petition for tibet - Freedom First

PETITION FOR TIBETWe, the undersigned call upon the 47th UN Commission on Human Rights at Geneva(1991) to pay urgent and serious .attention to the situation in occupied -Tibet, andearnestly take immediate practical measures to improve the deplorable human rightssituation there. At the same time, we call upon the Commission to urge the CommunistChinese government in Peking to immediately:

- Release all Tibetan political prisoners in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region,Qinghia, Kansu, Sichuan and Yunan provinces of present day China (Tibetan areas havebeen incorporated in these four provinces);

- respect the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and halt depriving Tibetans of therights therein outlined;

- implement the UN Convention on Torture which China ratified in 1988;

- implement the UN Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination which Chinaratified in 1981:'

- grant the Tibetan people the rights outlined in the Civil, Political, Economic, Culturaland Social Covenants;

- put an end to the massive deforestation, exploitation of natural resources and the use ofTibet's sacred land for nuclear, chemical or military purposes and initiate projects ofafforestation in the barren mountains of Tibet;

- stop their practices of abortion, sterilisation, infanticide and other birth controlmeasures in Tibet;

- halt the influx of civilian Chinese to Tibet and withdraw the estimated 7.5 million civilianChinese presently residing in Tibet which threatens the identity of the 6 million Tibetans,and

- allow human rights organisations to conduct independent investigation on the humanrights situation in occupied Tibet's 2.5 million sq. kilometers area.

NAMEt.

ADDRESS SIGNATURE

2.

3.

4.

ic,

Petition moved by RANGWANG: Tibetan Association for Human Rights and Protectionof Nature, c/o. Room # 7, Paljor Guest House, DHARAMSAI-A-176215 (I{P) India.

Ouarterly of Liberal ldeas

FOOTIDER

MinooMasani

. EDNORSS.V. Raju

R. Srinivasan

ASSOCIATEEDITORJehangir Patel

ADVISORYBOARI)AdamAdil

SumantBankeshmr' AMndDeshpande .

Geeta DoctorNissim Ezeldel

Yogesh KamdarAzhMadni

RamuPanditSAJ{PintoNidn Raut

AbeSolomonAjayVaradachary

covER"[.^L03TnAnon8ATIDIAYOUT

I'i.G. Tahradekar

PUBUSHERS

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BETWEEN OURSELVES...

ln the October 1988 issue of Freedom First we had dealt with in some detail w ith thedevelopment in the Soviet Union. The concern then was one of credibility. To what extentcould Corbachev be trusted? Was he genuinely interested in opening up Soviet socierTin reducing considerably, if not eliminating altogether the CPSU s monopoly' of pow er. itstotal control over the lives of the people in the Soviet Union: in allowing the satellites ineastern Europe greater autonomy even if not complete national freedom?

These were very relevant questions at that time - Corbachev had assumed office asGeneral Secretary of the CPSU in 1985. and (it is now evident in retrospect) mid-waythrough his years of power.

Today the Soviet Union is dead. Corbachev has perestroikad himself out of office andthe CPSU has been thrown into the dustbin of history.

The doubs we raised in October 1988 have been answered. Corbachev. despitefaltering in the last year of office (which. again is retrospect, was to prove fatal to hiscareer) was an honest man whose policies of glasnostand perestoikawere genuine andnot ploys to attract Western assistance in extricating the Soviet Union from the economicchaos brought on by seven decades of communist rule.

Freedom First salutes a brave man who easily qualifies to be among the 'greats' of thetwentieth century. We dedicate this issue of Freedom Firsf to Mikhail Corbachev.

Within our own country economic reforms have got off to a start but not as fast as onewould expect due to (not unexpected) resistance from curs yelping at being deprived ofeasy pickings and the power of patronage.

We thank the Rajaji Foundation and the Project for Economic Education forpermission to publish extracts from the Rajaji Birthday Lecture delivered by Prof. AmlanDatta and from a seminar on agriculture, respectively.

We wish readers a happy, peaceful and constructive New Year.

Contents

Editors

January-March 1992No.4l2

The End of an Empire-A New Beginning for Democracy?

The Coup in the USSRWhy the Coup Failed?Can Democracy Crow in

The Unfinished Revolution - s Time Will Come

Vasundhara Mohan 5A.C. Modak 9

Aleksandr Solzhenitsl,n

Fang Lizhi

l3t7

23

The Market Economy and the Contemporary Crisis

Human Rights are not Alien to Burma

Anrlan Datta 25

Aung San Suu Kyi 3l

Priority for Ag ric ultu re

Unleashing the Constructive Power of the FarmersNeeded - Reforrn of lndia s Agricultural Policy

33

\/. Kurierr 35

Bhanu Pratap Sinoh .10

Da >atc -l .:

i.,.. 4aPon.Jerell Moon

Book Revie'v

The Masani Viewpoint

"The deep moans round with mang uoices. Come, mg friends'Tis not too late to seek a newer uorld" - Tenngson

lf politicians, businessmen and dacoits can get away withloot and murder, it is neither possible nor just to imposediscipline on trade unions alone.

Swaminathan SA. Aiyar,The Times of India, November 7

History may credit him with many things, but Gorbachevwill never go down as the master of consummatestatecraft.

Alex Nichols , The Week December 22

The best job prospect for our unemployed young men inthe Punjab was that of becoming a 'militant' since thatensured an income of several lakhs a year.

Amarinder Singh, Seminar, December 1 991

Just as the people of the Baltic States have beensuccessful in regaining their freedom, I am confident thatwe Tibetans will soon regain ours.

The DalaiLama, Tibetan Bulletin, Nov-Dec. 1991

Must we think only of beggars? Something needs to bedone for the rich also.

Jyoti Basu, Centleman, December 1991

The great paradox of American politics is that 66% ofpeople think congressmen are venal and incompetent,yetM% voted to re-elect their own congressman at thelast election.

The Economist, November 2

These new actresses negotiate how much they willexpose according to how much you are willing to paythem.

Film director Shashilal Nair, /ndia Today, November 15

...the Chinese and the Vietnamese are not against thefree market. They are calling themselves socialist withChinese characteristics or Vietnamese characteristics -but they are adopting free-market practices to get theeconomy going.

Lee Kuan Yew, Timg November4

Governments are of the view that the public has no rightto know anything about the arms trade.

Sam Cummings, Chairman of lnterarms,a leading private arms company

lndex on Censorship, Nov-Dec. 1 991

Moscow, lam told, is full of abandoned dogs.

Peter Kenez, The New Leader, September 9-23

Here, for a change, is some good news. The governmentof lndia has discovered, at last, that there is a seriouspopulation problem.

Tavleen Singh, Indian fu.press, November 24

The butcher of Tiananmen Square is getting a royalwelcome in lndia, while Tibetans are being clubbed bythe Delhi police. Shame on lndia.

A Tibetan exile, Ihe Pioneer, December 14

f recCcnt First 2

*lhe.Lirno has cone." thc,

- \alrul pald,'t o balK ,"f mz]ty things;of shoes-and ShiFs-^ and v'tJinrtvax-

of cabla'bdAoS -a\A kirgs-"

How Tibetans are forced to'Donate'Blood

lf there were to be an internationalprize awarded to states for calculatedcruelty to its citizens, China would havequalified for its brutal record atTienanmen Square. Recent reportsfrom Tibet reinforce the claim. Apartfrom its record of suppression oflegitimate protest movements carriedon peacefully in Lhasa, its treatment ofTibetan prisoners makes for chillingreading.

Tibetan prisoners are forciblycompelled to donate blood. Blood isextracted from them by force, for noconsent is taken. This 'favour' is shownexclusively to Tibetan prisoners for theChinese are "automatically exempt"from this. Tibetans fear'that this is anattempt practised "in order to give thema slow and apparently natural death".One does not understand the purposeof this extraction - for normally 350 mlwhich constitutes one unit is extractedbut with the Tibetan it is 30 to 50 ml at atime!

Blood in China is in extremely shortsupply and one has to pay dearly forthis in the absence of free blood banks.It is alleged that the Tibetans form acontinuous conduit of free blood for theChinese army. Earlier too, during thelndo-China border war of 1962,Tibetans between the ages of l5 and 35were compelled to donate one and halftimes the amount normally taken fromindividuals - here again the Chinese,'.,ere exempt.

I'lre i-rbetans are told tnat they arebeing taken for a mecjical chec up andblood is extracted. Those who protestare beaten and tortured. An entry in theU.S. Congressional Records in 1990 by

- rewjs carroll

Congressman Chuck Douglas states:"This practice, combined with near-stawation conditions in the prisons,condemns these innocent captives to agradual, tortuous yet apparently naturaldeath. These brave men and womenare literally having their life slowlysiphoned out of them."

While blood in China is in acuteshort supply a branch of the People'sLiberation Army (Pl-{) is seeking toorganize foreign collaboration to exportproducts of blood to the U.SA. andEurope! The Xiaing Medicine andMedical Science and DevelopmentGeneral, the largest commercial unit ofthe PLA, had received intereSted repliesfrom the U.SA., Hong Kong andTaiwan about the blood productsventure."

While the Chinese authorities areJenerous in drawing out blood from theTibetan prisoners, they do not givefood, drink or rest to the- "'donors". Thefood in the prisons is ext'remely meagreand of such poor quality as to producediarrhoea or dysentery. The extremelydebilitated state of health of theprisoners and their mental auguishmakes even the loss of small quantitiesof blood have extremely seriousconsequences.

There has to be an internationalprotest against this practice. Or will^,1'-m;\.. ; ,1 ;.rt,'.,r. .. , rnarr rnqin ^..:r.n

Rewording Tox ViololersVorious omnesty schemes hove

become operotionol now. lt is o goodthing thot the Government wonts solu-tions lo three problems, nomely, blockmoney, resources crunch ond the For-eign Exchonge (FE) shortoge, in onego.

Fortunotely, or unfoilunotely,depends on how one looks of it, someol the schemes ore octuolly rewordsfor violoting lhe low.Let me exploin.Suppose you hove o lorge incomethis yeor ond declore this os yourincome tor 9tl-92. You. os on honeslmon would poy 56olo tox. The price ofhonesty, they soy. But if you do noldeclore your income in full ondinsleod put the money in the NotionolHousing Bonk, you need lo poy only40%. And if you buy Beorer Bonds bypoying in block you would get poid insporkling white money by the Govern-ment itself loter this yeor ond, ot cur-rent rotes you stond to lose onlyobout 33ozl,, Cheop, isn't ii?

There is o reword for violoting the lT

Act. Let us toke lhis o little further lfyou ore the enterprising kind, you contoke the money out of lndio ot o sr, rollcost ond risk, ond bring it bock underyet onother scheme. And o surpriseowoits you in lndio. Your money otterthe speciolly designed overseos tourlo reword the low-breoker hosbecome so pure thot you do nothove to poy ony lox on it ot oll! Yes. nolncome-Tox, no Gifi-Iox, no prosecu-lions. So we come lo lhe conclusion:The Government hos qreot respect forrf kA Oi rU ll vlotulO(s OrtU fgWOtOS lClX

offenders with enthusiosm.

Poresh Voso

over humanitarian considerations?

RS

Freedorn First 3

Tire S.rlslrcvik SEizuue of PowerLenin's Successful Coup of October 1917

Unrest was steadily growing in the countryside.Organized bands of peasants raided the mansions oflocal landlords, burning their records, confiscating theirgrain and carrying off their farm implements, while theunfortunate owners could only stand by helpless.

ln St. Petersburg and Moscow a growing army ofworkers, attracted from the farms by the first surge ofRussian industrialization, was stirring restlessly. The firstbig break came in 1905. An extraordinarily vital and ablepriest. Father Qeorgy Gapon, had organized a society ofindustrial workers in St. Petersburg. Capon advcicatedreform through mass appeal to the czar himself,Nicholas ll. On a cold January Sundary, Capon'sfollowers formed a giant procession and marched to theWinter Palace, singing "God Save the Czar," to present apeaceful petition for relief from their oppressiveconditions.

A paniclry officer ordered the czar's troops to fire anda sheet of bullets poured into the solid mass of humans.Hundreds were mow'ed down, their portraits of the czarand crosses falling with them. "Bloody Sunday" was thelast organized attempt to win reforms by appeal.

ln the autumn of 1905 factory workers staged ageneral strike in St. Petersburg and organizedthemselves into soviets or councils. This was the highpoint of the "1905 Revolution" and it so frightenedNicholas that he acceded to the formation of a legisla'Jvebody by election. But the Duma, as the resultingparliament was called, was strictly limited in power anddominated by a restricted electorate. While moderatepolitical parties continued to operate in the open, themore revolutionary organizations flotrishedunderground, fanning the smouldering resentment of allbut a tiny section of aristocrats and landlords. Finally thereverses of the first World War ignited the inflammablesubstructure and set the entire ramshackle system inflames.

Discontent among workers, soldiers, generals andpoliticians reached the breaking point in February(March by the Western calendar) 1917. Organizingthemselves into a soviet, the industrial workers ofPetrograd (as St. Petersburg had been renamed duringthe war) were shouting for reform. ln a few days theywere joined by soldiers. In the Duma political leadersdemanded the formation of a responsible Cabinet to endthe governmental chaos.

The provisional government ushered in by theso-called February Revolution was a moderate one andincluded representatives of the Duma and the PetrogradSoviet. lt was headed by a sonrewhat colourless liberal,

...- r;r t,; f r', i :.;.L 'L. --,-'. '1,i;,-.rl C^"i^:

was Alexander Kerenslry, by far the most energeticmember of the Cabinet.

The provisional government soon found itself facingincredibly ciifficult pi'oblems. On the military froni

, 'eedoin ,1.rst 4

resistance was dwindling. Behind the front there weresevere shortages. The manufacture of war supplies haddropped off, and there was growing unrest amongpeasants and workers. Morale was a low ebb and the cryfor peace and bread was growing.

When the moderate February revolution endedczarism in 1917, its leaders announced theirdetermination to coltinue the war against Germany. TheBolsheviks on the" other hand had denounced all"imperialist wars" and demanded peace. Soon after theQerman government, suspecting that Lenin's presencein Petrograd might accelerate the pcpular agitation totake Russia out of the war, offered him safe conduct in asealed train across Germany, whence he made his way toPetrograd.

There he immediately took charge of the Bolsheviks,who had been vacillating between co-operating with theprovisional government and fighting it. Stepping up theparty's propaganda activities and agitation among thetroops of the city's garrison, he manoeuvered to get hismen in control of the Petrograd Soviet.

As the provisional government sought in vain to winthe loyalty of the army, Lenin saw the momentapproaching for a strike. "To delay is a crime!" heshouted at his supporters, insisting that the Bolsheviksshould seize power at once. Convinced by his drivingenergly and self-assurance, they redoubled their efforts towin over the troops in Petrograd. Little by little theregiments of the city's garrison were persuaded either tocome over to the Bolsheviks or at least to remain neutral.

Finally Lenin decided to strike on October 25."October 24 was too early," he told his uncertainfollowers. "October 26 will be too late." Early thatmorning from his headquarters in a girls' school heprociaimed the slogan "All power to the soviets" - thecouncils of workers and soldiers which he nowcalculated he could dominate. Then he ordered hisBolshevik bands and army supporters to take over allgovernment buildings, including the Winter Palace,where Kerensl<y, the head of the provisional governmentsince Lvov's resignation in August, and his Cabinet weredesperately trying to rally loyal troops to defendthemselves.

Faced by mounting mutiny, Kerensky slipped out ofthe city, hoping to rally troops at the front to march onthe capital and throw out thd Bolsheviks. But even theHigh Comnrand was deaf to his pleas. Before he couldreturn to the capital Petrograd had fallen into Lenin'shands. Within a few, davs the disciplined Communistconspirators posted in Russia's principal cities took over,h. !f'rcf! -^\rorn,-r^rlq rL.- r-\,-+^l-'.t pn\,,:l!trtiOn. l.r thg

crnazenierrt crf the worlc - rnc:ludtnl] many eommuntsts

- was an accomplisheci facL.

It was a blocdless revolution; feu, iives had been !ost.

l-r, ,n, ,Qi;ssra r if . \l'orld Lilv;tn,

-::..m. :i.lil

The Coup in the USSRVasundhara Mohan

Gorbochev succee^ded in gettingArticle 6 of the USSR Constitution, which provided for speciolprivileges for the CPSU, repeoled. Thot wos the lost strow. The Porty conservotives hod to oct

before they were totolly eliminoted.

August 1991 will be rememberednot so much for the coup that failed !othrow Gorbachev out of power, but forthe manner in which the Russian peo-ple stood up to the plotters even as thelatter betrayed their organisationalineptitude.

The coup was an effort by the hardcore conservative faction of the CPSUto restore the communist monopoly ofpower. The anti-perestroika forces wer€restive ever since Gorbachev took overas the General Secretary of the CPSU inMarch 1985 and propounded his twinpolicies of glasnost andperestrofka. Toconsglidate his position and implementhis policies, Gorbachev had to contain,if not get rid of the remnants in the Partyhadership belonging to the command-administration and stagnation periods.But this was no easy task.

Gorbachev's weapon was consensusbuilding - a weapon most unusual inRussian and Soviet history. Gorbachevhied to win over the conservativesthrough consensus fashioned after hisforeign policy. Once he was askedwhether the Soviet Union was talkingtoo softly with foreign countries. Gor-bachev did not give an emphatic 'no'for an an::":r. He said: "Our principle isthis: to pursue a firm policy, but to dothat constructively: one must showrestraint, but restraint is not softness.But restraint is also not aggressive-ness." After the coup an lndian joumal-ist described Gorbachev as a 'shallowleader'. Others had criticised him fornot showing enough firmness in hispolicies; for not pushing the reformsharder. lt is all right for those outside thering to pass comments but Corbachevv/as on the mat. The question is wheredid he fail most? Politically, economi-cally or socially?

Gorbachev the ReformerGorbachev's coming into power was, initself, astonishing. He was the youngest

Soviet leader to become the GeneralSecretary of the CPSU, since Stalin.lmmediately thereafter, his main thrustwas to stop the arms race, reduce thestockpile of nuclear weapons and ulti-mately eliminate them. ln the domesticscene, his aim was to restructure Sovieteconomy, modemise the Soviet Union.While not surprisingly Western leadersdismissed Gorbachev's foreign policystatement as propaganda, even Sovietcitizens did not really believe that Cor-bachev intended to democratise Sovietsociety and politics. When Gorbachevreplaced Andrei Gromyko, Shevard-nadze and other septugenarian leaderswith younger ones, no serious objec-tions were raised by the Party. He waswamed, though, by Yegor Legachev, toremember that he owed his job toGromyko, Viktor Chebrikov, the thenKGB chief, and himself (Legachev).The protest was feeble and Corbachevhad taken the all important first step -and got away with it.

Realising',hat huge defence budgetswere sapping the country's energy Cor-bachev vigorously pursued the armscontrol talks and signed the INF Treatywith Reagan. Reviving his country's ail-

COURTESY: TheWeek

ing economy was the reason behindGorbachev's decision to pull out ofAfghanistan, Czechoslovakia and Hun-gary, and he proposed a phased pro-gramme for the reduction of Sovietconventional forces in Europe. Toimprove the domestic economy heneeded to reduce the defence budgetand attract technical collaboration fromthe developed countries. His economicagenda included promoting individualeffort, greater autonomy for enterprises,production of better quality goods, link-ing wages and prices to productivityand a rationalisation of the price struc-ture. fu part of his policy of opennessand democratisation the Press wasgiven more freedom so as to make itmore responsive to the needs and aspi-rations of the citizens instead of beingthe mouthpiece of the administration. Alarge number of political prisoners werereleased and rehabilitated. Immigrationlaws were liberalised to permit Jews toleave the country. Dissident activity wasno longer frowned upon nor practisingreligion a taboo.

Conservative FearsNaturally, all these were not to the likingof the conservatives who thought

' \,.,.4.rr,.t /-'-. : e

Freedom First 5

glasnost was being misused by themedia and perestoika was dismantlingthe established Maxist-Leninist institu-tions. The bureaucracy used to thecommand-administration methods didnot like it when they were made respon-sible and accountable for results. TheArmy was equally worried. Akhromyevgave e)pression to the Army's feeling ofdiscontent "The armed forces todayare weaker than they were five or sixyears ago. Where does this weaknesscome from? From society's attitudetowards the armed forces. lf society -well, not the whole society, but certainforces in society - abuses the armedforces, insults them with impunity, callsthem occupiers and refuses to let thearmy recruit, will the armed forces gainin strength? But where did all this comefrom? lt is a manifestation of politicalstrr.rggle between different forces. Thearmy cannot get away from society."

Thus, the conservatives in the Party,in the bureaucrFcy and in the armedforces tried to appty the brakes to Gor-bachev's reforms at every opportunity.On the eve of the 19h All Union PartyConference held in JuneJuly 1988, theconservatives estimated that only about30 to 40 per cent of the delegateswould support Gorbachev's proposals.Even when the newly created Congressof the Peoples' Deputies was selectingcandidates to the Supreme Soviet, theconservatives voted down known sup-porters of Gorbachev's reforms. Byallowing the delegates at the Party Con-ference express themselves freely andby conceding some points to the con-servatives, Gorbachev succeeded insecuring unanimous aPProval to a

number of far-reaching resolutions inthe direction of glasnost andperestroika. Contrary to what he woulddo later, Gorbachev, at the 19th Party

Conference opposed the jdea of a

multi-party system for the Soviet Union.But he insisted on democratisation ofthe CPSU and making it subordinate tothe Soviet of PeoPles' DePuties.Nobod could argue with that. The con-servaWes, thus, could not stoP Gor-bachev proceeding with his reformsthough they managed to water downsome of the proposals. Corbachev,walking a tight roPe, apProached hisreforms through consensus, giving thedistinct impression that he was leaningmore towards the conservatives. Thiskept the conservatives at bay as they feltthat their hold was still strortg, despite

Frtedom Firsl 6

their giving in on economic reformswhich did not affect them.

