Labour in post‐colonial India: A response to Jan Breman

Resuming the debate with Breman about debt bondage in post‐Independence India, this reply to his two‐part survey explores the fact of and the reasons for continuing disagreements about the capital/unfreedom link in general, and in particular the connection between accumulation, the decommodification of labour‐power, the enforcement of debt‐servicing labour obligations, the presence/absence of coercion, and worker agency. Also considered is the analytical efficacy of using a depoliticized concept of worker ‘assertiveness'; the mere existence of the latter, it is argued here, is neither a defining criterion of proletarianization, nor an indicator of rising levels of class consciousness, and thus not as empowering as claimed.