Re: [Marxism] Knowledge Society and Capitalism

[Marla Vijaya kumar <marlavk@xxxxxxxxx>]

Comrade Perelman,
I am overwhelmed by the response to my posting on "Knowledge Society and 
Capitalism". There are a few points I think that I should clarify.
About weavers: When India became independent, Nehru, the first prime minister 
of independent India envisaged a mixed economy, with the state sctor Industries 
playing a pivotal role in nation building. The state sector had dominated 
Power, Heavy Engineering, Steel, Petroleum etc. At the secondary level, a large 
number of industries were setup in the co-operative sector such as sugar, 
fertiliser, textiles with contributions from  peasents and rural poor. Almost 
every region had weavers co-operatives, with the regional governments actively 
supporting and promoting their merchandise. With the process of economic 
liberalization initiated in the early '90s by Nehru's own Indian National 
Congress Party and promoted as an ideology by the subsequent right-wing 
Bharatiya Janata Party led government, the state sector (Public Sector as it is 
called here in India) has been emaciated and the co-operatives have been 
dismantled and sold to private owners. In the last 14 years, the rural poor, the
 handloom weavers among them have seen their lives ruined by the so-called 
opening up and liberalization of the economy. For example, in the South Indian 
state of Andhra Pradesh ( with a population of about 70 million), there are 
reports of at least one suicide of either a farmer or a handloom weaver every 
day. Recently, a whole family of weavers (husband, wife and two daughters) have 
consumed poison and ended their life with no hope of ever seeing better days, 
as the note they had left behind says. A few measures such as introduction of 
powered looms proved to be counter productive as the local money sharks had 
quickly grabbed these power looms and turned the former owners of the powered 
looms into labourers, as a recent report in a local paper says. Only by 
reviving the weavers co-operatives and reserving the electrically operated and 
computerised  looms for the co-operatives, can their plight be improved. That 
is what we had proposed in the paper.
Rural indebtedness: Hundreds of farmers in India had ended their lives, unable 
to repay their loans. Continuous drought, adulteration of pesticides, 
fertilisers and even seeds by greedy businessmen had virtually ruined their 
lives. Unable to repay their loans from banks and rural money sharks, with the 
"neo-liberal" governments turning a deaf ear to their woes, some of the poor 
farmers had resorted to the extreme step of ending their lives. This phenomenon 
had been more virulent in our region, the state of Andhra Pradesh, where the 
former chief minister Chandra Babu Naidu was certified by the world capitalist 
press as the role model for future third world politicians. He had gone whole 
hog with the World bank directives, handed out attractive concessions to 
multinational IT firms and totally neglected the rural sector, leaving them to 
their fate. All subsidies to the peseants were slowly withdrawn and the cost of 
electrical power had shot up, with the privatisation of power
 generation and distribution, again on the directives of World bank. A majority 
of farmers in India cultivate in arid and semi-arid regions where electrical 
pump sets are vital to irrgate their fields. Caught in the viscious web of high 
interest loans, the poor farmers had thrown in their towels and calld it a day. 
Of course, Naidu's party had met with a humiliating defeat in the recent 
elections to the state's lagislative body.

One observation I would like to make here is that India with its 1 billion 
population ( about 14% of the world's population) gets very little attention in 
the international press. What happens in India, in my opinion will have a vital 
bearing on future world events. I suggest that marxmail should focus and 
initiate discussion on Indian developments, especially in the light of the 
growing importance of the Left Parties in Indian politics.
P.S: I will be going out of town and I will respond to  the other points raised 
in afew days time.
Namashkar (salute in sanskrit)
Marla Vijaya Kumar

Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So, I have been demoted to lurker status.

On Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 03:35:12PM -0400, Louis Proyect wrote:
> Marla, Michael Perelman is a lurker on Marxmail. As the author of "Class

I thought that the paper was quite interesting. I would have added an effort to
collect the knowledge of peasants -- that kind of knowledge is important. I am 
not
sure about the restrictions of the power loom.

delurking.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu

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