Table Of ContentAchin Chakraborty · Anjan Chakrabarti ·
Byasdeb Dasgupta · Samita Sen Editors
‘Capital’ in
the East
Reflections on Marx
‘ ’
Capital in the East
Achin Chakraborty Anjan Chakrabarti
(cid:129) (cid:129)
Byasdeb Dasgupta Samita Sen
(cid:129)
Editors
‘ ’
Capital in the East
fl
Re ections on Marx
123
Editors
AchinChakraborty AnjanChakrabarti
Institute of Development Studies Kolkata Department ofEconomics
Kolkata, West Bengal, India University of Calcutta
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Byasdeb Dasgupta
Department ofEconomics Samita Sen
University of Kalyani Vere Harmsworth Professorof Imperial
Kalyani, West Bengal, India andNaval History
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
ISBN978-981-32-9467-7 ISBN978-981-32-9468-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9468-4
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Introduction
The first volume of Karl Marx’s book ‘Capital: A Critique of Political Economy’
was published in 1867, the only volume to be published in his lifetime. The sub-
sequent two volumes of Capital were put together after Marx’s death from the
manuscripts that he left behind. The working-class movement and progressive
intellectuals throughout the world considered these volumes to be the most
importantguidetounderstandtheillsofcapitalism,theoriginoftheworkingclass
andthematerialityofexploitationoftheworkers.Astheprocessofcapitalrapidly
movedacrosstheglobe,sodidwithitthebookCapital.Itwastranslatedworldwide
innumerouslanguagesandisoftenregardedasoneof themostimportantbooksin
thelasttwocenturies.Thereisnotacornerintheworldwhichhasnotbeentouched
byideas andmovementsderivedfrom ordrawing inspiration from Marx generally
and Capital in particular. In the last three decades, as socialism collapsed and
neoliberal capitalism spread to various corners of the globe, Capital became a
redundant treatise for many. Its analysis was held outdated, fit for only intellectual
consumption and curiosity.
In postcolonial countries, Capital became superfluous for other reasons too. As
developmentalism overwhelmed the national agenda of these countries, they
competed with each other in inviting foreign capital. The process of capital, no
matterwhatitsforms,becameawelcomeguest,indeedmuchsoughtafter.Amore
predatory capital, with the active help of the state, challenged the existing frame-
work of labour rights, constructed at both national and international levels and
defanged anti-capitalist struggles. As global capitalism gradually showed a ten-
dency of shifting its centre to the East, Capital lost its earlier salience for post-
colonial social thought.
Itwastheworld’seconomiccrisisfollowingthefinancialcrisisof2008andthe
recognition that the process and forms of capital required both understanding and
reformation that brought Capital back into fashion. It now receives close and
serious attention from critical theorists, social scientists and progressive move-
ments.Indeed,theanalysesofCapitalhaveacquiredanewurgencytoday.Evenin
the popular media and newspapers, we see a resonance of its perceived relevance
andfindattemptstodrawoutthecontemporaryrelevanceofmanyofitsarguments.
v
vi Introduction
In the developing world, the drive for developmentalism, expansion of market,
financialisation, rampant privatisation, agrarian distress, displacement and invol-
untary migration, and boundless exploitation of natural and human resources have
stoked what some have called ‘southern insurgencies’. In this milieu, Capital has
once again grabbed attention. Yet we have to enquire, what does this return to
attention signify? What are the new questions demanding attention? Can these
questions be addressed within the analytic and political spirit with which Capital
was written? What are the old questions brought to life in the contemporary time,
withwhichMarxhimselfhadstruggled?Wemayciteasanexampletherelationof
rentwithsurplusandaccumulation.MarxtreatedthisquestionatlengthinCapital;
it is a question of enormous significance once again in the twenty-first century.
