Socially Embedding The Commodity Chain: An Exercise in Relation To Coir Yarn Spinning in Southern India

World Development Vol. 31, No. 5, pp.
903–923, 2003
Ó 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev 0305-750X/03/$ - see front matter
doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(03)00012-3
Socially Embedding the Commodity Chain:

An Exercise in Relation to Coir Yarn Spinning
in Southern India
K. T. RAMMOHAN
Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India
and
R. SUNDARESAN *
University College, Thiruvananthapuram, India
Summary. — Most of the available studies on commodity chains and upgrading pursue a narrow
economic view. This paper points to the need for mapping the social linkages of production and
movement of commodities. In relation to upgrading, the paper emphasizes the importance of
looking at their social implications. Toward these goals, the paper advances the idea of socially
embedding the commodity chain. The idea is demonstrated by examining, from a long-run
historical perspective, the global coir yarn commodity chain of southern India.
Ó 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Key words — commodity chain or commodity web, upgrading, socially embedding, coir yarn,
southern India, Asia
1. COMMODITY CHAIN: A chain linkages of raw material, labor, process-

THEORETICAL NOTE ing technology, and product market materially
connect economies, regions, and peoples across
A commodity chain opens a small window to the world (Gereffi, 1994, pp. 211–231; Gereffi &
the larger milieu of the capitalist world eco- Korzeniewicz, 1994; Hopkins & Wallerstein,
nomy––in a way, as in classical Marxism, the 1992, 1994).
concept of commodity offers a cognitive entry In large measure, the theoretical significance
point to understanding the system of capital- of commodity chain analysis is derived from its
ist production. Defined formally, a commodity insistence on an integrated examination of
chain, or more appropriately, a commodity production and circulation of commodities.
web, represents the network of labor and
material processes that precede a finished
commodity. Each production operation in a * We are greatly indebted to K.N. Nair, Coordinator,
commodity chain is called a node. It may be Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Develop-
possible to examine the nature and implications ment at Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvanant-
of each node, including material flows (basic hapuram for funding the fieldwork that supports this
goods, industrial goods), mode of transfer paper; to G. Niranjana Rao, Chandan Mukherjee and P.
(market, other forms), relations of production Mohanan Pillai for constant interaction and encour-
(wage labor, other forms), production organi- agement; to Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Barbara Harriss-
zation (household, co-operative, state-owned, White, K.P. Kannan, Saugata Mukherhee, K. Nagaraj,
private capitalist), and technology (type, extent M. Vijayabaskar, Nirmala Banerjee, and to the un-
of mechanization). The specific location of known referee of World Development for critical com-
a social group/country/zone in a commodity ments on an earlier version of this paper. Final revision
chain influences its relative share of value. The accepted: 24 December 2002.
903
904 WORLD DEVELOPMENT
Through this, the world-economy analysts omy theorizing, beginning with the dependency
overcome two major criticisms set forth against approach, rejected the dominant stadial as-
their approach earlier, indeed, from as early as sumption. Yet, these strands viewed the failure
the 1970s. First, the world-economy model is of the Third World in terms of its failure to be
said to ignore production and privileges trade, like Europe and suggested albeit a different
and thus to misread the source of value. Sec- scheme of developmentalist stages.
ond, and closely related to the first, the model is Furthermore, as commodity chain analysis is
said to neglect ‘‘internal’’ factors (that is, fac- concerned as much with consumption as pro-
tors within the national territory, in particular, duction, it offers room to respond creatively to
class relations) and to focus exclusively on the call from cultural studies quarters to look
‘‘external’’ factors. The earlier defense by the beyond the political economy of production to
world-economy theorists that their model in- understand production itself. The suggestion is
ternalizes the ‘‘external’’ hardly sets right the that the Marxian critique of political economy
lapse to internalize the ‘‘internal’’ itself. The has succeeded in unmasking the social and
new concept of commodity chain, by proposing historical genesis of exchange value, and now, a
an analysis of the entire material and labor similar unmasking is required in relation to use
linkages that precede a finished commodity, value, ‘‘usefulness’’ or ‘‘utility’’ being socially
beginning with its metropolitan market, work- produced as exchange value (Perrons, 1999).
ing backward through the factory and/or de- Consumers construct themselves in relation to
centralized industrial production site, down to media culture and advertising. Consumption is
the peripheral farm that produces the raw ma- not confined to physical objects. It includes
terial, steers clear of these earlier criticisms. images, ideals, fantasies and styles. These, so to
Again, as a commodity chain may successively speak, ‘‘create’’ use value. Although these and
link up varied organizational modes of pro- related conceptual issues are not quite ex-
duction, it renders redundant the idea of ar- plored, in the analysis of buyer-driven com-
ticulation of modes of production, which is modity chains, the influence of the product
advanced as a corrective to the view of all- market on production organization is recog-
pervasive world capitalism. The world economy nized. This genre of global commodity chains
could be now conceived as an ensemble of are mostly aroused by rapidly changing taste
global commodity chains, with different pro- and demand of the metropolitan consumer, and
duction nodes displaying different production fashioned by socially manufactured and shared
relations, but all orchestrated toward the world ‘‘images, ideals and fantasies.’’ The consumer
market. impulses are transmitted through retail chain
The concept of commodity chain also pre- stores and import agents in the metropolis to
empts a more recent criticism, sometimes raised export houses, their agents, and finally, to
as auto-critique by some of the pioneers shop-floors in the periphery. There, production
themselves. The criticism relates to the Euro- and production arrangements appropriately
centric presumption of the world-economy flexible to satisfy the changing consumer de-
model as revealed in the notion of a fixed me- mands are undertaken. Analysts of buyer-
tropolis and periphery, the West and the driven commodity chains stress that at least in
‘‘Rest’’ (Frank, 1998). As a commodity chain is the cases they handle, a study of sociology of
conceived as being drawn and redrawn, the consumption is inseparable from a study of
nature of periphery-metropolis relations could political economy of production (Vijayabaskar,
also change, and their fixedness melt away. 2001).
Furthermore, while the commodity chain is Commodity chain analysis points to the
constitutive of European capitalism, it is not possibility of redrawing the chains but refrains
specifically European. Nor is it specifically from advancing any grandiose schemes either
capitalist. The concept is free from the stadial to ‘‘be like the metropolitan other’’ or to de-
assumption (of history by stages) of concepts link from the world-market, to be a Robinson
such as mode of production (this is not to say Crusoe country. Commodity chain studies may
that the commodity chain is intended to replace enquire into aspects such as upgrading of pro-
or improve upon the concept of mode of production nodes but the universalized notion of
duction; rather, it may be still important to development is not its central axis. By dis-
explore the production relations of a node to tancing itself from the Enlightenment modern-
understand how value is shared among different ist conception of development, it does not allow
agents). Indeed, earlier strands of world-econ- itself to be caught in the tussle of the binary
SOCIALLY EMBEDDING THE COMMODITY CHAIN 905
view: ‘‘development of development’’ or ‘‘de- in the kind of structuralist political economy

velopment of underdevelopment.’’ that allows persistent agency only to the dom-
inant metropolitan actors? Or, does commodity
chain analysis provide a means of practical
2. COMMODITY CHAIN: EMPIRICAL politics and economics? On the positive side,
OPENINGS however, the silences and ambiguities in the
original conception yield flexibility both in
Commodity chains reveal the macro process formulation and application of the concept.
of world economy at its site of fundamen- Even a vehement critic is thus seen appreciating
tal reality, the production and exchange of ‘‘the great richness of descriptive content’’ of
the commodity. The concept therefore offers the concept and also recognizing its ‘‘method-
significant possibilities for historical/politico- ology [as lending] itself to a range of conclu-
economic reflection as well as empirical appli- sions’’ (Cramer, 1999).
cation. First, a commodity chain could be Yet, following from its nebulousness, the
perceived as a global exploitative chain and it concept often tends to be theoretically and
might be possible to actually measure the size empirically deployed in a manner betraying its
and proportion of economic rent drained off at politics. For instance, the concept is fraught
different nodes (Kaplinsky, 2000). Commodity with the danger of dissolving in a ‘‘deserted’’
chains thus yield an important means to ex- product path. This is to say, the concept may be
plore the mechanism of colonial and post- used merely to trace the physical movement of
colonial economic control, and to substantiate a commodity, with no acknowledgement of the
it empirically in relation to specific economic social relations of production and exchange
activities, countries and regions. Second, the and their crucial bearing on the commodity
commodity chain perception of material and chain. A clear case is the managerial exercise of
labor networks organized around a commodity supply chain analysis designed from the per-
captures the new global tendencies of detailed spective of the key agents in the metropo-
dispersal of production and trading activities lis seeking a steady and economical supply of
and the new global division of labor. Third, as commodity from the periphery. Closely allied
the specific location of a class/social group/zone with this, the concept of commodity chain
in a commodity chain is viewed as influencing could be drawn into a neoclassical straitjacket
its share in value, the framework suggests the with focus on systemic efficiency. To forestall
possibility of reconstituting the commodity such digression, and to reflect upon the possi-
chain so that the relative shares can be rede- bility of redrawing the global commodity flows
fined. What are the means to such reconstitu- from the perspective of the subordinated agents
tion? Rather than being a priori prescriptive, in the periphery, this paper advances the notion
commodity chain analysis underlines the need of socially embedding the commodity chain.
to look at structures of governance of specific Socially embedding the commodity chain
commodity chains. refers to mapping the social linkages of pro-
The varied possibilities of commodity chain duction and movement of commodities. It rec-
analysis are only beginning to be explored. ognizes that no commodity chain is born in a
Even the question whether commodity chain vacuum and views the relations of materials
analysis is merely ‘‘a heuristic framework for and women in a commodity chain as deeply
generation of data’’ or ‘‘an analytical tool’’ is entrenched in the social milieu of class, caste,
not fully settled (Kaplinsky, 2000). The slow and gender. The specific attributes of the chain
growth of commodity chain analysis has oc- are shaped by the disparate elements of the
curred primarily, because the originators of the varied societies through which they traverse.
