Social relations and agricultural production in Nepal's Terai

The analysis of the process of surplus production, expropriation and realisation is central to the understanding of both the development process and the forces which are leading to transformation, particularly those arising from the relations of production [Frank, 1967; Laclau, 1971; Amin, 1974]. A central argument of this paper is that the details of the production relations, especially in agriculture, can vary very considerably, not only for historical reasons, but because of specific conditions in the technology of production and the conditions existing in the economy external to the actual process of production described. Institutions to control labour and property relations which best fit in with the maximisation of the expropriation of surplus value may not be those which are conventionally associated with industrial capitalism. This paper explores surplus production and expropriation in a specific situation: the production of the agricultural surplus in Nepal's Terai, in order to explain the social formations occurring within it.