A study of the sugarcan production processes of peasants in the Gorakhpur region of India, examining the conditions under which the reproduction of small peasant economies came to be dependent on sugarcane for the market. The author addresses the questions of what happens to peasant producers, their production processes, and their relationship with the traditionally dominant agrarian classes; how the additional presence of capitalist enterprise impinges on the peasantry; and what role the colonial state plays through its pricing and marketing policies.