concept have not quite situated it by delineat- Social and cultural domains extend into the
ing the linkages. There has been no definitive economic. For instance, it is not that labor is
attempt on their part to clarify adequately ‘‘born’’ cheap in the periphery. Rather, labor is
the political/developmental implications of the formed into an important, cheap element in a
concept in relation to the world-economy global commodity chain. This is not solely due
model. The contrasting viewpoints on the pos- to the economic power of capital or its power at
sible use of commodity chain analysis for un- the workplace, but because the labor it recruits
derstanding upgrading in the periphery is ‘‘socially’’ priced a priori. The pricing may be
(Gibbon, 2000) is largely due to this ‘‘original of female labor, as labor of ‘‘low’’ and ‘‘out’’
sin.’’ Is the new concept too deeply entrenched castes, and therefore considered intrinsically of
lower worth. The incremental part of wages facturing capabilities’’ (Tam & Gereffi, 1999).
over the bare cost of reproduction of labor Upgrading is thus primarily conceived as
power tends to be influenced by its ‘‘socially’’ technological change and training that render
decided worth. The power of capital lies in more value-adding nodes in the periphery. This
taking advantage of the a priori ‘‘social’’ pricing amounts to taking a narrowly economistic view
and in inventing one where it does not exist. of the question. From the perspective of so-
The ‘‘social’’ pricing of labor power is cially embedding the commodity chain, the
transmitted across different sites of production question is what are the social implications of
and across time, continuously influencing its upgrading? This, in turn, generates a fresh set
market price. For instance, during the early of questions. How does upgrading translate
part of the 20th century, on the Malabar coast, into the lives of the peripheral workers? Does
if an ‘‘out’’ caste, ‘‘attached labor’’ from the upgrading improve the working environment
paddy tracts, could break free and become, say, and ‘‘status’’ of work? Does it make their labor
a coir spinner, the chances were less that her less strenuous? What are its implications for
labor power would be priced strictly within the gender-based division of labor? The emphasis
precincts of capitalist production seemingly on the ‘‘economic’’ has often led the upgrading
characteristic of the coir spinning industry. theorists to discount these crucial questions
Rather, it would also be priced, even if im- relating to the implications of upgrading for
plicitly, with reference to her location in the labor and labor process.
social hierarchy and in the specific kind of or- Further, the paper emphasizes the signifi-
ganization of paddy production that she had cance of an historical perspective––a dimension
left behind. The earlier pricing of her labor lacking in most of the recent studies on com-
power had not been based strictly on economic modity chains and upgrading––in throwing
grounds. Besides the class exercise of power light on many of the important aspects, in-
characteristic of ‘‘attached labor’’ system, caste cluding the prime mover of changes in the
and gender had construed and constructed it as commodity chain, the possibilities of suste-
cheap. Traced further backward, the ‘‘social’’ nance and advancement of upgrading, and the
pricing may present itself as a chain of succes- social implications of upgrading. This emphasis
sive valuations beginning from the times of on history comes from our view that policy
agrarian slavery in the region when the labor planning should ideally draw on long-run ex-
power of ‘‘out’’ caste people used to be experience and may not be confined to the present
tracted practically free. Further, besides em- or the immediate past.
ploying the earlier pricing as an implicit basis
for its own evaluation, capital may invent
‘‘social’’ pricing where one does not exist. Co- 3. COIR YARN COMMODITY CHAIN
lonial tea planters in Assam, for instance, paid
different rates of commission to recruiters This paper seeks to demonstrate the idea of
for different kinds of ‘‘aboriginal’’ labor, the socially embedding the commodity chain by
‘‘aboriginality’’ being constructed and its pre- foregrounding the case of coir yarn spinning in
cise degree measured by the planters themselves southern India. We have chosen coir and
(Ghosh, 1999, pp. 8–48). ‘‘Social’’ pricing of la- southern India because production and world
bor power, however, is not static. It could be trade of this commodity from the region has a
negotiated and redefined through economic history that dates back at least five centuries,
and social struggles. which grants us a long-run view of both social
Socially embedding the commodity chain is embedding and upgrading of the chain. The
not merely a matter of scholarly interest. It paper draws on varied historical sources and on
facilitates raising important questions of policy fieldwork carried out in the major coir pro-
interest in relation to the peripheral society. ducing centers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu
Within the overarching structure of world cap- during 1996–97 and 2001.
italism what could be done to ensure the pe- The organization of the paper is as follows.
ripheral economies a greater share in the value From a general discussion of theoretical and
generated in a commodity chain? The answer empirical aspects of commodity chain analysis
that commodity chain analysts offer is eco- and the preliminary presentation of the notion
nomic upgrading. At the product or industry- of socially embedding the commodity chain as
level upgrading refers to ‘‘the addition of high carried out in the two earlier sections, the paper
value services and more sophisticated manu- now moves on to examine the major attributes
of the global coir yarn commodity chain. The first type of yarn has a wide all-India
Closer focus is laid on southern India, in par- market. It is also used in hop cultivation in the
ticular, on two interconnected regional seg- world metropolis. The second type is used in
ments of the chain, namely, Kerala and Tamil the matting industry both in the periphery and
Nadu. We then map the socio-historic context in the world metropolis. A substantial share of
and implications of technological upgrading in the matting produced in southern India is ex-
the coir yarn commodity chain. The enquiry ported. Coir fiber also has an international
spans over 150 years and is divided into three market, being widely used in the upholstery
phases: 1850s to 1950, 1950 to mid-1970s, and industry. Fiber and yarn are either directly
mid-1970s to mid-1990s. Sections 4–6 respec- imported by the metropolitan consuming firms
tively cover the three successive phases. The or through their agents, some of whom exclu-
most recent instance of upgrading occurring sively deal in these products. Matting used to
around 2001 is explored in Section 7. Based on be imported by metropolitan importing firms
this long-period analysis, in Section 8, the pa- who supplied these to the department stores.
per comes back to general questions regarding Since the 1990s, most of the matting is either
commodity chain raised in the beginning, in directly bought by the retail chain stores or
particular to the question of social implications through buying agents. Often more than one
of upgrading in the periphery. tier of buying agents are involved in coir com-
Coir yarn commodity chain is a buyer-driven modity chain.
commodity chain. The key agents in the chain What conditions prevail at the production-
are located in the consumption end of the chain end of the coir yarn commodity chain? The coir
in the world metropolis. Russia is a major yarn commodity chain comprises two major
buyer of coir fiber while The Netherlands and nodes: production of fiber and production of
Italy are the leading importers of yarn. The yarn. Node 1, that is, fiber production, involves
United States leads in import of coir mats. The two successive suboperations: retting and defi-
metropolitan players wield considerable bering. Retting (rotting) refers to the treatment
strength owing to their specific location in the of raw husk (green husk) to loosen fiber from
structure of global economic governance as the husk-shell and to ease its extraction. In the
major buyers and price-makers. Enhancing Kerala segment of the chain this is carried out
their power is the fact that a range of substi- in the backwater (estuary). Flushing washes
tutes is available for coir, allowing them to away the tannin and facilitates bacterial action
play-off one commodity against the other. that decomposes the fiber-binding pectin. Sa-
While European countries and the United linity lends strength to the fiber. For retting, a
States are the major buyers of coir products, pole is driven into the bed of the backwater and
the major producing centers are all located husks are arranged one on top of the other in a
in the periphery, mainly in Asia. Besides India, circle. It is then covered with mud, palm-leaves
the other major producing centers are Sri and coir net. Each bundle, known as a maali or
Lanka, Thailand, Philippines, and to a small kolli, has a diameter of 10 m and contains
extent, Bangladesh. The nature and scale of 10,000 husks. To distinguish between individ-
production in these peripheral zones is sub- ual maali small metal discs bearing the initials
stantially influenced by the changing nature of of the owner or a number code are inserted into
demand in the world market not only for coir each before sinking. Weights, usually huge
but also for coir substitutes. stones, are placed on the top to allow the maali
Within the Indian subcontinent, southern to sink. The maali remains in the brackish
India is the major producer of coir. Kerala water for several months helping bacterial ac-
State is the most important center and has a tion. It requires four workers jointly working
history of coir production and trade spanning for four hours to make a maali. Male workers
over five centuries. Tamil Nadu ranks second, make the maali. Raw husk is carried to the
with the other two southern Indian States, backwater-side and the retted husk carried
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, contributing back to the site of defibering by women. Mostly
relatively minor shares. Southern India caters men of ‘‘out’’ castes (Pulayar) assisted by
to both the pan-Indian and international mar- women of ‘‘low’’ (mostly Ezhavar) and ‘‘out’’
kets. Considered in terms of end-use, there are caste are engaged in retting. The second sub-
two varieties of coir yarn: yarn that is used for a operation, defibering, denotes the preparation
wide variety of purposes, but primarily in ag- of fiber from retted husk. Retted husk is beaten
riculture, and yarn that is woven into matting. with a mallet (kottuvadi) to separate fiber from
pith. Women squatted on the backwater-side, rivers that empty into it, toxic industrial waste.
do this work. They are mostly of ‘‘low’’ castes, Motorboats plying the backwaters also con-
almost all Ezhavar. taminate the water. The working environ-
Node 2, spinning, involves conversion of fi- ment of retting is thus quite dirty. Retted
ber into yarn. Like defibering, spinning is en- husk, dripping with muddy water and juices, is
tirely done by women. In Kerala’’s southern carried by head-load to the defibering site.
