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Freedom for the hungry millions

Even the Utilitarian J. S. Mill said: "The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, as long as we do not deprive others of theirs." And yet, paradoxically, freedom is absolutely necessary to enable us to possess what we ought to possess. However, as long as poverty, income inequality and mass unemployment stride across the country, the prospect of freedom becomes remote.

It is only when the millions are not hungry any more, when they have jobs, and are at least functionally literate that they can be made truly free. This sounds like a long-term plan needing, perhaps a revolution. But the French philosopher, Jean Francois Revel in Without Marx or Jesus, tells us that "a necessary condition to a revolution in the Third World nations is that there be available an immediate solution to the problem of economic under-development."

He outlines several reasons why a revolution is impossible in the Third World. They apply to India in many ways. The first reason, according to Revel, is "lack of administrative efficiency, sufficient leadership and management personnel."

This is very true of our country. As former President V. V. Giri put it in his Jobs for Millions "The supply of educated and technical manpower has not been tailored to the needs of a dynamic economy. The vast, almost limitless labour resources have no vocationalised education."

The other interesting brake to revolution is the cultural one. Almost all the countries of the Third World are buried in the past. In the grip of a passion to find their roots, they sink deeper and deeper into it—resulting in traditional concepts of caste, creed, race, reluctance of the poor to make use of contraception and, most of all, ignorance and superstition. Again, the spirit of nationalism in the Third World eliminates any tendency towards self-criticism. The most counter revolutionary alliance that can possibly exist in the Third World is that of socialism. This is epitomised in what Jawaharlal Nehru once said of India: "We have atomic energy and we also use cowdung." In such countries, socialism is only a borrowed term—sometimes accompanied by ineffective collectivisation which has been thrust upon peoples who are not ready for it.

It is only an imitation and not a solution, dictated from within. This is true of our country’s ‘Sunday Socialists’ who are unable to distinguish between solutions that have a chance of being realised and those which have no chance. This has the effect of perpetuating economic stagnation, while justifying political dictatorships.

This is in direct contrast to Gunnar Myrdal’s view expressed in The Challenge of World Poverty. A World Anti-Poverty Programme in Outline. Accordingly, Revel is not right in believing that economic soundness is a prerequisite of a revolution. Development is the upward movement of a whole system of interdependent conditions, of which, economic growth is only one. It is not simply an increase in the national output. The first four five-year-plans emphasised the importance of achieving a high growth rate and the distribution aspect was deliberately played down—with the belief that inequality in income, as in Japan, would lead to real improvement for the lower groups.

What has happened in practice is that hardly any dent has been made on poverty, and its worst forms, such as malnutrition, disease, illiteracy, squalid housing, unemployment and inequality are threatening the very fabric of our society.

The programmes for providing employment and income to the poor have to be supplemented by a national plan for improvisation of social consumption in the form of health, nutrition, drinking water, housing, communications and electricity, at least up to a minimum standard. Unless we plan to mobilise all resources for bringing about rapid social and economic changes, the political freedom we have attained, without its economic counterpart, will have no meaning.

But the cultural brake often comes into effect. The under-developed countries are all, though in varying degrees "soft states." The term of soft-state is understood to comprise the various types of social indiscipline which manifest themselves by deficiencies in legislation and in particular law enforcement, a widespread disobedience of officials at various levels, etc. Sociologically, in a setting where caste, family, economic and social status and more generally "connections" mean so much, collusion between business and officials becomes a natural tendency. The inevitable result is corruption. Administration becomes cumbersome and detrimental to development.

The first and obvious step towards attacking the problem of massive poverty is the political, moral and economic resolve to make the effort. If the political will is the first requisite, public understanding is the second and economic income equality the third. The sad truth is that we have not made very much progress on either of these fronts.

On the economic side, there has been a great deal of talk, but not nearly enough capital for development purposes and not nearly enough action.

Agriculture constitutes the most crucial sector of the economy. It is Dr. Myrdal’s view that the labour force, which is rapidly growing, is tremendously under-utilised. In spite of the fact that over 70 per cent of the population has to earn a living from agriculture, the use of the land is extensive, and not, as usually assumed, intensive. Too few are working for too short hours. To establish a new relation between man and the land which gives man the incentive to work more, more effectively and to invest his own labour, is a necessary condition for greater social justice and a general rise in productivity.