State intervention and agrarian class formation: Dimensions of the access problem in the Kosi Development Region of NE Bihar, India
| Date | 01 October 1984 |
| Published date | 01 October 1984 |
| Author | Geof D. Wood |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230040405 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
4,343-360 (1984)
State intervention and agrarian class formation:
dimensions
of
the access problem in the
Kosi
Development
Region of
NE
Bihar, India
GEOF
D.
WOOD
University
of
Bafh
SUMMARY
The theme of this paper is that access has to be discussed along a number of dimensions
simultaneously, and that the language of discussion must discard the ‘David and Goliath’
metaphor
of
the individual versus the large organization. Access is a relationship which
occurs systematically, not by chance. Its structural forms are determined by the formation
and dissolution of social classes. Although access is more about power than rationality, to be
examined more by reference to class struggle than culture, certain groups and classes are
structurally unable through both processes to connect
with
alien criteria of resource
allocation. At the same time the development
of
the bourgeois state and the transformation
of
rich peasants into rural capitalists cannot be completed without the incorporation
of
petty
owners, tenants and labourers for the appropriation
of
their surplus value. This is maintained
through the ideology of inclusion (populism) which presents access as an opportunity rather
than a problem, and operates through the language of community, target groups, special
programmes, extension and decentralization. The discussion
in
this paper is pursued
in
the
context
of
material collected during fieldwork in the north-east of Bihar State, India where
land reform, irrigation and intensive agricultural programmes have been undertaken since the
early sixties.
INTRODUCTION
The Kosi region, like
an
increasing number
of
other areas in India, has been, since
the mid-fifties, the setting for major state-interventionist strategies in the ecology
and in agriculture, with ramifications throughout the social structure. Those
strategies seek to disturb the impact not only
of
ecological variables (through the
Kosi embankment, barrage and canal system), but also
of
economic ones concerned
with the supply
of
inputs, the generation
of
demand, the opportunity costs of
factors of production, and the pattern
of
savings and investment-in short the
economic and social structure
of
accumulation from agriculture.
The central feature
of
those strategies has been
a
distribution system for goods
and services which is not based on the market, where the key requirement is
disposable income,
or
assets which can easily be converted for transactions. Access
becomes important where the state intervenes to affect the supply and demand for
resources
so
that their allocation depends less, or not at all, on market
or
traditional
allocation mechanisms. The resources chosen for redistribution are necessarily very
scarce but critical to the pattern
of
opportunities in agriculture. With state
Dr.
Wood
is Lecturer in Sociology in the School
of
Humanities
and
Social Sciences, The University
of
Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2
7AY,
U.K.
0271-2075/84/040343-18$01.80
0
1984
by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
344
Geof.
D.
Wood
intervention, the mode of allocation becomes bureaucratic. The purpose of
bureaucratic allocation is to reduce the significance of the disposable income factor
(and other more traditional and ascriptive bases of distribution) in gaining access to
resources. This is attempted by establishing rules of inclusion and exclusion, and by
maintaining a fixed price for those with the necessary qualifications. The rules for
inclusion, the criteria of access, vary according to objectives and in practice often
diverge from their formal justifications.
Access here refers to the relationship between administration and the different
rural classes represented in the Kosi development region. Where the success of the
Kosi-type, multi-purpose development programme depends
so
critically upon the
provision through administrative institutions of different bundles of resources to
different ‘target’ groups, it is axiomatic that such success is determined by the
relationship between administration and the agrarian social formation. The purpose
of this paper is to survey the varying aspects of this relationship. It
is
certain that
parts of the discussion will be familiar, but perhaps the combination of arguments
will contribute to a further appreciation of the wider social processes involved in
development activity.
OBJECTIVES AND HISTORICAL SPECIFICITY
Starting with
a
discussion of objectives may appear prosaic but their formulation
and reformulation for Kosi has constituted an important part of the problem.
However it is certainly not intended to describe a consensus
on
goals for subsequent
evaluation of their fulfilment. Rather the problem has been that the goals of the
Kosi programme have been derived from national policy without sufficient regard
for the specific conditions of the region. There are several issues here. The origin of
national policy has to be regarded as the political outcome of social processes
undergoing a confused pattern of change. In general terms
a
transformation
between forms of property is occurring: the development of urban and rural
bourgeoisies and the dissolution of landlord-tenant relations. The transition is
marked by some retention of agrarian pre-capitalist social relations, the activity of
‘antediluvian’ capital and (critically) a strategic alliance between urban and rural
bourgeoisies, structured around the central issue of the marketable surplus (Byres,
1974).
Theoretically this transformation consists of several modes of production (in a
dialetic of ascendence/descendence) which together constitute the social formation
at any one time (Althusser,
1969).
The dynamic in this situation
is
provided by the
formation and dissolution of classes associated with these various modes of
production, which thus alters the structures of power, pattern of accumulation,
dominant values and ideologies, and labour relationships-i.e. the balance of social
forces in the society. In the mainly democratic environment of political activity in
India, this transformation is responsible for a broad set of policy objectives-often
diffuse, intangible and mutually contradictory-reflecting the need for successful
national leaderships (especially when in coalition) to construct
a
wide support base
through populist ideology.
As
a
result of this process, national policy for rural and agricultural development
combines a number of objectives-marketable surplus, output, productivity,
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