districts, where most of the spinning units are Defibering demands working throughout in
concentrated, spinning is mostly carried out on an uncomfortable squatting position in the
wooden spinning wheels (ratt), operated by swampy backwater-side. In spinning, the spin-
hand. A woman worker––sometimes, a child ner must repeatedly walk, forward and back-
worker––rotates the fixed wheel while two ward, between the two spinning wheels that
other women walk backward feeding fiber, each make a ratt set. The spinner thus walks on
of them drawing out a strand of yarn and then average 8–10 km by the end of her workday.
walking forward twisting the two strands into Likewise, the wheel rotator has to do the re-
one by pushing the moveable wheel. Spinners petitive, monotonous job of turning the wheel
too are mostly ‘‘low’’ caste Ezhavar. from morning till evening. As all these opera-
Table 1 summarizes the major characteristics tions are performed outdoors the workers often
of the industry in terms of the nodes (produc- have to bear the burden of rain and sun, too.
tion operation), processes and technology of
yarn production, and the social composition of
workers in a traditional yarn-producing center A coir worker can be easily identified by her appear-
in southern Kerala. ance: her clothes, body and hair as soaked with the
stinking black juice of retted husk that splashes
Several ancillary operations tie themselves to around during beating, her hands callous from wield-
the major operation or suboperation of each ing the kottuvadi [mallet] and from the hard fiber rub-
node. The following are some of the suboper- bing along the fingers and if she is a lifetime spinner,
ations. The husks are counted both before and her feet curved outwards as a result of the endless
after retting, the retted husk is carried by head walking towards the back on spinning (Nieuwenhuys,
load to the defibering site, the fibrous mass is 1990, p. 109).
ripped off the retted husk to prepare fiber, the
fiber is cleaned before spinning, it is carried by Such conditions of work tend to cause high
head load to the spinning site, the spun yarn is morbidity among coir workers. Common
sun-dried, it is then bundled, and finally con- health problems among coir workers include
signed by different modes of transport to dif- allergic problems of the skin and respiratory
ferent centers of trade. system, body-ache, chest pain, rheumatism,
The physical conditions of work in the gynecological complaints, headache, stomach
industry are strenuous and the working envi- ache, and vomiting. The working conditions
ronment is unhygienic. The maali for retting and the health status of the workers in co-
is made by workers standing waist-deep in operatives are not significantly different from the
the backwater. Backwaters are connected with capitalist sites. A sample study of the co-oper-
the sea, and therefore, water is brackish. As the ative segment in Kerala showed that 68% of the
coast is densely populated, a backwater receives workers complained of allergy and respiratory
a big mass of biological waste, and through the infections, 49% of chest pain, 39% of rheumatic
Table 1. Coir yarn commodity chain, Kerala Segment

Node Node 1, production Node 2, production
of fiber of yarn
Operation Suboperation I retting Suboperation II defibering Spinning
Process of conversion Raw husk > retted husk Retted husk > coir fiber Coir fiber > coir yarn
Technology By hand By hand By hand
Gender composition Both men and women Only women Only women
of workers
Caste composition ‘‘Out’’ castes and ‘‘low’’ ‘‘Low’’ castes ‘‘Low’’ castes
of workers castes
Source: Fieldwork, 1996–97 and 2001.
problems, and 52% of body-ache (Nair, 1997, overwhelmingly large share of the fiber and
p. 120). yarn output from Kerala is still produced by
The coir workers represent the lowest strata centuries-old processes.
of the rural poor in Kerala. They are of ‘‘low’’ Kerala accounts for about 0.38 million coir
and ‘‘out’’ castes, and mostly women (see Table workers. They are distributed in the major
1). While through land reforms many of the production nodes that constitute the chain as
coir workersÕ families or their preceding gen- follows. The vast majority, that is about 0.35
eration had gained access to very small resi- million, are engaged in defibering and spinning
dential plots––in which they have put up a nodes (Kerala State Planning Board, 1998, p.
coconut-leaf thatched hut or a small, tile- 110). Spinning node alone engages about 0.28
roofed house––they do not possess any cultiv- million workers, all women. Defibering node
able land. Partition among the members of the engages the rest, over 0.06 million. The share of
family has rendered the residential plots even men is less than 0.02 million; they are employed
smaller. Further, mostly male members of the in pre-defibering retting operation (Directorate
family hold the plot and women have little say of Economics & Statistics, 1988).
in its transactions. Adding to the marginaliza- A sizeable section of the coir workers in
tion of the workers is their age. The coir worker Kerala is employed in co-operatives numbering
women are mostly in the 45 plus age group and about 500 for the whole state. The co-opera-
are trained in no other occupation except coir. tives were originally set up to ensure supply of
Despite extensive trade unionization, the wages retted husk at a reasonable price to home-based
are low––even lower than in agriculture. Stat- small producers, who were otherwise locked in
utory minimum wage has been fixed but often a putting out system under the dominance of
not paid even in the workersÕ co-operatives. A retted husk traders. Since the 1970s, the co-
defibering worker defibers 100 husks a day for operatives have undertaken defibering and
which she is paid less than Rs. 60 (that is less spinning operations. In terms of scale of oper-
than a $1.50) in a co-operative. A team of three ations, co-operatives are middle-level players,
spinners makes 30–36 kg of yarn in a day, operating 5–10 spinning wheels. A co-operative
which may yield them each less than Rs. 70. may have 100–150 members but only half of
Workers in private production sites are paid them may be actually working in the co-oper-
still less. The eight-hour workday in both co- ative. Most of the co-operatives are consistently
operatives and private sites extends from seven loss-making and would find it difficult to sur-
in the morning till three in the evening. A vive if government support is withdrawn. Yet,
pension scheme for workers in both private and the co-operatives in Kerala play a crucial role
co-operative sectors is in vogue but the cover- in providing employment and in setting a bot-
age and support are far from adequate. tom-line wage which private sector wage too
An upgraded defibering node that eliminates has to approximate.
defibering by hand is visible in some privately- The Tamil Nadu segment of coir yarn com-
owned units in Kerala. Called decorticators, modity chain is of more recent origin, dating
the new defibering machine consists of a pair of back only to the mid-1970s. Unlike in Kerala
metallic rollers to squeeze away water from where the industry is spread along the entire
retted and peeled husk, a spiked drum to shear backwater coast, in Tamil Nadu it is mostly
and comb fiber. More recently, some of the confined to the southwest part of the state,
workersÕ co-operatives have further upgraded primarily in and around Pollachi town. The
the defibering node by setting up defibering organization of production in the two segments
mills. These mills directly treat green husk, also differs. In the Kerala segment, production
without retting. The husk continuously moves is highly decentralized. It comprises varied
along a conveyor belt: first, from the crusher production sites including the workerÕs own
where it is pierced all over in a spiked drum to small homestead that uses family labor and,
facilitate easy entry of water, then to a water sparingly, neighborhood labor, the homestead
tank for rapid soaking, and then to a three- of the producer capitalist who employs entirely
piece unit consisting of a turbo, beater, and wage-labor, and the co-operative yard where
combing machine, and finally to a drier. In several member-workers concentrate. By con-
some of the co-operatives in Kerala electrically trast, in the Tamil Nadu segment, production
operated spinning wheels have replaced tradi- is centralized in mechanized factories. These
tional wooden wheels. These recent instances are privately owned. The co-operative form
of upgrading, however, are yet to spread. An of organization is absent in the Tamil Nadu
segment. There is a difference in product profile tervention fixing minimum wage thus shows up
too. While the Kerala segment yields both fiber in the Tamil Nadu segment of the coir com-
and yarn, Tamil Nadu specializes in the pro- modity chain.
duction of fiber. Further, Tamil Nadu has also
emerged as a coir machinery-manufacturing
center, supplying coir defibering mills and 4. WORLD TRADE AND UPGRADING
electrically operated spinning wheels for all of 1850S–1950
southern India. The relationship between the
two major regional segments is not entirely
complementary. The cheap, imported fiber Of all the gifts which Providence has bestowed on
from Tamil Nadu benefits the spinning node in the Oriental world, the coco-nut tree most deserves
Kerala but poses a threat to its defibering node. our notice: in this single production of nature, what
Tamil Nadu displays a hierarchy of techno- blessings are conveyed to man!. . . The trunk though,
logical forms. At the top of the pyramid are the porous, furnishes beams and rafters for our habita-
few large integrated production units that tions; and the leaves when platted together make an
excellent thatch, and common umbrellas, coarse mats
manufacture a range of coconut-based prod- for the floor, and brooms; while their finest fibers are
ucts including desiccated coconut powder, coir woven into very beautiful mats for the rich. . . The
fiber, yarn, and curled coir. These are located nuts contain a sweet and delicious milk, and a kernel,
mostly in Pollachi town and the immediate sweet as the almond: this, when dried, affords abun-
surrounding area. The fiber division of these dance of oil; and when that is expressed, the remains
units employs very few workers, mostly less feed cattle and poultry and makes a good manure.
than 10 workers. All operations, including The shell of the nut furnishes cups, ladles, and other
domestic utensils; while the husk which encloses it is
soaking husk are mechanized. Raw husks pass of the utmost importance: it is manufactured into
along a conveyor belt to a spiked drum where ropes, and cordage of every kind, from the smallest
these are crushed; the crushed husks go through twine to the largest cable, which are far more durable
a combing machine that sifts long fiber, drop- than that of hemp (Forbes, 1823, pp. 22–23, emphasis
ping short ones and pith; and the fibers finally added).