The fumed Forces AlienatedGorbachev also created for himselfenemies in the ranks of the DefenceForces and the KGB. The troop reduc-tions affected over 100,000 officers and400,000 soldiers. While a majority ofthem were proposed to be retired onpension, only a few with technical qual-ifications would be absorbed in othercivilian jobs. This situation was furthercomplicated by the fact that the officersand their families returning from EastEurope and Mongolia had no ready liv-ing accommodation waiting for them.The armed forces thus felt that they hadlost their importance in a changingSoviet society. They also experiencedan attitudinal change towards themfrom the Soviet population. Under con-ditions of glasnost, a section of thearmed forces voiced its frustration,anger and dissatisfaction with the pre-dicament of the forces. This led tospeculation in the media, in the latterhalf of 1990, outside USSR, of a possi-ble coup in the Soviet Union involvingthe army. Such speculation wasstrengthened by the sudden appear-ance of two air-borne regiments in Mos-cow in late 1990. However, Marshal D.Yazov, the Defence Minister of theUSSR (and later, one of the coup lead-ers) tried to dispel such speculation bystating: "l officially declare once again.All thiS talk and conjecture absolutelydoes not tally with the truth - they wereordinary exercises, the plan of whichwas approved in the General Staff aslong ago as August 25." He further stat-ed: "Our army is part of the people,leads the same life as them and is his-torically endowed with peoples' trust...So, against whom, one wonders, doesthe army'intend' to march by'contem-plating' a coup?" He attributed suchrumours to those "who themselves goagainst the people, gambling with theirfate, for the sake of power, for the sakeof overthrowing the existing system."With the l9th Party Conference, the pri-macy of the CPSU started crumbling.Apart from a number of pro-democracygroups and alliances even democratic-minded communists started forminggroups witlrirr and outside the franrework of the CPSU. The conservativesnoted with anxie$ that whenever seatswere contested to the Congress of thePeoples' Deputies, their candidates

were defeated. The membership of theParly started dwindling and the Partywas being ridiculed by the public. Whileprofessing faith in the Party, Gorbachevwamed that "many PaO leaders,including both localofficials and mem-bers of the Central Committee, do netalways manage to keep up with the real-ity." ln a television broadcast on Sep-tember 8, 1989 he criticised those whowere "ready to give up perestroika andreturn to the past" yet, he could notcompletely ignore the conservatjves,who, he knew, were present at all levelsof the Soviet system. He therefore hadto bide his time. Thus, while maintain-ing a centrist position between the con-.servatives and the radicals (or 'leftists"as those who wanted the pace ofreforms to increase are called in theSoviet Union) and amidst vacillationsand denials, Gorbachey succeeded ingetting Article 6 otthe USSR Constitu-tion, which provided for special prMleg-es for the CPSU, repealed. That was thelast straw. The Party conservatives hadto act before they were totallyeliminated.CPS0 ThreatenedAt the 28th Party Congress in June-July1990 the conservatives bitterly criticisedGorbachev and others, who, in theirview, were responsible for the crisis thatthe country was facing at the economicand social levels. The Congress wasdominated by Party officials (over 40% )while the workers and peasants con-stituted only 11.6 and 5.4 percentrespec-tively. Commenting on the com-position of the C<-rngress, CinlettoCheisa observed: "The apparatchikiquite aware that there would be a bitterstruggle at the Congress they thought itexpedient not to delegate to anyone the

task of representing them " These partyofficials," continued Chiesa, "had cometo understand that Gorbachev's pro-gram would Put an end to the kind ofsociety in which they - and only they -flourished. They had no real alternativeprogramme, but they had singled outthe main enemy, the author of theirdefeat, Gorbachev himself." But theyneeded Gorbachev, as a dummy figure,*.,ith the Parly controlling him and hisreforms. ln attempting to placate theconservatives, Gorbachev had to criti-cise the reformists. Thus, while propos-ing that the CPSU should try to eam itsvanguard position through active strug-gle for the interests of the workers andfunction as a parliamentary party bywinning elections, he rejected thede-partisation of govemment bodiesproposed by the leftists. He said it was ''

the natural right of all parties registeredby law to have representatives in workpiaces, including ihe KGB, the Ministryof lnterior, the Judiciary, etc. At th€same time he rejected the conservativedemand that he renounce perestroika,Gorbachev emphatically said that aslong as he was in command, the politi-cal line would not change. But it wasYeltsin's address to the Congress thatfinally alarmed the conservatives:'There are only two altematives. Eitherthere will be a party of the apparatusthat inevitably will break up and sooneror later leave the only group of politicalforces that amount to anything. Or arenewed partywill be transformed into aunion of democratic forces with somehope of keeping an active role inperestroika."Seeds for the CoupDespite their defeat at the Parly Con-gress, the conservatives did not give up.For instance, when the privatisation lawwas put up before the Supreme Sovietin June 1991, one of. the membersebserved: 'Attempts are being made totorpedo the adoption of this law in orderto make Mikhail Sergeyevich Gor-bachev's position in London more diffi-cull" Another member disclosed aletter received by him threatening retri-bution if he voted in favour of the Bill,which was proof enough of some polit-ical forces interested in disrupting ormaking difficult Gorbachev's meetingwith G-7 heads of State in London.

For the conservatives even anincreased US-Soviet cooperation insorting out the economic problems ofthe Soviet Union was treason. Accord-

ing to them criticising Gorbachev's pro-posalto make the rouble a convertiblecurrenqy they said: "lf the Presidenttotally ignoring the existing Constitu-tion, keeps the Congress and theSupreme Soviet away hom power and,in collusion with the Republican author-ities, abolishes the State, it would beinteresting to know who can decidewhich is more lawfuL these actions onhis part or some kind of coup indefense of the Constitution, the coun-try's Fundamental [aw". Thus, theconservatives thought it was their legiti-mate dutyto stage a coup and dethroneGorbachev. That is what they called forat the 2nd Congress of the All-OnionMovement of Communist lnitiative heldin June 1991. Posters detlared Gor-bachev, Yakovlev and Shevardnadze as'anti-communist' and demanded thatthey be thrown out of the Parly; andtherefore out of power. Al.eksey ASergeyev, Member of tre Central Com-mittee of the CPSU observed: 'Ourcountry is swiftly proceeding towardsnational.disaster. The party too is pro-ceeding towards disaster, while theParty, the CPSU, is today the only forcewhich is able to prevent this disaster."The secessionist movements in therepublics and ethnic riots worild havebeen suppressed through use of force ifthey had occuned in the pre-Gorbachev era.. The consewativesrefused to accept the separation of theBaltic republics and Gorbachevs moveto enter into a new Onion treaty with theother republics so as to save the Unionfrom disintegration and the disastertowards which the CPSU was heading.Similarly, Gorbachev's attending theG-7 meeting seeking akl and rttumingempty handed was considered an insultheaped on the Soviet Union. NAPolovodov, Chairman of the Commu-nist lnitiative declared: "The CPSO lead-ership headed by M.S. Gorbachevinitially perceived renewal andperestroika as a means for improvingSocialism and a condition for improv-ing working peoples' lives. But it soondigressed hom the solution of vitallyimportant problems inside the counEyand we started hearing about "newthinking for our own country and for thewhole world". As a result of endlesstransformations, the country has

become a humiliated beggar" lt washard-core communists like Polovodovand Sergeyev who stoked the fires ofhatred against Gorbachev and his team.

The coup leaders, headed by GennadyYenayev, were all known conselvatives,whom Gorbachev had chosen to pleasethe conservative faction. As to why hedid so, Chiesa offers an explanation:"The Soviet leader is both part and par-cel of their own (the party apparatchiki)history and a 'mutant', a product of thecrisis history created, who has miracu-lously risen to the top of the Party-Statehierarchy''.Gorbachev is lndispensableWith alltheir hatred for Gorbachev, theconservatives destroyed themselves bystaging an un-planned coup. As thee:<perts on the subject .have com-mented, the timing was not correct, theplanning was bad, the desired simulta-neous follow-up action was not quiteaccording to the book and there waslack of coordination. Yenayev was alsono match in stature to Gorbachev andhe had not satisfied himself whether theArmy would back the coup to the hilt.Similarly, the electronic media was notcompletely controlled making it possi-ble for the world to know the wholestory as it was unfolding in Moscow.And the coup leaders had not reckonedwith Yeltsin's capacity to stir up publicprotesL The masses who had got used

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to enjoying freedonr, responded quicklyas they were afraid of a slide back to theStalin days. Under the circumstancesthe coup leaders lost their nerve resrlt-ing in Gorbachev staging a come back.It took some time for Gorbachev toovercome the shock which made 'ana-lysts' decide that he was no longer thesame again. True thatYeltsin, in his newfound role as the saviour of democracyin the Soviet Onion and liberator of Gor-bachev, basked in his popularity forscme time even after Gorbachev

resumed his Presidency. But, Yeltsinknew his place. The West, which had noinkling of the coup or refused to believeintelligence information of an impend-ing coup in the Soviet Union, had alsowritten off Gorbachev as the post-coupSoviet leader in favour of Yeltsin. Butthe stringent measures that Gorbachevhas taken immediately after heregained his equilibrium, have shownthat it is Gorbachev who still holds thereins. There is no doubt that only Gor-bachev can ensure the continuance of

the Soviet Union, or what is left of it, asa federated State and who can ensurethe permanent burial of the cold warand elimination of the threat of war. Notonly the West but the Soviet republicstoo have had a glimpse of a dark sce-nario which might become a reality ifthey do not strengthen the hands ofGorbachev. And that realisation isenough.

The articles by Dr. l4ohan and Dr. l4odakwere wriften for the Oct-Dec. '91 issue buthad to be held over due to lack of space.This will explain why neither afticle refers tothe disappearance of the Soviet Union fromthe political map of the world. Ed.

Why the Coup Failed?A.G. Modak

When Yonoyev ond his friends stoged o coup, they spoke in the nome of the Union. Actuolly theypleoded for on entity which hod lost ideologicoljustificotion ond hod no notionol spirit on which

to bose itself.

Leonid Brezhnev was CennadyYan6yev's model in the cduP thatflopped. Brezhnev had organised theconservatives of the 1960s to oustKhrushchev in October 1964. ln factYanayev tried to carry to fruition theconspiracy a-<;ainst Corbachev, theseeds for whiclr were laid by Leg;achevin 1988.

On March 13, 1988 one Mrs. NinaAndreyevna wrote an article in Souet-skaga Russra attacking Corbachev forhis 'crimes' such as encouraging non-CPSU forces in generaland intellectualsin particular. To save himself Cor-bachev adopted a policy of appease-ment of the conservatives. A number ofconservatives like Yanayev, Pugo, Yazovand Pavlov were included in the Presi-dential Council. Corbachev enhancedthe powers of the Home'Ministry with a

view to crushing popular upsurges. Heapplied the brakes on reforms andshelved the Shatalin Plan. Reformers likeShevardnadze, Shatalin, Yakovlev andPetrakhov left the Council. Finally, Cor-bachev consented to the military inter-vention in Lithuania in January in which14 innocent people were killed. Theconservatives assumed they had suc-cessfully asserted themselves and cutCorbachev down to size. ln the process

he alienated the reformers and the Rus-sian pebple on the one hand, while theconservatives never considered him asa member of their group on the other.

Yanayev and his conspirators con-cluded that the empty shops, thelengthening queues and the conditionsof near anarchy in the republics of theUnion had, in the eyes of the people.discredited Gorbachev's policies ofglasnost and perestroika. Theyassurned that with Corbachev's popu-larity at its nadir, his disr'nissal would notprovoke the people perhaps it mighteven be welcomed. Moreover Gor-bachev failures had lost him goodwill inWashington and London. The rise of

Russia would be seen as a revival of theattempt to re-impose Slavicdomination.

All these assunlptions collapsed onAugust 21 and22.

lmplementation of the Treaty andthe People's Reaction

August l9 was selected as the dayfor the coup, because Corbachev wasscheduled to sign a treaty with therepublics on August 20. The conserva'tives viewed with alarm the conse-quences of such a treaty which involveddispersal of power, decentralisation,de-ideologisation, nrarketization. etc.Corbachev had to be stoppred. Hencethe coup. But the coup failed. Therrxpected supPort for the couP or. atleast, indifference among the people toGorbachev's ouster, did not materialise.There is no denying that the PeoPlewere unhappy with Corbachev. But theywere not prepared to surrender theirfreedom and a return to Stalinism orRrezhnevism which the conspiratorsrepresented. Moreover the conspiratorsfailed to rally all the conservatives ontheir side. Thus Ligachev, a well knownoppor)ent of Iiberalisnr wds LolrsPi(u-ous by his absence during the wholedrama. Anatoly Lukyanov. former

CO0RTES\ lhe F( on,)ry)i'r

Freedotn Firsl 9

speaker of the Supreme Soviet, and thealleged brain behind the anti-Gorbachev plan suddenly backed outand Boris Pugo, one of the leadingactors in this drama committed suicide.It was this inbuilt weakness that trans-formed what would have been a tragedyinto a farce.

The OutcomeThe People demanded Gorbachev's

release and his reinstatement as Presi-dent of the OSSR. lt was again popularpressure that compelled Yanayev andother conspirators to go before Gor-bachev like shamefaced school boysasking to be excused for their mis-adventure. The Corbachev whoreturned to Moscow a freeman was atransformed and a much chastenedman.

lf the Corbachev of the pre-conspiracy period took pride in playingthe role of a centrist leader, in the post-coup days he emerged as an enthusias-tic protagonist of reform. lf in the pastCorbachev projected himself as a devo-tee of Mamism-Leninism, the post-coupCorbachev decided to consignMaxism-Leninism into the dustbin ofhistor!'. The pre-coup Gorbachev wasvery much the leader of his people.Now he was led by them. Under popularpressure he dissolved the organisationof the CPSU; dissolved recently formedbodies like the Congress of People'sDeputies and the so-called inner parlia-ment - the Supreme Soviet. The post ofthe President of the USSR he holdsrelies very heavily on the mood of thepeople. The people need him becauseof his international stature and the beliefthat he alone can hold the variousrepublics together even if it be in amuch looser federation. At present Cor-bachev and Yeltsin seem to be workingin tandem. But Yeltsin is more than anequal. He proved his mettle during thethree-day drama and acquired a uniqueplace for himself. He had indeedbecome a hero to his people. In suchcircumstances Corbachev can hardlyafford to ignore Yeltsin's wishes. Previ-ously it was possible for Qorbachev toshow up Yeltsin. Now it is Yeltsin who is

calling the shots.

The CPSU and the FederationLenin s dreams of a Party, free fronr

the blandishments of intellectuals, tradeunions, arrtl tlre pcd5dntly ltas becorrt.a thing of the past. Apart from the coupplotters the biggest casualty has, ironi-

Fret:dom Fi;s! I0

cally, been the Communist Party of theSoviet Union. The history of the CPSU isindeed replete with instances of reform-ers being crushed brutally at the handsof the conservatives. This time, thereformers won and the CPSU is on therun. The aborted coup staged by CPSUhardliners has damaged the Party tosuch an extent that the revival of thiserstwhile 'vanguard of the proletariat' atleast in its present form, is very unlikely.

The unsuccessful coup has acceler-ated the disintegeration of the USSR. ltwas not so long ago that the commu-nists of the world in general and thosein lndia in particular used to present theUSSR as a worthy model of a wonder-fully managed multi-national state.They claimed that whereas all states ofprevious periods guarded the interestsof exploiters, the revolutionary bolshe-vik state did justice to the oppressed ofthe world. They boasted that the social-ist state in the Soviet Union was a grandalchemy where people belonging to dif-ferent races and creeds spontaneouslymerged themselves into a unique typiof society. Thanks to glasnost recentevents demolished these claims whenthe fissiparous forces within the SovietState came into full public view. Forinstance when Corbachev lifted censor-ship of news people became aware that"Nagorno-Karbakh" was a major boneof contention between Armenia andAzerbaijan. "Abkazia" exposed the mythof the unity in Russia and "South Oset-ta" began to complain against theatrocities by the Ceorgians. lf the Balticstates declared their intention to be freeof the USSR, a part of Azerbaijanexpressed its desire to join lran, andrepublics located in Asia were in favourof Pan-lslam. lt is obvious that the muchpublicised "New Man" with a Sovietidentity is a myth. The world indeednoticed that citizens of the variousrepublics in the.USSR were zealouslyaware of their ethnic origins and pre-pared to fight for it even if it meant thedisintegration of the Soviet Union.

Leninism DevaluedThe devaluation of Leninism is of

course the most significant outcome ofrecent happenings in the USSR. lt wasLenin who carved out tlre Union ofSoviet Socialist Republics. lt was Leninwho fashioned the tactics and helpedttre CPSU f irrd sc.rlutiorrs to problelrrs. ltwas Lenin who offered an ideologicalveneer for all manner of policies. For

seventy four years, communists in theSoviet Union treated Lenin as god. Stu-dents of all faculties in Soviet universi-ties were asked to refer to Lenin's worksto arrive at right interpretations andmeanings in their studies. Lenin was asource of inspiration, an article of faith,a silken bond wnitin the multi-nationalstate of the USSR.

It was pointed out time and againthat Lenin's interpretation of the theoryand practice of Manism should beaccepied as the most valid packet ofguidelines. Now however there is grow-ing antipathy towards Lenin and his ide-ology. Thus one writer stated that Leninwas an ordinary leader interested inself-glorification. Another argued thatLenin was least bothered with the ethosof the people and imposed his dogmat-ic views on the common masses.

Researches undertaken in recentmonths in the Soviet Union haveexposed the myth of Leninism. Theconcept of "de-ideologisation"popularised by Corbachev and Shevar-dnadze was aimed only at devaluingStalinism. But as the campaign pro-ceeded, Leninism itself came underattack deprived of their moorings in thepast and in the absence of new articlesof faith. there has emerged a wretchedpermissivism in Soviet society. Thepeople have become worshippers ofpermissivism, hooliganism, nihilism,alcoholism and philistinism. A crueljoke doing the rounds says that in the1930s and '40s at least ideology was

I

available in abundance. Now, every-thing, including ideology, is conspicu-ous by its absence.

Causes for Communism's Decline

DogmaHsm

There appear to be four causes forthe tragic debacle that is the USSR.Dogmatism is of course the first cause.Until recently Stalin was the prime vil-lain. But now Lenin too is held responsi-:.rle for the'spread of dogmatism in theSoviet Union. lt was Lenin's dogmaticapproach which widened the gulfbetween him and leading intellectualsof those years. The intellectualsestranged by Lenin and later con-demned as 'reformist' deviations' andso on are now being honoured. Leninopposed populism because, in hisopinion, the peasants (whom they sup-ported) were superstitious and credu-lous worshippers of the establishment.ln fact he accused everybody who dif-fered with him eVen on minor issues. Herelied on the elites in the CPSU,because of his conviction that only theywere capable of reading the writing onthe wall. He thus advocated a type of oli-garchy, under the garb of proletariandictatorship. Rosa Luemburg, a con-temporary of Lenin and a leading Man<-ist at the beginning of the presentcentury had predicted that only the Len-inist theory of Party and Revolutionwould finally lend credence to the dicta-torship over the proletariat. The Leninistadvocacy of wai communism, his justi-fication of the secret police and insist-ence on passing a law against factionsin the party, degenerated in subsequentyears into the violent suppression ofdissenters, excessive reliance on theKGB and the enforcing of totalitarianmeasures to control all walks of life.Such post-mortems of Leninism cur-rently being undertakn by journalistsand writers in the USSR is indicative ofthe extent of de-ideologisation initiatedby Corbachev.

Stadsm

The massive anger against comrr'u-nists and communism is the result ofthe cruel suppression of popular urges

- a suppression which was philosoph-ised and rationalised rather shame.lessly over seven decades. The secondcause is statism. The Bolsheviks reliedheavily on the institution of the Statebecause they wanted to overtake capi-talism in the shortest possible time.

Lenin expected the socialist state toconvert every citizen into an agent in themarch towards corrmunism. lt is truethat in the evening of his life, Leninadvocated the New Economic Policy(NEP) as a result of which certainbrakes were applied on the State. ButLenin viewed the NEP as a temporarytactical manoeuvre to tide over a transi..tional period. The subsequent reversalof NEP and the revivalof statism in theStalin era were thus considered legiti-mate. Stalin strengthened the state andthereby his own control over the Sovietpeople. During the Stalin years theentire Soviet Union became a "Gulag"The common people became facelesscreatures, souless pawns. Gorbachevadmitted time and again that the SovietUnion failed in putting a stop to thealienation of the common masses fromthe State. No wonder the people took tothe streets against the conspirators inAugust this year. Twenty generations ofthe Russian people have suffered theyoke of statisnr, irritially urrder tlreRomanovs who ruled Russia for 300years and for the next 74 years underthe Bolsheviks. For the first time the

Russian people have tasted freedomfrom state control. They are not aboutto give it up so easily.

The Truth about the West

A third cause for the current catas-trophe is the realisation of the truthabout the West in general and capital-ism in particular. The Soviet informa-tion media were employed to glorifyeven minor achievments of the SovietUnion and belittle the remarkable suc-cesses of capitalist countries. EverySoviet policy was presented as a uniquemeasure, not only different from, butsuperior to anything comparable in acapitalist country. Thus measures likenationalisation of the means of produc-tion, in contrast to the institution of themarket or the single party system, wereprojected as Alladin's lamps offeringuniversal solutions to basic problems.

It was pointed out that the govern-ment in a capitalist country guarded theinterests of exploiters, whereas a social-ist state projected justice and humanity.Hence the powers of the governmentunder capitalism needed to be curbed,whereas any limitation on the powers of

Gorbachev - to the Brink, and Backtftre Souret State, tuhere iron curtaira loomedUnder Qlasnost and Perestroika bloomed.A monolithic and one-parg State,New plwalism could accomodate.Media... the Arts... Religion... tuhich were chained,A new uitalitg quickly regained.But an economg, ta long controlled,Could not at once 6cape iA rigid mould -Moreouer, in a scene uhere theg uere new,When winds of change, in the Republics blew,Secession thratened uhere autonomg,Would haue preserued the "Union's" entitg."Hardliner' tlat he :u,as tao far right-thoighNReformists like Yeltsin market forces sought:Not giuing " Gorbg" credit tlat uas due:Eoen for starting things that he did do.But foftunatelg people-potiter was strong -Coup leadets and their tanks did not last long -And contrarg to euery one's belief,But ta the whole usorld's jog and great relief,Yeltsin and his resistance rallied allWho su he "cotrp" as "Peratroika's" pall."Gobg' is back again, but all should leam,So that a black chapter uill not reLrm -Yeltsin... the Republics and the Wet must plag,TOOETHER ushering the new Souiet "Wag'

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Freedom First I I

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government in a communist state was acrime against humanity. Curbs over theinformation media, single candidateconstituencies in elections and therepression of dissent were hailed asepoch-making acts. No effort wasindeed spared to impress the peoplethat socialist democracy was superiorto bourgeois democracy in everyrespect.

Curiously, it was pointed out in thesame vein that the Soviet Unron shouldtry to match and in fact, overtake theUnited States. There is an interestingjoke in this connection. A teacher asksher students: "Boys how would youdescribe the USA"? A student replies:"Madam, the 0.S.A. is a country of hoo-ligans, drunkards and bastards". Theteacher is satisfied, as she has elicitedthe right answer. Now she puts anotherquestion: "What are our aims andobjectives"? And promptly comes theunanimous response: "To overtake theUSA". Roger Garaudy, a leading com-munist intellectual from France made ascathing attack on this type of Soviettransposition of aims and objectives inhis book The Tuming Point ofSocia/isrn:

"The goal of socialism cannot bethat of capitalism with a simplequantitative difference. The achieve-ments of socialism are not to bemeasured simply in terms of refrig-erators and televisions sets. lts supe-

riority must manifest itself in thesatisfaction and creation of differentneeds that will permit the fullestdevelopment of man. A new modelof civilization must be created".'

llilitant Materialism

The fourth and final cause for thedownfall of the Soviet Onion, is the phi-losophy of materialism. Soviet citizenswere asked by Lenin and Trotsl<y toworship militant materialism. Like capi-talism, socialism too sought materialachievements as the highest goal. lncapitalism it is the invisible hand ofprice determination in the free marketwhich promotes materialist gains.Though this does discriminate in favourof the well-to-do and widens the gapbetween the "haves" and the "havenots" at least there is some rationalebehind whatever transpires in thatmodel. But government in a welfarestate with a market economy acts as anumpire in economic matters. It cancurb the power of the "haves" throughfiscal controls. ln a socialist state on theother hand, the government is omnipo-tent. The Market is replaced by centralplanning which in turn is controlled bythe government. What emerges there-fore in socialism is inequality based onparty affiliation. And it can now be stat-ed without fear of contradiction that thistype of inequality is worse than thatbased on money power undercapitalism.

