Marx viewed Asiatic societies as static for lacking class struggle

Evidence

Societies dominated by the “Asiatic” mode of production have no internal class conflicts and are consequently trapped within a static social context. The social system lacks a basic ingredient of social change, namely class struggle between landlords and an exploited peasantry… [For example,] “Indian society has no history at all.” (1978, 26-27) Despite their differences, both Weber and Marx organize their arguments in terms of broad, simple, contrasting oppositions which mirror quite closely the West-Rest, civilized-rude, developed-backward oppositions of “the West and the Rest” discourse. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 679

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘no history’ claim ties to the general dialectical-historical framework Marx builds from, and to how Western historiography has long denied historical agency to colonized peoples — relevant to Orientalism readings. — connects to: Wittfogel pioneered Asiatic society study within a Communist academic career — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 121