Read the passage and answer the following question.
One of the founders of modern sociology, Karl Marx, was also a critic of modern capitalism. Marx understood capitalism as a system of commodity production, or production for the market, through the use of wage labour. As you have already learned, Marx wrote that all economic systems are also social systems. Each mode of production consists of particular relations of production, which in turn give rise to a specific class structure. He emphasised that the economy does not consist of things (goods circulating in the market), but is made up of relations between people who are connected to one another through the process of production. Under the capitalist mode of production, labour itself becomes a commodity, because workers must sell their labour power in the market to earn a wage. This gives rise to two basic classes - capitalists, who own the means of production (such as the factories), and workers, who sell their labour to the capitalists. The capitalist class is able to profit from this system by paying the workers less than the value of what they actually produce, and so extracting surplus value from their labour. Marx's theory of capitalist economy and society provided the inspiration for numerous theories and debates about the nature of capitalism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Nowadays, marriages are fixed through websites and bureaus as it helps an individual to find his/ her spouse easily. What does this example reflect?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Commodification
Option (1) Mode of production — Incorrect. A mode of production is a whole economic system, such as capitalism, with its own relations of production and class structure. Finding a spouse through a website is a single example, not an economic system.
Option (2) Surplus value — Incorrect. Surplus value is the profit capitalists make by paying workers less than the value of what they produce. A marriage bureau charging a fee has nothing to do with workers’ wages.
Option (3) Labour power — Incorrect. Labour power is the worker’s capacity to work, sold for a wage. Arranging a marriage is not the sale of anyone’s capacity to work.
Option (4) Commodification — Correct. Commodification occurs when things that were earlier not traded in the market become commodities. Traditionally, marriages were arranged by families, but now there are professional marriage bureaus and websites that help people find brides and grooms for a fee: finding a spouse has become a service bought in the market.
NCERT (2025-26): “4.2 Understanding Capitalism as a Social System … Commodification occurs when things that were earlier not traded in the market become commodities. For instance, labour or skills become things that can be bought and sold. According to Marx and other critics of capitalism, the process of commodification has negative social effects. The commodification of labour is one example, but there are many other examples in contemporary society. For instance, there is a controversy about the sale of kidneys by the poor to cater to rich patients who need kidney transplants. According to many people, human organs should not become commodities. In earlier times, human beings … themselves were bought and sold as slaves, but today it is considered immoral to treat people as commodities. But in modern society, almost everyone accepts the idea that a person’s labour can be bought, or that other services or skills can be provided in exchange for money. This is a situation that is found only in capitalist societies, according to Marx. In contemporary India, we can observe that things or processes that earlier were not part of market exchange become commodified. For example, traditionally, marriages were arranged by families, but now there are professional marriage bureaus and websites that help people to find brides and grooms for a fee.…” |