Yesenin-Volpin, the great philoso-pher of post-Stalin times in Russia hasattacked certain concepts trying tocrush the basic conviction of individu-als. lt would appear that currently indi-viduals in the USSR are in revoltprecisely against these aspects. Theywant the complete demolition ofMarxist-Leninist philosophy.

lncidentally, in July this year LazarKaganovich, the 97 year old revolution-ary and a close collaborator of Stalin inthe brutal massacre of thousands ofinoocents, died. This led people torecall a prophecy that the death ofStalin's friend would coincide withsome apocalyptic event.

When Yanayev and his friendsstaged a coup, they spoke in the nameof the Union. Actually they pleaded foran entity which had lost ideologicaljus-tification and had no national spirit onwhich to base itself. That was why peo-ple dared to defy and the coup col-lapsed. lf the coup succeeded inanything it was in dismantling the wholelegacy of the October revolution of1917.

DR. A.G. ilODAK is Reader in the Centre forSoviet Studies. Bombay University

Can Democracy Grow in Russia?

)emocrocy con grow inlussio, but it must hove locoloots, ond o people willingo tend ii.

There is no escaping the fact thatur country has cruelly forfeited the'rtire twentieth century: all our much-umpeted achievements have turnedut to be illusory. From a flourishing:ndition we have been hurled back tostate of semi-barbarity, and we are

tting amid the wreckage.We hold passionate discussions

>out the kind of government system

that would suit us from now on, and thekind that would not, since this, weclaim, is the key to everything. Yetrecovery is today not a matter of simplyidentifring the most convenient systemof government and then hastitychurning out a marvelous constitution,paragraph by paragraph. We mustdemonstrate better foresight than didour luckless fathers and grandfathers inl9l7 so that we might not repeat thechaos of that February by puttingourselves at the mercy of temptingslogans and breathless orators, orotherwise reproducing the selfchosenpath to a shameful conclusion. There is

Aleksondr Solzhenitsyn

no guarantee whatever that the newleaders now coming to the fore willimmediately prove to be farsighted andsober-minded.

After a cannibalistic period lastingthree-quarters of a century, after theexorbitant price we have already paid,and given the fact that in terms of thepolitical spectrum we happen to haveended up on the side with a tradition ofstrong central authority, it behooves usnot to make rash moves toward chaos.For as 1917 taught us, anarchy is theultimate peril.

Unless one craves revolution, a statemust possess the qualities of continuity

Freedont First 13

and stability. Some elements of thecurrent structure will have to serve forthe time being for the simple reasonthat they already exist.

It goes without saying that we shallgradually reshape the entire stateorganism. This undertaking must beginat the margin somewhere; it should notbe tackled all at once. What is clear isthat the process should start at the locallevel, with grassroots issues. Whilepreserving a strong central authority, wemust patiently and persistently expandthe rights of local communities.

With time we shall of course adoptsome particular type of politicalstructure, but in view of our totalinexperience in such matters this maynot be a felicitous choice at first, notsome thing suited to the specific needsof our country. We must resolutely seekour own path here. We have lately beenassuring ourselves that there is no needof any quest or reflection on our part,that it is simply a matter of adopting"the way it is done in the West" asquickly as possible. But in the West it isdone in oh so many different ways, withevery country following its own

tradition. One might think that we arethe only people who need neither lookback nor pay heed to the wise thingssaid in our country before we wereborn.

The strength or weakness of asociety depends more on the level of itsspiritual life than on its level ofindustrializaton. Neither a marketeconomy nor even general abundanceconstitutes the crowning achievementof human life. lf a nation's spiritualenergies have been exhausted, it willnot be saved from collapse by the mostperfect govemment structure or by anyindustrial development a tree with arotten core cannot stand. This is sobecause of all the possible freedomsthe one that will inevitably come to thefore will be the freedom to beunscrupulous; that is the freedom thatcan be neither prevented noranticipated by any law. lt is anunfortunate fact that a pure socialatmosphere cannot be legislated intobeing.

And that is why the destruction ofour souls over three-quarters of acentury is the most terrifying thing of all.

It is terrible to see that the corrupt rulingclass the multimillion-strongappointed bureaucracy (nomenklatura)which serves Party and state - wasincapable of voluntarily giving up any ofthe privileges it had appropriated toitself. For decades this class has lived atthe expense of the people, and it wouldhave liked to continue doing so.

And what about those gloriousforces of glasnost and perestroikdAmong these fashionable words welook in vain for the concept ofpurification. What we saw was astampede toward glasnost of all thosetainted voices which had given decadesof loyal service to totalitarianism. Ofevery four troubadours of glasnost,three were former toadies ofBrezhnevism, and who among themuttered a word of personal repentanceinstead of cursing the faceless "periodof stagnation"? And the sameindividuals who for decades havebefuddled the minds of universitystudents continue to hold forth self-confidently from the rostrums of ourhumanities departments. Tens ofthousands of smatterers in our country

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are tarnished by their hypocrisy andweather-vane mentality; must we reallydrag along these festering moral soresinto our future?

West Germany was suffused with thefeeling of repentance before the arrivalof its economic boom. But in ourcountry no one has even begun torePent. And all that glasnost isbedecked, festooned with the same oldptump and heavy clusters of lies. Onlywe seem not to notice. That is a recipefor warped development.

fime to ThinkIt won't do to hope that our current

"time of troubles" will be followed bysome kind of tranquil period with ampleopportunity "to sit down and think over"our plans for the future. History is acontinuum, and no one will grant us thefavor of any breathing spell, just as theRussian Constitutent AssemblY, inFebruary 1917, was never given thechance "to sit down and think thingsover." So that no matter how painfullythe burning issues of today weigh downupon us, it behooves us to give advancethought to the shape of our futurearrangement.

Before the 1917 Revolution the bulkof our people had no experience withpolitical concepts, and the ideas thatwere pounded into our heads bYpropaganda in the subsequent seventyyears served only to cloud our minds.But now that our country has begunmoving in the direction of real politicallife, and when the forms of thegovemment-to-be are already beingdiscussed, it is useful to focus on theprecise meaning of some terms inorder to prevent possible mistakes.

Plaio, and Aristotle after him,identified three types of state. ln theusual sequence these are: monarchy, orthe rule of one; aristocracy, or the ruleof the best or for the best purpose; andpolity, or the rule of the peoPle in asmall city-state for the common good(we now term this democracy). lt wouldappear that since that time no one hascreated any structure that could not besubsumed under these categories; theonly additions were various types ofconstitutions. So we cannot be said tohave much of a choice: the whole flowof nrodern history will unqr-restionablypredispose us to choose democrac-v.

But in opting for democracy wemust understand clearly just what we

are choosing, what price we shall have

to pay, and that we are choosing it as ameans, not as an end in ieelf. Thecontemporary philosopher Karl Popperhas said that one chooses democracynot because it abounds in virtues, butonly in order to avoid tyranny. Wechoose it in full awereness of its faultsand with the intention of seeking waysto overcome them.

Many new countries have in recentyears suffered a fiasco just afterintroducing democracy, yet despitesuch evidence this same period hasseen an elevation of democracy from aparticular state structure into a sort ofuniversal principle of human existence,almost a cult.

Following the bitter experience of1917, when we plunged headlong intowhat we had thought was democracy,Vasily Maklakov, a prominent leader ofthe Constitutional Democrats,reminded us all of a simple truth by thefollowing admission: "ln order tofunction, democracy needs a certainlevel of political discipline among thepopulace." But this is precisely what welacked in 1917, and one fears that thereis even less of it today.

The aim of universal suffrage is topermit the Popular Will to bemanifested: that genuine Will which issupposed to guide everything in adirection most advantageous to thepeople. Yet no one has been able to saywhether such a single Will exists at all orto define its qualities. And it isremarkable that different. systems ofcounting votes will produce different oreven diametrically opposed readings ofthis PopularWill.

One should add that electioncampaigns involving large numbers ofvoters and conducted among anelectorate with no direct knowledge ofthe candidates can be so frivolous andshrill that, given the frequent bias of themedia, a large proportion of the votersmay turn away in disgust. Andtelevision, though it can bring out acandidate's appearance as well as hispublic demeanor, does nothing toreveal his abilities as a statesman.Campaigns of this sort invariably entailthe Cegradation of political thought.The very system does not insPirepolitical f igures to rise above theirpolitical interests; quite the reverse: acampaign base,l on moral principlescan become a recipe for defeat.

ln any case it is not feasible for the

people to give their representativesprecise instructions concerning allfuture contingencies. Nor does thereexist a stimulus that will impel thosedeputies holding office to rise abovetheir future electoral interests andabove party machinations so as to serveonly the clearly perceived interests ofthe country. As a result, the actions thatare taken are those having immediateappeal to the voters, even though thelong view might suggest that theseactions will bring them harm. And in a

country as large as ours, the possibilityof keeping tabs on electedrepresentatives is correspondinglyreduced, while the chance of abuses ontheir part increases.

These critical comments aboutcontemporary democracy are notmeant to suggest that the futureRussian Union will have no need fordemocracy. It will need it very much.But given our people's total lack of

The denollonolizotion processdoes nol necessorily imply lholeverylhing musl be privolized os omoller ol rigid dogmo. Stole-ownedcomponies con coexisl wllh o morketeconomy, os the experience ol\rileslern Europe shows. The exlent olstole inlervenlion is o conlentiousissue between movemenls wilh omore or less sociol democrolicleoning ond lhe die-hord Hoyekions.It is cedoinly orguoble thol morketforces lhemselves do noloulomoticolly solve oll sociolproblems.

Ihe communisl heriloge survivesnol only in lhe economy ond lnpoliticol inslitulions, bul in minds oswell. The workers wonl lo hove shoresin their componies' prolils ond toremove reshictions on profils, bul lheywould olso like lo hove guoronleesogoinst unemploymenl. The peosonts*ont to hove freedom of lrode fortheir products, but demond lhol lhestole fix minimum prices lologricullurol commodilies ond prolectlhem from imporls by high loriffs. fheintelligenlsio enjoys lhe regoinedlreedom of speech ond print, but olsowonls lovish stote polronoge ofculturol goods.

All these conflicts con be solvedonly by more or less owkwordcompromises. One connot hove thebest of both worlds.

b.rct folokorrkl

fiet:<l<tttt f irsl l5

preparation for the intricacies ofdemocratic life, democracy must bebuilt from the bottom up, gradually,patiently, and in a way designed to lastrather than being proclaimedthunderously from above in its full-fledged form.

All the failings noted earlier wouldrarely apply to democracies of smallareas mid-sized towns, smallsettlements (poselki), groups of villages(volosti stanitsy), or areas up to the sizeof a country @yezd, rayon). Only inareas of this size can voters haveconfidence in ' their choice ofcandidates, since they will be familiarwith them both in terms of their

effectiveness in practical matters and interms of their moral qualities. At thislevel phony reputations do not hold up,nor would a candidate be h€lped byempty rhetoric or party sponsorship.

These are precisely the dimensionswithin which the new Russiandemocracy can begin to grow, gainstrength, and acquire self-awareness. ltalso represents a level that is mostcertain to take root because it willinvolve the vital concerns of eachlocality: ensuring unpolluted water andair, overseeing housing, hospitals,nurseries, schools, shops, and the localdistribution of goods, while also givingvigorous support to the growth of

SOVI E:TCOMMUNISM

oviet Communism was pronounced dead on Sep-tember 5, l99l . Born on November 7, 1917, itsparentage was obscure. Its father, Vladimir llyichLenin, maintained that its mother was Clio, His-tory in person. But she rejected the claim, and infact the child seems to have been a changeling. Itsreputed grandfather, Karl Marx, told of its de-

scent from German Philosophy-often represented in neo-classical sculpture as a magnificent figure of a woman, yet

thought by most observers not to match Clio in either beautyor intelligence. Marx identified the line's original progenitoron the male side as a rather clumsy and unpleasing charactercalled English Economics.

Whatever the case, Soviet Communism, in infancy, ma-turity and old age, was chiefly known as an example of var-ious psychological and physical disorders. It came into a

large agricultural and industrial heritage, which, over thedecades, it frittered away in crackpot schemes, leading even-.

tually to bankruptcy.There ar'e many descriptions of its early years. In some of

them it is seen as abeautiful baby, admired byall, except forafewcurmudgeons. More recent biographers havedemonstrat-ed that it suffered from destructive tantrumseven in infancy,though calming down for a while from the age of four, undera temporarily eft'ective treatmenl callcd urp.

The effects ol this new economic policy wore off by 1929,

and lbr sevcral years il. sul'fercd lrottt cottvulsit-rrts of a pat tic-

irlarly unattractive sort. As it reached adulthood, it increas-

ingly succeeded in concealing these from tfie worid. Indeed, itwas now in a stage ofsuch advanced paranoia that it began it-self to bclieve that it rvas healthy and flourishing.

BY ROBER-T CONQI.JEST

By 1939 the neighborhood had deteriorated, and the sub-ject of this obituary formed an association with a fellowpsychopath-actually a distant cousin-named Nazism. Fora time their friendship seemed to make its condition worse, inasortof folie d deux.But, as is usual with such characters, theysoon fell out. In the ensuing confrontation, it appeared thatSoviet Communism was enjoying better mental health. Atleast it briefly mz .aged once again to impress a variety olex-perts that this was truly the reality. Nevertheless, it is clearthat by the age of 30, in the late 1940s, the paranoia wgs'in-tractable. Although initially this took a less manic and moregloomy form, a violent attack of anti-Semitic obsession en-

sued.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it developed some signs

of insight into its unfortunatecondition, and a full recoveryseemed possible. However, in the mid-'60s, it sank into along period of ever-increasing apathy and senility. By theearly 1970s it was unquestionably wasting away. Attemptsto restore its health by a variety of new techniques of shocktreatment led to occasional hopeful signs. But by 1990 thecase was obviously hopeless.

In August l99l it rallied enough to go into a final tan-trum, then expired miserably.

Funeral Friday, at the Smolny, St. Petersburg. In view ofthe deceased's antipathy to hynrns, the lollorving will be

sung (ro the air of " Bye Bye Love"):

B-ve bye Karl,B.ve bye Vladinrir,USSR disappeurT0 the lund ubovc tlte sl:t'

untrammeled local economic intiatives.

Without properly constituted localself-government there can be no stableor prosperous life, and the very conceptof civic freedom loses all meaning.

This afticle was adapted from Mr.Solzhenitsyn's Rebuilding Russia: Relleclions andl-entative Proposals, translated by Alexis Klimoff,to be published in l\ovember. Copyright C, l99lby Farrar, Straus €' Giroux, lnc. All rights reserved.

Rebuilding Russia was written before thecouP.

COURTESY: NATIONAL REWEW,September 23, 1 991

Freedorrt Firsl l6 C(),-lii-iY The New Leader

The Unfinished RevolutionChinaI Time Will Come

So long os lhere existsonpvhere in the world ogovernment thot con beproud of something like theTiononmen mossocre, or odiclotorship thol refuses toopply universollyrecognized principles tocontrol its own behovior, itwill remoin hord to imoginethe possibility of genuineworld understonding.

All who care about democracy mustbe concerned about whether China canbecome a democratic country. ln 1989,movements for democracy weresuccessful in Eastern Europe but failedin China, thus giving rise to thequestion: ls it impossible for China toachieve democracy?

I am not an astrologer who makespredictions, but only an astrophysicistwho has no way of foretelling most ofChina's future. But there is one pointthat I can predict with confidence:China will not be able to avoid movingtoward democracy.

My reasons for this prediction arevery simple. A democratic China fills theneeds of both the Chinese people and'the world. Some people say that Chinais a big country and a poor country, andthat the most urgent need of theChinese people is economicdevelopment - not democracy. Thisseems hard to deny. The facts showthat modernization has been the goal ofthe Chinese people for a long time.

Time and again, however, Chineseefforts at modernization have ended infailure. The most recent example hasbeen the economic reform movementthat began in the late 1970s. Thismovement enjoyed some successesduring the first part of the 1980s, butafter 1987 it began gradually to slidetoward failure.

Why the Chinese Need DemocracyWhy do Chinese efforts at

modemization fail? Why do reforms

fail? Why has the Chinese economyremained largely unsuccessful?Obviously, it is not because the Chinesepeople are not good at working ordoing business. The economic successof overseas Chinese around the worldbelies such a conclusion. The problemhas to do with the authoritarian politicalsystem in China. Therefore, withoutreform of China's political system, it willbe impossible to bring aboutmodernization. This is a basic reasonwhy the Chinese people needdemocracy.

Of coufse, the Chinese people'sneed for democracy arises not onlyfrom the economic failures of thecommunist system, but also from itsodreme inhumanity. lt has trampledupon the dignity and the most basicrights and freedoms of its own citizens.This explains why the movements thathave arisen to oppose communistregimes have ahvays been movementsdedicated to democracy and humanrights. The pattem has been the samewhether it appears in Eastern Europe,the Soviet Union, or China.

The true record concerning humanrights in China has been hidden,because the Chinese authorities havethoroughly blocked communicationabout iL Some people have even beenmisled into believing that China hasbeen free of human rights violations.Yet no record at all can be the worst ofall. The Tiananmen massacre of 1989shocked many people. lt marked thefirst time that the outside world was ableto see for itself how cruel and violent thebehavior of the Chinese authorities canbe. But the Tiananmen incident is onlythe tip of an iceberg. I cannot describehere the rest of that iceberg in itsterrible entirety, but will mention justone item: there are according toincomplete statistics, at least 876labour camps in China. lt is hard to savexactly how many people are in them,but we do know that the inmates ofcertain camps in Xinjiang Provincenumber between 50,000 and 80,000.How many of these are political

Fong Lizhi

prisoners? Again we do not know, butone informed researcher has estimated10 per cent to be politisal prisoners.

Modernization Requires DemocragrRecently, the Chinese leaders used

the distraction of the war in the PersianQulf to intensiff repression of thosefighting for democracy and freedom inChina. They have resurned the trials ofstudents who took part in the peacefuldemonstrations at Tiananmen. This is anew desecration by the Chineseauthorities of the universal principles ofhuman rights. lt is clear that basichuman rights cannot be guaranteedwithout a democratic government.

ln sum, Chinese history teaches usthat modernization requiresdemocracy, and that human rightsrequire democracy. This is why weChinese must pursue a democraticChina.

The world at large also needs ademocratic China. Today, the humanrace lives within a common cMlization,united by the mutual exchange of news,knowledge, and culture. lt is no longerpossible to keep China's affairsseparate from those of the rest of theworld.

A democratic China wouldcontribute greatly to stability in EastAsia and the entire Pacific region.Recently, the Cold War has ended,Eastern Europe has embarked upon a

new road, and even the two Koreashave begun talking to .ach other. China,however, is still dMdeo - as it has beensince 1949 - and remair.s formally in astate of civil war.

The Significance of TiananmenMassacre

ln our small global village, more andmore worldwide problems have beenforced upon our agenda: population,energy, the environment, globalwarming, and deforestation. Obviously,with respect to relations within ourglobal village, we must also ask wherethe problem lies. So long as there existsanyrvhere in the world a government

Freedont First 17

that can be proud of something like theTiananmen massacre, or a dictatorshipthat refuses to apPly universallYrecognized principles to control its ownbehavior, it will remain hard to imaginethe possibility of genuine worldunderstanding. History teaches us thatto indulge a government that is proudof murder at home eventually bringsmajor dilemmas before the rest ofhumankind. The human rights issue isanother very important global problem,and thus the denial of democracy andhuman rights in China is a matter ofinternational concern. The Tiananmenmassacre not only caused China tosuffer; it polluted the world environmentas well. Without a gradual improvementof the world's human rightsenvironmen! solutions to the problemsof our global village cannot beguaranteed.

It is clear that the struggle forfreedom and democracy in China is farfrom over. The road has already beenlong and difficult, and is likely to remainso for many years to come. lt may take

a decade, a generation, or even longer.But whatever the case, there can be nodenying that a trend toward democracy,freedorn, and human rights has beenset in motion, and will be very hard toturn completely around. The historicdemonstraUons in Tiananmen Squarerevealed the enduring truth that thetime for freedom and democracy inChina eventually will come.

China's twentieth-century history hasclosely paralleled world trends. At thebeginning of the century, whencommunism was on the rise worldwide,it also gained rapidly in China. At mid-century, when many countries were oneafter another becoming "proletarian"dictatorships, China became one too.Today, with the communist systemeverywhere in decline, communism inChina is losing its reputation as well.Thus we can predict with confidencethat China, as part of a worldwidehistorical trend, will eventually moveaway from authoritarian rule and towardmore democratic governmenl

The world will never forget the menand women of Tiananmen Square in1989 who paid with their lives forfreedom and democracy in China. Thisis why, despite the many frustrationsand disappointments in today's China,lstill look with hope to the future of mycountry.

Fang Lizhi, a Chinese astrophysicist who ha:

emerged in the last decade as China's moseloquent a&ocate of democracy and academi'freedom, has been called "China's AndreSakharov." In the wake of the Tiananmen Squar'massacre in June 1989, he sought asylum at th,American Embassy in Beiiing, where he remaine,for 386 days. He is curtently affiliated with th'Institute for Advanced Study at PrincetotUnivercity.

Reprinted fiom: 7he Joumal of Democracy,Yol2,'No. 3 (Summer l99l) pp. 50-53' O th'National Endowment for Democracy.

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Free<lont f-irsl 18

Gorbqchev Fqiled to Follow own MqximJusl two yeors ogo, os Communist regimes were folling

throughoul Europe, o supremely confident MikhoilGorbochev gove some odvice to his beleogueredcolleogues: ln order lo survive, improvise, obondon yourcherished principles, but never, never let yourself beoverrun bythe momentum forchonge.

For o time, lhe Soviet president successfully rnode thotmoxim his politicol philosophy, ducking, weoving ondimprovising his woy into history with on oslonishing series ofpoliticol moves thot helped chonge the world - ond keephimself in power.

Now thot period is ropidly drowing to o close. ln oShokespeoreon twist of fote, the 60-yeor-old Mr.Gorbochev hos become the lolest viclim of his ownmoxim, overtoken ond overrun by the politicol momentumthot he himsell unleoshed in the former Soviet Union.

"Gorbochev hos done his job, ond we con soy thonkyou,'soid SergeiTsyplloyev, o porliomentory depgty fromSt. Petersburg. 'Now it's high time for him to resign, so thothe con sioy in our memory os one of the greol men of lhiscenturrT,"

Mr. Gorbochev himself, while still horboring distonthopes of solvoging some fulure role for himself, oll butconceded defeoi... Without o Soviet Union, he odmitted,there con be no Soviet president. He bitterly ottocked theideo of o commonweolth, ond, in whot soundedsuspiciously like o swon song, soughl to defend his record.

"The moior tosk of my life hos been occomplished,' hesoid. "lf olhers were in my ploce, lhey would hove given uplong ogo. However, I monoged to push lhrough lhe moinideos ol peresfroiko, ollhough not wilhoul mistokes.'

Mr. Gorbochev's demise morks the end of onextroordinory six-yeor period in which the Soviet Unionshitied from proud, totolitorion superpower to o fledglingdemocrocy thot no longer hid the truth obout its rotteneconomy ond shomeful posl. Along lhe woy, o shorpchonge in Soviel foreign policy ftom confrontotion tocooperolion helped end the Cold Wor ond brought oboutthe collopse of communism oround the world, with theexception of o hondful of die-hord holdovers. The populoruprising thot reversed the hord-liners' coup lost Augustshowed ihot perestroiko, os the Soviet leoder lobeled hisreform movement, hod put down deep roots.

