Finance capitalism and "community" perspectives on ecology

Dr. Prakash Chandra Jha

Finance capitalism is considered the third stage of capitalism after mercantile and industrial capitalism. In the first two stage; profit is made through buying and selling of goods and through manufacturing and selling of them respectively. It is under the third stage, that profit is essentially earned through buying and selling of currencies, shares and various financial instruments. The role of finance capital, especially in less developed regions has been highly destructive for ecological wellbeing of the region. The term ecology is derived from Greek word 'oikos' which broadly means access to livelihood. It is no coincidence that the term economy is also derived from the Greek word 'oikonomia' which is composed of 'oikos' (household) and 'nomos'(management or law) which literally means management of household. The three basic principles as applicable for economic management would be: providing subsistence for all, promoting wellbeing and proper resource management for today and tomorrow. In the context of ecology, these principles are neglected due to subordination of use value by exchange value as well as unsustainability of resource use. Goods like air, water ,food etc. have high use value but their exchange value is very low or negligible. As finance capitalism is dominated by buying and selling of currencies and stocks , real estate transactions as well as speculative activities generating high exchange value, the space for common resources with high use values gets dominated. While these activities produce no use value and entail accumulation of wealth, they ensure production of high exchange value which results in less production of essential goods. Through this process dominance of finance capitalism with the support of new liberal ideology contributes to subordination of use value by exchange value.

The history of rise and growth of capitalism in India is a story of ruthless exploitation of natural capital through colonial process culminating in post colonial "development" agenda. The colonial process of "unequal exchange" between an industrialised country with higher labour productivity and non-industrialised low productivity country ensured a transfer of surplus to Britain continued to occur in most of the colonial period. This process of subjugation impacted the domain of natural capital and large communities surviving on it. For example, the governance of India's landscape led to the category of wasteland in colonial revenue and forest legislation which ensured control over community resources in the interest of finance capital in post-colonial period.

Precolonial indigenous societies were organised with relationships of reciprocity and a respect for coexistence and tolerance. Following a distinct historical path of anti-capitalist struggles, they managed to achieve certain degree of rights and autonomy in the face of exploitation. Now, it is widely felt that a synthesis of elements of holistic indigenous wisdom and reductionist western science will provide a fruitful combination to provide guidance for a new non-capitalist path of development.