No abstract

This article tries to understand the economic growth of West Bengal by using the Bai–Perron method of multiple structural break analysis. It is found that between 1960 and 2014, the Bengal economy had witnessed two breaks in its output growth. The first break occurred in 1983 and was influenced by a break in the agrarian sector, an outcome propelled by the shift in the political regime and changes in policy prescriptions. The second break happened in 1993; it was preceded by the break in the service sector and a shift in the policy paradigm within the same political dispensation. This study has further investigated the characteristics of the various growth phases in terms of sectoral composition and policies. It is identified that the West Bengal economy has moved from a low growth phase to a medium or balanced growth phase followed by a high growth phase. The low growth phase had witnessed an agrarian impasse, industrial deceleration and political instability. In contrast, the medium growth phase recorded an unprecedented agrarian growth and political stability. The high growth phase has seen a huge growth in the tertiary sector and political instability during its later half. JEL Classification: R11

Despite sustained high growth in India over the past three decades or so, barring the recent turn of events, structural transformation has been characterized by deepening agrarian crisis, high unemployment, and a lack of remunerative and good quality jobs. These are the major contributors to the problem of burgeoning inequality in India. In this article, using various macro-level data sets, secondary case study reports, and one primary survey, it is argued that the neoliberal model of development cannot solve the ongoing rural crisis in India. This, in turn, calls for looking beyond this paradigm. Considering that agrarian (or broadly speaking, rural) distress has its own class dynamics, which lead to disproportionate suffering among the class of marginal farmers/tenants, agricultural workers, and others, it is argued that cooperativism presents itself as an alternative model for remedying India’s ongoing rural crisis. In this context, strong management and external support are key factors to ensure the success of cooperatives.

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.