The men who ore poised to toke over trom him,principolly Russio's Mr. Yeltsin ond Leonid Krovchuk, theUkroine president, hove protnised to go much forther thonMr. Gorbochev in tronsforming their republics inlo liberol,free-morkel democrocies. But Mr. Gorbochev's possogeshould serve os o sobering reminder for them, os well osfor other world leoders.

ln the end, both his supportets ond deiroctors soy, hewos crippled by his inobility to improve the everydoy lileof his people. While goining on immense populorfollowing obrood, culminoting in the 1990 Nobel PeocePrize. his slonding ot home delerioroted ropidly os inflolionwcs Lrnieo-she.l cnci olreociir-clepleteal stores beconreever emplier

The finol blow to his position wos lorgely lhe result ofbock-room politicking by Mr. Yeltsin, on erstwhile rivol, ondMr. Krovchuk, the Ukroinion president who is seeking toprove himself os o committed notionolist. But obove oll, Mr.Gorbochev's worst enemy turned out to be himself.

Atter setting in motion the wholesoie destruction of thesyslem thot hod nurtured him, ond thot he hod deemed tobe rotlen, he suddenly poused in midstreom, obondoninghis brilliont politicol improvisolion to defend the stotus quothot he hod been so delermined to chonge. Pushed lo thewoll, he refused to give up his belief in o greol sociolistlulure - on ideo thot is now openly mocked here - ond selobout trying lo solvoge whot remoined of his formerempire.

'He wos o greol mon with greol promise lhol wos neverfulfilled,'soys Oleg Kolugin, o former KGB generol whopublicly turned on his former employers ond become onoulspoken proponent of chonge.

Mr. Tsyplioyev, the deputy from St. Petersburg, soys Mr.Gorbochev's greotest error con be summed up in onephrose: "Too lote."

It is o mork of the chonge lhot he brought to Sovietsociety thol none of this os well os lhe other public crilicismthot hos been heoped on him in recent weeks ondmonths, would hove been lhinkoble when he becomegenerol secretory of the Soviei Communist Porty in Morch4985. Working then in the closed-door secrecy of the times,he hotched his plons for perestroiko, o word token fromsociolisl propogondo thot meons restructuring orrebuilding.

ln foct, destruction would hove been o betterdescription for the policies of the first yeors. Determined tohonsform the Soviet Union into qn efficient onij moredemocroctic ploce, he whittled owqy ot the communistsystem, its repressive reflexes ond its old-guord leodership.

The economy wos quickly identified os the moiorprioriiy. His colleogues of the time, including his rivol YegorLigochev, hove since recolled how the Kremlin leodershipwos olormed by the growing log with the Wesi, porticulorlyin science ond technology. lts trodition-bound cenholplonners missed out on the computer revolution of the,l970s, ond Mr. Gorbochev wos determined not to follfurther behind.

But the Kremlin's remedies, lorgely relying on hugeincreoses in government spending ond grondioseindustriol schemes thot never lett the drowing boord,proved disostrous. lnsteod of greoter flexibility, thechonges wrought industriol choos, o growing budgetdeficit ond the onset of inflotion. Nikoloi Ryzhkov, Mr.Gorbochev's right-hond mon for much of the ,1985-90

period, odmitted recently in o Soviel newspoper thot "wedidn'l understond o lot ot thot lime."

A reporl from lvloscow bv Peter Cumbel Stolf Reporler

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AqP O/e(, /qt

O[J]RN/f,ISSION$Freedom First speakfor tlte silent majority - tbemajori4,tbat uants to be left inpeace to pursue its goalof improuing its quality of life but bcts been suffering insilence tbe indignities beaped on it by irxensitiuegouenxmettts zabo lsaue anrogated to tberrtselues lberigbt to decide wbat is goodfor tbe people.In tbeprocess, tbe wbole country bas been tunted into acesspool of comtption. Public morali4t and cbaracterbaue reacbed an all-time lou.t.

Freedom First aJfirtns tbat mttclt of tl-te tntrest andferment in our societlt is a direct result of excessil,e

State interusntion in tbe day-ts-dqjt liuss o.f ourpeople.'Wbile

tbe people's initiatiue bas been stifled tbe

econonxJ) is in sbambles. TheJounnl belieues tbat ulbileIttclict tteeds d sh'otryl got,entnrettt il.tat etrcrrt'es tlrc rtrlcrlf latt, u,ltctt Ittdict cloes not rtecc/ is ct mecldlesontegot)erwlxent

- tbe sl,stcttt sofar" tltat l.tcts led toi ntporerislt n et t t, i n^sect ri ty a n d i t r t ab i I i n'.

Fre e dom First tb erefore s t ands .for nt i n i nn t ntgo t,en t tn ett I ct tt cl t tt a.t i t tt t r t tt .fi'eer I o r t t, t e t t U)ere d I ).1' ( r

serLse r1[ itulit'idtnl respctrtsiltilit.t,, itr u'ltitlt tl.te lx'rUtIe's,qt'ttitt.s lvr a.f rtir (4p()t'lttnil.l' lrt tlct t'klt rttttl ,gt't trt .

Freeclont Fit'st t't'f er'ls ttt t)' ir/eolr t,<1,. t)t( )t'('ttt(t tl ( )t'

pctlic.l'il.trtI .se1s ()tte,qt'()ttf) rl'ciIi:t,tts tt,qrtitt.;l rtttrtIItct'lrc it lrserl ()n c1(t:;s. c(t,\lL', n'li,qlott ())'(ttt't'.

Freed.om FrrsC has all the qualltles one expecls from a journa.l committed to Liberalism andstimuJated by such a slalwart of Indian Liberal.ism as Minoo Masani. It is clear in iis commitmentto pluralism, democracy and tolerance, making its position known even if il is unpopular ordangerous to do so.

It is secondly, ajournal providing a platform for enlightened debale, spawrrurg new ideas in asocietJr which bends to overemphasise conformism and. often stale traalitions. fhird-Iy, Freedom.F'r-rst gives a lot of space to ihe reporting and debate of international events and brends, making thepoi.nt that a tILe libera.l is internationa,l irl his,4ler oullook.

Urs Scltoettll, Secrotary General, Llberal Internatlonal, Lond,on

I really Tove Freedom Flrst and Minoo Masani's commonsense. Please permit me lo sendyouherewith a small cheque to help the elournal keep alive rea.l Freedom. I am not rich irr wealth but Iwould soon become poor in digestion if I did not share or heLp in time.

Prof. P.![. Drlver, hrneI subscribed to Freedom Fftstvery recenily and now pain-fully realise for how long I did noi reallyexercise my freedom lo read the reauy bhought-provoking and intellectua.l material.Mayyour.quarterly dedlcated totally to lhe dissemination of liberal ideas make more and morepeople conscious oftheir duties towards freedom first.

Suha g PafiitataEraa, Badlapur

I re-discovered Freedom -First ajter 50 years, courtesy Minoo Masani, and was pleasantiysurprised to see that you maintain a uniformally high standard of articles.Freedom first - by all means. But as we have discovered to our utter dismay a^fter 40 years of "FreeIndia" - Freed.om does not mean better Government; Freedom does noi mean Qualifir; as NanlPalkhtvala said somewhere recently: Freedom does not mean independence of thought or concernfor democracy - or for values and character, which India needs so desperately.Freedom onJy means loot and licence ln'Our India'of today! But all is nol lost. Men of failh stillbelleve that Indla wlll somehow muddle through.

Dtnghalr IC. MaleElamvala, Bornbay

Over tJre past two years I have been impressed with -Freedom First. Ttre issues you discuss arethose that concern us, but the flavour of ttrre discussions and the examples are different. fhe issuesare reflected as if by an irnaginary, prismatic looking glass. We recognise ourselves but the coloursare strange.

Eaplrael G. Kazmann, Baton Rouue, U.8-4'

I congratulate you for the excellent issue of Fxeedom First No. 407. It, indeed, offered dehghtfu-lreadlng. Especiauy, t}.e report on ttre proceedings of the seminar on Kashmir is en-lightenin€i.

LrkalrmaD.a P. Blrandarkar, Arntaity

I am happy to say that lltrd Frcedom tr'rrsC excellent reading.B. llassar, thtUotrg

IJust received a copy of Freedom tr'rrst. I found il fascinating - fearless and a beacon for freedom.Congratulatlons to ihe Founder.

tad.lslas Rlce, London

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Our External Affairs MinistryThe action of the lndian Prime

Minister in felicitating Mrs. Aung SanSuu Kyi on the Nobel Peace Pricebeing awarded to her need to belauded. But does the Prime Ministerknow what his wretched ExternalAffairs Ministry is up to? Let meenlighten.

According to a despatch in lheStatesman of October 9 from Delhi,which I have no reason to disbelieve,because it fits in with the other anticsof the Ministry of F.xternal Affairs inDelhi,A/R have banned furtherbroadcasts by Ms. U Nu, daughter ofthe former Prime Minister of Burma,on the ground that they are advisedthat the Burmese Cenerals who haveillegally usurped power in Burmafind her despatches inconvenient!

To quote The Statesman des-patch, "The lndian Government hasreadily complied with the majordemands of the Rangoon militaryregime that the AIR's Burmesebroadcasts should be totally devoidof political content and that some ofits popular Burmese programmesincluding the one on current affairsshould be immediately discontinued....What made the AIR broadcasts aprized attraction to the Burmese lis-teners was the voice of U Nu'sdaughter, which lent the service apeculiar urgency and hypnotic quali-ty. She participated in the three mostpopular and widely heard Pro-grammes: Current Affairs, Voice ofthe People and Listeners' Letters...."

The lndian Embassy in Rangoon,according to this despatch, has to itsdisgrace, been destroying letters ofappreciation addressed to AIR andnot forwarding them as it should.

Will the Prime Minister kindlyinvestigate the accuracy of thesehorrible allegations which are not asshocking to me as they should bebecause in recent times, lndian for-eign policy has uniformallysupported the enemies of freedomlike the corrspirators in Moscow,Saddam Hussein, the Serbians tryingto occupy Croatia and now theBurmese military tyrants.

There should be a reversion ofpolicy but the real point of thesedevelopments is t. t the autonomysupposed to be enjoyed by AIR ismerely a myth and the Governmentof lndia still interferes with the free-dom of the audio visual media to suitits own cowardly convenience.Autonomy my foot!

What a contrast to the magnifi-cent record of the BBC which hasespoused the cause of freedom theworld over and has not hesitated totell even Prime Minister MargaretThatcher to mind her own businesswhen she tried to suggest a modifi-cation of the BBC policy.

Why AIR is Punctual but TV isNot

Has any reader stopped to consid-er why AIR is punctual and starts itsvarious programmes on time whileDoordarshan is generally latebecause its programmes do not fin-ish on time and the next item is keptwaiting as a result? But so it is.

I have no doubt about the reasonfor this contrast. AIR was establishedunder the British and have develop-ed a standard of punctuality anddependability which has still sur-vived. TV, on the other hand, cameto lndia after lndependence andshares the national weakness forunpunctuality. lt is probably as sim-ple as that.

Remembering Dr. AmbedkarRecently Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's

35th death anniversary was cele-brated in Bombay with great eclat.

My path crossed Dr. Ambedkar'sat two stages of my life. One waswhen I was a student of economicsat Elphinstone College and I read Dr.Ambedkar's excellent book, "TheProblem of the Rupee". The bookwas both readable and sound. Thecommon lndian point of view basedon the businessman's interests wasthat the rupee should be pegged at 1

sh 4 d. I happened to agree with Dr.Ambedkar who took the other viewespoused by the British Covernmentthat the rupee should be pegged at Ish6d.

A Return to Liberolismll the Left porlies (in lndio) ore ol

lhe end of lhe polilicol rood, the Lettintellectuols ore ot lhe end of lheMoxist tether. They know no olherpoliticol theory well enough, ond lheyhove never bothered lo develop opoliticol vision of their own. ll is ostrqnge historicol porodox lhot lheelites of Third World counlries ore Leflrodicols. And whol hos sustoinedpoiiticol discourse in these countries isMorxist polemics. The polemics nevergoined indigenous riots, ondtherefore hos to wilher owoy os thecommunisl stoles sink into politicoloblivion. lt hos bleok implicolions forthis counlry becouse suddenly we orelett with no lheoreticol fromework locorry on the polilicol diologue.

Unlike'in lhe \r€slern democrociesthe lndion inlelligenlsio hos nolevolved the liberol orgumenl ogoinslpoliticol tyronny ond economicinequity. Not thot we hove neverknown the liberol orgumenls in thiscountry. As o molter of focl, theeorliest polilicol impulse wos thol ofliberolism, ond hod such luminories osDodobhoi Nooroji ond Gopol KrishnoGokhole os ils proponents. Under theGondhion mogic of moss politicsliberolism vonished from lhe lndionscene.

After Gondhi's onorchism it wos theturn of Nehru's sociolism. Liberolismnever mode o come-bock to lndionpolitics. And perhops lhe country'sneed for the sone orgumenls ofliberolism is never more lhon il is nowThe Morxist hos foiled to slem therising lide of right-wing fonolics in lhepoliticol oreno. The Monisl orgumentsfor seculorism lock slrenglh ofconviction.

Though mony foiled to perceive it,

the Morxisls could never hoveoutflonked the religious fonotics. Onetotolitorion ideo connol teollycounter other totolitorion ideosexcept by force. ll is reoson olonelhot con hold ot boy lhe fonotics. Andliberqlism is one doctrine thot isimbued with the spirit ol rotionolity.The deoth of Morxism provides o lreshopportunity for the intelligentsio in thiscountry to reslore the politicoldiscourse to its plurolistic rotionolbose.

Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr,/ndian &press. Nov 15

Freedom Firsl 23

When I appeared for the B.A.examination, my econornics papercontained a question on this issue. I

naturally wrote in favour of Dr.Ambedkar's view on the subject. I didnot know then that he would be theexaminer. The result of this accidentwas that my paper was very wellmarked by him!

It was not till 1947 when I was a

Member of the ConstituentAssembly of lndia that I came acrossDr. Ambedkar in person. He was avery active member of theConstituent Assembly and ourConstitution owes a lot to hislabours.

He and I were both members ofthe Advisory Committee onFundamental Rights. There wereseveral issues of a progressivenature when Dr. Ambedkar and I didnot have our way. ln the company ofMrs. Hansa Mehta, we thereforesigned Minutes of Dissent to the offi-cial line. As far as I can recall two ofthe issues were a Common CivilCode and making free and compul-sory primary education a

fundamental right enforceable bylaw and not merely a DirectivePrinciple as was the majority view.

Dr. K.M. Munshi refers to this inhis book on the subject anddescribes us as the three idealistswhich I suppose we were. I am veryproud that lwas in the distinguishedcompany of Mrs. Hansa Mehta andDr. Ambedkar.

Ukraine's lndependenceSo the Okraine has at last becomeindependent. lt could have attainedlndependence in World War ll but forthe stupidity of Hitler.

General Vlasov who commandedthe Ukrainian Army made an offer tothe Qerman Covernment he wasfighting.

The Ukrainians were sick of Stalinand his tyranny and of collectivefarming. Ceneral Vlasov informedHitler that tne Ukrainian forces wouldcome over to the Cerman side if

crgrtcd to UKr..tr|iran tnde-and thc, abolition of

collective farming in the Ukraine.Unfortunately, Hitler's reply was neg-ative. He said Cermany was fightinga war for Lebensraum and the aboli-tion of collective farming wouldmean that the farmer would benefitwhile the German Covernmentwould not. The result was that theUkrainians continued to fight on theRussian side as much as they dis-liked Stalin and his works.

A Rare PoliticianJaswant Singh, the Deputy Leader

of the RJP in the Lok Sabha, is a rarepolitician. ln my view, he is one of thehalf dozen honest and competentmembers of Parliament that we havein this country. I have alwaysadmired this quiet Liberal who issuch a rarity in lndian politics.

During a recent visit to Bombay,Mr. Jaswant Singh illustrated thetruth of my belief that he actuallyputs his own views ahead of what therabble in his Party want.

During his visit to Bombay, Mr.Jaswant Singh expressed his per-sonal disapproval of his party's localelectoral alliance with the Shiv Senain Maharashtra, referred to Kashmirin an open-minded manner andcalled for a review of lndia's so-calledforeign policy.

He recently drew flak from somemembers of the BJP in Parliamentfor actually commending the per-formance of the present PrimeMinister and Finance Minister.Acutally his party is to blame for notgiving whole-hearted support to Mr.Manmohan Singh's courageousattempt to discard State capitalismof the Jawaharlal Nehru-Stalin pat-tern and replace it with competitivefree enterprise following the exam-ples of the Soviet Onion and theEastern European countries. Of allexisting political parties, the EUP isthe only one not committed tosocialism but this is an issue whichfor various reasons, is subordinatedto the Hindu aspect of the party.

It is to be hoped that people likeMr. Jaswani Sinqh and Mr. Virenoirair wrn tlrerr tight lor the soul otthe BJP.

The Public Righl To Know

When public opinion is olormed, itshould show ils olorm. Governmentsole modem dinosours - theY moveslowly. They lend to ignore reolities , solhey don't need to move ol oll . Wheninlelligence ogencies ptovide unwel'come news, governmenls lrY to Per'suode lherr lhot it isn't true.

li hoppens relolivelY often thotindividuol civil servonts, suddenlyconfronted wilh hottifying tidings dur-ing the course of their doilY work'reporl lo their superiors - only to findlhol lhey loce sonclion or dismissol.Bod news is not welcome, ond lheworst thing thot con hoppen is lol thepublic lo be informed. Bul we connolgo olong wilh this:we ore the public'qnd we hove o tighl to be informed.We believe it is o crime for bod newsto be conceoled from us. For if it is

polilicolwe will be lhe firsl to suffer illhings go bodly wrong. Conceolingbod news from lhe Public ought to beo crime - ond in focl is in most demo-crotic countries.

The process hos been reveoledmost oflen in the United Slotes. Relo-lion between lhe Cenlrol lntelligenceAgency ond successive odminisho-tions hove been morked by monyinslonces of such behoviour. Not nec-cessorily becouse it hoppens moreotten in the United Stotes but becouseAmericon society is lhe most open ofthem oll.

Why do governmenls conceol bodnews from the public? Agoin lheonswer fits the dinosour metophor.Becouse when the public knows, thegovernment will be forced to dosomething obout it. But governmenlshove preordoined progrommes. Theydon'l like these to be disturbed. Whenexcursions ond olorms hoppenobrood, lhey hove to reocl - in theinformotion oge they connol be con-ceoled. But when they hoppen othome , in oreos where the govern-ment cloims conhol, government is

foced with on ollJo-irresistible lemp-lotion lo conceol the lruth. This is whyit often hoppens thol public scondolsunveil webs of secrecy.

COUPIEST: Srvlss Press Pevlew

[ ,cadont f-irsl 24

The Market Economy and the contemporary CrisisAmlon Dotto

These ore excerpls lrom lhe two-doy Roloji Birthdoy Lecture delivered by Prof. Amlon Dotto in Bomboy on December 12 ond i3,'199'l' The full texl of the Leclures is being published by the ProJect lor Economlc Educotion, Copies of this publicotion will be moiledto Freedom Firsl subscribers by orrongemenl with the ProJecl.

Criticism of capitalism is as old asthe industrial revolution itself. However,the nature and thrust of that criticismhas changed with time. At first, it wasarticulated chiefly by visionaries andutopian socialists, an expression of anoutraged conscience rather than a firmindication of what was to be done. Adetermined attempt to achieveindustrialisation by an alternative routecame much later.

An alternative to CapitalismTowards the end of the 1920i, a

system of central planning wasintroduced in one of the largestcountries of the world, comparativelyless developed by European standards,under the leadership of the CommunistParty of the Soviet Union, with theavowed aim of "catching up with" andthen "surpassing" the capitalisteconomies of the West. What followedin that country came to be commonlyregarded as the socialist path ofeconomic development, an alterntive tothe capitalist path. From being a merevision, a utopia, socialism found aterrestrial home and became anunfolding reality.

*

...Qenerations to come will be at aloss to explain how that mood ofunbounded faith and high optimism inthe socialist camp survived themonstrous atrocities perpetrated by theStalinist regime in those same years.

As the Soviet Union emergedvictorious from World War ll, socialisthopes got a fresh lease of life. But it wasa lease that did not last long. Victory inwar had given the Stalinist leadership akind of unquestionable glory. But thenew generation that grew up after thewar was soon disenchanted. Acontradiction developed between thepromises made by the central plannedeconomy and its actual pertormance.Far from surpassing the advanced

The world hos lo move in lhedirection of o confederol polity, odecentrolised ond sustoinobleeconomy ond on elhics ofnon-violence.

The new cullure musl permeolebolh polilics ond economics. llmoy well be born outside lhemorkel ploce. Bul os it grows itsmessoge will hopefuily spreodeverlnvhere. One hos to live wilhlhol hope; the ollernotive is opolh lo disosler poved wilhviolence.

capitalist countries, the Soviet economyperformed disappointingly and laggedbehind and the disparity kept wiilening.After nearly sixty years of socialistexperimentation, the competitionbetween the rival systems ended, withthe leaders of the Soviet Onion and theeastern European countries acceptingdefeat.

The Collapse of the CommandEconomy

The Soviet system of centralplanning, or the administrativecommand economy, is no longer heldup as a model, least of all by those whogrew up under that system. lt is worthnoting that the Soviet model ofsocialism was wrecked not by an attackfrom outside, not by defeat in war, butby a manifest incapacity to satisfy theurgent demands of the people in termsof both material goods and socialjustice and freedom. Capitalism, or themarket economy, has also experiencedmany problems, including severeperiodic disturbances, but it has as yetshown greater resilrence and capacityfor management of crises over a muchlonger period of evolution.

This should set us thinkingfundanrentally on the role of the market

in social and econonric development...

The Role of the Marketlndu6trialisation may take

under alternative systems,everywhere it has certain commoncharacteristics and requirements. ln allcases, it involves rapid changes inmethods of production, a technologicalrevolution, so to speak; a process ofcapital-formation at a noticeably higherlevei than what common in pre-industrial economies; and a change inthe scale and manner of mobilisation ofresources and organisation ofproduction. These formal conditions ofindustrial growth look much alike in allcases. Where then does the distinctiverole of the market come in? ln thecapitalist economies of the West, therewas a long period of expansion ofcommerce, partly precedingindustrialisation and partlyaccompanying it. How do these thingslink up?

Adam SmithFor Adam Smith, the principal link

between the market and economicprogress is simple. lt consists basicallyin the opportunity that an expandingmarket provides for increasingspecialisation and division of labour."The greatest improvement in theproductive powers of labour", wroteAdam Smith, "seem to have been theeffects of the division of labour", and"the division of labour is limited by theextent of the market". As the extent ofthe market widens, so does the divisionof lqbour. Further, with the progress ofspecialisation, ttrere is now greaterscope. for mechanisation of production,whiclr contributes again to arlenhancement of the efficiency oflabuui. llctlr..rrriscrtiuir br it rg> gicdicrdependence on capital goods, it also

State management meansbureaucratic management. A norrnal

placebut

Frettkyrt Firsl 25

market economy should function withinan appropriate framework of laws,legislated by a sovereign peoplethrough its representatives amdadministered by a neutral, public-spirited bureaucracy. Thus thebureaucracy has its proper place and itis useful where it belongs. But there is aqualitative difference between goodbueaucratic or administrative cultureand good business or enterpreneurialculture. The main duty of thebureaucrat is not so much to innovateas to work according to rules andprecedents and to be just and impartialin the administration of the law. Themain function of the enterpreneur is toinnovate and economise and get thingsdone efficiently with as little waste oftime and resources as possible. Whenthese two cultures are mixed up, bothbusiness and administration are likelyto suffer a peculiar corruption.