cleaned in a turbo cleaner. Second, there are
fiber factories––numbering about 200––in the ‘‘Of the utmost importance,’’ as James For-
Pollachi town and outskirts that use a slightly bes, the English East India Company official
less advanced technological mode. The config- saw it, was, of course, what was of utmost
uration of machines is similar to the first as importance to the world-metropolis. Local
consisting of a husk crusher, fiber comber, and people cultivated coconut not for its husk but
cleaner but the conveyor belt system is absent the kernel that it enclosed. The kernel as such
and several operations are attended by hand. and the oil obtained from it were essential
The rest––less than 100 factories, mostly scat- components of the local cuisine. The oil also
tered in villages––use much less advanced found everyday use as an ointment. The husk
technology. This comprises a decorticator, with was viewed rather as a by-product. It was def-
a beater fitted with rods, to disintegrate the iberd and spun but on a rather small-scale,
husk and separate pith and fiber, and a nail mostly for local use. All operations were done
drum, to clear the remnants of pith and impu- by hand, often with no tools at all, or with
rities from the fiber. A decorticator needs only minimal tools, such as pierced coconut shells. A
two or three workers. big change in production and market of coir
Despite the technologically superior organi- yarn, however, occurred in the 16th century.
zation of production, the working conditions in This happened with the expansion in world-
the Tamil Nadu segment are not substantially demand for cordage for shipping following the
better than in Kerala. The wages obtaining in rise of European maritime powers. A substan-
Tamil Nadu segment are in fact lower than tial part of the requirement was met from the
those obtaining in Kerala. While the wage rates Kerala coast. Portuguese traders were the ma-
in fiber mills and integrated production com- jor agents in mobilizing the commodity. Con-
plexes in Pollachi town pay about two-thirds of sequent to the enormous expansion of demand,
the wage prevalent in Kerala, in the suburban the scale of local coir yarn and rope production
and village units the wage is even less. In ad- multiplied. There is, however, no evidence of
dition, the workday in the Tamil Nadu segment any substantial technological change during
is longer than in Kerala. The absence of trade this period. Both defibering and spinning con-
unionization, co-operativization and state in- tinued to be done by hand. Directly, the effect
of global linkage was felt more on agriculture. increasingly identified as an occupation of

Area under coconut cultivation steadily in- Ezhavar, a backward caste. This scene relates
creased during this period, rendering thus a to southern Kerala where yarn production was
growing supply of husk for processing. linked to mat weaving for exports.
The first major technological upgrading in In northern Kerala (former Malabar district
yarn spinning was induced by the rise of me- of the Madras Presidency), and also the neigh-
tropolitan demand for a new coir product, coir boring island of Sri Lanka (former Ceylon),
matting, which occurred during the 19th cen- where yarn continued to be produced as a final
tury. In Europe, the rich used matting as un- product, technological upgrading failed to oc-
derlay for carpets and the poor as a substitute cur (Sharma, 1923). Yarn was either spun by
for carpets. The metropolitan, primarily Brit- hand or by drawing fiber through a pierced
ish, trading houses that operated from the coconut shell, as was the practice in certain
Kerala coast exported coir yarn to England and parts of northern Kerala. Of Ceylon, it has
Ireland where it was woven into matting. A been noted: ‘‘In the past the fiber was generally
part of the yarn exported to London was re- converted into yarn by hand, and it was not
exported; it reached the matting factories in until 1938, that the method of spinning by
The Netherlands and Belgium. From the mid- machinery was introduced’’ (CTJ, 1942, p.
19th century, coir-matting factories emerged in 169). It is interesting that in northern Kerala,
KeralaÕs port towns as well, Alleppey being the where wheel spinning was not introduced, sev-
most important center (Isaac, 1984; Rammo- eral castes, including some of the ‘‘upper’’ caste
han, 1996; Venkataraman, 1940, pp. 52–87, Nayanmar continued to be involved in spinning
154–183; 1941 pp. 61–86). (Sharma, 1917).
How did the world-demand explosion of coir With the exception of rope works, which re-
matting induce technological upgrading in the quired a different technology (‘‘a rope is more
periphery? As demand for matting boomed, the than a big yarn’’), spinning factories were
demand for coir yarn, its raw material, also rare––if any existed at all. The closest approx-
expanded. The local weaving factories and imation to a factory was the homestead or
those located in the world-metropolis de- backwater-side premises of the yarn merchant,
manded yarn. There occurred a 15-fold increase where a sizeable number of workers were con-
in export of yarn from southern Kerala (Trav- centrated. Coexisting with this, even over-
ancore princely state) during 1855–1914 shadowing it, were varied other forms of
(Rammohan, 1996, p. 63). The demand boom production including putting out and petty
prompted changes not only in the scale but also commodity modes. Production of yarn thus
the technology of yarn production. Yarn re- continued to be carried out mostly in the
quired for weaving was the thin, hard twist workerÕs own home/homestead. A mid-1930s
variety. This could not be spun by the tradi- report confirms this.
tional method of rolling fiber between palms.
Hand spinning therefore gave way to spinning In practically all cases the various processes are car-
ried out by individual peasants at or near their own
by wheel. With rapid and extensive diffusion,
houses even if it is piecework carried out for mer-
the wheel multiplied gross production of yarn, chants who buy husk and sell the finished yarn
and consequently matting. (CTJ, 1936b, p. 418).
What were the social implications of up-
grading? The shift to the wheel spinning was The defibering and spinning nodes were often
accompanied by two important changes. First, united in the workerÕs homestead. In Malabar,
yarn spinning increasingly lost its character as home production was usually organized around
ancillary work and was recast as a prime mode the retted husk dealer:
of subsistence for large sections of the popula-
tion. Second, it increasingly assumed the char- The female [the mother] goes to the village merchant
acter of an exclusive occupation of women, and and procures softened husks of 25 coconuts to be
of ‘‘low’’ and ‘‘out’’ castes, with relatively low cleaned, beaten, dried and spun. The girl assists her. . .
wages. Men continued to be engaged, but it was she takes up the work of preparing yarns when it is
most convenient to her. The hours during midday
increasingly viewed as odd. Moreover, like the
and earlier part of the night are generally found con-
handloom of the weaver, the chisel of the car- venient. On an average it is found that she will be able
penter, and the tapping rod of the toddy- to spin 15 palams [4.8 lbs.] of yarn in 24 h. The fin-
worker, the coir spinning wheel was identified ished product (15 palams) is taken to the merchant.
as a caste-occupational tool. Coir spinning was He deducts 10 palams [3.2 lbs.] as ‘‘seigneurage’’ to
the master and for the remaining 5 palams [1.6 lbs.] itself later procured it for export. An official
pay 3 pies per palam––this being the families [sic] history of a metropolitan firm reads:
earnings (Sharma, 1917, as cited in Velayudhan,
1991, p. 67).
The first coir yarn to be prepared by us [Pierce Leslie
Company]. . . was all spun in the cottages around Ka-
In Malabar, which lacked the kind of intense raparamba [where the warehouse was located] and
world-market integration through weaving was regarded as an additional source of income to
the women. . . who, after working by day in the yard
segment as in the case of Travancore, yarn which handled coffee, cardamoms, cinchona and gin-
spinning did not expand rapidly. The 1931 ger, would sit up spinning yarn as they discussed the
census puts the number of coir workers in dayÕs news late into the night. The following day the
Malabar at about less than half that of Trav- yarn would be taken to the local shops and exchanged
ancore, around 41,000 and 83,000 women re- for salt, chillies, coconut oil and other requirements of
spectively (cited in Velayudhan, 1991, p. 68). life. . . (Langley, cited in Velayudhan, 1991, p. 68).
Further, in Malabar, yarn spinning appears to
have lost its ancillary work character only The spinning wheel, as noted earlier, was
gradually. Indeed, in many parts of Malabar, introduced only in southern Kerala where yarn
its stature as additional work engaged in by production was linked to the export-oriented
poor peasants or landless workers continued weaving node. Considering the rising demand
well into the 20th century. This could also be for yarn, why was there no attempt to go be-
due to the fact that while under several op- yond the wheel and to further upgrade the
pressive forms of tenures, in Malabar, most spinning node? It appears that there was no
people, save ‘‘out’’ castes barred by caste-based compelling need. The requirement of trade was
denial, had access to some cultivable land––at fully met by the spinning wheel, economically
least as a very inferior tenant under constant embedded in the network of home production.
threat of eviction. This was in contrast with the These were not just homes. These were the
situation in Travancore. In Travancore, despite homes of ‘‘out’’ castes and ‘‘low’’ castes. Fur-
the royal grant of absolute ownership to state thermore, the spinners were almost all women.
tenants (modeled, according to the dewan of Children rotated the wheel. No machine could
the state, on the Madras ryotwari settlement have competed with this labor power––of
with tax-paying landholders), the clearing of ‘‘out’’ castes, women and children––cost wise.
jungles for plantations, and reclaiming back- In southern Kerala too, despite the general
waters for growing paddy, possession was still buoyancy of the industry, the wage was pegged
scarce to large numbers of people. This was due at an abysmally low level over nearly a century.
to its skewed distribution with overwhelming Literally, the wage paid was not enough to
shares appropriated by a few colonial planter win a square meal. A survey of coir workersÕ
capitalists and paddy-growing landlord capi- families conducted in 1940s vouches for this.
talists. What follows is a description of the income and
The organization of coir yarn production diet of a workerÕs family:
varied not only between the northern and the
southern parts of Kerala but also across local- She earns 4 annas [quarter Re or a little over 7 chuk-
ities within each region. In Malabar, in terms of ram] a day by coir yarn. She and her child take half a
labor and market linkages, home production cup of tea without milk and what is left over of the
previous nightÕs tapioca [cassava]. No food during
itself assumed different forms. Moreover, com- the day. At night they take rice one and a half nazhi
plicated interlinkages between different work- (13.95 oz.) (or wheat 2 nazhis on some days), tapioca
sites prevailed. For instance, women workers in boiled 2lbs. (one and a half chukram worth), fish 1 to
the spice warehouses of metropolitan export 2 ounces and chillies and spices to taste (Shastri &
houses in the port towns were also engaged in Bhat, 1945, p. 66).
yarn production. This was to supplement the
meager wage they received as a warehouse- In the defibering node too, the availability of
workers. During the day they cured spices in cheap labor rendered technological upgrading
the warehouse. At night they spun yarn at irrelevant. The port-based metropolitan firms
home. They were, thus, wageworkers by day, and some local persons tried to introduce a
and petty commodity producers by night. The defibering machine but soon gave up. Its run-
yarn produced at night was bartered the next ning cost overshot the wages then obtaining.
day for daily provisions at the local grocer, who The quality of the yarn turned out was poor.
also dealt in coir. Often the metropolitan firm We thus read about the attempt of a scion of a
royal family during the first decade of 20th and Ceylon, and the extra cost of transporta-
century: tion worked out to be lower than the cost of
labor for teasing yarn.
