Political Economy of Inequality of Rural Bengal in Post-Reform Period: Development or Proletarization?

This article examines agricultural growth and rural inequality in West Bengal during the post-reform period. Two qualitatively different phases of growth and inequality are identified: from 1993–1994 to 2004–2005, when agricultural growth in West Bengal was moderately higher compared to all of India, but the state witnessed increasing rural inequality; and from 2004–2005 to 2009–2010, when agrarian growth decelerated and rural inequality declined. To unravel the underlying changes in rural inequality, this study uses a class framework and suggests certain plausible explanations. It shows that the benefits of good agricultural growth in the first period were reaped by the middle and small farmers; moreover, it is possible that a shift in population occurred from these classes toward the absentee landlord class who are also self-employed in the nonfarm sector. During the next period, the deceleration of agrarian growth was associated with a sharp decline in the proportion of population of the farming classes and increase in the population share of the poorer classes, that is, agricultural labor and nonagricultural worker. Hence, declining inequality does not necessarily signify development, since the poorer classes evidently did not experience any real improvement; rather, a process of proletarization has begun in rural Bengal.