The Class Structure of Pakistan / By: Taimur Rahman / Paperback / Oxford University Press Pakistan

ISBN: 9780199400126 / 978-0199400126

ISBN: 9780199400126

ISBN-10: 0199400121

Audience: General

Format: Paperback

Language: English

Number Of Pages: 328

Published: 29th October 2021

Country of Publication: Pakistan

This study makes three propositions.

First, the mode of production of pre-colonial South Asia was qualitatively distinct from European feudalism. Instead, Marx's notion of the Asiatic mode of production is more consistent with the historical evidence.

Second, the colonial path of capitalist development of South Asia resulted in a socio-economic formation that combined features of the Asiatic and capitalist modes of production, which this study terms Asiatic capitalism. Empirical analysis of agrarian relations in Pakistan reveals the relative absence of wage labour and the continuing existence of various forms of pre-capitalist economic relations within the overall framework of a capitalist economy.

Third, the vast majority of the non-agricultural working population of Pakistan today is engaged in handicraft and manufacture. However, manufacturing and services are dominated by petty commodity production and small-scale capitalism. Hence, while being significant in terms of output, the formal large-scale industrial sector, which was developed along the model of state-corporate capitalism, remains relatively small in terms of employment.

In sum, the class structure of Pakistan is characterized by this study as Asiatic capitalism. 

Dr Taimur Rahman teaches Political Science at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He has an MA from University of Sussex and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is a Socialist Political activist and is the General Secretary of the Mazdoor Kisan Party of Pakistan. He is also the spokesperson of the popular band called Laal.

This work on the class structure of Pakistan is based on the framework of historical materialism. It sketches the history of the region that is now Pakistan and analyzes the class structure from the time of the Mughal Empire, through the distortions of the colonial era and the transition to capitalism, to the class structure of contemporary Pakistan. It avoids over-schematic arguments, attempting to proceed from facts rather than from any ideal forms. The study develops three propositions: First, that the mode of production of pre-colonial South Asia was qualitatively distinct from European feudalism; second, that the colonial path of capitalist development of South Asia resulted in a socio-economic formation that combined features of the Asiatic and capitalist modes of production, which this study terms Asiatic capitalism; third, that in Pakistan manufacturing and services are dominated by petty commodity production and small-scale capitalism. The author concludes by outlining the implications for Pakistan's politics, society, and culture.