Class Dynamics of Tenancy and Accumulation in Capitalist Agriculture in India

ABSTRACT This article underscores the crucial role of tenancy practices in shaping agricultural production dynamics and accumulation/livelihood strategies across different peasant classes in India. By examining tenancy dynamics in Haryana, a key region in India's Green Revolution and forefront of neoliberal reforms, the paper makes two contributions to the literature: First, it contributes to tenancy literature by reinstating Marxist class analysis and second, by employing a novel economic class‐based classification of households rather than traditional size‐based classification. The findings of the study reveal significant variations in objectives and extent of tenancy among economic classes: poor and small peasants engage in hunger (subsistence) leasing due to economic distress, while rich peasants lease for accumulation, leveraging their resources and hired labour. The escalating significance of tenancy amidst agrarian distress in rural India emphasizes that tenancy exploitation persists despite neoliberal reforms. This supports the advocacy of left‐wing parties in India for comprehensive land reforms aimed at redistributing land to actual cultivators, thereby addressing inequities in land ownership and tenancy systems to promote equitable distribution of agricultural resources and alleviate rural poverty.