The social character of Indian State

Purely Indian state has social character

The basic question is whose state is the Indian state

The socio economic foundation of Indian state reveals many astonishing aspect to a curious mind

Right from its birth the Indian state had a class character

In the national movement it was drawn from elite section of western educated liberals

In the post independent india it is drawn from bourgeois or middle class

In the post colonial india,indigenous bourgeois has been relatively developed

The post colonial Indian state seems overdeveloped to expand capitalist production relations

The state is manned by middle class

Middle class played role in national movement

Provided and filled INC with elite and middle class

It is from this middle class basis of INC,the cadres of civilian and military bureaucracy were drawn

State and middle class seems been part of a single dialectic of mutual benefit

Various terms are being employed to understand the complex relation-ruling oligarchy,power bloc,ruling class alliance,dominant coalition/ruling coalition,

Analysis of content of state policies show specific interests of the dominant classes is regularly served.

Pranab bardhan in his political economy of development in india states that state as an autonomous actor in shaping class power-he list three dominant classes-industrial,agrarian professional classes

Bardhan says in period following independence,personnel of state enjoyed independent authority which made them principal directors developmentOvertime with rise of industrial and agrarian bourgeois autonomous behavior of Indian state became more confined to its regulatory developmental functions

He states that industrial bourgeois was principal beneficiaries of state policies

This bourgeois with headship of top business houses supported govt policy of encouraging import substituting industrialization, domestic markets,and or large public sectors,

Since mid fifties govt created many public lending institutions ,loans from which formed sources of private industrial finance

Richer business houses with better connections and access have got lons share of bureaucratic allocations of licenses

Small scale industrial sector also grown up with subcontracting with big firms ,the production reserved under small scale sector also shot at rise of urban petty bourgeois ,thereby it weakened trade unionism because of govt purchase of specified products from small scale sectors

Rise of rich farmering classes,because of land reforms and tenancy acts of 1950s,

Govt also provided institutional credit,and liberal and subsidized inputs of various kinds –fertilizers,seeds,water,electricity,

Another class is made up of professional classes –the public sector white collar workers

Privileged access of this class to education and technical skjills gave them an extra rent income related to scarcity

Infact pattern of capitalist development nad industrialization pursued by Indian state was geared to meeting needs of a minority of total population

In the post liberalization phase the Indian bourgeois class seems subordinated to foreign capital

Teaching points prepared by Biju P R,Assitant Professor in political Science,GBc,TLLy.