The social proletariat and the economically marginalised communities are deliberately drawn into a process of lumpenisation sans proletarianisation. The capitalist state and Hindutva combine methods and techniques to entail dropouts from the process of proletarianisation. This is to refrain them from class consciousness during the post-reform period to make the left and democratic forces alienated from these groups.
he alleged suicide of Pallakonda Raju in 2021 on the railway tracks in Warangal district, who had raped and killed a six-year-old girl in Hyderabad, is not the first such incident in recent memory to have happened in Telangana (New Indian Express 2021). In 2019, four individuals were shot dead by the police for the heinous crime of rape and murder of a veterinarian doctor (Janyala and Ananthakrishnan 2022). This is still remembered in this part of the country and is a new phenomenon that has not been articulated and reflected upon by the left and democratic activists and intellectuals. This is not a sporadic incident that mostly happens in the urban areas but is omnipresent every- where, threatening the very existence of a civilised society and the formation of a radical proletarianisation process as envisaged by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Instead, what one sees is that proletarianisation is being dissolved and permeated into lumpenisation.
The concept of lumpenisation was first flagged by Marx, deriving the word from the German word “lumpen,” mean- ing ragged, consisting of groups such as criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed who are an underclass without any con- sciousness of their downtrodden existence. In this article, this concept is revisited in the context of the growing number of such groups signified through events, incidents, and their numbers that threaten social formation in a capitalist society like India. The problem with some of our intellectual traditions is that most of the activists continue with received theo- ries—either imported or given by some so-called “analysts”—who may not have the experience of encountering such situations or those who live in isolation and merely read “classics” of political economy ad nauseam. There used to be kind of an impact of totalitarian- ism that inhibited our attempts to under- stand country-specific issues and devia- tions from the mainstream develop- ments of capitalist societies. Now, things have changed and it is time that there should be some serious reflection on what is happening in India in the recent years when imperialism and religious fundamentalism got united to exploit the gullible and the unorganised groups of vulnerable people. It is in this context that we may reflect upon the changing contours of class formation in India
Theories of Class
Activists and analysts often repeat what Marx had said about class. Unfortu- nately, he has used only around 39 lines to elaborate upon classes and the manu- script breaks off at page 885 of the third volume of Das Kapital. But that was not a limitation for those who read his other writings and understood the method of the “capitalist mode of production” to articulate the type of classes that emerge in different stages of its social forma- tion. Interestingly, no one has seriously worked on class formations in India. Around 1950, D D Kosambi did some work in this direction; however, it was very elementary and did not capture the dynamics of Hindu society. The same was almost repeated in several writings of scholars in the last decades of the 20th century who tried to con- ceptualise classes with concepts like wage labour, proletarianisation, agrarian struggles, etc.
Some have reduced the category of class to only cover income groups. Econ- omists have conducted studies on the mode of production, rural proletariani- sation, etc, to arrive at some conclusions. For instance, studies by K P Kannan, Utsa Patnaik, and several others are not related to the post-reform period and did not cover the whole society. Kannan’s (1988) study titled Of Rural Proletarian Struggle: Mobilization and Organization of Rural Workers in South-west India was reviewed by late Gail Omvedt (1988) in EPW and is instructive for understanding the limitations of such studies and the struggles that some scholars have built based on its conclusions. Omvedt had noted that Kannan has failed to establish the development of proletarianisation from simple wage labour to the capitalist factory production in Kerala. Further, he failed to see the petty exploitation of commodity production seeing only wage labour as the source of exploita- tion, thus ignoring the self-employed, beedi workers, toddy tappers, etc. Fur- ther, Omvedt had also highlighted the autonomous struggles of Dalits, women, peasants, and others as part of a social mobilisation against capitalist exploita- tion. It is my experience in this part of the country that the traditional leader- ship imbibed in the classics of political economy are not in a position to appreci- ate the need for a change in thinking and often repeat what is contained in the texts (much like Vedic interpreta- tion) and perhaps need a relook at it within the Marxist parameters
The Phenomenon of Lumpenisation
It is under the given circumstances that we are trying to focus our attention on the emerging dangerous phenomenon called lumpenisation in urban areas that is slowly spreading towards rural and tribal areas while the left and demo- cratic struggles are limited to mostly urban zones. In fact, Marxist scholars like Giovanni Arrighi, Nicos Poulantzas and, Cédric Durand, to name a few, have tried to grapple with the impact of ficti- tious capital or finance capital and how it has total control over the world economy and society. It is now a fact that close to 26 families, including some Indian ones, own half of the world’s wealth. Natu- rally, they have their own ways of doing business and intellectuals have provided much more serious and theoretical expo- sitions of their financial systems and methods of expansion and sustenance. Some intellectuals have also inundated the academic world with their hogwash of the efficiency of the capitalist system. It may be the failure of the insiders of the opposition camp to understand the nature of capitalism, new methods of exploita- tion, and institutional arrangements that create structures to help expand
The Phenomenon of Lumpenisation
