Guide to Indian economy

WELFARE STATE AND GLOBALIZATION - A critique of Amartya Sen: Bharat Jhunjhunwala; Rawat Publications, Satyam Apartments, Jain Temple Road, Sector 3, Jawahar Nagar, Jaipur-302004. Rs. 700.

WE NEEDED this book. Generally Indians tend to over-react when someone achieves international prominence. To get at a balanced view of the achievements of the achiever, especially when he happens to be an economist, we need to gain other inputs as well. Amartya Sen has brought honour to his motherland. We need to congratulate him and project him as an inspiration to the younger generation. At the same time we need not accept all his conclusions with a mesmerised countenance.

According to the author, Amartya Sen's vision can be easily summarised as a kind of perpetual beggary for the developing nations standing at the gates of the industrial countries that have had a headstart in the technological age, and slogging for them as well. Though this might sound simplistic for many of us, he goes even further and calls Dr. Sen anti-Indian: ``He is perverting the mind of India from the inside. He is spreading the message that India should accept her unequal position in the world, ask for crumbs from the industrial countries by way of aid and opportunities of globalisation, and worry more about removing inequality within rather than inequality between nations.''

Dr. Jhunjhunwala finds this natural since after all Dr. Sen gets his salary from the industrial countries and challenges him ``to come back and fight for the poor Indian here in his homeland instead of sermonizing from the high pedestal of the exploiters.'' Whether Sen takes up the challenge or prefers to remain in the air-conditioned nightmare of the West does not bother the common reader's search for an intelligent guide to Indian economy. The book offers such a guide for the present.

A very readable baker's dozen on the welfare state, globalisation and Indian economy, questions many premises held by us today including the one that education is the key to development. Is it so in the Indian context? The standardised education modelled on the West, is not obviously the answer. The author quotes an old weaver who was happy that all his four sons were earning their livelihood by weaving as he had initiated them to the task early in life. Today education is not all. If one needs to succeed in this society, even the educated person must either have money or a little of Veerappanism in him: ``If you don't put them to work early, they never work later. And, unable to get a job, the educated become a burden on the family. They lose interest in low work like that of weaving and agriculture. Unless I can invest another Rs.50,000 or a lakh in bribes, there are no jobs to be had. What then is the benefit of education?''

Amartya Sen's concept of redistribution is put through the wringer with a dazzling set of inputs like definitions of key concepts, newspaper reports, quotable quotes from eminent writers and conclusions arrived at by scholars watching the economic scene in India. Has not the time come to energise the powers lying dormant within our nation on our own terms? The trend of the arguments presented after a study of Gandhiji, Tagore, Sen and Marx towards the closing chapters can be summed up in one word posited by Tiruvalluvar: ``Oppuravu''. If a trusteeship mentality can be instilled in the minds of the rich, then it would solve most of our problems, especially those of the common man who wants a subsistence wage. This can come about by injecting a spiritual view in our day-to-day life. Tiruvalluvar's decad on sharing is justly famous: ``Generosity seeks no recompense. What do we pay the clouds?''

Trusteeship is in action today in isolated pockets but this is not enough. With the attack of the visual media on the psyche of the nation, we are fast moving into a consumerist Valhalla and the divide between the haves and the have-nots has been widened to dangerous proportions. Dr. Jhunjhunwala is no arm-chair economist. He has lived a life of sharing with the underdogs in slums. Hence his words carry the fire of conviction. This is an astonishing volume that reveals a certain coherence of purpose in getting across the author's ideas. At the same time it is quite graspable for the common reader in these times of exclusive academic phraseology. Certainly a welcome tome for social activists trying to be barrier-breakers for ushering in a happier tomorrow for India.

PREMA NANDAKUMAR

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