CPI(ML), India documents and discussion

What is meant by the term “industrialisation”? We would define the concept in the very broadest sense so that it includes not only the idea of technological change (e.g. the introduction of machine technology into agriculture, mining, manufacturing, construction and the like) but also a radical social, economic and political transformation of the societies in which it is occurring. For instance it can, but need not necessarily entail massive urbanisation. It can, but need not necessarily encompass the development of industrial capitalism and the growth of the proletariat. The specifics of each historical instance needs therefore to be treated as problematic, not taken-for-granted. Our aim in this paper is not to examine the broad sweep of social change. The notion of industrialisation as a very diverse process, however, informs our thinking, even though we focus more narrowly on change in just one sector of one society, viz manufacturing in Malaysia. In particular, we will try to establish the extent to which a capital goods sector has developed there, the form it has taken and the degree to which linkages have been formed between capital goods producing companies and the local economy.