The point could be illustrated fromlndia. But a more telling illustrationwould be from the Soviet Union. ln hisautobiography Boris Yeltsin PresenB aremarkable account of thatcombination of corruption andinefficiency which afflicts Sovietsocialism. "Obsequiousness andobedience are rewarded (in the Partyapparat) by prMlege," writes Yeltsin,and he goes on to add with evidentirony, "lf you.have climbed your way tothe top of the establishmerlt pyramid,then it is, 'full communism'! ...'Fromeach according b his abilities, to eachaccording to his needs' and so it is forthose at the top of the party pyramid....their abilities alas are not outstanding

- but their needs! Their needs are sogreat . that so far it has only beenpossible to create real communism fora couple of dozen people." To blamethis state of affairs on Stalin would be amistake. lt is a logical outcome of thesystem itself.

The Role of the StateTo uphold this indictment of an

overcentralised economy and policy is

not, however, to deny that the state hasa large and positive role to play ineconomic development particularly intlre piepdrdl-oly si.dgcs of irldus'r"riai

take-off. The diversified activities ofprivate enterprise require a supportinginfrbstrucutre which the state can helperect to common advantage... lt alsomay be expedient for the state t'o play a

Freedont First 26

positive role in setting up vital large-scale industries to help overcome theimmediate constraints of a limitedmarket. But appended to all suchactivities there must be a cautionarynote. A poiicy which is sound andexpedient at one stage of developmentcan become a fetter on further progressat the next stage. Far too often,"socialism" has become the ideology ofan overgrown bureaucracy, the "newclass". Clinging to its vested interestsand habitual powers, the entrenchedorder resists necessary change andliberalisation even when the innerdlmamics of economic and socialevolution demands a new orientationand a crossing of frontiers.

The Mllitarism FactorOne special factor which has further

complicated the situation in manycountries is the growth and persistenceof militarism. There is a widely acceptedview that trade breeds war. There issome truth in it, but that is not the wholetruth. lt is not just commercialcalculations, but the untamed force of asurviving feudal spirit, which has fuelledmilitarism and wars even' incontemporary history. The major partof the trade of the developed qountriesis among themselves and this tradqrarely gives rise to war. lt is tradebetween developed and undevelopedcountries that more usually leads tohostile confrontation. The moredeveloped (and, therefore, the morepowerful) country has been oftentempted to use force to removeobstacles to trade in the less developedcountry. Or, two developed countries,

Ihe Splrll ol Free Enlerprlse

A government has the right to controllaw and order, the right to formulate theforeign policy of the country, it has theright to look aftir the nation's defence, ithas the right in so many other things,even telecommunications - it is almostimpossible now for any privatisation totake place. there. But why airlines, whySTC, why MIvlTC, why MRTP? What areall these controls doing, like steel control,coal control and all the rest of it? Vastnumbers of people doing absolutely zeroproductive work, and they are eating upthe money that the government lackstoday. No government has shown thewill-power to go against that sort of thing.There is absolutety no need for a steelcontrol today, there is absolutely no needfor a coal control today. What is theMRTP doing? What is FERA doing forthat matter - although I have a certainamount of sympathy, where we have azero balance in the foreign exchangekitty, some sort of regulation should bethere. But most of these controls areabsolutely futile and they totally goagainst the spirit of free enterprise.

Everybody in the businesscommunity who has any voice at allshould stand up and say that we don'twant government to run our affairs. Butunfortunately even amongst ourselvesthere are people who want to take a

personal advantage by going togovernment outside. Having tirst paid lipservice here, they go to government -power of money talks often - and theyget themselves the privileges that theywant, with the result that the government

feels quite secure in carrying on, and thebureaucrat loves his little power andposition. lt is a sad scenario but if wedon't get outpf it now, we never will.

Look at the opposition tomultiriationals. There was a time whenyou thought that economic wealth andstrengtlr could regulate the internalpolicies of a government. Meico showedthat it is not true when it threw theAmericans out of the oilfields - thepowerful next-door neighbour - it threwthem out overnighl Nothing happenedto Meico. Mexico still exists and is a

separate entity. Nothing would happen tous if we threw our gates wide oPen tomultinationals, or whoever wants tocome in. This 40% , 50%, 60% is allniggling away. You go to the World Bankor lnternational Monetary Fund and youask for a big, enormous loan which youhave to start repaying with interestalmost from Day 1 and add hundredsand thousands of crores of public debt.But if somebody wants to come in withhis money, come in here, he will bring inknow-how, he will put up a factory, he willprovide employment for your people andhe will only rePatriate the dividends he

gets after the comPanY has becomesuccessful -'and you say "no, you can'thave more than 5%. 1O%, l5%, 2O%".Srlrelv we are bi.i enottQh now to realise

that, that scrt of niggardly thinking doesnot do our country any good.

Russi Mody

tryrng to gain control over anundeveloped country, may fight witheach other...

ln fact, we are confronted there witha major dilemma of modern economichistory. The market economy haspromoted enterprise and revolutionisedindustry. lndustrialism has broughtwithin the grasp of man unprecedentedmaterial power. The pursuit of powerhas strengthened totalitariantendencies, corrupted reason anddeformed enterprise. The marketeconomy, unaided by higher ethics,cannot cure that deformity. Also anumber of other complexities, whichdeserve separate notice, have overtakenus.

Where do we go from here? lt wasnot the intention of Max to deny theimportance of the economic andcultural achievements of the bourgeoiscMlisation. But in the Third World,Marxism-Leninism, propped up by thetemporary worldly success of aparticular brand of socialism, helpedpromote, in alliance, often with militantnationalism, a contempt anddenigration of those achievements. Wehave, indeed, to pass beyond the legacyof the past. But we have to leam andpreserve what is of real value in thatlegacy even as we strive to Pushbeyond.

.

Among the major comPonents ofthe global economic crisis, pride ofplace should go to the military factor.But it has been further aggravated andcomplicated by severalother forces andfactors. Let us see how.

buring World War l, the Germaneconomy effectively introduced asystem of central planning, which JohnMaynard Keynes specially commentedon at that time and the Bolsheviksfound worth copying after theY cameinto power.'Between militarism and themarket economy there has always beena strained co-existence. This is becausethe militaristic perception of nationalpriorities doeg not coincide with thenormal tendencies of the free marketeconomy. lt is true that the state canalter the outcome of the working of themarket by massive intervention onbehalf of military establishments. Buteven so additional controls becomenecessary which the market economycan neither gladly accept nor lightlydiscard.

At this point, the experience of theCold War deserves some briefcommerits. For four long decades thesuperpowers and, in truth, many lesserpowers too, maintained levels ofdefence expenditure which areappropriate only to a time of war. Butsince it was not real hot war except verylocally, it was difficult to introducecontrols on consumption and makethem acceptable to the people. Theresulting imbalance showed itself indifferent ways in different countries.

ln Japan, where military expendituretill recently was held at a modest level,the strain was not great. ln the U.SA. astream of innovations, amounting to anew industrial revolution, helped raiselabour productivity, and yet thecombined impact of high militaryexpenditure and a high tide ofconsumerism became factors whichcontributed to budgetary deficits and anadverse balance of payments of adisturbingly' larje magniiude. For theSoviet (lnion, the strain of massivemilitry expenditure, unmitigated by asufficient volume of technologicalinnovations in consumer goodsindustries, and, in facl heightened bythe inherent weaknesses of anadministrative command economy,became increasingly unbearable.

Third World Problems - The lndianExample

ln lndia a high level of defenceexpenditure, strong import-orientedconsumerist habits rampant among arapidly expanding new middle class andlow levels of efficiency in the publicsector particularly have combined togenerate an economy of growlngdeficits and chronic inflation. Withpresent levels of defence expenditureand administrative ineffeciency, deficitscannot be removed; with large fiscaldeficits, inflation will continue; and withpersistent inflation, the market cannot'play its proper role. A reduction in theexternal value of the currency cannotmend the situation if the erosion of itsinternal value continues unabated. Sothe basic factors of imbalance have tobe attended to. There are problems forwhich the remedy has to be soughtoutside the market economy even if theaim is to help the market perfornr itsproper function.

r

For such problems the remedy lies

partly in greater mutual cooperationamong members of the weaker groupand partly in suitable remedialmeasures undertaken by, or with theassistance of, the state. There areregional and social disparities indevelopment which the marketeconomy alone cannot prevent. Therole of the state as a provider ofnecessary infrastructure fordevelopment, particularly incomparatively backward regions, hasbeen mentioned earlier. What remainsto be noted now is that fhe underlyingidea there has, in fact, a wider range ofapplicatirrn. Disparities tend to becomecumulative unless they arecounteracted by measures originatingoutside the market. Just as the state hasspecial duties towards backrvardregions so, too it has specialresponsibilities towards weaker sectionsof the population. lf these duties andresponsibilities are neglected, thestrains which accumulate within societybecome destructive of social welfare.

Rapld Population Growth'A leading Third World problem to

which the market provides noautomatio solution is the problem ofexcessively rapid growth of population.Some classical. economists thoughtthat even there the market did provide acrude and effective balancingmechanism. An excess of populationlowered wages and hit against thelimited means of subsistance of thecommon people, after which numbersdeclined either through positive checksor through famines and pestilence. Ahigher death rate restores balance, if alower birth rate will not do the job. Thatline of thought has not lost allrelevance, but in some ways things arevery different now from what they usedto be in the last century. Governmentstoday are in a better position to controlfamines, and there are methods ofreducing mortality, particularly amonginfants, even among the poor, so thatthe death rate has declined substantiallyover the last half a century in the ThirdWorld, including lndia, despite awidespread prevalence of poverly.Although methods of birth control arealso known, these have not becnadopted quite as fast in the poorercountries. ln this new situation, thernarket alone does not provide an

Freedom First 27

effective remedy to the demographiccrisis...

*

...1n the forty years between 1951and 1991, the population of lndia grewat a rate of nearly 2.5 percent per year,while in some other countries of theThird World the rate was even higher. Ata comparable state of industrialdevelopment of England or Francegrowth of population was never as fastas that. For Great Britain in the middleof the nineteenth century, for instance,the average annual rate of growth ofpopulation was below 1.5 per cent.Moreover, Europe at the early stage ofdevelopment was able to get rid of itssurplus population which migrated inlarge numbers to the New World. ln theUnited States of America andelsewhere, with vast sparsely populatedland, large numbers of immigrantscould be absorbed with ease. For lndiatoday, there is no such outlet for surpluspopulation. Some of our best brainsmigrate, but that is a different matter.

There is one more importantdifference. The advanced technology oftoday is much more labour-saving thanwas the advanced technology of thenlneteenth century when the Westcompleted its period of industrial take-off. We have to make use of moderntechnology in the organised sector ofthe lndian economy. But however fastthe modern sector may be made togrow, it cannot, under the conditionsmentioned above, absorb all or most ofour large surplus labour force. lfproviding full employment is a majortask, this cannot be accomplished bysole relience on the market economygeared to industrialisation alongconventional lines. This should set usthinking. We are, in fact, in the presenceof a problem the like of which classicalpolitical economy or the Westerneconomy was never called upon toface.

Limitations of the Modern SectorThe lndian economy has a modern

sector and a traditional sector. Theleare those who say that this dualityshould go. But should it? And how? Themodern sector has come to stay untiland unless we are prepared to give upmariy things on which we dependtoday. Are we as a nation ready lodisband our army and entrust our safetyto non-violence? Evidently we are not.So we have fo support the production

Freedr,m First 28

and supply of arms and defenceequipment which in turn presupposeadvanced technology and a largecluster of high-tech industries. The;eappears to exist a kind of nationalconsensus on this subject. Differenceshere come to be confined to questionsof a little more or a little less. There is, tobe sure, no good reason why SouthAsia should not move towards phaseddisarmament through mutualagreement. But that takes time. ln themeanwhile, we will remain busykeeping continuously abreast of newtechnology because it does not reallymake sense to maintain an army andthen keep it insufficiently trained andpoorly equipped. Beyond defence andhealy industry, the network of

small neighbourhood sector, as it willhave a strong preference for small unitsof production and decided orientationtowards the local community orneighbourhood, without however,ceasing to be hospitable to others in atrue neighbourly spirit. While themodern market economy hashistorically led to the disinteglation oftraditional communal ties, the smallneighbourhood sector will helpre-integration.

Environmental DegradationWhile the problem of rural

unemployment, in one form or another,has been a matter of concern for a longtime, certain other consequences of theexplosion of population have attractedattention only mole recently. Chiefamong these are its effects on thehuman environment, the ecologicalconsequences of the growing density ofhuman habitation on the globe takenalong with high industrialism. As thepress'ure on land increases, forests arecut down and human settlementsspread relentlessly at the expense of agreat variety of flora and fauna. This hasbeen happening all over the world for along time, but the process has assumedmore menacing dimensions in recentyears. ln lndia, even the high Himalayashaye not been spared. The story ismuch the same elsewhere. As forests?ittract and help retain moisture, thecutting down of trees, without acompensating progrdmme ofreforestation, may spell the extension ofdry land and even desertification. Notless serious is_the growing incidence ofenvironmental pollution...

This, then, is a global problem. Aradical reconstruction of the worldeconomic order is necessary not onlyfor poverty alleviation in the ThirdWorld, but also for ensuring the safetyand sustainability of the globaleconomy and human civilisation...

The threat to freedom fromcommunist totalitarianism is no longera major threat. But we still need a newworld economic order. The transitioncannot be achieved at a stroke. Thenew order has to develop within thelarger frontiers of our society, coexistingwith the ruling system for which it is analternative. This is a duality we have toaccept and live with for a long time tocome. However, it has to be not a frozenduality but a flux and we have to gain a

advanced transport andcommunication systems andsupporting research and other essentialservices it generates, there are othermaterial interests too.

, We have already noted that, in viewof the size of our population and thedegree of capital jntensity of moderntechnology, the so-called formal sectorof the lndian economy cannot provideemployment for a sufficient number ofpeople. Supplmenting this sector, theremust be, therefore, another area ofeconomic activities organised on thebasis of quite different principles. Theseactivities have to rely chiefly on localresources and produce for thedomestic market, mainly for localconsumption. They need shelteredmarkets, perhaps reserved areas ofproduction. Such competition as theyface will have to come from within theirown category. They have to depend onappropriate technology designed tomeet their special conditions. They willneed to be sustained by a culture, a life-style, hospitable to them and otherinstitutiohs of local self-help and self-government, inspired by the sameculture.

The Role of the Neighbourhood SectorIt is not quite clear what name one

should give to this sector. The word'traditional' does not exactly fit as, insome ways, the underlying conceptionis quite radical. Appropriate technologyis not the same as traditionaltechnology; in many ways, it will have tobe enriched by new science, knowledgeand experiments. One may call it the

clear idea of the direction of themovement.

*

Towards a New CultureWith the waning of imperialism, we

have to seek a principle of politicalunion that does not depend on force. ltis already evident that a loose federationor a confederal polity provides thatalternative principle of union. One otherlesson of history deserves to becarefully noted. ln each stage ofevolution, the major aim should be toretain the essential gains of the earlierstage and to combine them with thenew requirements of mankind. Recentexperience provides eloquent testimonyto this truth. An attempt to make a leapto a higher stage without due attentionto consolidating earlier gains is apt tobe tragically expensive in terms of bothmaterial and moral resources. Theprotection of the dignity of theindividual, removal of poverly andsocial insecurity, the search for peaceand the imperative need to overcomeecological imbalance combine to setnew social and economic objectives forthe future. lt is in this context that

concepts of freedom and welfare willhave to be reviewed and widened.Perhaps even more basic is adeepening of the concept of peace. Tolive in harmony with men and withnature must become an essential partof our post-modern conception of asustainable society and economy.Thus, as the twentieth century draws toa clqEe, the new perspectives for a crisisfree transition become increasinglyclear: The world has to move in thedirection of a confederal polity, adecentralised and sustainable economyand an ethics of no*n-violence.

The new culture that we need mustpermeate both politics and economics.It may well be born outside the marketplace. But as it grows, its message willhopefully spread everywhere, to allhuman institutions, and influencehuman conducF even in the ordinarybusiness of life. One has to live with thathope; the alternative is a path to disasterpaved with violence. People like Rajajireitelated the need for combiningdharma with the pursuit of artha andkama; Some will find that language old-fashioned as people's views of dharmaare liable to become too exclusive and

immobile. Yet one idea is becomingclearer day by day. There is no way ofovercoming the contemporary crisisexcept with the aid of a higher ethicsand an "economy of permanence." Thehistorical sequence of stages ofeconomic evolution will now be seen torun not from capitalism to socialism, aschema that is both ambignou's andstrongly discordant with facts, but fromprimitive capitalism to a socialdemocratic market economy and fromthere to a non-violent economy ofpermanehce as a distantyet compellingideal.

Prof. Amlan Datta is a well-known economistand educationist.

He started his career as an educationist in1947 and became Head of the Department ofEconomics, Cdlcutta University in 1968. He wasPro Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University from1972 to 1974 and,Vice Chancellor of NorthBengaf University from 19741o 1977. He joinedthe Gandhiap lnstitute of Studies as Director in1978 and there after was Vice Chancellor ofVishwa .Bharati Oniversity, Shantiniketan from1 980 to I 984.

Prof. Amlan Datta is a prolific writer oneconomic, social, political and philosophicalsubjects, both in English and Bengali. His veryfirst book For Democracy written in 1953aftracted the attention of scholars from all overthe world.

A Tribute to Two Outstanding Menln December 1991 two conscientious citizens of Bombay, Prof. V.B. Kamath and Mr. Ramu Pandit, passed away in quick

succession. They were not just two individuals but institutions by themselves.

A remembrence meeting on December 20 was jointly convened by several organisations including the Gandhi SmarakNidhi, the Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal, lndian Radical HumanistAssociation, Citizens For Democracy (CFD), the Peoples OnionFor Civil Liberties (PUCL), Freedom First Foundation and the lndian Committee for Cultural Freedom. The meeting waschaired by eminent jurist" Mr. Hl1. Seervai.

Professor V.B. Kamath(1918-199r)

Born at Mangalore in 1918,graduating from St. Xavier's College,Bombay and the Oniversity College,London (1945-47), Prof. Kamath, a

visiting Professor at Western lllinoisOniversity, USA, taught in differentcolleges and UniversiUes between 1939and 1970.

A participant in the freedom struggle,Prof. Kamath colrrted anest during theNon-cooperation Movement. Afterindependence he did not join the rat-raceof power politics but chose to remain a

teacher inspiring the large family of hisstudents.

During lndia's second battle forfreedom when Mrs. Candhi clamped onthe 'Emergency' and attemPted todeprive the lndian people of theirfreedom, Prof. Kamath fought theEmergenry as an active member of theCitizens for Democracy (CFD).

For the last three years, Prof. Kamathwas afflicted by cancer. Though he knewthat the end was near he carried on hisactivities till the end. An old associate Dr.Osha Mehta vividly described how heonce came straight from the hospital toMani Bhavan to read his paper at a

seminar organised by the Candhians.The familiar figure in spotless whitekhadi with a matching white beard andhair will be seen so more.

Ramu Pandit ( 1927-l 991 )Ramu, as he was affectionately known

to his large group of friends, and thelndian Merchants' Chamber of which hewas Secretary General for sixteen yearswere synonymous. Not only did he liveup to the tradition of his predecessorsbut added new dimensions to theChamber's activities.

A Commerce graduate of theBombay Oniversity, Ramu had adoctorate in Economics from theOniversity of South California. He was a

Fellow of the Royal Economic Sociew,London.

A rare quality that Ramu possessedwas the ability to be equally at ease in thecompany of public and social workers asin the world of commerce and industry.He was a Rotarian and, on the Board ofTrustees of several charitable andeducational organisations and businessand trade bodies.

He was an author who wrote onsubject relating to the economy. Hiscolumn in two leading Cujaratinewsirapers in Bombay was very popularwith the readers.

For Freedom First his loss is

irreparable. Ramu was an active memberof this journal's euitorial board andcontributed articles on economic issuesfrom time to time.

As in life so in death Ramu showedIris sense of social purPose. He donatedhis body for medical research to the JJ.Hospital in Bombay.

We shall all miss him.

M.A. Rane

Freedom First 29

\lADl50N N-0.llR

Human Rights Are NotAlien to BurmaAn Essay by Aung San Suu Kyi

Freedom Flist is both gratified and pained at developments in Burma. Our journal has been among the first to championthe cause for which Aung San Suu Kyi left the comforts of England to return to her motherland, Burma, and after leading herNational League for Democracy to victory in the elections of 1989 is now in jail - held incommunicado by a bunch of tin-potdictators who are holding an entire people in thrall through the force of arms.

It does not appear at this point of time, that civil government and public decencies will dawn in that unfortunate land (onceknoyn for its ever smiling people) in the near future. The ruthless exploitation of both irreplaceable natural and humanresources goes on, fuelled by the insatiable avarice of the neighbouring states.

The following essay by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, was one of several written in honour of her father before she was placedunder house arrest. It is excerpted from a volume of hers titled Freedom from Fear and Other Writings, published inNovember by Penguin. @ Aung San Suu Kyi.

The people of Burma viewdemocracy not merely as a form ofgovernment but as an integrated socialand ideological system based onrespect for the individual. When askedwhy they feel so strong a need fordemocracy, the least Political' willanswer, "We just want to be able to goabout our own business freelY andpeacefully, withou anxiety and fear." Inother words, they want the basic humanrights which would guarantee a tranquil,dignified existence - free from want andfear. "Democracy songs" articulatedsuch longings: "l am not among therice-eating robots... Everyone buteveryone should be entitled to humanrights."

It was predictable that as soon as theissue of human rights became anintegral part of the movement fordemocracy the official media shouldstart ridiculing and condemning thewhole concept of human rights,dubbing it a Western artifact alien totraditional values. lt was also ironic:Buddhism, the foundation of traditionalBurmese culture, places the greaestvalue on man who alone of all beingscan achieve the suPreme state ofBuddhahood. Each man has in him thepotential to realize the truth through hisown will and endeavour and to helPothers to realize it. Human life thereforeis infinitely precious.

But despotic governments do notrecognize the precious humancomponent of the state, seeing itscitizens only as a faceless, mindless -and helpless - mass to be manipulatedat will. lt is as though people wereincidental to a nation rather than its very

lifeblood. Patriotism is debased into asmoke screen of hysteria to hide theinjustices of authoritarian rulers whodefine the interests of the state in termsof their own limited interests. Theofficial creed is required to be acceptedwith an unquestioning faith more inkeeping with orthodox tenets of thebiblical religions which have held swayin the West than with the more liberalBuddhist attitude: "lt is proper to doubt,to be uncertain ... Do not go upon whathas been acquired by repeated hearing.Nor upon tradition, nor upon rumors...When you know for yourself that certainthings are unwholesome and wrong,abandon them. When you know foryourself that certain things arewholesome and good, accept them."

It is a puzzlement to the Burmesehow concepts which recognize theinherent dignity and the equal andinalienable rights of human beings canbe inimical to indigenous values. lt isalso difficult for them to understandhow any of the rights contained in the30 articles of the Universal Declarationof Human Rights can be seen asanything but wholesome and good.That the declaration was not drawn upin Burma by the Burmese seems aninadequate reason, to say the least, forrejecting it, especially as Burma wasone of the nations which had voted forits adoption in December 7948.