Three or four years back K. Rama Varma Koil As coir-matting factories in both the world-
Tampuran of Kilimannoor procured a machine. Since metropolis and the local port-town multiplied,
it was found that the use of this machine was not more innumerable villages in southern Kerala be-
economical than the manual process and the fiber was
damaged due to cutting, and some of the workers suf-
came important sites of coir yarn production.
fered on account of lack of experience, he withdrew Contributing to such localization was a multi-
from this with disappointment (Pillai, c. 1905, p. 25– plicity of factors. This included the concentra-
29). tion of coconut production, which assured a
steady supply of husk, the existence of back-
The attempts by two leading metropolitan waters that helped the soaking of husks and the
firms to establish a defibering mill in the port preparation of fiber, an integrated network of
town also failed under similar circumstances. backwaters and canals that facilitated the eco-
nomic transportation of bulk material such as
In the first decade of the (20th) century, Arnold Che- coconut husk, fiber and yarn, and the possi-
nery and Co. tried to erect a fiber mill at Alleppey bility of obtaining, or rather, ‘‘socially manu-
which worked for some years. Yet ultimately it proved facturing,’’ cheap labor. Putting out was the
to be a failure and the factory was closed down mainly
on account of competition from fiber production by
two major organizational form of production,
manual processes. . . Another fiber mill, started by As- and its venue was the homestead. The yarn
pinwall and Co. in the 1920s also met with the same produced by the households was carried in
fate (Isaac, Van Stuijvenberg, & Nair, 1992, p. 34). country boats along the rivers and backwaters
to the port towns, and woven into mats and
A trade journal report from the 1930s noted matting in the factories operated by metropol-
on the absence of any machinery, except the itan capitalists and a few local persons. A
hand operated spinning wheels: ‘‘coir-making substantial part of the yarn produced was ex-
on the Malabar coast [Kerala] is essentially a ported as such, again through the metropolitan
cottage industry. There is no machinery for coir export firms based in port towns. Western In-
manufacture in evidence. . .’’ (CTJ, 1936b, p. dian merchants acted as ‘‘factors’’ in the deal-
418). ings between local traders and metropolitan
World trade, however, influenced the tech- firms. The coir products were procured for ex-
nological organization of the packing and ports through a long chain of advances (credit),
shipment segment of the commodity chain. extending through traders of various sorts and
Technological upgrading here marked no sim- scales. A credit chain stretched from the me-
ple substitution of one technology by another. tropolis to the periphery, from the palatial
Rather, technological organization was fluid, headquarters of the metropolitan firm on the
a fluidity occasioned by the varied needs of Thames to the little huts of coir spinners on the
metropolitan importers. Fiber and yarn being backwater-side Kerala villages. As the child
bulky material, their transportation cost was worker in her Kerala home turned the wheel,
very high. ‘‘The freight on fiber is by far the money flowed into the coffers of the London
largest item in the landed cost’’ (CTJ, 1936a, p. firms.
308). Minimizing the transportation cost was Over time, most of the backwater-side villages
therefore crucial to export trade. Toward this, on the southern Kerala coast became helplessly
baling presses were introduced. Hydraulic bal- dependent on coir production for survival. In-
ing helped to reduce freight by half. These deed the dependence became literally prover-
presses, however, involved high investment and bial: ‘‘Chavara, Panmana, Thevalakkara kayaru
were installed only by the more prosperous kondu pizhakkanam’’ (Chavara, Panmana and
metropolitan firms. Even in those firms not all Thevalakkara [villages] are destined to survive
fiber was baled for export. Some metropolitan by coir).
importers preferred ballots (bundles) to bales,
as baled fiber was hard to tease. Those im-
porters bore the extra transportation cost for 5. CRISIS DEFERS UPGRADING,
ballots (CTJ, 1936a, p. 308). This was most 1950–MID-1970S
common in the case of Australian importers.
Probably this was because they were situated A defibering machine appeared in Kerala in
closer to the export ports of the Malabar Coast the 1950s. The new machine, which came to be
called the Kerala drum, resembled in some product-range of mat and matting. A broad
ways the Ceylon drum for extraction of bristle variety of designs and patterns could now be
and mattress fiber, and, in some way, the paddy woven. The rise in world-demand was well re-
thresher used in southern KeralaÕs rice tracts. flected in the figures of coir fiber, yarn, and
The machine consisted of a spiked metallic rope exported from Malabar Coast. Export
cylinder and two metallic rollers, all connected steadily rose from 1945, and by 1951, in a span
by a gear system and driven by an electric of six years, had doubled. It rose from about
motor. The machine could handle only retted 42,000 tons in 1945 to 84,000 tons in 1951. Mat
husk. It could defiber 4,000 husks in eight and matting exports rose by a third, from
hours. About 18 workers were required to keep 12,000 tons to 18,000 tons (Isaac et al., 1992,
the machine running. The spiked drum, how- pp. 30–31).
ever, was a cause of anxiety––a tiny lapse, and In addition to being a response to rise in
the workerÕs hand could get sucked into it while world-demand, the attempt to upgrade tech-
feeding the husk (Isaac et al., 1992, p. 158–159). nologically was a precautionary move by capi-
What was the context in which the new def- tal in the context of the rise of militant trade
ibering machine came to be introduced? There unionization and the consequent state initiative
is no evidence of a labor shortage during the to institute minimum wages. Trade unioniza-
time of introduction of this machine. Defiber- tion in the coir industry in Kerala has a long
ing workers were available in plenty. The cheap history. The first workersÕ strike in the coir
labor base of the industry had not been eroded. matting industry dates back to the first decade
Money wages had risen but marginally. Fur- of 20th century and the first trade union was
ther, with spiraling, wartime and post-war in- formed in 1920s. An exclusive union of coir
flation the rise had little impact on the living spinners was organized in 1934. The union,
standards of coir workers. The minimum wages however, was a small one, comprising only 20
committee, 1953 noted: women and did not last long (Velayudhan,
1991, p. 70). Beginning in the 1950s, and more
Girls between 16 and 20 were dwarfed on account of so in the 1960s, the trade union movement was
insufficient nourishment. Women between 25 and 30 not confined to ‘‘male’’ matting factories in the
were so worn out by work and starvation that they port town and small towns. It percolated to the
looked 40 to 50 years of age. The workers who are ‘‘female,’’ homesteads of yarn and fiber pro-
spinning coir cannot as a rule work for more than four duction in the villages.
or five days a week. Generally they start work at 3 or 4
oÕclock in the morning and continue their work up to
The upgrading of the 1950s, however, failed
5.30 or 6 or even 7 p.m. with a short interval in the af- to take off or attain spread. The post-war spurt
ternoon. This craze of early work is the outcome of in demand––which triggered upgrading in the
their desire to earn as much as they could by turning first instance––had only a short life. During
out more work on piece-rate system. At this rate a 1951–52 there occurred a big dip in exports.
worker is able to get Re. 1 to Rs. 1.40 per day. This was followed by years of ups and downs
till 1961. Annual export of coir products from
Such a wage enough for bare reproduction of India ranged between 60,000 and 80,000 tons
labor power of individual worker. This situa- during the decade. Furthermore, beginning in
tion forced other family members, including the 1960s exports showed a steadily declining
children, to take to spinning. Ironically thus, trend. The years between 1965 and 1975 were
low wages ensured greater labor supply to the particularly disastrous. During this period,
industry. The minimum wage committee poin- fiber exports were reduced to almost nothing.
ted out that wages had to be raised by a third Export of yarn fell by over half, from 53,000
even to ensure the minimum calorie fulfillment tons to 24,000 tons (Isaac et al., 1992, p. 47).
of 2,400 units per adult. Local consumption of matting, advancing
Clearly, the introduction of the new machine rather slowly, and with tremendous fluctua-
was not on account of a labor shortage or a tions, could provide no amends. The drop in
steep rise in wages. The search for the defiber- demand was in particular due to competition
ing machine appears to have been triggered off, from synthetic floor coverings. The matting
partly, by a very short-lived spurt in export factories in the metropolis were threatened with
trade. The world-demand for fiber and yarn recession and many of them closed down or
substantially rose during the years following shifted to trading.
