1. Fraser Sugden – IWMI, Kathmandu/CNUSUK
Unravelling the paradox of ‘super-profits’ under semi-feudalism: new perspectives on migration and pre-capitalist agriculture in Mithilanchal
Fraser Sugden – IWMI, Kathmandu/CNUSUK

2. Introduction
Easy to overlook significance of pre-capitalist economic formations
Mithilanchal: cultural region long under influence of semi-feudal landlordism and labour relations
What is the future of the semi-feudal mode of production in the context of out-migration?

3. Methods
Culmination of 8 years research in the eastern and central Tarai, and north Bihar.
Combining outputs from multiple projects, including PhD work in , internal IWMI funded research in 2012 and CCAFS funded research in 2013/14.
Two rounds of survey data collected, in Morang in 2008 and in Morang, Dhanusha and Madhubani from
Collation of qualitative life histories for households in all three sites and elsewhere in the region; focus groups and participatory video project
Analysis of Regmi archives, colonial gazetteers and similar historical sources.
Separate survey of women farmers underway at present

4. Understanding feudalism
Feudalism poorly defined (especially in Nepal context). Some key attributes from Marx (on European) and RS Sharma (on Indian) feudalism.
Control over the means of production by a small land-owning class with political, ideological and economic power over a peasant majority.
Surplus appropriated in kind using extra-economic coercion
Driven by consumption rather than productive reinvestment
Feudalism is not an archaic and static system, but a dynamic economic formation subject to transformation and change
It is reproduced in new forms by both the external imperatives of imperialism and capitalist expansion, as well as entrenched social relations on the ground

5. Tibetan Autonomous Region
Survey sites
Tibetan Autonomous Region
Kathmandu
Nepal
Janakpur
TRIBAL BELT
Bihar
Biratnagar
Madhubani
MITHILANCHAL
Darbhanga

6. Evolution of modes of production in Mithilanchal: 15th to late 19th century
In the caste Hindu heartland, feudalism had its origin in centralised state formations
Gorkhali conquest
Darbhanga rajas
Channeling of surplus to the centre through hierarchy of intermediaries with control over land. Sharing of surplus between local landlords and state
On Tarai forest frontier, tribal modes of production retained relative autonomy until late 18th century conquest, after which state intervention led to subjugation to feudalism
Distribution of land grants to elites from hills
Clearing of forest land and disruption to shifting cultivation (jhum)
Creation of intermediary/landlord class within tribal social structure

7. Colonialism and decentralisation of feudalism: 1900s – 1950s
Local state formations acquired new sources of revenue through trade and tax during late colonial period. Decline in agrarian tax.
Led to evolution of a more decentralised feudal system, where landlords loyal to the regime retained increasing share of the surplus through rent.
Powerful local landlords in caste Hindu heartland
Both absentee landlords from hills who had received land grants, and local Tharu landlords, in tribal belt.
Rural majority composed of marginal owner cultivators and tenant farmers, mostly from lower caste and adivasi communities

8. 1950s to 1990s: Articulations with capitalism
Land reforms:
Abolition of jimidari system (Nepal) and zamindari system (Bihar) and now redundant tax collection hierarchy.
Imposition of ceilings on holdings: easy to avoid.
Primary losers were the adivasi landlords of the Tarai, who lacked political connections
While power of zamindars slightly dissipated, feudalism or ‘semi-feudalism’ remained entrenched
Agrarian stress amongst tenant/small farm majority
Population growth and fragmentation of holdings
Monetisation of the economy, rising costs of living
Loss of land due to debt
Outcome was a rise in labour in the capitalist sector, both in Indian urban centers and industrial belt of Tarai

9. Jhorahat, Morang

10. Contemporary social formation: articulation of modes of production
Semi-feudal mode(s) of production
Base: Tenants, marginal farmer (<0.5ha), and landless labourers, who today form at least 75% of the population in study sites.
Apex: a local landlord class in the Hindu caste heartland. Politically connected absentee landlord class in the tribal belt of Tarai-Madhesh
Surplus appropriation through rent, farm labour and usury
Limited capital accumulation within agriculture
Continued importance of capitalist wage labour to supplement pre-capitalist rural economy, yet industrial base is very week – ‘comprador capitalism’

