMS
OF
CLASS
STRUGGLE
BETWEEN
EX-PATRONS
AND
EX-CLIENTS
The
Green
Revolution
in
Kedah,
Malaysia
JAMES
C.
SCOTT
The
green
revolution
in
Malaysia,
as
elsewhere,
has
produced
higher
incomes
and
economic
security
for
large
farmers,
and
stagnant
or
declining
incomes
for
the
poor.
In
the
case
reported
here,
the
advent
of
double-cropping,
new
tenure
systems,
and
combine
harvesting
has
allowed
wealthy
villagers
to
strip
away
the
employment,
land
rental,
and
social
concessions
on
which
the
traditional
patron-client
relations
were
based.
Islamic
charity
has
also
been
curtailed
now
that
the
rich
have
little
need
for
the
services
of
the
poor.
As
a
consequence,
class
relations
have
become
more
acrimonious. This
takes
the
form
of
gossip
and
character
assassination
in
which
the
immediate
agents
of
change
(rather
than
those
more
distant)
are
blamed
and
in
which
accusations
of
stinginess
and
tightfistedness
prevail.
The
violation
of
the
norms
of
generosity
and
reciprocity
on
which
the
ideology
of
clientelism
rests
leads
to
a
form
of
class
consciousness
that
stresses
the
personal,
moral
failings
of
the
ex-patron
class.
The
material
reported
and
analyzed
here
is
drawn,
kicking
and
screaming,
from
a
larger
work
in
progress,
and
was
gathered
over
the
course
of
nearly
two
years
in
Malaysia.
The
research
itself
was
stimulated
by
what
may
be
described
as
personal
self-criticism.
Having
conducted
work
on
peasant
revolts
and
rebellions,
it
had
occurred
to
me
that
such
events
were
not
only
rare
but
were
almost
always
crushed
unceremoniously.
It
seemed
to
make
more
sense
to
focus
on
what
I
have
called
&dquo;everyday
class
relations&dquo;-on
how
peasants
survive
and
struggle
between
revolts-which
is
to
say
most
of
the
time.
Here,
of
course,
I
am
interested
particularly
in
such
things
as
foot
dragging,
dissimulation,
false
compliance,
pilfering,
sabotage,
character
assassination,
and
other
forms
of
struggle
short
of
outright
collective
defiance.
The
material
here
is
focused
exclusively
on
the
relations
between
agrarian
classes.
That
is,
it
excludes
an
examination
of
the
relationship
between
the
peasantry
538
and
the
state,
between
the
peasantry
and
the
political
parties,
and
between
the
peasantry
and
middlemen.
It
focuses
not
only
on
behavior
in
the
narrow
sense,
but
on
the
language
and
phenomenology
of
class
relations
as
they
are
experienced
and
lived.
The
symbolism
and
language
of
class
relations
form
the
essential
starting
point
without
which
the
normal
forms
of
class
struggle
can
hardly
be
understood.
Or,
better
put,
the
language
and
symbolism
of
everyday
class
struggle
are
themselves
an
integral
part
of
peasant
resistance.
A
brief
word
about
the
village
in
which
I
conducted
the
field
research
may
be
helpful.
The
name
of the
village
is
Sungai
Bujur
(oval
river).
It
is
located
in
Yen
District
near
the
southern
extremity
of
the
Kedah
rice
plain,
8
or
9
miles
north
of
the
foot
of
Kedah
Peak.
It is
a
long-
established
village
by
Kedah
standards
and
falls
within
the
Muda
River
Irrigation
Scheme,
which
has
permitted
the
double-cropping
of
rice
since
1972.
The
village
was
chosen
for
three
reasons.
First,
like
most
Kedah
villages
it
is
exclusively
a
rice-cultivating
village
with
virtually
no
other
economic
activities.
The
rationale
for
choosing
a
rice-cultivating
village
was
not
only
for
its
representativeness.
Convenience
was
also
a
factor.
A
fair
number
of
villages
within
the
Muda
Scheme
contain
rubber
tappers
as
well
as
paddy
cultivators.
These
activities,
particularly
in
the
case
of
fishing,
make
estimates
of
income
far
more
complex.
A
paddy
village,
on
the
other
hand,
may
be
thought
of
as
a
fishing
village
with
only
two
catches
a
year,
making
the
assessment
of
wealth
and
income
comparatively
straightforward.
The
second
criterion
by
which
Sungai
Bujur
was
chosen
was
entirely
a
matter
of
convenience.
I
wished
to
work
in
a
village
that
had
its
own
small
shops
where
villagers
would
come
together
informally
to
drink
and
talk.
This
requirement
excluded
a
number
of
villages
that
were
located
so
close
to
small
urban
centers
that
their
residents
tended
to
congregate
in
the
coffee
shops
of
the
nearby
town
together
with
peasants
from
other
villages.
The
two
village
coffee
shops
furnished
ideal
locations for
casual
conversation
and,
as
it
turned
out,
some
rather
special
insights
inasmuch
as
each
shop
was
more
or
less
exclusively
patronized
by
one
or
the
other
of
the
two
political
factions
in
the
village.
The
third
and
most
important
criterion
sharply
limited
my
choice
of
villages.
I
wanted
a
village
for
which
there
was
at
least
some
information
on
tenure
and
income
before
the
advent
of
double-cropping.
Sungai
Bujur
fit
this
description
since
a
Japanese
scholar,
Kenzo
Horii,
had
resided
there
for
a
few
months
in
1968
and
had
collected
the
basic
material
on
land
tenure,
which
he
generously
shared
with
me.
The
village
contains,
today,
70
households
and
approximately
380
people.
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