Exploitation, Interlinked Transactions and Agrarian Class Relations in Uttar Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT A striking feature of rural markets in underdeveloped agrarian economies is interlinked transactions, where two or more interdependent exchanges are simultaneously agreed upon across different markets. In contemporary India, even as the capitalist relations of production are dominant, there are still regions where interlinkages play a major role in defining the class relations, which in turn influence their agricultural development. This paper analyses the nature of interlinked transactions in Eastern and Bundelkhand regions of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and agriculture‐dependent state. Using a Marxist framework, I argue that such linkages are essentially exploitative, hindering the progressive development of agriculture in these regions. The dominant parties in the interlinked transactions continue to use them as important sources of labour mobilisation and surplus extraction. It further studies the possible influence of the interlinkages associated with tenancy and credit transactions in lowering crop productivity and profitability and finally their impact on the livelihood strategies adopted by the agricultural households.