The proposition that the Burmeseare not fit to enjoy as many rights andprivileges as the citizens of democraticcountries is insulting. lt also makesquestionable the logic of a Burmesegovernment considering itself fit to

enjoy more rights and privileges thanthe governments of those samecountries.

Weak logic, inconsistencies andalienation from the people are commonfetures of authoritarianism. Therelentless attempts of totalitarianregimes to prevent free throught andnew ideas, and the persistent assertionof their own rightness, brings on theman intellectual stasis which they projectonto the nation at large. lntimidationand propaganda work in a duet ofoppression while the people, lapped infear and distrust, learn to dissemble andto keep silent. And all the time thedesire grows for a system which will liftthem from the position of "rice-eatingrobots" to the status of human beingswho can think and speak freely andhold their head high in the security oftheir rights.

From the beginning, Burma'sstruggle for democracy has beenfraught with danger. A movementwhich seeks the just and equitabledistribution of powers and prerogativesthat have long been held by a small eliteis likely to be prolonged and difficult.Hope and optimism are irrepressible,but there is a deep underlyingpremonition that the oPposition tochange is likely to be vicious. Often theanxious question is asked, will such anoppressive regime really give usdemocracy? And the answet has to be,Democracy, like liberty, justice andother social and political rights, is not"given," it is earned through courage,resolution and sacrifice.

Revolutions generally reflect theirresistable impulse for necessary

The Burm ese are "no Rice-eating Robots"Freedr>rn Firsl 3l

changes which have been held back byofficial policies or retarded by socialapathy. The institutions and practices ofdemocracy provide ways and means bywhich such changes could be effectedwithout recourse to violence. Butchange is anathema toauthoritarianism, which will tolerate nodeviation from rigid policies.Democracy acknowledges the right todiffer as well as the duty to settledifferences peacefully. Authoritariangovernments see criticism of theiractions and doctrines as a challenge tocombat. Opposition is equated with"confrontation," which is interpreted asviolent conflict. Regimented mindscannot grasp the concept ofconfrontation as an open exchange ofmajor differences with a view tosettlement thlough genuine dialogue.The insecurity of power based oncoercion translates into a need to crushall dissent. Within the framework ofliberal democracy, protest and dissentcan exist in healthy counterpart withorthodoxy and conservatism, containedby a general recognition of the need tobalance respect for individual rightswith respect for law and order.

The words law and order have sofrequently been misused as an excusefor oppression that the very phrase has

become suspect in countries whichhave known authoritarian rule. Someyears ago, a prominent Burrnese authorwrote an article on law and order asexpressed by the official lerm nyein-wut-pi-pyar. One by one he analyzedthe words, which literally mean "quiet-crouched-crushed-flattened," andconcluded that the whole made for anundesirable state of affairs, one whichmilitated against the emergence of analert, energetic, progressive citizenry.There is no intrinsic virtue to law andorder unless "law" is equated withjustice and "order" with the discipline ofa people satisfied that justice has beendone. The Buddhist concept of law isbased on dhamma, righteousndss orvirtue, not on the power to imposeharsh and inflexible rules on adefenseless people. The true measureof the justice of a system is the amountof protection it guarantees to theweakest.

Where there is no justice there canbe no secure peace. The UniversalDeclaration of Human Rightsrecognizes that 'if man is not to becompelled to have recourse, as a lastresort, to rebellion against tyranny andoppression," human rights should be

protected by the rule of law. That justlaws which uphold human rights are thenecessary foundation of peace andsecurity would be denied only by closedminds which interpret peace as thesilence of all opposition and security asthe assurance of their own power.

ln their quest for democ5acy thepeople of Burma explore not only thepolitical theories and practices of theworld outside their country but also thespiritual and intellectual values thathave given shape to their ownenvironment. There is in this movementa capacity for the sustined mental strifeand physical endufance necessary towithstand the forces of negativism,bigotry and hate. Most encouraging ofall, the main impetus for struggle is notan appetite for power, revenge anddestruction but a genuine respect forfreedom, peace and justice. The questfor democracy in Burma is the struggleof a people to live whole, meaningfullives as free and equal members of theworld community. lt is part of theunceasing human endeavor to Provethgt the spirit of man can transcend theflaws of his own nature.

U Nu's Doughler on Suu KyiOur fornilies were close. Her fother

wos lhe legendory Aung Son, thecountry's founding fother. My folher, U

Nu, wos lhe country's firsl primeminisler.

When her follier (Suu Kyi's) wosossossinoted on the eve of Burmo'sindependence, my porents feitobliged to toke core of lheir fomily. Assoon os my fother become primeminisler he mode her motherombossodor to lndio os o mork ofrespect. So Suu Kyi come down lolndio.

She studied ot lhe Convenl ofJesus ond Mory in New Delhi ond lhenloter ot the Lody Sri Rom college. Shelhen wenl on lo Oxford, ond fromlhere to Kyoto university, Jopon,continuing her studies. She hodfulfilled her ospirolion. She hodbecome o scholor.

ln the meontime, I hod lost touchwith her. My own fomily wos goinglhrough troumotic times. My fother's

democrotic government wosoverlhrown in o coup d'efal byGenerol Ne Win. He wos put behindbors, lhen exiled os o result of whichwe spenl our lives in lndio ondThoilond. He wenl bock to Burmo onlylo be pul under house orrest, wherehe longuishes to ihis doy.

It wos in 1987 I met Suu Kyi ogoinhere in New Delhi. She hod come os ofellow ot the lndibn lnstilute ofAdvonced Studies, Shimlo. I wosworking otAll lrldio Rodio.

She is o very courogeous girlbeoring o very proud legocy. Sinceher fother's is o household nome inBurmo il wos eosy for the Burmesepeople to occept her os their leoder.At first, she hod no interest in politics.She wos hoppy pursuing her scholorlywork, monied to on English scholor,hoving two children

li wos during her visits to Burmo in

'1988 to meet her oiling mother thot

brought obout the tronsformotion, SuuKyi sow how thousonds of studentswere being killed. She could not beorit. Thot is when she decided lo tokethe plunge.

She immediolely become leoderof the suppressed.

By honouring her with the NobelPrize I think ot losl some recognitionhos been given to the light fordemocrocy in Burmo. Until now thedeveloped world hod turned o blindeye towords our problem, towords ourcry for help. We were nol imporlontfor them. The internotionol medio didnol find us interesting. We werebehind on iron curloin.

fhon fhonnu, the exiled dortghter ollomer Bormese pnme rril't$tet a Nu, wotksin lhe Burmese division of All lndio Rodio.COURTESY: Sundoy MID-DAV Oclober 20,'91.

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Freedorn First 32

Priority for Agricu ltu reA two-day seminar on 'Priority for Agriculture' was held in Bombay on November 30 and December I , :.991

.

The Seminar which discussed a PaPer on the subiect presented by l4r. Bhanu Pratap Singh, former Union l4inister of State forAgriculture (1977-79), was inaugurated by Dr. V. Kurien, Chairman of the National Dairy Deieiopment Board.

Organised by the Proiect for Economic Education, the seminar was attended by economists, professionals, socia! workers,acaQemicians and businessmen among others.

The seminar focussed on several crucial issues rylating to agriculture and rural development that need to be addressed immediately soas to set ilght distortions in our policies particularly in the coritext of the ongoing economic policy reforms.

The following repoft is a summary of these discussions.

70o/o of the people of lndio live in her villoges. A lorge number of these people ore poor, illiteroteond unemployed. The trogedy is thot this unfortunote situotion is mon-mode. This is becouse theruroleconomy hos not received the ottention it deserved ond lndio's tremendous ogriculturol

potentiol hos not been topped fulty.A study conducted by the 20-notion lnternotionol Commission on Peoce ond Food to ossess thepotentiol for occeleroted development ond lhe erodicotion of unemployment ond obsolute

poverty in lndio bythe yeor 2000, indicoted lhot Indio con ochieve o minimum of 4% growlh inogriculture, generote 100 million iobs ond increose ogro-bosed exportsto Rs.40,000 crores per

yeor by pursuing o strotegy of intensive ogriculture, ogro-industries ond ogro-exports.To reolise lhis potentiolthere is need for o much higher ollocotion of public resources to the rurol

economy- for rurol development ond for ogricullurol inputs.

Rural Developmgn! - a

lnvestment in rural development willlead to a grourth in non-farmingactivities. Even today, during themonsoons, 60% of lndia is cut off forwant of all-weather roads. Power supplyis highly erratic where available.

Rural development in such areas asthe provision of all-weather roads,health care and adequate medicalfacilities, housing, sanitation, potabledripking water, basic education,foodgrain godowns or silos easilyaccessible to farmers, cold storagefacilities and power for irrigation pumpsare only some of the areas that call forhigh priority.

Such a development will not onlycontribute to easing the pressure onland but also stem the flow of migrationto cities and lead to an appreciableimprovement in the quality of life of thevillagers.

lnvestment in Agricultural Inputs Erecting lndependent StructuresEven while admitting that some lndustry, trade and trade unions in

amount of attention was paid to urban lndia have organised themselvesagriculture the objective was only to so that they are heard and secure theirensure survival. This lirnited objective rights. On the other hand, the farmingcannot solve the problem of rural community is largely unorganisedpoverty nor improve agricultural hence not heard and lacks clout.productivity. They have been kept that way by

Studies have revealed that two-thirds governments and politicians who do

of the rural poor and 70% of the ultra not want farmers to be independent ofpoor are to be found in areas with very them. W[atever organisations exist inpoor agriculiural development. rural areas are infiltrated and influenced

Hence the aim -urt bu to achieve by the bureaucracy and the politicians.higher levels of productivity of a whole Most often the two cooPerate to reap,aige of farm' products (not only rich benefits by exploiting the farmer.foodgrains but also poultry, cash crops This must change. Higherlike cotton and oil seeds, seri-culture, investments will fail to reach theacqua-culture etc.). This calls for a farmers if they do not set up their ownmuch higher investment of public strucutres free of government controlresources in agriculture. and interference.

MechanistionAnother factor hamperino cooperatives

agricultural growth is the absence o"f That such structures are possible is

appropriate iechanisation to eliminate ?roved by the success of the Kaira

aiuag'ery and introduce precision o; District Cooperative more popularlyfarm-operations. Such mechanisation !l9wn as AivlUL. This co-operative is adoes not mean tractors and the like 6u1 100% farmers' organisation which has

modern implements that contribulu 1o helped in improving the standard of lifeefficiency and, at the same time, do not of its members on the one hand and

displace farm labour from their jobs. lff:|ffi,*" needs of the consumer on

Such cooperatives need to bereplicated throughout the country.

0nfortunately, the work of suchcooperatives is hampered bycooperative laws tlrat put numerousrestrictions arrd result in bureaucraticinterference.

The entire gamut of laws relating tocooperatives need to be reviewed and

Frct<lont Firsl J)

The Sowing strengths of

Empire in Glass: Empire in Machine Tools:

Empire in Cranes:thc Garlick Enqinccrirrgdivisiorr, in collaborationrvith Noel GrnUH, W.(icrrnarry, is the largestrrr.rnuiacturcr oi c'r,rncs irrthc countrv rvith a wirlerangc ofrpplications.

Empire in Finance:

The Vitrurrr Glass division,irr collaboration with()wens tllinois Glass Inc,US.\, is rhc largcstnunuthcturer of anrbcrgl,rss contaitrcrs [<rr thepharmaccutical itrtlttstrvin lndia.

'[he Empirc Finance Co.Ltd., fully hacked byErnpire Inilustrics, is a

leading finance comp:rnywith hirc purchase, leasing,bills discountitrg, rne rchatrtbanking ancl financialadvisory se:rvices as itscore activities.

Thc l}n1 irc Mac,rine Toolsclivisit'rr i. .rn acknowle.lgeJleadcr in the rnarketirrg arrd

servici rr S oi s.rphisticateclrurirch i u,' ttt<lls trranut'acturcdin V:. (icrtrtatrv,S',vitz.'l'l r:rtl. .iePurr :rl'l theUSA.

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Empire in Instrumentation:I-hc Enrpire

I nstruurcntation clivisiorrlrritrgs to lndil nredic,rl,.letcttce, polluti.rn-nrtrrri roring, an:rlytical,tcst atrd nreasurirrg, clinicalitltd ltroct',i5 cgutrolinstrtrruetrts frorrrintcrn;rtional lcatle rs inEuropc,.j,rpan and thc USA.

Empire in Speciality Fabrics:

I[';.1'JT,'Ji,,lo""'""" f/>\rnatrufuc'iures high tccht:rbri. ' titl usc itt tvrr',('()tr\'('v()r [rcl t, jackctirtg,:rbr:rsivc, tirotrvcar :rncl

Jcf ctrcc itrtlustries.

r:ltErE--t!iltl[EIEElflllHIFnrlltEs4EEf

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OBM 3752 Flev

the profile of the Registrars ofCooperative Societies must be lowered.In fact, all laws affecting farmers and'agricultural products need to bereviewed.

The Amul Projuct's success can beattributed to efficient management andmarketing.

The existing marketing systemexploits both the farmer and theogriculturist. Private marketing systemswithout government intervention canfunction effectively. Co-operatives arealso very much a part of the privatemarketing system which establishdirect links between the producer andthe consumer. This ought to be thepattern and all laws that prevent thisincluding the free movement of foodproducts throughout the countryshould be abolished.

The Rule of l-awThe rule of law has all but

disappeared in rural India. The newfeudals - the mafia dons and caste-based groups - have taken over. Therural population is losing respect for thegovernment thus reducing

considerably their capacity to ruleThe absence of rural developrnent is

perhaps the single biggest reason.Village Panchayats must be freed

from government control and becomegenuine representatives of the villagers.They must possess adequate financialauthodty and be empowered to havecontrol over their tax structures.

Panchayats must also be equippedwith policing powers to enforce the ruleof law.

Other SuggestionsAmong the other suggestions that

were discussed were the followirrg:a All restrictions on the movement and

trade of farm products must beremoved to put agriculture at parwith industry.

o Village Panchayats should berecognised as Cooperatives, withouthaving to undergo the formality ofregistration etc., competent to jointlyprocess and market goods of farmorigin as well as of cottage industriesproduced in their villages.

o The needs and capabilities ofmarginal and small farmers, who

constitute more than three-fourths ofthe total number of farmers must bekept uppermost in formulatingschemes and progfammes foragricultural and rural development.

o More attention must be paid to minorirrigation works, utilising grounC-water by boring more wells, andsurface run-off water, by impoundingit in natural depressions and smallreservoirs, because these beingunder the control of farmersthemselves, have ben found to beless costly and more productive.

o Development schemes must be sodevised that people feel they arepe.rticipants in the scheme and notmerely recipients of charity from thegovernment. To bring about such achange, it is necessary todecentralize power upto the villagelevel, and replace the presentbureacracy-propelled developmentstrategy with a people's participatorydevelopment strategy.

Unleashing the Constructive Power of the FarmersV Kurien

lf we wont to benefil the formers we must erect structures they themselves commond. This moynot look so eosy but it is not ollthot difficult.

It is my view that farmers have notbeen treated right; that people who livein the villages have not been treatedright. I hold the view that industries haveexploited agriculture, cities have thrivedat the expense of rural workers; thatindustrial workers have benefited andthe price has been paid by farmers. I amof the view that these imbalances canonly be put right by learning from whatindustrial labour have done torthemselves. Not only have they got d

fair slice of the lndian cake, they aregefting a larger slice in my opinion, ofthe lndian cake than they deserve. How

do they manage it? lt is by organisingthemselves into labour unions andbuilding up strength to paralyse theeconomy of the country, if need be, inorder to get their demands satisfied.They have developed a clout and it ismy view that we will not get anyrvhere,as far as farmers are concerned, unlessthey too develop a clout. And, in orderto develop clout, they need anorganisational structure.

The Kaira Cooperative

We started this Cooperativemovement (the Kaira Cooperatrve)

under the inspiration of SardarVallabhbhai Patel, when the British wereruling here, and subsequently it tookoff. We had a lot of problems.Government authorities were opposedto it. There were vested interests like theprivate trader who were oPPosed it. Butwe managed to overcome thesedifficulties because we had theinspiration of Vallabhbhai Patel. He senthis deputy, Morarji Desai to orqanisethe farmers and, they, between themselected Tribhuvandas Pat-el, a man ofabscilute integrity and decenry, fullytrusted by the people of Kaira district.

Frecdorrt Firsl 35

Under such dedicated leadership, theKaira Cooperative took off.Tribhuvandas looked for professionalmanagement because he neither knewmanagement nor did he know dairyingand, by a series of accidents he decidedthat I would be the Chief Executive ofthe Cooperative. Thereafter from 1949for 25 years lwas its Chief Executive.

Professional ManagementThe Kaira Cooperative started with

200 litres a day and 100 members.Today in that one district, 450,000farmers are members of thisCooperative which really meanspractically every farmer family in thedistrict is covered. Hardly anyone is leftout because all of them have a cow or abuffalo. They are all members. lts saleslait year would be around Rs. 250crores not bad for a districtcooperative. lts dairy factory has acapacity to handle a million litres ofmilk a day. lt has become a very largeoperation and professionlly managedwith an elected Board of Directors -elected by the general body composedof the Chairman of all the 900 villagesocieties. So the structure is: 450,000farmers in 900 village milk producers'cooperative societies, federated intoone district union. Each village socidtyis managed by an elected ManagingCommittee of 7 or 9 people electedfrom amongst the farmers. All theChairmen of the 900 societies attendthe General Body and elect their Boardof Directors. The Board of Directorselects its Chairman and there is aprofessional Managing Director whoruns the organisation on a day to daybasis.

AMassive OperationWe repeated this in every district of

Gujarat and today we have districtunions in almost all the districts barringa few in Saurashtra comprising 1.7million farmers. Everyone of thesedistricts has a processing plant. Thesales of the Cujarat Cooperative MilkMarketing Federation this year wouldbe something like Rs. 1,100 crores -through the sale of Amul products, butexcluding tne milk sold in Ahmedabad,Surat and Baroda because that'ale isdone by the district unions not by theState Federation.

The Cujarat Cooperative MilkMarketing Federation is probably one ofthe largest business enterprises in theState of Cujarat. You will agree that Rs.

l r t'e,l,';nt First 36

1 ,1 00 crores is a fairly large turnover fora business enterprise and that too byselling butter and baby food as well asselling milk in all these towns.

The beauty of the structure is thatevery collectinf centre in every village isalso selling milk to those whosebuffaloes are dry or who do not havebuffaloes and we sell 30,000 litres of themilk from the Anand Dairy (Amul), toAnand town and to every town in Kairadistrict. We also supply liquid milk toBaroda and Surat districts ih summerwhen the milk is in short supply.Everyday we send milk in liquid form toDelhi (800 km away) and even toCalcutta (2000 km) through our owninsulated rail tankers. lt is a massiveoperation.

National Milk Gridlwas required at the instance of the

then Prime Minister Lal BahadurShastri, to replicate this nationally. As aresult we have now reached the stagewhen there are 70,000 village milkproducer cooperative societies in70,000 villages of lndia. We have about190 dairy plants (like the Amul Dairy in,22 states in lndia). We have StateFederations like the CujaratCooperative Milk Marketing Federationin all the states, and we have alsofederated at the national level. So thereis a massive structure and within thisstructure ?a very large quantity - 14million litres of milk per day - ishandled. We have d national milk gridlinking all our metropolitain cities and500 towns within this counby which arefed from it. And this very massivebusiness enterprise is completelycommanded by farmers.

Governments Fear PeopleNow what are our problems? Let us

take the state of Maharashtra (by nomeans is Maharashtra any differentfrom the other states). Unlike thepattern in Gujarat, where the farmerselect their own Boards, appoint theirown employees, in Maharashtra theChairman of the State Federation is thehonorable minister. The ManagingDirector is an IAS Officer appointed bygovernment. Thus the entire structureis dominated, controlled and warped bythe interference of the Stategovernment. This is the problem in allthe other States outside Qujarat andwhen we'tell them let the farmer run hisown affairs, theyget worried.

Therefore the first point I want tomake is that empowering the farmer issomething that is not liked asgovernment feels it weakens thegovernment structure, it weakens theadministrative structure, it empowersthe poor and therefore there issomething dangerous in it. AsChairman of this national federation asalso of the Gujarat federation, may I

honestly say our governments are, inmy opinion afraid of their people. Thisis one of the first problems we have toconsider when we want to empower ourfarmers. Covernments do not wantthem to be empowered. They say, seewhat has happened in the state ofGujarat; there is no milk department!This fellow comes to Bombayspreading all this poison to theMaharashtra government. What will wedo with our 40,000 employees if there is

no milk departmentl What will theSerretary do, not to mention the factthat we have to lose one ministerialberth - the Ministry for milk!

Political 6 Bureaucratic lmpedimentsBut there is a silver lining to all this.

There are still people in high places withsome decency, some integriiy, not onlyin the political structure, (though thisbreed is declining) but also in theadministrative structure and we havenow made model rules. What wouldhave happened to that man called Mr.J.R.D. Tata, if the Registrar ofCompanies of Bihar had the samepowers as the Registrar of CooperativeSocieties of Bihar? The one registerscompanies, the other registerscoperative societies. lf the Registrar ofCompanies had the same powers asthe Registrar of Cooperative Societies inBihar what would he have done to Mr.J.R.D. Tata? The moment even anAssistant Registrar of CooperativeSocieties walks into Jamshedpur hewould resent its whole industrialstructure and he will tell the gentlemancalled Russi Mody, 'Accha, you're lMngin this opulence and I am getting onlyRs. 2400 a month', and you see thewhole picture gets vitiated. Companieshave been able to establish themselvesand flourish only because the profile ofthe Registrar of Companies is kept low.Maybe a company Managing Director'swould be still lower but I am only

making the point to draw attention tothe fact that Cooperatives have notsucceeded because the profile of theRegistrar is so high. And then there isthe politician who wants to infiltrate theCooperative. When you have 1.7 millionfarmers not including their families,how can a politician resist thetemptation to use such structures tofurther his political ends.

The problem in organising farmersis the fear of the politicians, the fear ofthe bureaucracy that they losesomething if these structures are free oftheir control. Yet the Covernment oflndia has asked that we should replicatethe Anand paftern throughout thecountry. We are asked to handlevegetable oil and we have been doingso in about seven states with whateverresults you have seen. I can only saythat in this type of work I sometimeswish the government will tell me to takecare of old ladies and young children,because there will be no conflict,nobody to criticise. Everybody will beon my side. Onfortunately lam asked bymy government to do jobs that aredangerous. The vegetable oil businesshas resulted in five of my officers being

killed; the cooperative oil mill inBhavnagar burnt seven times; two ofmy seniormost collgagues escapingdeath by the skin of theic teeth andanyone who reads newspapers willknow what they are doing to me in thepress, as well as in Parliament. There isthis powerful vested interest againstfarmers emerging.

The other point that lwish to make isthat despite of these difficulties, it is myfirm belief that it can be done, it mustbe done and we can erect strucutrescommanded by farmers. That is theonly way we can empower them.