WW II. The emergence of power-looms in While the Kerala drum of 1950s thus turned
Western Europe significantly expanded the out to be a nonstarter, the defibering node ex-
perienced a second wave of attempts at tech- pendent. They were not only freed of threat of
nological upgrading during 1960s and early eviction by the processor-landlords but also
1970s. By 1973, around 400 defibering mills were vested with absolute ownership of their
were thus set up. The large processors, who little homestead. This facilitated rapid trade
were also in most cases landlords or rich unionization in the industry. Second, the reor-
peasants, set up these mills. The new mills ganization of coir co-operatives occurring
defiberd processorsÕ own husk as well as ‘‘job around the same time recast the producersÕ
husk.’’ The mills were not of very advanced co-operatives as workersÕ co-operatives. With
design. Identical to the Kerala drum, the this, the power of large processors of husk over
mechanism consisted of a pair of heavy metallic the co-operatives was substantially reduced.
rollers and a spiked drum, driven by an electric The large processors, with reduced control
motor. It could process only retted and peeled over land, and therefore husk and labor, and
husk. Husk was fed in between the rollers. The shrinking turnover owing to the rise of workerÕ
rollers squeezed the water from the husk. The co-operatives, responded to the new situation
hosk was then passed on to the drum for by turning to technological upgrading.
combing and shearing. The fiber was separated Over time, in the face of extensive unioniza-
from the pith by hand. The machine could tion and workersÕ strikes, even relatively smal-
process about 5,000 husks in eight hours. It ler processors began to resort to technological
engaged 18 workers––10 female workers to peel upgrading. Unlike the earlier defibering mills,
the husk and sift the fiber, and eight male the new decorticators were amenable to their
workers to attend to the machine. stock of capital. An early model decorticator,
What explains the move toward technologi- alternatively called beater, consisted of a re-
cal upgrading despite indifferent metropolitan volving drum with beater rods. The retted
demand? The move was sourced locally. In husks were given a gentle beating and the pola
particular, it may be traced to the changing (fibrous mass) ripped off the hard shell. The
landscape of power relations in KeralaÕs coir pola was then fed into the beater to sever fiber
villages. During 1960s the large processors of from pith. The beater rods disintegrated the
husk were dominant. They formed only a small husk and separated the fiber. The fiber then
percentage of the total processors, but con- passed on to a nail drum that cleared the
trolled a significant share of the husk processed remnants of pith and impurities from the fiber.
in a locality. A coir board survey conducted in The decorticator could process 8000–10,000
1968 noted that the large processors formed husks, double that of Kerala drum, in eight
about 10% of the total processors but con- hours.
trolled 75% of the retted husk. Even the latter The Kerala drum tried out in 1950s was an
figure is seen as an underestimate, and it is isolated occurrence; its variants introduced in
suggested that the control of large processors 1960s posed the first threat of unemployment;
could have been as high as 95% (Isaac et al., and, the decorticators of 1970s spelled a grave
1992, p. 141). Under the loose definitional crisis of unemployment of coir workers. Oc-
cover of being producers, the oligopolist pro- curring as it did during a phase of highly mili-
cessors could control the co-operatives. Many tant trade unionism, a series of violent struggles
defibering workers and members of their family broke out against technological upgrading. In
were tenants of these processors, and also in- one such instance, in 1973, the striking workers
debted to them through the credit market. This smashed the mills and threw the pieces into the
restrained many workers from joining trade backwaters. The state, now convinced of the
unions. seriousness of the problem, intervened to pro-
The dominance of large processors of husk, tect employment. It prohibited the working
however, declined over time. First, the land of defibering mills in southern Kerala, where
reforms legislated in the early 1970s eroded the problem of unemployment was most acute
their status as landlords. This had several im- (Isaac et al., 1992, p. 42).
plications. With a fixed limit on garden-land The coir workersÕ strikes of 1970s should not
holdings their supply of own husk for pro- be seen in isolation. The decade had witnessed
cessing was substantially reduced. Restricted similar conflicts between labor and technology
access to land also implied reduced access to in other sectors of production in Kerala. In
the adjoining backwater retting site. The home- agriculture the attempts by the middle and rich
settlement right (kudikidappu) component of peasantry to introduce tractors met with stiff
land reforms rendered the workers more inde- resistance from the workers, who were already
threatened with unemployment in the context prices rose through 1970s, it was increasingly
of rapid conversion of cultivable land into substituted with husk, further reducing the
residential plots, and food-crop land into cash supply of husk to industry. With the fragmen-
crop land. Indeed, these workersÕ struggles were tation of coconut groves following land re-
integral to the political agenda of the commu- forms, collection of even the available husk was
nist party of India (Marxist) in Kerala. The rendered difficult.
land reform initiated by the state government Concomitant to its shortage was the high
had succeeded in clipping the wings of the price of husk. Fiber and yarn could not be
landlords. Both landlords and tenants had by produced at competitive rates with the then
and large ceased to be. The new, dominant ruling price of husk. This aggravated the
contradiction was viewed, at least at the ground already prevailing crisis of production and em-
level, as between the landless laborer/small ployment due to drop in export demand. The
peasant and the big farmer. Union government and the State government
There existed a definitive section of big therefore intervened to regulate the husk mar-
farmers even after the implementation of land ket. A ceiling price was fixed on husk; transport
reform: individuals and corporations who held of husk was regulated by permit; and, dealers
cash crop growing and plantation land in the could operate only with a license. Further, they
highlands. The communist partyÕs agrarian were required to submit a monthly statement of
struggles were, however, organized more in the stock and sales to the licensing officer.
wetland paddy tracts. As big farmers in this The state intervention was, however, a fail-
segment did not amount to a very large num- ure; it disrupted the traditional pattern of husk
ber, in practice, militant struggles were often flows but substituted practically nothing. Tak-
launched against the ‘‘not so big’’ local farmer, ing a cue from this failure, subsequently, the
too. During this period, the struggles of even intervention was confined to a levy system. A
the relatively better-off government sector certain share of husk processed by every pro-
workers were marked by militancy. The strik- cessor was collected as levy and supplied to co-
ing workers of the state electricity board, for operatives. This was to ensure supply of husk at
instance, toppled the mammoth high-tension economic prices at least to co-operatives. Even
electricity transmission towers and smashed this objective was only partially fulfilled. Large-
hydroelectric generators. Indeed, the 1970s was scale processors hoarded husk and small-scale
an era of subversion––it was a decade of ide- processors resisted collection of the levy (Isaac
alism, questioning, and revolt, in political et al., 1992, pp. 143–147).
practice and aesthetics. The soul of the times is The crisis of production and employment
in the words of the Kerala poet: ‘‘last evening I continued into 1980s. Export of coir products
heard you enjoining the bards, Ômake song into steadily fell through the early 1980s. From
a flaming torch and burn the faces of kingsÕ’’ about 47,000 tons in 1980, it dropped to 25,000
(Pillai, 1972). tons in 1986. The crisis deepened to the extent
In sum, during this period, technological that even the co-operatives ceased to pay the
upgrading was attractive to capital but unat- legally stipulated minimum wage or provide
tractive to labor. Against the crisis of unem- full employment. Children of coir workers be-
ployment and workersÕ resistance, upgrading of gan to look for work outside the coir sector.
the defibering node had to beat a hasty retreat. The most obvious means of employment for
There was no attempt to upgrade the spinning several thousand Keralites during this period
node during this period. The hand-operated was migrating to Middle East Asia. Most of the
wheel introduced nearly a century earlier con- coir workers, however, did not have enough
tinued. land to sell mortgage to raise money to buy a
‘‘job visa’’ from the job broker. Yet, the re-
mittances from Middle East Asia prompted a
6. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, EXTENDED boom of consumer spending, trade and con-
COMMODITY CHAIN AND struction, opening up new local employment.
UPGRADING, MID-1970S–MID-1990S Further, the migrants left behind some avenues
of employment for local people. New oppor-
In Kerala husk was scarce all through 1970s. tunities opened up for employment as masons,
The area under coconut cultivation had in- tailors, and carpenters, as a majority of the
creased, but the yield per palm had steadily early migrants were drawn from these occupa-
declined beginning from 1960s. As fire wood tions. Consequently, caste norms in occupa-
tional distribution were considerably weak- workersÕ families––who could not gain a regu-
ened. There occurred a significant crosscaste lar university education thereby benefited. With
movement in jobs. For instance, masonry and the spread of higher education, job perceptions
carpentry that were traditionally ascribed to changed. Coupled with economic factors traced
specific castes ceased to be so. Young men of earlier, this led to a reduced preference for
coir workersÕ families could acquire some of work in the coir industry. Not enough labor
these. In addition, religious tags gave way. was forthcoming, in particular to the defibering
Nursing was no longer viewed as a ‘‘Christian node, which involved working on the marshy
occupation.’’ Women of other religions were backwater-side in an uncomfortable posture.
drawn into it. With its rapidly expanding health The reduced social preference to working in
services sector, Kerala could accommodate a coir industry and the influx of fiber from Tamil
large number of nurses. Formidable training Nadu, a new center of production, weakened
costs and lack of entry-level education pre- the case for a continued ban on defibering mills
vented most coir working girls from making use as a means of protecting employment in Kerala.
of the new employment opportunities but im- Politically, the times also had changed. Unlike
portantly, some of them did succeed. the subversive, idealistic 1970s, the 1990s was a
As small towns grew into big towns, and new decade of crass practicality in most spheres of
towns mushroomed, new occupations such as Kerala life. The earlier ‘‘party of workers and
‘‘salesgirl’’ in textile shops, operator in a pri- peasants’’ espousing militant trade unionism
vately-owned public telephone kiosk (also, an itself had been ‘‘middle-classed’’ to a substan-
outcome of migration, making long-distance tial degree (Rammohan, 1998, p. 2579). The
calls necessary) became available. Varied kinds trade-union wing increasingly lost power to the
of home production, such as embroidery work, organizational and parliamentary wings of the
and making of ready-made garments, particu- party. The site of trade union struggles shifted
larly the womenÕs housecoat, which became in- from the countryside to the urban areas, from
creasingly popular from the early 1980s, opened agriculture, coir and other traditional occupa-
new subsistence modes of employment in small tions to urban service sector and modern in-
towns and even in villages. dustries. Furthermore, the trade-union agenda
The wages in many new jobs such as salesgirl displayed a strong male bias and cared little for
or telephone kiosk or Xerox operator just displaced women workers.
