Capital & Labour Redefined

This volume of essays gives the historical background to the formation of the Indian capitalist class from before British colonial rule in India. It also analyses the nature of that class and the changes in it under colonialism and in independent India. It situates some of the peculiarities of capitalist organization in India and the ideology of big capital in their historical context. The evolution of the conditions of the working class in India is analysed in its dialectical interaction with global capital and Indian capitalism. The book challenges the view that the tensions caused within working-class movements by caste or communal divisions or by gender discrimination are to be attributed to primordial loyalties. It demonstrates the influence of the deliberate strategies adopted by capitalists and of changes in the structure of global and Indian capitalism. Finally, it investigates the impact of capital-friendly liberalization on the fortunes of the working class in the third world.