The Hindu Business Line : Preparing for takeoff?

As befits any good academic, Dr Dipankar Gupta has set himself a massive task. “In this book,” he says, “I intend to understand the nature of India’s growth and why large sections of the population have still not experienced development.”

An economist would say this is the trouble with sociologists, they ask questions which have no finite answers. True enough, in some ways, but surely it is not a bad question. Why do higher incomes not translate into a more healthy, better educated and properly looked after people?

In the way he poses the issue — why does such an advanced service industry coexist with a failed agrarian system — it is easy to dispose it off by positing the old duality argument. Indeed, economists used to discuss it way back in the 1950s.

But that too is not the point inasmuch as India is unique in the multifaceted-ness of its underdevelopment. Put simply, there’s far too much that the people have to suffer, especially the poor. What happens in India is inexcusable by any moral or civilised standard.

Gupta offers an entire range of answers for this sorry state of affairs, and the reader is free to choose the ones he likes best. This reviewer’s preference ordering is as follows and based entirely on the chapter titled ‘Do we deserve our leaders?’

First, Gupta rightly says that politicians see themselves as separate from the people in that they, in the pursuit of their own advancement, do not hesitate to indulge in actions that injure the social, political, economic, judicial and intellectual fabric of the country. He provides several examples.

Second, he makes a clear distinction between representation and delivery. Is the mere fact that some groups are represented in Parliament and Government enough? Does this mean that the need for delivery of public services and public goods can be left on the backburner?

Third, “The principle of representation without delivery is a cardinal principle of coalition politics.” As an excuse for non-delivery, especially by the UPA government, coalition politics came in very handy.

The author has devoted an entire chapter to the role of the State. It is most pleasing to note that he is the first to point out that the meaning of ‘civil society’ has been inverted in the latter quarter of the 20th century. It is worth reminding readers of the social contract theory of Thomas Hobbes. Describing the State as the supreme power, he said we could think of two types of relationship within it. One was between it and the people; the other between the people themselves, where under the watchful eye of the State, they generally behaved themselves. This second was civil society.

In consequence of the distortion, the original meaning of the term has given way to the modern one, which basically means communitarian or self-help.

The result is that the State has been excused from performing the duties that the term civil society had imposed on it originally. It now has a strong alibi for not performing and indeed believes that its duty is done when it funds NGOs, who call themselves civil society now.

All in all, this is a fine book indeed and should be read by every thoughtful Indian.

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