11. Landlords are from local large farmers, mostly dominant castes
Landlords are from local large farmers, mostly dominant castes. Tenants are mostly dalit
Ekrahi, Dhanusha

12. Bhagwatitol, Madhubani

13. Sitpur, Morang

14. Contemporary agrarian stress
Unequal terms of trade for agriculture, driving up price of inputs, particularly in Nepal.
Climate change:
Increased unpredictability of monsoons
Rise in extreme precipitation events (droughts and floods)
Rising cost of diesel for groundwater irrigation
Rising cost of living
Linked in part to rising fuel prices
Increased monetisation of the economy, rising demand for cash, inflated dowry demands.
Breakdown of state
Weak state agricultural support services in Nepal. Lack of local elections and breakdown of local development infrastructure
Long running state weakness on Bihar side of border
Rampant corruption and elite capture
Aggravated by neo-liberal development ideology

15. Migration economy
Availability of wage labour locally insufficient to support rising cash needs of marginal farmer, tenant and labouring majority
Significant rise in labour in capitalist sector in context of agrarian stress. Reinforced by emerging ‘cultures of migration’
Feminisation of agriculture, with women remaining behind , while males seek work in Indian urban centres and the petro-economies of the Gulf.
Wages overseas only marginally higher than what is available in nearby urban centres when accounting for the costs, yet local labour market can not absorb the vast surplus labour pool

16. Pre-capitalist reproduction
Semi-feudal relations reinforced by migration
Demand for tenancy and menial farm labour for landlords is high for women remaining behind
Given agrarian stress, landlords prefer to rent out land rather than farm themselves. Absentee landlords retain estates for speculative purposes.
Farming households are having surplus appropriated in new ways, beyond the farm, yet remain feudal in character
Usury is flourishing
Man power agents, middlemen
State sanctioned rent seeking (taxes, bribes etc)
Backed up by the reactionary state and party apparatus
Political parties serving landed interests, including Nepal and India’s ‘pseudo-left’
Denial of citizenship for next generation in Tarai-Madhesh

17. Thalaha, Morang

18. Superprofits for capitalist sector
Superprofits: Profits over and above the average rate of profit in the economy as a whole.
In developed industrial economy: monopolies or above average productivity (Marx)
‘Colonial’ countries through increasing rate of exploitation (Lenin)
Migrant labour is the primary mode through which ‘super-exploitation’ is achieved
Wages in capitalism cover (i) cost of labour and (ii) cost of labour ‘reproduction’. i.e. costs to maintain workers family; also borne at a societal level from birth (health, education etc).
However, in the context of migrant labour, the wages only cover the cost of the labourer itself, and a small excess to send home.
The cost of labour reproduction for migrants is provided mostly for
Subsistence agriculture to support stay behind family;
Feminised household labour;
The informal village economy; the societal cost of reproduction

19. Politics and the state
Super profits benefit capitalism in Indian urban centers and petro-economies of the Gulf. Does migration serve the interests of contemporary state and political party apparatus within Nepal and Bihar?
Migrant wages are not at levels which will reduce demand for tenancies, low wage farm labour
By its nature migrant labour in Mithilanchal is subsidized by pre-capitalist agriculture.
Landed classes close to the state and parties benefit
Landed classes close to the state, and segments of the urban upper class retain a share of the surplus (e.g. usury, money lending, comprador import businesses driven by migrant cash)
Migration offsets class struggle, and reduces pressure to develop strong industrial base at home

20. Conclusions
Feudalism or semi-feudalism is a dynamic system which does not function alone and is reinforced by, and provides labour, to global and regional capitalism.
Agriculture under exploitative pre-capitalist conditions remains vital to stay behind populations, particularly women
Migrant labour serves to both reinforce feudal agriculture at home, while the labour itself is subsidised by the agrarian social formation at home
Considerable complexity in the contradictions of the social formation in Mithilanchal and Nepal more generally. Raises new questions about potential class mobilisation, and the alliances and methods which are necessary
Rakuwari, Madhubani

21. Thank you Participatory video: experiences of migration
Thank you