Revision summary
Desai applied Marxism to nation, agrarian structure, and the Indian state. Nationalism is read as a bourgeois project in a colonial economy. Village harmony is rejected for landlord–peasant–labour relations. The state and planning are class instruments, not neutral tools. Caste is real but not the first mover in his scheme.
Model answer
Introduction
A. R. Desai’s Marxist sociology reads Indian society through class, colonial capitalism, and the state, not through purity or village harmony. Its salient features are historical materialism applied to nation, land, and planning.
Body
Features
- Social Background of Indian Nationalism treats the national movement as bourgeois-led inside a colonial economy.
- Rural India is landlord, rich peasant, and labour, not only jajmani. Land reform is incomplete bourgeois change.
- The post-independence state is not class-neutral. Planning and development can serve dominant proprietary classes.
- Caste and religion are acknowledged but placed in a class field, against Dumont’s ideological whole and against Srinivas’s functional village.
Method
- He used documents, history, and political economy more than a single Rampura monograph.
- Conflict, not solidarity, is the default.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD D[Desai] --> C[Class colonial capitalism] C --> N[Bourgeois nationalism] C --> L[Agrarian classes] C --> ST[Class state]
Conclusion
Desai’s Marxist sociology is class-first, state-critical, and historically colonial. It is the necessary counter to harmony village studies, even when caste needs a fuller relative autonomy.
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Significance of Village Studies in Indian Sociology
Next question in the 2016 paper (Q1). View answer →
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Did Desai ignore caste?
He subordinated it to class. Later work showed that this underplays graded inequality.
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Is he only about the past?
His method still reads liberalisation and displacement as class processes.
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