Given the current intensity of exploitation and newer modes of accumulation and
labour forms, how do we characterise the capitalism we are facing today? What is
the nature of this, our capitalism? How do we understand its historic social for-
mation?Ifwe weretoemulateMarx,howwouldweundertaketodaya‘critiqueof
political economy’, of which Capital remains, even after 150 years of its publi-
cation,amodel?ShouldwereadCapital,Vol1,asifitstandsalone?Orshouldwe
readitinconjunctionwithVolumesIIandIII,assomeinfluentialMarxistthinkers
like Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff now suggest. What are the different fault
lines, such as gender, caste, race, religion, along which capitalism functions and
movesforwardtoday?Arethesethefaultlinesalongwhichthewageformofwork
is modified, according to the needs of capitalism? Similarly, what are the institu-
tions, such as family, household or global regulating agencies, that play a deter-
miningrolenotonlyinconsumptionbutalsointhereproductionoflabourpowerin
today’s capitalism? What about the other non-capitalist means of organisation of
surplus, actually and possibly, that continue to proliferate in the era of neoliberal
globalisation when capital has been at its most expansive in recent history. These
are some of the issues addressed in the various chapters of this book.
Capital demands our attention at another level. This book explicitly poses the
problem of multilinearity. During Marx’s own lifetime, he said that Russia, India
andmanyothernon-Westernsocietiesmaytakedifferentpaths.Wecanunderstand
the proposition of differing paths in two distinct ways. First, even within global
capitalism, postcolonial countries may present different experiences of capitalism
with their own strategies for negotiating, bypassing, resisting and/or transforming
capitalism. After all, Capital points us towards the close relation between the
genesisofindustrialcapitalisminEuropeandcolonialism.Itisnotcoincidentalthat
the reference to colonialism comes immediately after the account of primitive
accumulation. Thus, the analysis of commodity described as the cell-form of cap-
italismisinjuxtapositionwithanaccount ofthehistoricgenesisofcapitalismasa
global system.
Colonialismacquiresgreatersignificanceifweconsidertheargumentsaboutthe
reproductionofcapitalmadeinCapital.ItisRosaLuxemberg’sTheAccumulation
ofCapitalthatdrewattentiontothecriticalroleplayedbytheoutsideinthegenesis
of capitalism. She pointed out that the outside was a fundamental condition of
accumulation. In the development of capitalism in Europe, colonialism constituted
Introduction vii
the non-capitalist (or pre-capitalist) outside which enabled accumulation and
realization of surplus value. In a different context, Antonio Gramsci in the three
volumes of Prison Notebooks (more are being translated presently) invoked the
problemofoutsidefromwithinmodernnationalformation.Specifically,hedistilled
out the so-called national formation of Italian Risorgimento as an instance of
‘revolution without revolution’, the creation of a ‘bastard’ unity that excluded the
toilingmasses,agrarianpeasantsintheSouthandindustrialproletariatintheNorth.
In contrast to the nationalist narrative, Gramsci unpacked Risorgimento as a
colonialarticulationofthesouthernpeasantsubalternwithcapitalistNorthernItaly
that was produced through a racial discourse that rendered southerners as inferior.
His reading explodes the myth of national integration and compels us to, in a
somewhatpsychoanalytical sense, rethink thepresenceofoutside inadyadic form
in the hegemonic order—racialised, pathological, devalued other as the fore-
groundedoutside(from theperspectiveofthecentre—Risorgimento; whatistobe
cited) and the foreclosed space-perspective-life worlds of the real outside (again,
fromtheperspectiveofthecentre—Risorgimento;whatmustneverbecited).While
the hegemonic order circumscribes politics within its acknowledged space,
Gramsci’s revolutionary counter-hegemonic politics (which, in his case, appeared
asanattemptofalternativeformofnation-buildingextendingtoanewinternational
order)emphasisedonthereturnoftheforeclosedoutside,i.e.thespace,perspective
andpraxisofthetoilingmasses.BothLuxemburgandGramscihavebequeathedfor
usprecioushistoricallessonsandinsightsintohowthecontradictionsandconflicts
betweencapitalandlabour,betweencapitalismanditsoutsidethataredevelopedin
Marx’sCapital,findfruitionthroughthecategoryoftheoutside,withinandbeyond
nation.With thecollapseof thelegitimacyofSoviet socialism,thetheoretical task
of bringing alive these historical lessons and insights and moulding their functions
in transformative politics has once again restarted. Almost all writers in this book
are acutely aware of this responsibility, i.e., of the need for handholding of the
critiqueofcapitalistprocessandcounter-hegemonicpolitics,evenastheymightbe
emphasising the former or the latter in their respective essays. And, some essays
explicitly respond to certain questions that concern the outside.
