Articles by Ratan Khasnabis

Even after 30 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal, the state has lagged behind in a few economic indicators, this, despite better performance in agriculture. Agricultural growth rates have however declined in the last decade or so, the reasons for which have been elaborated upon. A gradual movement towards unorganised labour has characterised working patterns in the state and the phenomenon is studied, along with the conditions of living. In this context, the new economic policy of the Left Front government is critiqued. It is suggested that a policy that favours inclusive growth with greater emphasis on small enterprises should be followed by the government if it wants to sustain the gains made and address the shortcomings in the state.

This paper attempts to study the features of the labour process in a transitional situation, on the basis of a field survey in the informal handloom weaving sector in Nadia district. This process depends largely on the nature of the institutional arrangement in the sector, where usury capital has a strong presence due to the influence of the merchant lender, the 'mahajan'. The deskilling tendency associated with the relation between the producer and the mahajan and the unity of conception and execution in some cases are among the characteristics that describe this labour process.

Fifteen years after Operation Barga, tenants of south Bengal yet remain unsure of their tenurial security and fail to get the legally stipulated share of the produce. Lacking access to institutional facilities, they are reverting to private sources of credit A study of four districts of West Bengal with different socio-economic conditions.

Operation Barga : A Further Note Ratan Khasnabis IN an earlier comment [6] on the tenancy reform measures of the Left Front government, we had pointed out that the 'Operation Barga' (OB) as modified following the High Court judgment on the issue, has hardly anything new to contribute to the accentuation of class struggle in the countryside. The modified OB is nothing but a simple Revenue Court measure which had already been there as an element in the land reforms administration of the state. This view has been vehemently criticised by the supporters of the Left Front government. OB, they claim, "has taken the shape of class struggle and a great peasant movement in the rural areas of the state", so much so that it is serving now as "harbingers of fundamental change" 12; p 20531Such social democratic tendency of making much of certain pro-bargadar legislative measures can be best understood by examining the limitations of a state sponsored measure like the OB as an instrument for the development of class-struggle in the countryside. Pre- cisely with that end in view, in the first part of the present note, we consider the implementational aspects of the tenancy reform measures and examine their socio-political implications.