Cooperative l-awMust be ChangedTherefore, the cooperative law must

be amended in order to reduce theprofile of the Registrar of CooperativeSocieties to that of the Registrar ofCompanies. ln New Zealand forinstance, there is not a single dairywhich is not owned by farmers and theyhave no 'Cooperative Societies Act' nordo they have a Registrar of CooperativeSocieties. How did they do it. Theymerely amended the Company Law. Tothe different types of companiesdefined under their Company Law, they

lndio's Economic Relorms - Lolin Americq Shows lhe WoyEven os we go lo press we reod dislurbing news of discon- Mexico showed lhe woy by first reguloling ils chootic lox

lenl omong lhe upper echelons of the government syslem ond by sovoge cuts in governmenl expenditure. ltregording lhe new economic ond fiscol policies. Congress negotioted foreign loons to be re-serviced on sott options. ltMPs ond olher worthies find it difficull lo foce their closed down or sold mosl of its public enlerprises, dismontledconstitulenls ond exploin lo lhem the difficullies ond privo- its licensing policies ond liberoled lhe economy.tions lhot oll of us ore experiencing lodoy. They do not hove Whot is oslonishing is thot Mexico hos litle of lhe econom-lhe couroge to lell lhem thol they ore poying for the thoughF ic resources lhot olher counlries hove - bul il hos beenles policies inilioled by Nehru, cynicolly continued by lndiro blegsed wilh o dedicoled politicol leodership. Brozil whoseGondhi lor her own ends, ond lolel by the soinls ol the Jonofo economy wos drown lo o corner ond in o slole of collopseDol - VP. Singh ond Modhu Dondovote - who.wonled to hos shoken otf its lethorgy ond slgrled reforming ilself. Mr.outdo Devi lol in his own gome ond morlgoged the future ol Moreiro who is in chorge of lhe- reslrucluring of Brozil'slhe country. finonces soys:

The porenls hove eolen sour gropes lheir children's teeth "Shock plons do not work; inflolion con be cured only slowlyore sel on eidge. This Biblicol stotemenl might hove been writ- ond poinfully, we will keep money tight - reol interest rotesten with our present government in mind. But in these miseries ore running of 4o/o o month - ond will groduolly bring govern-we ore nol olone. Exomples from other notions should both ment spending under conlrol by simplitying ond broodeningeducole ond instil in us oplimism.'Owners of business devole the tox syslem (there ore more thon 60 kinds of lox on bosico lorge proporlion of lheir resources to infifioting the induslries, few of which onybody bothers lo poy) ond throughbureouclocy ond protecting their inleresls rother thon devol- corslitutionol chonges (to reduce lhe omount of money flow-ing lhemselves to improving output.'This is o stolement nol by ing lo lhe sloles for instonce). Businessmen who disbelieve ouron lndion critic bul by o leoding Peruvion economisi steodfoslness ond ky to roise prices in onticipotion ol o newHernondo de Soto. shock plon will find themselves hoving to roll bock lhe

Lotin Americon countries like Peru, Mexico, Argenlino, increoses in o few monlhs when lhey hove no buyers.

Bolivio, Chile ond others found themselves in the ec-onomic Eventuolly people will see ive meon business, ond thot will bequogmire similor to our own ond lounched on the polh of thot "

reform. All these countries begon to deregulole ond liberolise And this hos o greot deol for our country too. Our sott politi-their economies; they pulled down trode borriers ond sought cions in power will hove to first convince lhemselves thot iflo come lo terms with public finonce by kying lo bring down they ore not oble to support the PM they will soon find lhem-inflotion, Todoy inlernolionol finonce which hod written off the selves in o hopeless situotion. The NRls hove not responded;enlire continent os o hopeless couse now hos come lo the portiol privotisoiion of the steel plonls hos proved to be oopposite stond lhot "Lotin Americo could be one of the best domp squib; our bureoucrots still wonl to hove the grovy.investmenls of the '1990s.' RS

Free,iont First 37

...We con hove morolrehobilitotion with the help ofreligion. But morolity withoutGod is not self-sustoined...The cqrt must be driven by

two bullocks, Truth ondReligion yoked together. The

inscrutobility of the Divinerulership of the world connot

be met by ignoring it, butonly by foith....

Rojoji

THE LAKSHMI MILLS COMPANY LIMITEDCOIMBATORE 641 037

added one more - a r--ooperativecompany and said that a cooperativecompany is one where only those whoproduce milk (in the case of milkcooperatives) can own shares. That wasthe first condition. The secondcondition was that irrespective of thenumber of shares held, a memberwould have only one vote. But as itfunctioned according to thecooperative principle it was called acooperative company. Now to get thatsort of amendment to the CornpanyLaw in lndia is easier said than done. ltmeans getting each state to modify itsCooperative Act, because unlike theCompany Law, Cooperative Law iswithin the purview of the states.

This is not all that happens in acooperative or in an institution ownedby farmers. By this cooperativestructure we have been able to doublethe income of the farmers. His incomefrom 1.5 buffaloes (which is theaverage) is almost equal to his incomefrom three acres of land which is theaverage holding.

When Farmers Run their own Affairs...ln other words dairying is no longer a

subsidiary occupation. lt has becomealmost equal to an agriculturaloperation. There is another benefitarising from the fact that milking andtaking care of the buffalo are thefunctions of a woman - this income istraditionally that of a woman and thereare many implications of a womanhaving the same iqcome as a man.Many widows are able to earn theirlivelihood with two buffaloes. Dairyinghas turned out to be the largest ruralemployment scheme in lndia. Nor isthis all. If you go to Anand or to any ofour villages, you will find that 450,000people are delivering that milk twice aday, every day of the year at 900 milkcollecting centres run by othercooperatives. The employees of themilk cooperative in the village areemployees of the village cooperative -not of the disirict federation. There is agreat deal of meaning in letting thevillage people employ their own staffand make the staff answerable to thosethey are supposed to serve.

Some Spin-off BenefitsThere is another spin-off. 450,000

people delivering milk at 900 centrescome and stand in 900 queues -irrespective of sex, irrespective of caste.

What does it do to a 'high castebrahmin' to stand behind an'untouchable' because he came afterhim and to do so twice a day, everydayof the year. What does it do to the'untouchable' to stand ahead of the'high caste brahmin' because he cameearlier. What does it do to both of themto see the milk go into the same can.Their caste system gets submerged inthat can of milk! It is not merely anorderly milk collection. ls it not also ablow at the caste system?

Our villages are dirty. Our milkcollection room is also dirty but it iscleaner than the rest of the village.Someone built a room and put someglazed tiles; another brought someclean water to wash the pots and pans;a third brought insecticides to try tokeep the flies away; a fourth sprinkledwater to keep the dust down. You maywell find this scene in many parts of thecountry. What do they mean? These arethe very first few steps in sanitation inthat village. How can you talk of cleanmilk production unless you talk ofsanitation.

We have a scheme for veterinary aidfor our buffaloes in each district. Weemploy 75 graduate veterinarians and900 first aid workers, one in eachvillage, and they are employees of theCooperative not of the government. Wehave an elaborate radio telephonecommunication system and weguarantee that any sick buffaloanyrvhere in the village, anyvhere in thedistrict, will have a veterinarian tend thesick buffalo within four hours of askingfor it, day or night, thanks to thecommunication system.

Now what does it do to a village if abuffalo is sick, suffering from distokia,its uterus is twisted, the calf cannotcome out. The buffalo will die and sowillthe calf. This is normal in the village.It has happened many times in the lasthundreds of years. But this time theysend for a veterinary. He lies behind thebuffalo, puts his hand in, twists theuterus and delivers the calf. What doesthis display of modern science do to thethinking of our ordinary villager. He willsay "my son was sick, I sent for adoctor. For four days. no doctor" rrameand my son died. Can't you dosomething about the health of ourchildren, aren't our children at least asimportant as our buffaloes?'

We have the TribhuvandasFoundation - a rural health scheme,probably the largest rural healthscheme in the country, covering some550 villages. ln every village there is afirst aid worker appointed by the village.We pay 50% and the village pays5O%.We have a scheme to bring women toshow them their Dairy. So far.a quarterof a million village women have seenthe Amul Dairy. To them it is a day ofpicnic. They enter the Amul Diary, theysee magnificent buildings and vastgreen carpets, and what does it do totheir thinking when they see all this -the gleaming stainless steel within thesebuildings - and what does it do to themwhen they realise they own a bit of this;that they have a say in the running of itand above all they have a share in itsprofits? Do they not go home thatevening a litle more proudly asbelonging to this sort of a family ofwhich they are equal members?

We take them to our cattle feedcompounding factory. This is thelargest in lndia - it is computerised, it isautomated. Now in this factory we areputting out 17% protein. We have toexplain to a quarter of a million women,what proteins are? Why we add vitaminsand mineials? We have to explain why a

female buffalo has to be fed eventhough she is dry. She is dry becauseshe is in the last three months of herpregnanry. But the foetus is growingand the foetus needs nutrition. Can thiswoman not relate it to her own growingfoetus. Are we onry discussing animalnutrition with her? We take her to theartificial insemination centre. We havethe largest insemination centre in thecountry - in one district we do 3OO,O0Oartificial inseminations. We take themthere and we show them how thesemen is collected from the bull. Weexplain to them the mysteries ofconception and birth, we have chartsfor it. What is a sperm? What i6 an ova?We have made a quarter of a rnillionwomen look through a microscope atlive semen. Are we not leading them onto birth control?

So what is this farmers organisationwe are discussing. We talk so muchabout involving our people in their owndevelopment. lt means erectingstrllctures they themselves cancommand. This is what we are doing.lsn't this an instrument of economicand social rural change and are thesenot the most effective way to mobilise

Frerdom f-irsl 39

our farmers? I have always maintainedthat there are only good people in thevillages because allthe bad people havealready come to Bombay in search ofmoney or Delhi ln search of power! Ourvillagers have no ambitions; they onlywant to live and let live.

lndia's Biggest Asset - Her PeopleThe biggest asset of lndia is our

people. Will India ever make anyprogress if we don't use the biggestasset we have, which is the power of thepeople? What Anand has tried todemonstrate is that if you create thesestructures and you learn how to unleash

the power of our people and give thispower some direction and thrust bycombining this power with professionalmanagement which people like merepresent - then everything becomespossible. The only thing that standsagainst this happening is the fear of ourgovernment that our people will get toknow what our leaders really are. This iswhat is bothering them.

I honestly believe that if we want tobenefit the farmers then we must erectstructures they themselves command.This may not look so easy but it is notall that difficult. What we have done in

milk and in vegetable oil, is what we aretrying to extend to fruits and vegetables.What rve are doing is to develop treegrowers cooperative lo green lndia. Allthese are methodologies that the DairyBoard of India is involved in, in order tomobilise the power of our people and tounleash this power for the good oflndia.

_ _ Iest of ,Jte inaugural speech by Dr. V.Kurien at the seminar on 'priority forAgriculture,' in Bombay on November 30,1991.

Dr. V. Kurien is the Chairman of theNational Diary Development Boarcl.

Needed - Reform of lndial Agricultural policyBhonu Protop Singh

The truth is lhot under the gorb_of sociolism, the vost mojority of people, porliculorly those living invilloges, hove been mercilessly exploited for the benefit of the thin upper crust of society.

ln the language of the politicians, theagricultural sector has been receiving'top priority' from the very beginning.Pandit Nehru used to say: "Everythingelse can wait, but not agriculture". Buthe made agriculture wait by cuttingdown plan expenditure on it to enablethe public sector attain "thecommanding heights of the lndianeconomy". The consequences of thispolicy were disastrous for the nation.Mrs. l. Qandhi's and Mr. Rajiv Candhi'sprotestations, that agriculture was beinggiven top priority was never reflectedeither in their budgetary allocations, orin the price policy they pursued.

Mr. V.P. Singh promised a 'NewAgricultural Policy,' which would undothe injustices done in the past. Butduring the 1l months he was in office,he did not find the time to present his'New Agricultural Poliry'. All he coulddo was to waive some ol the farmers'loans, which will have no long-termimpact on the farm sector.

Choudary Devi Lal, in his secondincarnation as Deputy Prime 14inister,

l:raeclom First .10

Mr. Bhanu P.atdp Strgh presenting his paper. Prof. P.G. Mdlankar lr the chatr

also failed to present the 'NewAgricultural Policy', which he hadrepeatedly promised. All that he couldthink of to benefit the farm sector wasto issue orders that farmers, clad indhoties, be provided board and lodgingin five-star hotels at half the prevailingrates!

lf political rhetoric could be used as afarm-input, lndian agriculture wouldhave been in a very flor rri5fiiPgconditicn! Contrary to thedisinformation service of theCovernment of lndia, the fact is thatlndian agriculture is still amongst themost backr,r'ard. The Crccn Revolution

withered long ago. ln large parts of thecountry, foodgrain production has notkept pace with the growth in population.None of the targets fixed for the lastyear of the Ml Plan, relating toagricultural production andconsumption of farm-inputs has beenachieved. The major problems of lndia

poverty, unemPloYment, growingdisparity and an adverse trade balance

- remain unresolved.Can any country attain prosperity by

leavin! its most valuable naturalresource grossly underdeveloped? Forexample, could the oil-rich MiddleEastern countries have attainedprosperity, if they had not developedtheir mineral oil resources? ln lndia, themost valuable natural resource is ouragro-climatic condition. This claim is

based, not on theoreticalconsiderations but on irrefutable facts'

ln the world as a whole, thepercentage of arable to total land area isonly I 1.0 percent; in lndia thispercentage is 51.5 Percent. Our climatebeing moderate, makes it possible forus two grow two croPs in a Year'whereas in most parts of the world, dueto severe winters, only one croP ispossible. Moreo'ier, aicording to thelatest estimates, our irrigation potentialis i 78 million hectares, which is nearly1.84 times the total cultivated area ofChina. Yet the Chinese .are producingmore and eating better. Their averageper capita caloric intake of food during1986-88 was2637 against only 2104 inlndia though per capita availability ofarable land in lndia is 2.5 times that inChina. They are doing much better,because they have develoPed theiragriculture, while we have not.

The Potential of lndian AgricultureTherefore, the first question is

should our objective be to achieve thefull potential of lndian agriculture, orremain content with a groMh ratewhich merely enables us to meetdomestic demand and that too at thecurrent low level of consumption. lnanswering this question the followingfacts need to be taken intoconsideration:i. Poverty in lndia cannot be

eradicated or even reduced, so longas agriculture. the main professionof two-thirds of our PoPulation,remains backward, both iP terms olproductivity Per hectare andproductivitY Per worker.

ii. The incremental capital output ratio(ICOR) of agriculture has alwaysbeen much lower than that ofmanufacturing. Also, on an equalinvestment, agriculture generatesmore employment. Undoubtedly,the QNP per capita in lndia wouldhave been substantially higher andunemployment much less, ifinvestment in agriculture had beenin proportion to its contribution tothe national income.

iii. The benefits of additionalproduction in agriculture accrue tothe poorest in the country.

iv. Finally the problem of a growingadverse trade balance cannot beresolved without a fuller realisationof the rich potential of agro-exports.

From whatever angle one looks atthe problems of the lndian economy,the solution lies in the faster and fullerdevelopment of our agriculture.

Faster Growth Needs More Capital

The second question is, how can itbe done? Faster growth in agriculturecalls for more capital invested in it. Theaverage undernourished farmer of lndiaand his two slow-moving bullocks,cannot produce more than what theyare currently doing, howsoevergenerously they may be fed on politicalrhetoric. They need modern tools ofproduction - high yield variety seeds,fertilizers, pedigree animals, machinesand water-use devices -'to improvetheir productivity. These need capitalinvestment.

What ultimately determinesproductivity in agriculture is the perhectare capital base it acquires in aparticular area or state, over a period oftime. Onfortunately, figures of capitalinvestment in agriculture on a Perhectare basis in different states are notavailable. T'he per hectare capitalinvestment is the highest in Punjab,where productivig is also the highest -nearly three.times the national average.On the other. hand, in a state likeMadhya Pradesh, both per hectarecapital investment and productivity arethe lowest.

New varieties of seeds and othertechnological innovations do help, butto utilise these. capital is needed forboth off-farm and on-farm investments.These in turn, are determined by thepolicies pursued by the government.Capital investment in the farm sector,

as a percentage of the total, hascontinually been declining during the'eighties. As a consequence the growthrate of foodgrain production in lndia onthe basis of quinquennir:m averages,starting from 1970-75 has also beendeclining. lt was 3.44% per annumduring 1970-75; 3.11% during1975-80; 2.84% per annum duringI980-85; and no more than 2.33% perannum during 1985-90. lf this trendcontinues, the growth rate of foodgrainproduction during 1990-95 may turn-out to be slower than the growth inpopulation.

The long term decline in growthrates, and that too on the basis of fiveyearly averages, cannot be explained ongrounds of the vagaries of nature. It is,in fact, the vagaries of the state, whichhas hit the green revolution.

How is Capitalto be Raised?From this follows the third question.

How is the capitalto be raised? Can thegovernment provide it? Yes, but onlypartly, for the creation of the necessaryinfrastructure for agricultural groMh,such as link roads, rural godowns,supply of power and other farm inputs.Can the banks provide the capital? Thereply is 'no', because the loans will haveto be repaid with interest, and unlessthe profitability of agriculture improves,repayment may not be possible. lf theState Farms Corporation, a

Covernment of lndia undertakinglooking after 36,715 hectares ofgovernment farms, had depended onbank loans, instead of the governmenttreasury to meet its operational costs, itwould also have required a huge loanwaiver. having made losses like mostfarmers.

Here are some revealing facts aboutthe price situation. The purchasingpower of one quintal of wheat, as

compared to l0O in 'l 970-7 I declinedin 1988-89 to 78.9, 38.9, 50.5, 42.O and53.3 in terms of fertilizers, pesticides,diesel, tractors and other commoditiesrespectively. A simple arithmeticalcalculation will show that between1970-71 and 1988-89, both Years ofpeak production, the inflation-adjustedper capita income c>f agriculturistsdeclined despite substantial groMh in

farm production (exceeding the groMhin population) in the intervening period.Price twists effectively sucked out of thefarm sector, the benefits of higherproduction.

I-taedctrtr Firsl 4 I

What About Poor Consumers?This leads us to the fourth question:

Can the farmers' interests be protectedwithout jeopardising the interests ofpoor consumers? My reply is 'yes',provided we do not attempt to supplycheap foodgrains even to the urbanrich.

This can be done in three ways: First,by identifuing the poor and giving themdirect food aid as has been doneeffectively and economically in othercountries.

Secondly, by improving marketingefficiency. ln lndia the marketingsystem, as far as farm products areconcerned, both in the public andprivate sectors are very inefficient.Marketing efficiency should be judgedby the quantum of consumer pricepassed on to producers. The higher itis, the more efficient is the marketingsystem. Taking all farm productstogether, lndian producers do not geteven 50 percent of the price paid byconsumers. lt is not an exaggeration tosay, that intermediaries betweenfarmers and consumers - in both theprivate and public sectors - derivemore benefits than the actualproducers. lt has been proved beyonddoubt, that marketing efficiency can beonly be improved by establishing directproducer-consumer links, as has beendone by the National DairyDevelopment Board. lnstead of trying toimprove marketing efficiency bypromoting producer-consumer links,our decision makers have alwaystended to cut the producers' price.

The Third way to reduce food grainprices is to further mechanise ouragriculture. Application of energythrough humdn labour is much moreexpensive than when it is aPPliedthrough diesel oil or electricity. lt hasbeen proved in Punjab, as well as inJapan, that as more and more farmoperations are mechanised, the cost ofproduction gets progressively reduced.Mechanisation of farming does notnecessarily require the use of bigmachines. All over the world, exceptlndia, small machines are available atreasonable prices. The use of smallmachines by small farmers does notdrsplace labour, but adds value to theirworking hours, which is what needs tobe done to lift them above the povertylevel.

Frce dom F rr:t ,12

The only objection to mechanizationthbt has some substance, is that we areshort of fuel oils. But the remedy for thisis the production and use of ethanol ona large scale, which can be abundantlyproduced in the country.

Growing DisparitiesThe final question: "Will the rural

masses be treated as equal citizens ofthe country? I am led to ask this qustionbecause even after four decades offreedom, the death and infdnt mortalityrates in rural lndia are about 2/3rdsmore than in urban lndia; the literacyrate in villages is about half of that incities; the average income ofagricultural workers is less than a fourthof workers in urban areas; differentstandards and norms are adopted indispensing social justice, and in thedistribution of essential commodities.

The truth is that under the garb ofsocialism, the vast majority of people,particularly those living in villages, havebeen mercilessly exploited for thebenefit of the thin upper crust ofsociety.

Priority for agriculture means endingthe exploitation of the farmingcommunity. lt also implies:o doubling agricultural produc$on

within the next 15 years, requiring anaverage annual growth rate of 4.77"

Per annum;doubling the rate of capital formationin the farm sector in order that thegrowth rate of agriculture is doubled;allocating at least 50% of the planexpenditure for developing the ruralinfrastructure, such as link roads,rural warehouses, cold stores,processing plants, powertransmission lines etc.;removing all restrictions on theprocessing, movement, and trade(internal as well as external) of farmproducts; or in the alternative,ensuring farmers remunerativeprices for their produce, which are atparity with the prices that they haveto pay for their farm-inputs and othernecessities of life;

improving the quality of education invillages, because without bettereduction. rural lndia will continue tobe an ocean of indigence, ignorance,lnrl il!-!-1q;ltlr)

From lhe paper presented by l4r. Bhanu PrctapSlrr.cih at the Sernittar on "Priority For Agriculture'.

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Debate

The BJP Must Not be SupportedBobu Joseph

Out commenls on the BJP (BJP - The New Bogey-mon of lndion Politics, Freedom Frrsl July-septembel|99,|) hos upset some ofout reoders. They ore surprised thot we hove 'supported' the BJp; they feel thot this kind ol on ottilude hos no ploce in o liberoljournol like Frcedom First;thot by wriling os we did we ore giving support to foscist forces.

Ihough we invited out friends to put down in writing their criticism which we would publish verbotim, we hove, ot the time ofgoing to press received only the lollowing from Mr. Bobu Joseph of Kottoyom, Kerolo which we publish in full.

R. Srlnhroson, S.V. Rolu

After the untimely demise of theSwatantra Party, there is no politicalgrouping in lndia which could be calledliberal. While that was the case, thelearned eoitors of a truly liberal journalshould not have taken sides with the BJPand hence their article lost all itsobjectivity.

Before offering any comments I

would like to sum up your arguments.o The BJP deserves better treatment

than what it gets today. After all, it isnot more communal than the DutchChurch which gives continuedsupport and sustenance to theapartheid regime in South Africa asalso the large majority of Muslimswho lent their support to the fatwahagainst Rushdie.

o Tyranny of Society is much moreoppressive than the tyranny of a

majority community. For instance a

Hindu majority rule (80% ) is betterthan many other social oppressionswhich lndian Society is subjected to.

o The speeches made tiy SadhviRitambhara and Shri L.K. Advanihave to be seen in different lights.

o lf the B.JP had done so well in the UPelections it was solely due to theinept handling of thd Karsevaks byMulayam Singh and also due to hisattempts at consolidating Muslimvotes in his favour. lf it were not sothey (the B.JP) would have repeatedthe sarne performance inMaharashtra and elsewhere.

o lf the VHP's revivalist and blatantlyreligious campaign was meant tosway the Hindu vote in favour of theBJP why was not the up performancerepeated in Rajasthan and MadhyaPradesh.

o While secularists and leftists label theBJP as a communalist outfit of the

Hindus, they conveniently forgotinstances like the Shah Banojudgement and the withdrawal of anordinance to take over the disputedsite in Ayodhya.

o Mandalisation and the increasingviolence in Punjab, Kashmir, Assamand the survival of India as a nationmade the zuP an attractiveproposition to the middle class.

r Many retired civil servants and retiredtop army brass joined the zuPboosting the latter's image.

o The B'IP is the only party in lndiaexcept communists which hasconducted party elections and haswell organised cadres.

o The BJP knows its mind oneconomic matters. They favourmarket economy except foreigninvestments.

r The RJP is an alternative to thedisorganised personality-basedpolitical parties and they should begiven a chance.

o There is no need to fear that anauthoritarian party will stay in powerforever since India is a democraticcountry.