If a non-capitalist outside is essential for capitalist accumulation, how does
capitalnegotiatewithitsoutside?Therehavebeenmanyattemptsinrecentyearsto
revisit the question of primitive accumulation. The enormously influential work of
David Harvey points to continuities in processes of primitive accumulation rather
than a one-time historical transformation. Is primitive accumulation a continual
process? In this age of globalisation, how do we connect the notion of a
non-capitalist outside with the theory of ongoing primitive accumulation?
In the aftermath of the collapse of Soviet-style socialism, the failure of global
capitalism following the 2008 economic crash and doubts over the authenticity of
Chinese socialism, there have been some urgent reconsiderations for thinkers and
activists in mooting a postcapitalist politics of economic reconstruction. This
reconsiderationwasdrivenbyanimaginationtobypassthesefailures.Thepointis
to be noted though that there has been a long tradition of postcapitalist politics of
economicreconstructionintheEast,includinginIndia.Thisisnotsurprisingsince
viii Introduction
in most postcolonial societies, there remain multiple temporalities and diverse
economies. The Gramscian and Luxemburgian dissonant and fragmented reality is
fully alive there, albeit in different and newer forms. The capitalist sector resides
cheek by jowl with a host of non-capitalist sectors or even economies. In such a
situation,howdoweenvisagealternativestomainstreamcapitalisttrajectoriesthat
appearsetinstoneastheyunfoldedhistoricallyinthedevelopedwestandmovedto
the rest of the world? Does the existence (and continued reproduction) of
non-capitalist organisations of surplus open up (at all) the possibility of recon-
structing alternative economies and communities? Given the failures of top-down
‘socialist’ systems, this discussion/task of building socialism from below through
postcapitalist praxis can no longer be put aside. How does one look at Capital in
relationtotheoutside—spatially,perspective-wiseandpolitically?Doesthisreview
thenchangeourviewoftheInsideitself,i.e.thearchitectureofcapital,itslocation,
constitution and work? What new light does it shed on possibilities (and/or prob-
abilities) of postcapitalist transformation of our futures?
This brings us to another important point about this book. We have here a
juxtaposition of analytic strategies and narrative devices. The preface to Capital
makes a distinction between inquiry and exposition. We have followed in the path
ofcombiningthetwo.Isthisthewayforward?Isthisthewayinwhichclarification
and self-clarification may be continued?
Finally, locations and perspectives matter in how Capital is received and
deployed.Thecontributionofthisvolumeisnotsimplyintheissuesthathavebeen
covered, but that Capital has been interrogated from the location and perspective
oftheEast.Topresentthispropositionistoinvoketherelevanceandrecognitionof
difference in the reading of canonical texts. Historical differences matter, both in
productionofknowledgeandinobjectsofanalysis,concepts,modesofarticulation
and politics. Louis Althusser claimed in his essay On Marx and Freud that in a
necessarily conflictual reality, one cannot see everything from everywhere; in fact,
one cannot. Indubitably, we do not each see from our different locations the same
thingsimilarly.Manyessaysinthisbookremainsensitivetodifferenceinoneform
or another and indeed show how and why it matters, theoretically and politically.
By asking the questions we have highlighted earlier in this introduction and many
others,theyexplorethedistinctivenessinvariousreceptionsofCapitalintheEast.
