Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 29)

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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 29)

المحتوى

Related to the question of the absence of private ownership of land
is the question cf the character of the Asiatic state and the nature
of the peasantry or the village commune. The Asiatic state is
described as characteristically centralized, despotic and
aypertrophied. Marx distinguished between the "Higher Commune," or the
state, and the "Lower Commune," by which he referred to the peasantry.
The “Higher Commune" was personified by a ruler, such as the Mughal
king, in the case of India, or the Sultan, in the case of the Ottoman
Empire. The state stands over and above the direct producers. The
ruler appears as the sole appropriator of surplus from the direct
producers, as he owns and controls all means of production, including
land (Marx,1973).
: Before moving to the third basis of the AMP, it is worth mentioning
Marx's contention that the Asiatic state is necessarily centralized or
_ despctic. In Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations, Marx ascribes the
presence of a dqQespotic and centralized state to geographicai and
climatic factors, suggesting that the arid lands of Asia could not be
brought under cultivation on a large enough scale without artificial
irrigation by canals and water-works (Marx in Hobsbawm, (ed.),1965).
This functional relationship between irrigation and despotism,
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however, was ommitted in another work. In "The British Rule in India"
(Marx and Engels,1972) Marx argues that the development of such a
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state is imposed from outside for reasons that pertain to the
foreigner's need and not to the internal need of the economy. Yet, at
different times, Marx relates the despotic character of the Asiatic
state to the socio-economic make up of the Asiatic society, namely, to
the absence of private property and to the character of the village
commune (Chandra, 1981).
15
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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation

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