Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labour: Case Studies and Debates (Cass Series: Naval Policy and History)

Many works about agragarian change in the Third World assumes that unfree relations are to be eliminated in the course of capitalist development. This text argues that the incidence of bonded labour is greater than supposed, and that in certain situations rural employers prefer an unfree workforce. "Much current writing about agrarian change in the Third World assumes that unfree relations such as debt bondage are archaic forms, destined to be eliminated in the course of capitalist development. Here it is argued that the incidence of bonded labour is much greater than generally supposed, and that in certain situations rural employers prefer an unfree workforce." "The central proposition advanced in this book is that the bonding of increasingly landless agricultural workers amounts to a process of deproletarianization. It is therefore wrong to assume that economic development in agriculture always requires the emergence of a rural prolertariat, and thus to categorize unfree production relations as anachronistic."--BOOK JACKET 1. Towards A Definition Of Bonded Labour -- 2. Bonded Labour In Eastern Peru -- 3. Bonded Labour In Northwestern India -- 4. Bonded Labour In Northeastern India -- 5. Neoclassical And Marxist Approaches To Capitalism And Unfree Labour -- 6. The Latin American Enganche System -- 7. Attached Labour In India -- 8. Unfree Labour, Culture And Nationalism. Tom Brass. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. This book focuses on the relationship between economic growth in Third World agriculture and the employment of bonded labour