PEASANTRY AS A CLASS | MARTINS LIBRARY

A similar all – inclusive standpoint is taken with respect to the concept of the peasantry as a  class.  Rosebery (1983:74-75)  pleads   for  a more   inclusive notion of  class to include not just production relations but also “ the feeling   of community. He  contends that Marx did  not  see class in the mechanical way that many  Marxists do” and  that the formation of a feeling of community … was basic to marx definition   of   a class “ .  to support this Roseberry quotes Marx s  famous   passage on small peasant

Hobsbawm (1998:198-199)   similarly characterizes “  traditional  peasants “ as  having  “ a  much higher degree of formal or informal … collectivity” and that  “ it would be difficult to conceive of a  “ traditional “ peasantry … without this collective   element” furthermore,  in a historical sense, for Hobsbawin, the peasant is not just  a  class “ in   itself” but also exhibits the traits of a class “ for  itself”:  that had formed the  greater part   of humanity for the greater part of history and who were aware of their  distinction from, and almost their subalternity to, their oppression by, the minorities  of non – peasants, whom they did not like or trust

While the peasantry may be  a class of low classless “ and  that ‘ peasant consciousness ‘is  somewhat  “vague, Hobsbawm nevertherless argues that having “ the  same   kind of relation to the means of production as well as other common  economic  and social chracterisitcs”  fullfil  the function of evoking  recognition and solidarity  (preasanbt consciousness ) among  peasants that transcends “ regiions, dialects, costumes,  and customs”  and  “Specific geographical limits” there  is mutual recognition by peasants of the similarity    of their  relation to nature, to production,    and to non peasants” HOBSBAWM  1998 : 2002

“ Class”  can  also be taken  in a political sense as when peasants are drive by their common interests during crisis situations to engage In struggles with ‘ capitalist landowners, various groups of capital – related   townsmen, and the state “  (SHANIN  1987B: 357)”  No matter that these are often characterized by “Inescapable    fragmentation  … into small local segments ‘ and  the  diversity and vagueness of their political aims  ‘ both   of which serve to undermine their political impact.

         A final point is on the myriad scope of activities (behold soil cultivation and food production) that peasant household –based  socialites are engaged in. Elson  (1997) Enumerates these various other  economic activities: fishing, animal husbandry,  vegetable farming, tree planting, weaving and dyeing, commerce and trade, carpentry,  metal craft and tool making, salt making,, woodcarving, mining    and iron smelting, and hunting and foraging . in the colonial and post colonial periods, the following  developed : boat building  , industrial rice and saw milling, brick  , tile, and lime manufacturing, tailoring, transport business, and various  types of off-farm employment ( including full or part time work in urban areas as well as overseas contract labour)