It is under the given circumstances that we are trying to focus our attention on the emerging dangerous phenomenon called lumpenisation in urban areas that is slowly spreading towards rural and tribal areas while the left and demo- cratic struggles are limited to mostly urban zones. In fact, Marxist scholars like Giovanni Arrighi, Nicos Poulantzas and, Cédric Durand, to name a few, have tried to grapple with the impact of ficti- tious capital or finance capital and how it has total control over the world economy and society. It is now a fact that close to 26 families, including some Indian ones, own half of the world’s wealth. Natu- rally, they have their own ways of doing business and intellectuals have provided much more serious and theoretical expo- sitions of their financial systems and methods of expansion and sustenance. Some intellectuals have also inundated the academic world with their hogwash of the efficiency of the capitalist system. It may be the failure of the insiders of the opposition camp to understand the nature of capitalism, new methods of exploita- tion, and institutional arrangements that create structures to help expand
corporate capitalism. This cannot be wrapped under the ills of corporate capi- talism. We may reflect here on the rapid expansion of capitalist, or rather, an imperialist consumer culture with infor- mation and communications technology and other commodities like consumer electronics pushed into every nook and corner of the society in India and the institutional support provided by reli- gious fundamentalist forces. The role played by these developments in the fast-changing process of lumpenisation must be studied and reflected upon. Cédric Durand’s (2017) study titled Fictitious Capital: How Finance Capital Is Appropriating Our Future and Arrighi’s (2010) study titled The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origin of Our Times, both published by Verso, have noted that financial profits are now concentrated in the hands of a small finance elite. In India, they are limited to a few Bania families and their relation- ship with political parties that fund, promote, and encourage religious fun- damentalism is well known. In fact, Poulantzas (1978) and O E Wright (1979) have written extensively on class forma- tions and the political economic struc- tures in the 20th century elaborating on how new classes are emerging in the corporate capitalist system. It is now common sense to note that when capital and other factors—including the organic composition of capital—undergo a change, the classes that depend upon the capital also undergo a metamorphosis. If some- one says, “I do not recognise it and I have never come across such categories in my readings,” then how do we evalu- ate this position?
The concept of lumpenisation—that is fast expanding in urban areas like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow, Bengaluru, and even some small towns—needs to be understood. Why is it being deliberately produced and what explains the alienation of the democratic and left forces from these groups? In fact, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961) had noted the revolutionary significance of this group, provided they are organised. Now, the developed capitalist state understands the need for the lumpen proletariat to sustain their exploitation, suppress class consciousness and to divert the atten- tion from the workings of the capitalist system. One can find, in every city and even in some rural areas, how the young are attached to smartphones and the informational content being poured in by the corporate media through it. The easy money that is generated through share markets, monetisation, and transfer of public properties to a few individuals produce enormous wealth in the hands of the few to provide leverage to “bribe” (to use a wrong word perhaps) the gul- lible public and make them forget about their immediate future. The creation of the underclass is a product, if not the creation, of corporate capitalism. The trishul-yielding rugged lumpens are interlinked to the sophisticated elites of corporate capitalism. These processes are unfolding as the left and democratic forces are still wondering whether it is only a temporary phenomenon that will disappear, sooner or later, once the rul- ing party changes.
It can be argued that something akin to lumpenisation has been built into the structure of Hindu society. One of the simple mechanisms of lumpenisa- tion seems to be the creation of groups and labelling them with different epi- thets. In the course of time, many of the erstwhile civilised groups and those who were living away from the main- stream have slowly integrated and have effectively become a “social reserve army.” This unique social structure needs to be further studied as to how it helped the formation of different socio-economic groups and helped sustain exploitation of different kinds in India. Let us confine ourselves here to how modernisation and colonial plunder with the capitalist mode of production has created groups like wage labourers, workers, and others in the factory system in urban areas, while handicrafts and traditional occu- pations along with agriculture kept the majority of the rural folk in the villages. The advent of a democratic spirit and trade unionism with the dawn of the Marxist ideology of organising the left has helped the exploited to organise on secular lines. In the beginning, it was mainly concentrated in the urban areas but rural agrarian struggles further strengthened the formation of the prole- tariat. In fact, a fruitful study of class formation and the kind of classes that have emerged in the post-liberalisation period is the need of the hour.
New Developments
It was considered that when the economy was released from state control and was yielding results on neo-liberal lines, the new economic policies were introduced diffusing not only the working classes but even the rural masses. The left and democratic forces were weakened and with the emergence of information communications technology, labour and labourers were divided. The factory sys- tem was almost dismantled and private industrialisation was promoted with state support to further reduce the inten- sity of proletarianisation. The new indus- trial and labour policies have further fragmented the labour force and their bargaining capacity with the introduc- tion of contract labour, outsourcing,
and other such techniques of organis- ing production without parallel oppor- tunities for labour to get organised. The process of proletarianisation needs a “class in itself” and a “class for itself.” Neither is happening now as there are no class struggles.