equaled or were even lower than a coir workerÕs. Under such circumstances defibering mills re-
There were, however, crucial differences in emerged in Kerala. By 1997 there were 392
the working conditions. The work involved was mills handling retted husk, employing 3,023
not that of an illiterate, to be performed in workers. The largest concentration, 142 mills,
unhygienic conditions, in a peasant or worker was in Quilon district. Unlike in the early
garb, like that of a coir worker. Those who 1970s, large processors of husk owned only a
failed to get new local employment migrated few of these. The new defibering machines were
to north Indian towns and industrial town- small outfits, located by the backwater-side.
ships, and to the shrimp-curing yards in west- This facilitated easy unloading of husk and
ern India. There the working conditions were loading of fiber. A tiny shed housed the ma-
bad, and considering the heavy workload, the chine. The small piece of land around was used
monthly rate of earnings was low. There was, to count the husk before defibering, to sundry
however, employment almost all through the the fiber, and to dump the pith. Together this
year, and even allowing for annual travel ex- required an investment of about Rs. 0.3–0.4
penses to Kerala, some money could be sent million. The mill owners operated the mill
home and some savings could be made (these mostly as a job facility, undertaking defibering
girls were often working to acquire their dowry of retted husk for yarn producers.
which the ‘‘progressive’’ Kerala male unasham- A landmark occurrence during this period
edly sought). was the rise of Tamil Nadu as a center of coir
Moreover, through 1970s and 1980s, the level fiber production. The production segment of
of education among children of coir workers in coir yarn commodity chain was thus extended
Kerala improved. The system of the so-called to Tamil Nadu. The technological organization
Parallel Colleges allowed generalized access of the Tamil Nadu segment is superior to that
to university degree through private study of Kerala. This could perhaps be traced to,
and tuition. Many belonging to lower socio- among others, the specific location of the coir
economic sections––including children of coir production center in the industrial map of
Tamil Nadu. The center, Pollachi, forms an Further, unlike in Kerala where husk is also
industrial/technological/skilled labor triangle consumed as a fuel, there is no leakage in
with two other major centers of industry–– supply of husk to the industry. Collection is
Coimbatore, the long-standing center of textile immediate and comprehensive. Transportation
and light-engineering industry, and Tiruppur, costs are minimal and volume of trade margins
the relatively new but high-profile center of small. The specific mode of agricultural orga-
cotton knitwear industry. nization thus substantially reduces transaction
To begin with, the defibering node in Tamil costs. Further, as fiber production is large-
Nadu obtained raw material husk from Kerala. scale, the husk requirements are also large, af-
Over time, as coconut cultivation gained fording significant economies in buying. As a
spread, Tamil Nadu could conduct production result, the millers can procure husk at much
with local supply. Not only that, production cheaper rates as compared to Kerala. Again, as
could be carried at costs significantly lower the fiber production unit is often the part of a
than in Kerala. The machine-made fiber in much larger, integrated production complex of
Tamil Nadu undercut the handmade fiber of different coconut products, it becomes possible
Kerala and an increasing share of the fiber re- to cheapen fiber by cross-subsidizing.
quirements of KeralaÕs defibering node began Wages in the Tamil Nadu segment are lower
to be met from Tamil Nadu. Indeed, fiber is than in Kerala owing to several factors. The
produced in Tamil Nadu at such a low cost limited spread of the trade union movement
that even with the add-on transportation cost and the absence of very specific ‘‘growth trig-
on the bulky material, the delivery price in gers’’ such as remittances as in Kerala causing
Kerala tends to be lower than the price of the general wage level to rapidly go up, are
Kerala fiber. important, general factors. Further, the shop-
The cheapness of Tamil Nadu fiber is derived floor organization of labor in the Tamil Nadu
from two sources. First, husk is cheaper in segment is very different from Kerala. First, the
Tamil Nadu. Second, wages are lower. Why is use of advanced technology itself intensifies
husk cheaper in Tamil Nadu? Why are wages work. The machine, so to speak, is the most
lower? A review of the production conditions, rigorous supervisor of all. It dictates the speed
both agricultural and industrial, and the kind of work and gets more work out of limited
of marketing channels in Tamil Nadu could working hours. The assembly line production
answer these questions. Coconut cultivation is ensures this perfectly. The husk continuously
carried on under the capitalist mode in Tamil moves along the conveyor belt: first, from the
Nadu. It is comparable to plantation agricul- crusher where a spiked drum pierces it all over
ture. Relatively ‘‘liberal’’ land laws in Tamil to facilitate easy entry of water and quicker
Nadu facilitate the existence of large holdings. soaking, then to concrete tanks filled with water
Sufficient availability of water is crucial to the drawn from tube-wells, and finally into a three-
growth of coconut trees. Besides receiving a fair piece unit consisting of a combing machine,
share of monsoon, the coconut groves in Tamil turbo and beater to yield fiber. The machine
Nadu are systematically fed by irrigation thus orchestrates the entire labor process. The
through tube-wells. The palms are mostly of the new technology is combined with the age-old
high-yielding variety. The palms being well capitalist practice of lengthening the working
fertilized and well watered, the nuts are bigger, day without increasing wages.
and the yield of husk greater. Investment in The advanced defibering mills in Tamil Nadu
coconut groves is often sourced from outside follow a nine-hour workday. The actual work-
agriculture. Many grove owners are traders and day extends further because the wrap-up at the
some, industrialists. Often, coir manufacturers end of the day is excluded from the definition of
themselves own coconut plantations and set up work. Rest time is scarce and time allowed for
their factories in the midst of the plantation meals negligible. Despite such intensification of
itself. The manufacturers meet their supple- work and lengthening of the workday, the wage
mentary needs of husk if any from within a in Tamil Nadu is just about two-thirds of that
narrow surrounding area. Often the manufac- prevailing in Kerala. This relates to the mills
turer operates a truck and collects husk directly situated in Pollachi town and its immediate
from the groves. There is thus no long chain of surrounding area. The less technologically ad-
intermediaries as in Kerala that links up the vanced fiber factories on the outskirts of Poll-
small growers of coconut in scattered holdings achi extract labor even more cheaply. These
and the coconut products manufacturer. factories normally work two shifts, the first, a
10-h day shift for women, and second, a 12-h loan and the rest is subsidy. The co-operative
night shift for men. The wages in these factories carrying out upgrading contributes the other
are even lower than in the town factories. The 5%.
workers, neither in the advanced defibering While the upgrading project was initiated in
mills in town nor in the fiber factories on the 1995, it came to fruition in a sizeable number of
outskirts, are unionized. We were told that the co-operatives only by 2001. Under the
there has not been a single strike in the Tamil project, in the defibering node, electrically op-
Nadu coir industry to date. erated defibering mills replace hand defibering.
Two points, however, may be added by way Likewise, In the spinning node, electrically-
of qualification. First, despite the low wage operated spinning wheels substitute wheel-
rate, the workersÕ absolute annual income may spinning by hand. Table 2 summarizes the
be higher in the Tamil Nadu segment of the coir major features of recent upgrading.
commodity chain because there is full employ- While recent upgrading in the Kerala seg-
ment. Second, the wage rate in the Tamil Nadu ment of the chain has been prompted by a
segment is also rising, and consequently, multiplicity of factors internal to the State––
the wage differential with Kerala is narrowing trade union sanctions for technological change
(Rammohan, 1999, pp. 31–33). following reduced preference for working in the
Besides cheapness of husk and labor, the industry, popular discontent over degraded
specific mechanical procedures employed serve working conditions and the environmental
to reduce the cost of fiber production in Tamil hazards of production processes such as rett-
Nadu. Unlike in Kerala where husks are retted ing––forces acting from outside also have
for several months in the backwater, Pollachi played important roles. The upgrading of the
units resort to rapid retting. Raw husks are defibering node in Kerala partly owes to the
soaked in fresh water for three to 10 days and development of the defibering node in Tamil
mechanically processed to yield fiber. This Nadu and its rapid integration with the spin-
coupled with spatial concentration of produc- ning node in Kerala. The flooding of cheap
tion operations serve to reduce transaction machine-made fiber from the Tamil Nadu seg-
costs in the Tamil Nadu segment substantially. ment has forced the defibering node in Kerala
to go in for upgrading. Likewise, the upgrading
of the spinning node has been triggered partly
7. UPGRADING, 2001 by the changing conditions in the world-mar-
ket. There has been a recent spurt in export
The most recent instance of upgrading in the demand for matting. From 25,000 tons in 1986,
coir yarn commodity chain of southern India coir exports recovered its 1980 level, to around
occurred in its Kerala segment in late 1990s. 50,000 tons in 1997. Of this, mats and matting
This was at the initiative of the state and in- comprised about 28,000 tons (State Planning
troduced only in a few selected co-operatives. Board, 1998, Appendix 6.32). The new demand
Over time, 200 co-operatives are expected to is derived from first, an increased world-market
upgrade their spinning node. In addition, 100 preference for biodegradable material in gen-
co-operatives are being newly set up to pursue eral, and second, the identification of new uses
upgrading in fiber production. The Union of coir mat, such as for geo-textiles to prevent
government and its agency, the National Co- soil erosion. To meet this new demand several
operative Development Corporation, and the privately-owned power-looms have emerged in
State government primarily fund the upgrad- southern Kerala. The spurt in demand for
ing project––together contributing 95% of the matting has prompted technological reorgani-
total investment. Of this, one-half is by way of zation of the spinning node by necessitating
Table 2. Technological upgrading, Kerala segment

Node Node 1, production of fiber Node 2, production of yarn
Traditional technology Backwater retting of green husk and Spinning by hand on hand-rotated
extraction of fiber by hand spinning wheel
Upgraded technology Mechanical extraction of fiber from Spinning on wheel driven by electric
unretted green husk in defibering mill motor
Source: Fieldwork, June 1997 and May 2001.
