“Surplus Humanity” and the Margins of Legality - Chapman University

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38 Chapman Law Review [Vol. 14:1
and the switch to cash-crops are cited as the primary reasons. 250
In 2007, the Planning Commission candidly admitted that WTO
―compulsions‖ had induced removal of tariffs and subsidies for
the agriculture sector resulting in a ―major crisis‖ in the 1990s. 251
Indeed, Bertolt Brecht had observed accurately that ―famines do
not simply occur; they are organised by the grain trade.‖ 252
How does neoliberalism gain legitimacy in the face of its
track record? This is accomplished through ―infiltration of
market logic into politics,‖ 253 and the deployment of ―an economic
logic in defining, evaluating, and protecting certain categories of
subjects and not others.‖ 254 In this transition, the neoliberal
project is framed as ―government of free individuals who are then
induced to self-manage according to market principles of
discipline, efficiency, and competitiveness.‖ 255 Neoliberalism is
about ―self-responsibilization.‖ 256 Responsibilities and capacities
of the states, save perhaps for war and internal security, are
shrunk. Historic popular expectations from the state are folded.
Self-contained individuals, now ―freed‖ from the state, are to take
responsibility to provide for themselves, optimize their
participation in the ―free‖ market, and not look to the state for
any assistance or protection. 257 For the wealthy, this may lead to
more wealth and consumption, but for the poor this just adds
another burden, the burden of responsibility, without any change
in their capacity to shoulder it. Inequality is naturalized, and
the differentiated opportunities of life that come with it are
deemed an inevitable part of the ―free‖ market.
How do the Indian ruling elites square the heralded
economic miracle with increased vulnerability of the vulnerable?
How does neoliberalism displace historical commitments and
expectations of a caring and patrimonial state, particularly when
250 P. Sainath, Neo-Liberal Terrorism in India: The Largest Wave of Suicides in
History, COUNTERPUNCH (Feb. 12, 2009), http://www.counterpunch.org/
sainath02122009.html.
251 In the 1990s, the rate of growth fell below the rate of population growth for the
first time since the 1960s. Shah, supra note 243, at 80. The rate of growth of dryland
crops that were grown and consumed by the poorest sections of the population dropped
below zero. Id.
252 Susan Marks, Introduction, in INTERNATIONAL LAW ON THE LEFT, supra note 135,
at 1, 13. See also AMARTYA SEN, POVERTY AND FAMINES: AN ESSAY ON ENTITLEMENT AND
DEPRIVATION 78–81 (1983); MIKE DAVIS, LATE VICTORIAN HOLOCAUSTS: EL NIÑO FAMINES
AND THE MAKING OF THE THIRD WORLD 26–27(2001).
253 AIHWA ONG, NEOLIBERALISM AS EXCEPTION: MUTATIONS IN CITIZENSHIP AND
SOVEREIGNTY 6 (2006).
254 Id. at 16.
255 Id. at 4.
256 See NIKOLAS ROSE, POWERS OF FREEDOM: REFRAMING POLITICAL THOUGHT 45
(1999).
257 Id. at 142.