Capitalist imperialism and religious fundamentalism are interlinked as the policymakers of these two groups are represented by the same social class. They have proven to be highly intelli- gent not only in dividing the labour force but also in carving a section of the reserve army of unemployed, members of traditional occupations who lost their jobs and the urban vagabonds to form a vibrant group of lumpens to provide strength to sustain fundamentalism in India. It is perhaps in the beginning of the 1990s that the process of diverting the attention of the angry and torrid generation to pursuits that are not only unproductive but counterproductive to the health of our society started. The education system was manipulated to divert the attention of the youth from studying society to concentrate on engi- neering and technical courses so that their attention could be diverted from social issues. Private players have started importing consumer electronics and have expanded the mobile market much faster than the advanced countries to make the youth addicted to various forms of cheap entertainment so that they get satisfied with what they can afford with the trickling of the subsidies paid to the families and additional income earned/ doled by participating in religious func- tions, political gatherings, etc. These activities are not spontaneous as some people wanted us to believe; rather, they are deliberately promoted by corporate capitalism as they know the market techniques of spending money on adver- tisements to attract consumers.
There are several dichotomies, if not contradictions, in the functioning of civil society and the left activists. We hardly come across any functionary today in the villages or rural areas where the forces of lumpenisation have already spread. We have come to know that there were a few individuals in the villages who knew about the farm laws while there were sporadic activities in the media where, except the cadres, others evinced little interest. The media, both social and mainstream, hype a select few individuals within activist groups (with few exceptions) who are then seen with self-aggrandisement, which is a trap to wean activists away from real involvement and commitment. Some critiques even allege that such activities in urban areas are remunerative and have become a career for some individ- uals who are then touted as community leaders. They can go to any extent to retain their position within the groups or party to use tactics to discourage individuals to join a genuine movement to expand the base of the proletariat. They are, in a different sense, responsi- ble for the lumpenisation of the under- class. It is alleged that the kind of phe- nomenon that we have just described is partly responsible for the debacle of the left political forces in West Bengal and at other places. It is reported that in such disparaging conditions, the com- mitted ones often drop out from active politics as such. Marta Harnecker (2007), in her book Rebuilding the Left, provides many crucial lessons for us in India to ponder over.
Conclusions
We always come across the cynic who reminds us that these things have been there in all societies and name Lenin, Mao, and several great leaders who have encountered such hurdles and come up with innovative programmes to suit their conditions. It is time that the democratic and left activists understand the urgency of realising the danger of lumpenisation that diverts the very foundation of the left movement, that is, the creation of the proletariat as a revolutionary force.
It is in this context that activist scholars like Prabhat Patnaik (2014: 41) observe that politics must intervene more pur- posefully as “identity resistance poli- tics,” and move beyond mere identity politics. Left politics must intervene more purposefully in organising the resistance of Dalits, Muslims, Adivasis, women, etc, against socio-economic oppression and exploitation, while also ensuring that if relief is provided to a particular identity group at the expense of another, then the latter too is organised to resist such a passing of the burden. The differ- ence between class politics and “identity resistance politics,” in other words, lies not in their having different points of political intervention, but in the fact that the former carries its intervention even on issues of “identity-group resistance” beyond the “identity group” itself. Put differently, the negligence to intervene on issues of caste or gender oppression is a failure of class politics itself, and not a symptom of class politics. Further, the Hindutva outreach—irrespective of caste, class and region—with the religious and/or nationalist slogans needs to be dispelled not by annoyance and indiffer- ence but by creatively developing alter- native cultures that are deep-rooted in our rural folk culture and urban settle- ments. In addition to the standard agenda or rhetoric of fighting the imperialist and capitalist forces, it is necessary to speak to the people about their everyday problems such as violence against hap- less girls, alcoholism, media addiction of the young, and other such issues that have alienated the common people. Some of the programmes of the present left and democratic activists are not compre- hensible both in language and content. Most of the programmes are addressed only in the mainstream urban areas, leaving the slums, rural areas, Dalit bastis, Adivasi settlements, etc. As a result, the real proletariat is encouraged to drop out of social struggles without any hope and courage to face the danger of exploitation. Lumpenisation has a route through Hindutva and is imple- mented subtly with media, education, youth programmes, skill development, yoga, personality development, and def- initely not through a programme of gainful employment. Here lies the weak- ness of the left and democratic forces to collectively work for the emancipation of the proletariat by resolving their con- tradictions and help restore their real position to liberate themselves from false consciousness and identities, that is, to make them conscious of their “social being.”
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