An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions

Prof E. Bijoykumar Singh *

This is the title of the latest book of the inimitable Amartya Sen and the iconoclast Jean Dreze published recently by Allen Lane. Why I took up this book is the strong argument by the duo that our main problems lie in the lack of attention paid to the essential needs of the people, especially the poor and often of women.

Another reason is their short but very meaningful commentary on the north eastern region of India. There is hardly any area in economics where our nobel laureate Amartya Sen has not left his mark. Of late, we have come to see him as a philosopher par excellence trying to dissect every social issue.

Prof Jean Dreze currently based in Allahabad University is another iconoclastic character in the economics profession who always insists on staying in the slum. When he was a student in London School of Economics, he lived off big cardboard boxes in front of the hostel and Kaushik Basu , then a Ph.D. scholar, had to turn down the invitation for a visit at his cardboard abode. The would-be host very seriously told him that a particular posture was very comfortable inside the box.

When I met him in Delhi in December 2012, a few days before the Nirbhaya episode, he was coming straight to the meeting venue from a dharna at India Gate with the characteristic trade mark hawai chappal and kurta pyjama and, of course, the donation box. What would they have written about the north east? I was thrilled to find both reflecting on this region in this book.

They lament that our rich tradition of questioning and arguing has been compromised by a powerful bias in public discussions towards focusing mainly on the lives and concerns of the relatively privileged than the majority of the Indian people. The issues of those left behind have not got their due attention. Nirbhaya–type brutalities have made lives of dalit women hellish for years without getting much attention in the mainstream media or causing a significant public outcry.

India was outraged in July 2012 at the gigantic power failure depriving 600 million people of electric power; people conveniently forgot that 200 million Indians have no electric connection. For them power failure is as alien as air conditioner.

When our achievement of high growth is judged in terms of the impact of that growth on the lives and freedom of the people, mostly common we fare badly. Though we have grown fast, we have fallen relatively behind in the levels of social indicators of living standards. Here is an economy that is growing fast but with limited results in terms of reducing human deprivations. According to them, there are few historical parallels.

What intrigues them is the near silence of the media about the biased growth process which they described as "islands of California in a sea of sub Saharan Africa." They argue that Bangladesh's rapid progress in living standards may be attributed to improvement in the social status of women in terms of basic education, health care, family planning and work participation. In short women in Bangladesh are more involved than women in India. India's highly privatised health and education system present different opportunities for different social groups. There is also the issue of accountability in the public sector.

What is necessary is the need to focus on the lives, needs, rights and demands of underprivileged people in public discussion and policy making. Our democracy has been largely compromised by the extent and form of social inequality present in India. Of course few countries have to contend with such extreme inequalities in so many dimensions as India is doing.

Our caste hierarchies have a continuing hold in modern society. The tendency to believe that the interest of the privileged can over ride the interest of the underprivileged over time is blatantly wrong rendering the process of development unsustainable. The underdogs of the society should be given the opportunity and space for growth by focusing on their needs.

The north east has been discussed in the context of breaches of democratic practice along with Kashmir. Though India is doing well for democratic norms, there are some violations of the principles. It is argued that there has been serious inadequacy in the acknowledgement and questioning the infringements of civil and political rights in the north east where there are concerns of national security.

The media sees it as self discipline not to report such infringements on civil liberties whenever and wherever national security is involved. This is very different from the general vigour of the democratic process in metropolitan areas of India. This subdued nature of media coverage and silence is not a substitute for open discussion and democratic engagement.

The complexity of the issues is not an excuse for not frankly reporting and firmly denouncing violations of personal and civil rights in the north east. They question the rationale behind the general belief that demanding more respect for human rights will stand in the way of a peaceful political settlement.

Rough treatment of the people will alienate them further. They argue that the political nature of the insurgencies in the north east is as responsible as the state organised violence in perpetuating this impasse. The suppression of human rights, instead of alleviating, aggravates the situation further. They cite the example of our infamous AFSPA.

The wide range of powers derived from this act has aggravated rather than removed conflicts in this region. The statement of R.N.Ravi, former special director, IB is quoted to further buttress the argument that the application of AFSPA is one of the factors sustaining militancy in the north east. In response to the growing world opinion against it the government has offered only promises to amend it.

The Jeevan Reddy commission is a glaring example. They have pointed out that such actions are completely out of tune with the norms of democratic India. They have rightly argued that our future depends on the spirited public defence of democratic rights whenever and wherever they are threatened.

One of the principal challenges facing India today is the development of a clear headed understanding of the extensive reach and peculiar nature of deprivation and inequality in India. We can ignore it at our own cost.