Benevolence and Inequality: The Ethics of Moral Indebtedness

In this chapter we examine how moral indebtedness, a paternalistic social value historically rooted in India’s caste-based agrarian economy, shapes contemporary relations between agriculture-technology companies and smallholder farmers. Drawing from ethnographic research on interactions between a socially oriented agriculture-technology enterprise and rural farmers, we show how moral indebtedness emerges as a detrimental value structuring economic relationships. Farmers draw a sense of obligation toward agriculture-technology companies perceived as benefactors, thereby legitimizing their subordinate position and economic exploitation. Despite acute awareness of their disadvantaged status, farmers’ adherence to moral indebtedness facilitates their sustained participation in unequal labor arrangements. Our analysis reveals how paternalistic values operate within contemporary neoliberal institutions characterized by hierarchy and dependence, reinforcing inequalities. We contribute theoretically by revealing the negative implication of insidious values such as moral indebtedness grounded in the material realities of institutions that are marked by the characteristics of hierarchy and dependence.