Thesemanyreceptionsaredifferent fromthatinthewest,but‘east’and‘west’are
nothomogeneousblocksonthequestionofreceptionofCapitaloritsconsequence
for politics. These are not inert questions. The difference in reception shapes out-
comes and consequences. There are varieties and divergences in the political
response to Capital within the East that also need to be marked and have been
flagged in this volume. Notably, in this book, we have addressed the existence of
divergencesandthecomplexityinvolvedinthetaskoftranslatingCapitalandother
worksofMarx,especiallyinrelationtothehistoricalcontextandpoliticalgradients
within which that task was undertaken. This is a crucial area to ponder because it
hadaprofoundimpactonwhichissuescametobe foregroundedbyMarxism,and
whetherandhowfarthepoliticsproposedthroughMarxismcouldandmayflourish
in the East. In some cases, as revealed in some of the essays, the complexity of
Introduction ix
translation, with its underlying political context and drive, is shown to have
changedthecharacterofwhatsignifiesasMarxism.Inothers,thisisshowntohave
shaped brand new questions and areas for Marxism in general to contend with.
Nomatterhowonelooksatit,thepointremainsthatthereadingsofMarxinand
from the East did not and do not always fall in line with the dominant strands of
readinginthewest(ifsuchcanbepositedinthesingular).Thecontributionstothis
volumehavebeensensitivetothistension-ridden history inthespace ofMarxism.
Many essays bring into the forefront some of the demoted and suppressed aspects
of Capital, the tensions and frictions they provoke, which renders necessary a
recasting of extant readings and interpretations of Capital. The book is about the
receptionofCapitalintheEast.Itisalsoaboutreading,interpretinganddeveloping
the issues connected to Capital from the East. From another angle, Capital in the
East: Reflections on Marx is a connecting bridge between the insights of a rich
tradition developed in the past and new avenues of interpretations and conceptu-
alisations going into the twenty-first century.
Taking into consideration these thrusts and angles, this volume is tentatively
organised into four broad sections for the convenience of readers: (i) Reception of
Capital in the East (Jon Solomon dealing with China, Rajarshi Dasgupta with
Bengal, Bertil Lintner with Southeast Asia and Gavin Walker with Japan);
(ii) Value, Commodity and Forms of Capital (Pranab Kanti Basu dealing with
commodity fetishism, Satyaki Roy with value flow and power under global pro-
duction network, and Byasdeb Dasgupta with finance capital); (iii) Population and
RentinCapital(RanabirSamaddarrevisitingthequestionoftheoryofpopulationin
Capital, Rajesh Bhattacharyaa with an anti-capitalocentric reading of primitive
accumulation and surplus population and Iman Mitra revisiting and rethinking
rent);and(iv)BordersofCapitalandRethinkingPolitics(SamitaSendealingwith
gender, Anjan Chakrabarti and Anup Dhar with a dialogue between Marx and
Gandhi on non-violent socialism, and Manas Bhowmik and Achin Chakraborty
delvingintoworkers'cooperativeandpostcapitalistpolitics).Thisroughandbroad
settingdoesnotmeanthatinallcasesthepapersrestricttheiranalyses inlinewith
the thrust of their respective sections. Rather, almost all the papers intersect and
overlap across various sections in highlighting this or that aspect, at times rein-
forcing their respective views and at other times challenging one another.
Alongside, they move between inquiry and exposition, translation and history,
historical and conceptual, conceptual and political. In bringing together this cor-
nucopia, we hope that the book will showcase the richness of the tradition of
readingandinterrogatingCapitalfromandintheEast, andintheprocessopenup
new territories of thought and politics for the future.
Achin Chakraborty
Anjan Chakrabarti
Byasdeb Dasgupta
Samita Sen
Contents
Reception of Capital in the East
Sinicized Marxism as a Symptom of the Postcolonial Condition:
Arif Dirlik, Mao Zedong, Xu Guangwei, and the Modern Regime
of Translation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Jon Solomon
Capital in Bangla: Postcolonial Translation of Marx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Rajarshi Dasgupta
Communism and Capital: Marxists Literature in Southeast Asia . . . . . 39
Bertil Lintner
The Homeland(s) of Marxism: Labor Power, Race,
and Nation After Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Gavin Walker
Value, Commodity and Forms of Capital
Marx and the Enigma of Commodity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Pranab Kanti Basu
Global Production Network: The New Template of Power
and Profit in the Regime of Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Satyaki Roy
Finance Capital in Marxian Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Byasdeb Dasgupta
Population and Rent in Capital
Is There a Theory of Population in Capital? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Ranabir Samaddar
xi
