Rural under-development- An analysis

[Samarkadian]

samar, i rate your post # 9 as excellent, as seen by me for quite some time. though, this also holds true that VP has a very viable reasoning in his counter post.

honestly, i would appreciate your further discussion rather than renouncing from the discussion at this stage. please do participate. i do not want this (turning good) discussion meet the same foreordained fate. hope you will oblige.

Sir Brahm, Not an issue.

Kapil and others,

But, you would agree that dynamics of economy of any particular society are supposed to be determined and controlled by the political forces, not by a common man. Therefore the epicenter of all discussions on underdevelopment, which is an outcome of the flawed politico-economic formulations and crude vision of our unduly honoured politicians --thanks to our lower esteem. Now the question arises what prompts the political powers to formulate such flawed economic policies detrimental to rural development. . Present economy is illegitimate and physically challenged child of the wealthy industrialists , traders and other mafia who keep switching over their loyalties even ditching their political allies whenever they venture to bring some rural oriented legislation once in a blue moon.

To avoid further digression whole gamut of economic issues need to be discussed in length and breadth under a different thread in due course, I think.

Mr Singh, I would try to take it a bit further. Like you have started your incipient post with independence story. A generation or nearly a generation has passed since then.


It is a kind of fashion among youth nowadays to blame Nehru/Gandhi with piquant and risible anecdotes for everything [read everything ] what we are countering presently . May be it helps in easing out our current social and economical responsblity arisen due to past inablity of leaders of that epoch. But for a moment, lets pause and reflect calmly that what was the vision held by other contemporary leaders of Nehru/Gandhi era.? Any Idea.? Any hint. Answer to this is that almost all of them had same vision about development. Any person born in that era would have thought the same things most likely. Lets suppose you are JL Nehru. What options had you had to put in to a naive nation's growth. Possibly, something which was going in the world and what was going in the world in those times.? Soviet Russia's Socialism Philosophy and USA's Capitalism. Right ? In 1947 , World had already witnessed WW2 and a great depression. So What would have prompted You as JL Nehru to adopt? An already sunk Capitalism in the abyss of depression OR Depression immune Soviet's Socialism. To explain it further , I will be shamelessly quoting Aris Hobsbawn from his work Age of Extremes . He proposes two kind of models to be adopted at that time as :-


Model A:


1.These countries, which embraced A , had their economy stagnant during the periods between 1914 and 1939.

2. The industrial production fell by about ONE-THIRD between 1929 and 1931.


3. During 1929 and 1938 their share of world’s manufactured goods decreased.


4. The unemployment was between 10% and 18% during 1920s. And during Great Depression it was between 22% and 44%.


5. The inflation rate was explosive sometimes reaching levels where one person’s life savings would only fetch a 'drink in a café'.

Model B


1. These countries, which embraced B, had a robust economy during the pervious 30 years.


2. In these countries the industrial production TRIPLED from 1929 to 1940.


3. Their share of worlds manufactured goods almost QUADRUPLED.


4. There was virtually NO unemployment.


5. There was virtually NO inflation even during the Great Depression.


6. These countries completely escaped Great Depression of 30s.


Now, me as a JL Nehru as the head of a newly founded state would have choosen the model B and in my opinion, you too. Correct me?

Model A represent Capitalism while model B represent Socialism. Best these seems the torrent at those time but not in 2010 at all. Socialism has failed in its own home as it was doomed to because of its unnatural proclivity.

So that is the root. Borrowing the models from outside always fail. Sooner or later Capitalism too will be in same place. So Sir Brahm now found a new way to shift blame from desi politicians to international one. Karl Marx hmm? Today what are we and how are we is the direct ramification of model B. But gents, that was gold according to that world situations. Now it is a ''buyer's regret''.

As far as lower-self esteem is concerned, we have it because of our ''Grandfather of Independent Nation'' - Lord Mclaay . He instilled in our already slave mind that everything non-British is inferior. And anything inferior causes low- self esteem. It engulfs confidence and independency of minds and thoughts which was the goal of Grandfather. He plundered everything with the curriculam of english alzebra. Till today we would appreciate that - Angrez kitne aandy sai, dekh, yo kar diya, wo kar diya. Sooner we burn the hobgoblin of grandfather, faster we would move ahead in genuine way and in our style.

So your current generation of politicians are merely the upgradation [ or downgradation ] of British era. Colonial hangover would still take decades to be washed but when whole world is now being westernised culturly and economicaly, so no salvation apparantly unless we devise a system of development which purely would be in nature of our ethnicity. For example:- Mohammad Yunus, The Noble Awardee from Bangladesh.

Moving further , realising the importance of Indian population as a big investment asset , paleolithic way of strengthening the agricultural, dairy products, rural tourism , could be a few but strong innovative ventures to help the rural sector without urbanising it unneccessarily . Urban population is hughely dependent on rural sector for milk, vegetables and grains. Government may be cold but people of rural area always have this opporutnity open. Don't expect government to baby feed the progress in to your hungary stomach. You will have to vouch for your hunger. Enterpreneuring of our blood professions are the ways and quiet easiest ways.

Rural folks are deft in these basic professions for centuaries. So why to look at outside and seek service industeries to knock at door step to acquire their land. As I said earlier, they only lack in guidance.

Corruption , it would not take more than five minutes to understand and accept that every human group of any kind is doomed to corrupt. It is one of the inherent quality of humanity. Our Cro-Magnan and Neanderthal - chimp fathers were corrupt too. They had stolen food from their brothers. But to live and function harmoniusly we are expected to practise the lately induced rules[ like 10,000years back] of society, governance. But alas! inherent,innate base qualities/motivations in our genome always trumps the newly induced codes of behaviour. As we have evolved past the survival , we tend to behave more socially and for this to appear practise there MUST be a homogenius enviornment of culture, values, ethics. Indians, overall firmly and dedicatively believe in easy forgving, forgetting and classic '' Sab Kuch Chalta Hai Yaar, Aisi Taisi Karaye Duniya, Apne ko Kya''. Without proper and suffice checks in any governance system development remains down-played. May be it is true that we better understand and behave onto the aria of flagellation better than following rules. But who will whip our lazy asses? I leave you here with the question of the millenium.