Table Of Content'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 .
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LETTERS TD EDITOR
'Bourgeois -Landlord' alreadys hown the signs of imperialism,t he mena. Or their unwarrantedu sage for want
highest and last stage of monopoly capita- of alternatives, demands what Socrates
State?
lism. 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
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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
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misconceptioni n the subjectives phereo f the
mixed phenomenon by reference to its Concessional rates are available only in
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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-
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by analysing the prevalent production lords, led by the big bourgeoisie,w ho are in- Institutions Individuals
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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,
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freel abouri s hiredb y the so-calledl andlords does one's duty by lightening up a better Japan $ 85 5 75
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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
