Caste-Graded Informality in Corporate Agrichemical Marketing: Labor, Caste, and Capital in North India

Abstract

Critical agrarian studies have long examined how peasant economies are subordinated to industrial capital (Bernstein 2010; Byres 1996). However, the role of caste within informal agrarian labor markets remains insufficiently explored. While Aniket Aga (2019) critiques the conventional binary of farmers versus industrial capital in his study of agrichemical marketing in western Maharashtra, this paper extends the discussion by introducing the concept of Caste-Graded Informality. Building on Ambedkar's (1936) theorization of graded inequality, this framework highlights how caste structures differential vulnerabilities and opportunities within agrarian labor markets. Through ethnographic research with young men from agrarian backgrounds employed as field marketing agents for multinational corporations like Monsanto in Bihar, this study examines how agrichemical marketing operates through the discourse of agricultural extension while reinforcing caste-based labor stratification. These agents, typically from upper castes and intermediary or dominant agrarian castes, act as brokers, selling pesticides, herbicides, and other agrochemicals to farmers across mainly upper and intermediary caste hierarchies. Rather than disrupting entrenched social structures, the findings suggest that caste continues to shape labor intermediation, access to informal employment, and economic precarity, ultimately facilitating the expansion of corporate capital into rural economies.

This study is based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork (2024–25) in a north Indian village dominated by upper and intermediary castes, alongside a local market. It focuses on two key groups: (1) field marketing agents, examining their sales strategies, interactions with farmers, and corporate pressures; and (2) farmers across caste groups, analyzing their engagement with agrichemical marketing, debt cycles, and labor strategies. Existing literature on agrarian change has largely emphasized capitalist expansion and proletarianization (Brass 1990; Harriss-White 2003). However, informal labor is often theorized as a class phenomenon, overlooking the role of caste-based stratification. This paper argues that informality in corporate agrichemical marketing is not experienced uniformly; rather, it is structured along both caste and class lines. Upper-caste landowners, such as Singh and Rajput communities, retain access to informal credit and agrarian capital, shielding them from the precarity of corporate agriculture. Intermediary castes, including Yadavs, Kurmis, and Kyoris, act as labor intermediaries and field marketing agents, leveraging their agrarian networks while facing corporate pressures. Meanwhile, lower-caste laborers and marginal farmers, such as Mushahars, Paswans, and Chamars, endure the harshest informality, often trapped in cycles of debt without structural safeguards.

This study finds that caste-graded informality determines who becomes a marketing agent, who remains a subsistence farmer, and who bears the burden of debt. Rather than disrupting agrarian hierarchies, agrichemical promotion reinforces caste-based labor stratification. By theorizing Caste-Graded Informality, this paper bridges Ambedkarite sociology with agrarian political economy, demonstrating that caste not only structures land ownership but also mediates access to informal labor and agrarian capital. This has critical implications for agrarian struggles, and theories of informality in the Global South.

Bio

Born into a farming family in a village in Bihar, I have been deeply engaged with agrarian life for over fifteen years, actively participating in agricultural activities during my schooling. Even now, whenever I return home, I continue to work alongside my parents and brother, who belong to an intermediary caste and are farmers. As a first-generation academic researcher, my lived experiences in agriculture have profoundly shaped my intellectual journey, drawing me towards critical agrarian studies. My research examines the intricate relationship between labor and capital as it unfolds in my region.

Academically, I have been trained as both an engineer and a sociologist. I hold a BTech and MTech in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and later pursued an MA and MPhil in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Currently, I am in the final stages of completing my PhD. My interdisciplinary background enables me to engage with agrarian issues from multiple perspectives, bridging science, technology, and critical social inquiry. I have taught sociology courses, including Agrarian Sociology and Environmental Sociology, at Hindu College, University of Delhi (2022–2023), as an ad hoc Assistant Professor. Since 2024, I have been teaching sociology at Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi, as a tenured Assistant Professor.

My engagement with critical agrarian studies has been shaped by the works of Indian scholars such as Amita Baviskar, Vandana Shiva, Bina Agarwal, and Aniket Aga. Their contributions continue to inspire my research, encouraging me to critically examine the intersections of caste, labor, and corporate capital in Indian agriculture. Committed to this field, I aim to contribute to agrarian studies by integrating ethnographic insights with broader structural analyses of labor and capital in rural economies.