increased production of hard twist yarn re- the objective was not fully realized. The weav-
quired for weaving. ing node often rejected the yarn spun in the
From the dominant economistic viewpoint upgraded node. It realized a similar price as the
that characterizes upgrading, the relevant pre-upgraded yarn and therefore the expected
questions relate to the aspects of net addition of addition to workersÕ earning from value-addi-
value and value-share, manufacturing capabil- tion failed to occur. The employment of spin-
ities and worker skills. Tested against these ners, unlike defibering workers, was protected
parameters, the results of recent upgrading are under upgrading through enhancement of man-
not entirely positive. The defibering node pro- ufacturing capacity. Nevertheless, as produc-
duces a similar product as it did before up- tivity in terms of quantity of yarn spun was
grading. It could even be said that the fiber reduced consequent to upgrading, the workers
produced in the mill is of lower quality, as it paid under piece-wage system would have suf-
does not undergo the traditional retting pro- fered a decline in wages had not the co-opera-
cess. It is doubtful whether the worker has ac- tives decided to maintain the wages assuming
quired new skills consequent to upgrading. It earlier output.
might even be suspected that, instead, there While both in relation to employment and
has been ‘‘de-skilling.’’ The upgraded spinning earnings, upgrading has failed to produce any
node seemingly yields a value-added product, positive impact, there are other social implica-
yarn fit for weaving. The workersÕ capability to tions to be considered. First, the adverse eco-
produce a more value-added product could be logical consequences of traditional processes
viewed as skill enhancement. Yet, considering such as retting have been substantially mini-
that the new product involves only marginal mized consequent to upgrading. Second, there
value-addition, it could be viewed as merely has been a substantial improvement in physical
replacing one set of skills with another. The conditions of work. Hard labor in uncomfort-
conversion charge––of turning fiber into yarn–– able squatting postures in unhygienic work sites
has increased consequent to upgrading and that was characteristic of the defibering node
since price realized for yarn failed to compen- has been successfully done away with. Spinners
sate this increase, the profitability of most of have been freed from walking long distances––
the co-operatives has declined consequent to on an average, eight to 10 km everyday––be-
upgrading (Sundaresan, 2002). tween the spinning wheels. With upgrading,
What could be the relevant questions from they could sit and spin. Defibering workers and
the perspective of socially embedding the spinners need not bear the brunt of sun and
commodity chain? The focus, then, would be rain as work has been shifted from outdoors to
on the social implications of upgrading. What indoors.
is the effect of upgrading on employment and The rise of the factory form has other im-
earnings of the workers? What are its implica- plications too. The caste-occupational linkage
tions for the gender division of labor? What is appears to have been weakened even though
the effect on physical conditions of work? Does marginally. The industry even now predomi-
it make their labor less strenuous? Does it im- nantly comprises workers of ‘‘low’’ and ‘‘out’’
prove the ‘‘status’’ of work? castes but the factory mode of organization––
The upgraded defibering node, while high in complete with uniforms for workers––has
productivity is low in employment. A tradi- tended to attract workers from other castes. On
tional worker could defiber about 100 husks a the flip side, however, is the possibility that the
day. A defibering mill employing less than 20 secular-modernity of the new work place might
workers processes 10,000 husks a day. This make the marginalized sections lose their tra-
meant the substitution of 20 labor-days for 100 ditional preserve of employment.
labor-days, or a reduction of employment to
one-fifth. Employment opportunities of women
workers were even more reduced. The co-
operatives preferred to employ male workers
to operate the machines. The few women who 8. COMMODITY CHAIN, UPGRADING,
were employed were mostly assigned operations AND SOCIAL EMBEDDING: RETURN TO
that were dubbed as ‘‘simple.’’ THEORY
Upgrading the spinning node was expected to
yield a more value-added product, that is, yarn We began this paper by hinting at the debate
of weaving grade. Due to imperfect technology, on the possible use of commodity chain ana-
lysis in understanding upgrading in the peri- tends to suppress the subjectivity of peripheral
phery. Gibbon (2000) argues that commodity agents under the weight of mammoth, global
chain analysis provides a ‘‘coherent heuristic structures.
device’’ for understanding the conditions of Yet, it is important to acknowledge what
upgrading. Case studies of specific commodity may be described as limits to upgrading. Fol-
chains characteristic of the analysis are con- lowing from our analysis of the global coir yarn
sidered important in this regard. Cramer (1999) commodity chain of southern India, we pro-
holds a diametrically opposite view and main- pose the following five caveats:
tains that commodity chain analysis, ‘‘reflecting First, given the structure of global gover-
intellectual roots in structuralist development nance of commodity chains, with metropolitan
economics,’’ tends to be ‘‘fatalistic’’ regarding key agents calling the tune, upgrading at the
economic activity in the periphery. The com- initiative of the periphery cannot be an easy
modity chain analysis, he points out, cannot occurrence. More often, upgrading in the pe-
therefore harbor the notion of upgrading. riphery occurs at the instance of the metropolis.
To the extent that commodity chain analysis This is shown by numerous historical cases in-
is a direct derivative of the dependency/world- cluding the upgrading instances of the coir yarn
system approach, there is reason to suspect that commodity chain of southern India.
it would be fatalistic in its conclusions regard- A related caveat relate to ‘‘upgrading im-
ing the prospects of upgrading in the periphery. postures.’’ This is to say that economic up-
Nevertheless, as we noted at the beginning of grading that might occur in the periphery could
this paper, between the two there are as many merely be a spillover of further upgrading in the
discontinuities as continuities, which do not metropolis, with the relative economic and
warrant treating commodity chain analysis as a technological distance and relations between
direct derivative of the dependency/world-sys- the two continuing to be the same. We referred
tem approach. Even if it were, in its protracted to the shift from hand to wheel in the coir
development into a coherent framework, com- spinning node, induced by the demand boom
modity chain analysis appears to have under- for coir yarn, as consequent to the rise of the
gone substantial revision. It has also been coir weaving node in the world-metropolis.
pointed out that commodity chain analysis Likewise, the upgrading of packing technology,
shares similarities with seemingly diverging from ballots to bales, implied no change in the
analytical traditions such as the French filiere nature of economic relations with the metrop-
approach, which though relatively lacking in olis.
consistency displays greater historical depth Third, even if the value share of the periphery
(Raikes, Jensen, & Ponte, 2000). Besides, there in a commodity chain enhances consequent to
are approaches such as supply chain analysis upgrading, it need not translate into the lives of
that have incorporated important elements of the laboring poor. This would call for policies
commodity chain analysis even while betraying and actions of a different kind. The contrast
its politics by excluding the element of power. between the Kerala and Tamil Nadu segments
Further, the notion of economic rent to which of the southern Indian coir commodity chain
many commodity chain analysts subscribe is, clearly brings this out.
at least partly, Ricardian. Commodity chain A fourth caveat relates to drawing general-
analysis has varied other points of convergence, izations from a successful case or cases of up-
as with global industrial organization studies, grading at the product level. While upgrading
network theory, and new economic sociology. of specific peripheral nodes or segments of
In sum, the epistemological canvas of com- specific commodity chains or even recasting a
modity chain analysis is very broad and its af- whole chain might be possible, these do not
filiations heterodox. We would therefore think directly refer to the general possibility of up-
that to dismiss commodity chain analysis as grading at the level of the peripheral economy
‘‘fatalistic’’ and incapable of harboring the studied and still less for the periphery as a
notion of upgrading because of its assumed sole whole, or for the periphery considered as a
root in structuralist, radical political econ- theoretical category. Such transformation is
omy––as for instance Cramer does––itself dis- a structural question though substantially mod-
plays a fatalistic approach to commodity chain ified by the action of peripheral agents. The
analysis. In addition, ironically, such a view, in exceptional country cases of widespread up-
tandem with ‘‘structuralist development eco- grading and the many cases of failure both
nomics’’ from which it seeks to disassociate, point to this.
Fifth, it might be important to remember nical and too narrowly economic. From the
that, despite possible upgrading of specific point of view of the periphery, the importance
nodes or even recasting of whole chains, new of upgrading may not be merely economic.
commodity chains that bind the peripheral While the economic viability and sustainability
economies to the metropolis are continuously of upgrading is crucial, upgrading may not be
introduced. reduced to mere enhancement of productivity,
In participating in the debate on commodity skills, and value share in the periphery. The
chain and upgrading, while subscribing to the upgrading in global coir yarn commodity chain
position of Gibbon and others who recognize of southern India has failed to fulfill its tech-
the possibility of upgrading within commodity nical and economic objectives. Yet, when viewed
chain analysis, we think that the idea of up- as socially embedded, upgrading was important
grading as it is now conceived––‘‘the addition and worth pursuing because it helps to upgrade
of high value services and more sophisticated the life and laboring conditions of the poor,
manufacturing capabilities’’ ––tends to be tech- peripheral workers.
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World Development Vol. 31, No. 5, pp.

Socially Embedding the Commodity Chain:

1. COMMODITY CHAIN: A chain linkages of raw material, labor, process-

view: ‘‘development of development’’ or ‘‘de- in the kind of structuralist political economy

Table 1. Coir yarn commodity chain, Kerala Segment

of global linkage was felt more on agriculture. increasingly identiﬁed as an occupation of

Table 2. Technological upgrading, Kerala segment

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