Class Trouble: From Identity to Subject-Position

What the paper says

By virtue of highlighting a unique kind of division (inequality) in society, ‘class’ has played an essential role in Marxian theory. We can indeed say that Marxian theory and practice is class-oriented despite long-standing disputes regarding whether or not that leads to class/economic determinism and what this determinism does to its mode of explanation and politics (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985: Chapters 1 and 2; Resnick and Wolff, 1987: Chapter 3; Cullenberg, 1996; Callari, 2017). Besides this vexed issue, Marxists (as also non-Marxists) have had serious differences over what they mean by class and over the purported role of class within theory and practice (Resnick and Wolff, 1987; 2006). Is there a connection between the phenomenon of class/economic determinism and the particular manner of usage of class? That certainly seems to be what Hindess (1987) suggests is the case for Marxian and Weberian approaches that treat class as a noun, namely as a homogeneous group of people who can act, i.e. as a social actor. Taking off from Hindess’s insights, this chapter interrogates in a comprehensive manner the deep-seated lacunas that arise in noun-based theories of class. Overcoming the lacunas can be done by bringing to sophistication the noun-based understanding of class (Roemer, 1988; Wright, 2015; Das, 2020). Whether newer directions in the noun-based definition of class can withstand and overcome the above described problems, some of which are well recognized in twentieth century Marxism, is an audit that needs separate focus. Our approach in this book, of using class as process/position takes another route, to open up a distinct analytical space which we contend radically transforms the way class analysis is to be conducted. Taking off from Resnick and Wolff’s (1987, 2006) interpretation of Marx’s Capital backed up by a detailed critical examination of twentieth century Marxian theory, our book is dedicated to a focus upon laying down the distinctness and consequence of class as process of surplus labour in unpacking the Indian experience.