. Advani and Vajpayee have to bebelieved when they clarify themeaning of Hindutua and Ram Rajya.Why not give them a chance.My cnticisrns are the following:

o Are the arguments advanced infavour of the B.JP tenable or not?

o Of all the churches 'n the world thesectarian attitude of the DutchChurch and the fundamentalistattitude of a section of Muslims arequoted to justify the fundamentalismof the B.JP. To me fundamentalismof any sort or emanating from anyquarter is abhorrent.

o Can the majority Hindu communityescape from its due share of socialtyranny perpetrated on poor lndiansin the form of Sati, casteism,zamindari landlordism, dowry deathsetc.

o The editors should have read betterthe article written by Minoo Masani ina previous issue of Freedom Firstunder the title Dernocracy is notmajority rule.

o A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, theleaders of the BJP, are not new tolndian politics including liberals.Vajpayee started his political careeras a leftist student leader and endedup as a Jan Sanghi. He had, in thepast, supported the non-alignmentpolicy of Jawaharlal Nehru,described Mrs. Candhi as a 'Durga',did all that was possible to scuttle aprincipled alliance with a minimumprogramme to kill Swatantra and itsleader Minoo Masani politically. Inwhich way was Vajpayee'sperformance as foreign ministerdifferent from that of JawaharlalNehru. Then there is L.K. Advani whoas lnformation and Broadcastingminister lacked the guts to convertAll lndia Radio into an autonomousentity. During his discussions on amemoradum submitted by MinooMasani he had even.refused to admitthe role of the press as an adversaryto the ruling party in a democraticpolity.

. You say the &JP know its mind.Thank Cod. the Swatantrites and thecommunists were the only twoparties who had ever known theirmind in lndian politics. The BJPnever had a clear economicperspective. lf they would haveknown their mind they would never

frcedorn ttrst 43

have opposed toreign investments inlndia. Do you think India can growwithout foreign investment and knowhow? ln places like Kerala they askfor nationalisation of all privately runminority institutions.

o The B.JP and communists have welldisciplined cadres - committed towrong causes.

o lf they conduct open party elections,it is well and good. But quite often wesee the same leaders are again andagain elected to top positions. Theelections seem to make no change.

r During the last two elections whatmattered most in the Hindi heartlandwas the Hindu card played by the

BJP and the Mandal card played bythe Janata Dal. lf the same has notbeen repeated elsewhere the reasonsare varied which I don't want toelaborate. lndia is too big and varieda country to make generalisations ofthe sort you make.

o When V.P. Singh was the primeminister the zuP and otherfundamentalist organisationsconnected to it raised a lot of hueand cry to raise a temple in Ayodhya.Now their own government is in UP,why ti,e delay? The answer is politicalexpediency. V.P. Singh was sinnedagainst by BJP than sinning.

Conclusion:What lndia needs is a liberal answer.

That according to me is the comingtogether of truly spirituals belonging toall religions and democrats who believein:o The fusion of spiritual and moral

values in the society.o A decentralised economy.o A new well trained leadership from

the grassroots level. The B'JP. theMuslim League and other communaloutfits strive for revivalism to servetheir narrow political ends but whatwe really need is a renaissance tomake a modern, progressive forwardlooking lndia.

lndia and lsrael-The lndian View

Nandini Srinivasan's view on lsrael(lndia and lsrael- The Palestinian Case,Freedom First, October-December1991) stems from a bias which isinherent in our West Asian policy - thatis historically incorrect, politically invalidand diplomatically unsustainable.

The author's presumPtion of the"basic error" that "Palestine was a landof Jews alone..." is a fallacious premise

- a proposition not propagated even bylsrael. Palestine belongs to Jews andArabs and even to the Christians. ln factPalestine was ruled by Arabs only from630-1099 B.C. and 1291-1516 B.C. -the 1900 years of the Jewish diaspora.The Jews ruled Palestine for about1100 years in all. The Ottoman Truks'rule in Palestine cannot be Arab rule as

the Turks, though Muslims are notArabs.

The Jews were in a majoritY inPalestine until the fifth century anddespite conquests and persecution,Jewish presence continued in Palestine.

The author while referring to theBalfour Declaration ignores the fact thatit was also the League of Nations whichin July, 1922 entrusted Creat Britainwith the Mandate for Palestine and forthe creation of a Jewish NationalHomeland. ln fact the BalfourDeclaration supported by the US andEuropean nations had then drawnsupport from some Arabs. Emir Faisal.

l'rt tlonl First 41

son of the undisputed Arab leader,Sherif Hussein met Zionist leader. Dr.Chaim Weizman at the l9l9 ParisPeace Conference and signed anagreement to "encourage and stimulateimmigration of Jews into Palestine..."Thereafter on March 3, 1919 Faisalwrote to Felix Frankfurter, a Zionistleader and noted Harvard law proiessorthat the Arabs "... wish the Jews a heartywelcome home..." while expressirrg"deepest sympathy" for Zionism. Thr:right of Jews to Palestine is as historicas the Arabs' and mere fluctuations inJewish demographic scales is noreason to invalidate the Jewish right tothe State of lsrael.

Even on the U.N. Partition Plan.1947, what the UN did was to partitionthe Mandated Territory of Palestine intoJewish Palestine called lsrael and ArabPalestine comprising the West Bankand the Gaza Strip. While the Jewishleadership accepted the Plan the Arabsrejected it. Meeting in Cairo onDecember 9, 1947. the Arab Premiersdeclared that they would 'do everythingpossible to bring about the collapse ofthe ON Partition Plan" and declared that"the war aims of the Arabs were theelimination of lhe lr.rvisrl Sl;rtr''Therefore to argue that the UN PartitionPlan was unjust to the Pulestinian Arabsis incorrecl.

Nitin G. Rout

To ascribe the Arab refugee problemto lsrael is also not being factual.Although the West Bank and the Cazawere allotted to the Palestinian Arabs.those lands were annexed by Egypt an<lJordan in 1948 and they continued tobe part of Egypt and Jordan till 1967.Why then did the Palestinian Arabs notattenrpt to form their State r'"ht:n ,\rctbStates tlremselves controlled the \\'estBarrk and Caza? Even the PLO fornredin 196.i rrcver made such an attenll)tuntil the loss of these territories in the1967 Six-day War'.

While lsrael absorbed its refug;eesthe Palestinian Arabs refugee problemwas kept alive like a festering sore. lt iswronq therefore to conclude that therefugee problem is the creation oflsrael. The majority of PalestiniansArabs are Jordanians and yice yersa.When Jordan annexed the West Bankthe Palestinian Arab State comprised82.5% of the Mandate Territory whilelsrael constituted only 17.5% prior Iothe Arab lsrael wars.

The justification not to havediplomatic relations with lsrael is indeedstrahge. Endorsement of a nation'sforc.ign or dornestic policy is not a.'o,rditiorr precedent to diplomaticrelcttror l s.

Penderell Moon

Among the British ICS Officers whoinspired respect and admiration fromthose who were privileged to work withhim was Penderell Moon who chose toserve independent lndia for nearly twodecades with exceptional competenceand dedication. He was in the lndianCMI Service (lCS) Cadre of undividedPunjab prior to August 1947 and hadso identified himself with the virile peo-ple of that State and their problemsthat when lndependence came, he wasinvited by the lndian Government toserve this country, to which he readilyagreed. His knowledge of lndia and itsappalling economic conditions, of thelevel of development of industry andagriculture in every state, particularlythe Punjab were pressed into greaterservice when he was appointed as oneof the principal advisers to the PlanningCommission.

The writer came to know Moon andworked with him for a short period in1959-60 when the former was Secre-tary of a high-power Committeeappointed by the Government of lndiato draft the third five-year plan for thedevelopment of small scale industries.It was a very absorbing experience. TheCommittee was chaired by the Devel-opment Commissioner for Small Scalelndustries and had, as its member, theDirectors of lndustries of all state gov-ernments, the Secretaries of lndustriesof a few state governments besidesseerts like Dr. P.S. Lokanathan, thenDirector-General of the Council ofApplied Economic Research, Mr. G.D.Bansal, Secretary-General, Federationof Chambers of Commerce and lndus-try, and Mr. Advani, Retired Director ofindustries, Maharashtra and lndustrialadviser to ntany Charnbers of Com-merce and lndustry. Penderell Moon asAdviser (lndustries), Planning Commis-sion represented the Commission onthis Committee.

The Committee itself was a rather

A.G. Sivaramakrishnan

It con be cloimed without exoggerotion thot Penderell Moon con be ronked with otheroutstonding Britons like Sir Williom Jones, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, SirArthur Cotton, Sir John

Woodrotfe, to ollof whom lndio wos very much more thon o spicy bit of their mighty BritishEmpire.

unwieldy body, consisting as it did, ofmore than fifty members. lt could notmeet as often as it had to, if it were tosubmit its report to the Governmentwithin the very limited period stipulat-ed. A sub-committee comprised ofMoon as Chairman and Dr. Lokana-than and Mr. Bansal as members was,therefore, formed to go into the detailsand prepare the framework of thereport. lt was during this brief periodthat the writer spent many hours everyday with Moon. The sub-committeeused to have marathon sessions dailyfor five to six hours and the proceed-ings had to be drafted and presented tothe Chairman within hours of the sameday. The writer had to meet Moon afterdinner every night at Eastern Court,where he was residing as a bachelorand following a spartan regimen.Moon's approval of whatever draft hadbeen prepared of the discussions heldearlier during the day had to heobtained.

While it was the writer's rewardingexperience that he could lean heavily onsome of the more knowledgeablemembers of the main Committee itself,he depended more so on lrloon who, asChairman of the sub-committee, wasuniformly sympathetic, helpful andalmost fither-like the way he treated thewriter. The post-dinner session withMoon was a sheer pleasure. What Moondid not know about lndian lndustry orAgriculture was not worth knowing. Todiscuss with this broadminded, catholicand wise Englishmen not merely theday's draft but much else touching reli-gion, philosophy, art, literature but notpolitics was a real education. He had anur rrivalled gift of analysis oI ar ry intrical-eproblem. His incredible skills of precisedrafting and superb command ofEnglish had to be seen at close quartersto be believed.

He was known to be one of the prin-

cipal authors of the lndustrial PolicyResolution, 1956, an epitome of skilfuldrafting, a masterpiece of clarity andelegance. Though Moon was kindenough to commend such capacity fordrafting as the writer had, one must saythat the corrections he made in thedrafts put up to him, the T's he crossedand the I's he dotted were just the deftones which improved the quality of thedraft beyond recognition. His clear andincisive thinkng was reflected in everypage of the report which was over twohundred and fifty pages. He was ademon for work and would not go tobed without completing the job onhand. The dedication he brought to thework enabled the main Committee tosubmit its report to Government threedays ahead of the due date, drawing aword of appreciation from Dr. P.C. Alex-ander the then Senior Officer in theMinistry of Commerce and lndustry (incharge of Small Scale lndustries) towhom the report was submitted. Dr.Alexander, who till recently was Gover-nor of Tamil Nadu, and who could him-self be well described as the father ofthe small scale industries movement inlndia - if a bureaucrat can be sodescribed at all - told us that this wasthe first time that a Governmentappcinted Committee had submitted itsreport before the due date. Though thewriter got more than his due share ofthe credit for the work put in the prepa-ration of that well-received report, hewas all gratitude to Moon, becadse with-out the latter's guiding hand, the reportwor-rld not have been half as effective asit proved to be in the event - all its rec-ommendatiolrs were accepted by theCovernment and Planning Commis-sic,n. This association, bricf as it was,led to mutual affection and regardbetween Moon and the writer.

Moon was an amazingly sweet-tempered person and was particularly

Fn:L:dont First ,15

kind to the writer as \ilas evident from asubsequent developmenl Soon afterthe publication of the Small Scalelndustries Committee's report, theGovernment in appreciation of Moon'ssignificant contribution to it appointedhim as Chairman of another Commit-tee to advise the Government on howbetter to run the lndustrial Estateswhich had been set up all over thecountry for development of small scaleindustries and how to avoid the pitfallsin their functioning which had come tothe notice of the Committee.'f'he Com-mittee was also charged with theresponsibility of investigating the possi-bilities of establishing functional andrural lndustrial Estdtes. Moon was gra-cious enough to request P.C. Alexanderto loan the writer's services as Secre-tary for this Committee. What Moonthen wrote is still fresh in the writer'sgrateful memory. "l want an energetic,intelligent, hard-working and resource-ful Secretary for this Committee. I

thought A.C. Sivaramakrishnan wouldfill the bill. lf you can spare him, weshall make an ideal team." lt was thewriter's misfortune that he could notrespond to this call owing to domestic

engagements which kept him tieddown to the south for some months.The writer never ceased to regret thisfailure on his part to utilize that rareoccasion to improve himself, becauseit is not every day that you get a chanceto be closely associated with scholarly,accomplished and knowledgeable per-sons on whom all their massive intel-lectualwealth sits so lightly.

We may perhaps take leave of Moonafter narrating a slightly amusing epi-sode which throws some light on hissense of humour - the capacity tostand a joke at onself. We were all com-ing out of our Sub-Committee meetingone day with other members and werein the open. Moon was wearing a bush-shirt with three pockets, all of whichcontained some cash. 'He kneeleddown to tie the shoe-lace and out fellsome coins and currehcy notes'fromall the three pockets. While we were allhelping him to recover these,'he burstout "This is the result of having morepockets than you need". The writercould not help taunting "or the result ofl'laving more money than you knowhow to keep or what to do with". The

dart went home, but was taken goodhumouredly, though the person whoaimed itwas very junior in the hierarchyand was twenty years younger thanMoon.

Moon has written quite a few booksabout lndia which reflected his deepconcern for the country which heserved so long with an ardour andcommitment too touching for words. ltcan be claimed without exaggerationthat he can be ranked with other out-standing Britons like Sir William Jones,Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Sir Arthur Cot-ton, SirJohn Woodroffe, to allof whomlndia was very much more than a spicybit of their mighty British Empire.

Mr. A.G. Sivaramakrishnan began his career in194O as a Scientific Officer in the DefenceResearch Laboratories at Kanpur and redredover three decades later as a senior official in theGovernment of lndia.

Qualily. ll's somelhing we don't have totalk about much. Al tharat Billee ourproducts speak eloquently lor us. Andso do our cuslomers. Because lor lorlyyears now the Bharal Bijlee name hasspelt quality. Be it in lranstormers.motors or lifts

Lel's talk about lranslormers. Ourrange is one that's won wide approvallrom sorne very demanding cusiomeisAnd we're always looking forinnovative ways to enhance the range.

Bharat Bijlee motors loo have madelheir mark As rs amply borne out by lhe

lacl that 60,000 molors leave ourlaclory every year

ln lifts, we ve moved up ralher fasl.And wilh our lechnical collaborationwilh Schindler ol Switzerland we re allsel to move even higher.

We have recenlly venlured rnto a newlield - turnkey eleclrilication projeclsHere loo it's our commitment lo qualrlvthal s earmng us a name rn lhe |eld

Our activities are diverse. Yet they allhave one thing in common OualityOf an uncommon kind.

Bharat Biilee Ltd.Eleclric Mansion,Appasaheb Maralhe Marq.I?rgbha-ilrr,. ncrnbli' 40? 025

Transformers.Motors.Lifts.Projects.

Freedom First 40

lr3 l,'Ji86A

WHO IS A SIKH? THE PROBLEIVI OFsfKH IDENTITY by w.H. Mcleod;Oxford University Press, Bombay; 1989;pp.12B Rs. 65.

Prof. W.H. Mcleod, who teacheshistory at the University of Otago, NewZealand, has written several books onSikhism. His earlier works deal mainlywith the Janam Sakhrb'i.e. narratives ofthe life of Guru Nanak, written severalyears after his time.

While the importance of the presentwork cannot be denied, the book is, onthe whole, disappointing. This revieweris not an authority on the social, politicaland religious history of the Sikhs, butMcleod is not an authority, either. Andyet, time and again, he makes sweepinggeneralizations about historical andsocial developments, and even aboutthe religious beliefs of the Sikhs withoutthe barest evidence to suPPort hisinterpretation.

A proper understanding of theproblem of Sikh identity might help usto study the very real problem of Sikhi:ilenation. And what may be called the'Sikh problem' is certainly an imPortantaspect of 'the Punjab problem.' This isnot to deny that economic and politicalfactors have also played a part incomplicating the situation.

Mcleod has divided his book intoseven chapters: 1. What is Sikhism? 2.The Nanak-panth; 3. The Khalsa and itsRahit; 4. The The Khalsa in theEighteenth Century; 5. The SinghSabha Reformation; 6. Definition byLegislation, and7. Who is a Sikh? whichis both a summary and a conclusion.

Chapter 1 is a brief account of thebasic principles of Sikhism. lt isunsatisfactory and all too brief.Mcleod's chapters on recentdevelopments (chapterq 5 t' 6) and hiscomments on the role of institutionslike the S.q.P.C. (Shiromini CurudwaraPrabhandhAk Committee) are well-informed, perceptive fact-based andbalanced.

However, Mcleod often goes wrongwhile discussing the earlier periodespecially tlre period from Guru Nanakto Guru Gobind Singh. He mixes issuesand discusses social, political andhistorical developments almost atrandom, and while he admits thedifficulty of giving a precise answer tothe question 'Who is a Sikh' he oftenmakes unwarranted assumptions anddraws conclusions which are notjustified.

Mcleod's study also suffers from hisstrange tendency to coin terms like'Nanak-panth', 'Mon Sikh' and then usethem (without explaining their need orrelevance) as if they are a part of thereligious vocabulary of Sikhism. lt isironical that a writer whose book isdevoted to define a 'Sikh' is so carelessabout defining terms invented byhimself.

A more serious objection is that,occasionally, Mcleod seems to denyaccepted facts of history. Talking of thefounding of the Khalsa in 1699,Mcleod states that "... a rite of baptismwas introduced on that famousBaisakhi day if (sic.) indeed such a

decisiur r was itr rplcr r rer rle.J Ly Cur uCobind Singh, it marks a verysignificant development indeed."

Thus, Mcleod seems to question anaccepted historical fact and yet does

nothing to substantiate the ground forsuch doubt.

Again, in Chapter 4, he writes "As faras the eighteenth century Khalsa wasconcerned, the Dasarn Granth was asmuch a part of the canon as the AdiGranth." The 'Dasam Granth' is acompilation of the works of GuruCobind Singh. The Sikhs have alwaysaccepted the historical tradition thatCuru Gobind Singh directed the Sikhsto regard lhe 'Adi Granth'as the "Guru"and named it the 'Shri Guru GranthSahib". While the Dasam Qranth iscertainly regarded with respect, it is the'Adi Qranth' which has become theHoly Book for the Sikhs. The 'AdiGranth' is installed in all Curudwaras(Sikh places of worship). Mcleodmakes no effort and cites no evidenceto prove that the present practice ofregarding the Adi Granth alone as the'Guru' was not followed in theeighteenth century and yet makes suchan unsubstantiated assertion entirely atvariance with accepted historicaltradition.

Surprisingly, Mcleod appears tohave little first-hand acquaintance withthe 'Adi Granth' or the social andreligious philosophy contained in it. The'Adi Oranth'is a cornpilation of about5000'Shabads' (devotional poems).Guru Nanak began collectingcompositions of saints like hispredecessor Namdev of Maharashtra,the cobbler Ravidas (of so-called 'lowcaste') the weaver Kabir along with theverses of Muslim sufi saint like SheikhFarid and began singing them alongwith his own compositions. The 'AdiGranth'- i.e. the First Book or the Bookof the First Curu) - was passed on fromGuru to Curu. Guru Arjun, the FifthCuru, prepared an authoritative edition,added his own verses and gave it a

position of reverence. The Tenth Curuinserted the compositions of the NinthCuru, Ieglr Bairadur, exciuciec.l ius owrtverses, and designated the 'Adi Granth'as the 'Shri Guru Cranth Sahib".

Curu Nanak and his successorsstressed the importance of simple living

F:t:eclitnt [:irsl 47

and high thinklng; social equality wasgiven great importance, communityservice and the spirit of sharing with theless fortunate was stressed. The ShriGuru Aranth Sahib'may be regarded asthe Scripture of the Sikhs but isprobably the only Holy Book in theworld which contains verses of poet-saints who believe in other religions.But it would be wrong to regardSikhism as a synthesis of the principlesof Hinduism and lslam. Scholars likeDr. Gopal Singh have pointed out thatSikhism has a religious philosophydistinct and different from that ofHinduism and lslam.

Mcleod, while accepting thecomplexity of the cross-currents ofreligious, social and political history,starts by implicitly accepting the word'Sikh' as a broad concept. For instance,he defines'Sahajdhari' as a'non-KhalsaSikh'. But he ends Chapter 5 withquestions like "Were they i.e. theSahajdhari also to be regarded as Sikhsor was the Khalsa identity to be the onlyacceptable one? Was it possible to livewith their claim that they were bothHindu and Sikh?"

The answers are obvious. All'sahajdhari Sikhs' are, ltave been, andwill be regarded as 'Sikhs'. A"Sahajdhari Sikh" is any person whobelieves in the Sikh religion, but whodoes not grow a beard or keeP longhair. A'Keshdhari Sikh' is a person whobelieves in Sikhism and keeps his hairunshorn. He may or may not have taken'Amri(. lf he has taken Amrit' he iscalled "Amritdhari Sikh" or "Khalsa".

A Sikh Curudwara or Place ofworship is open to all and a significantnumber of "Sahajdhari Sikhs" (e.g.

Sindhis and Punjabis) visit Gurudwarasregularly. pray there and even get theirchildren married accordirrg to Sikhrites.

Chapter6containsausefuldiscussion of various laws which have

attempted to define a 'Sikh' mainly forthe purpose of elections to themanaging cotrmittees of variousCurudwaras. Mcleod observes that, ingeneral, the legal provisions havetended to exclude 'Sahajdhari Sikhs',from the definition of a 'Sikh'.

Whatever the political compulsionsc-rf tiie Akaii leauer s oI lePleselltatrves <-ti

Curudwara Managing Committees whoprobably lobbied for the enactment ofsuch laws, such exclusion of

i tt,',i tnt f-irsl 'i':l

'Sahajdhari Sikhs' from the definition of'a Sikh' is wrong and inconsistent withthe principles of Sikhism. Mcleodquotes an influential Sikh scholar, KahnSingh Nabha who, says, "Singhs (i,e,Khalsa Sikhs) who treat Sahajdhariswith contempt are ignorant of Sikhreligion."

Chapter 7 contains a discussion ofterms like 'quaum', which have causeda lot of misunderstanding. He pointsout that 'quaum' is an Arabic termdenoting "a people who stand together"and is commonly used by the Sikhs todescribe their sense of a separateethnic identity. lt is misleading andwrong to translate 'quaum'as 'Nation.'

Conclusion: At the end of the book,Mcleod offers a formal definition of a'Sikh.' He lists the characteristics of aSikh as follows: A Sikh is a person whobelieves in the Ten Qurus and the AdiCranth, keeps his hair unshorn, doesnot smoke, accepts the role of theCurudwara and the 'langar' inpromoting an 'anti-caste' attitude,recognises the importance of 'NamSimran', may or may not be amritdhariand believes that women have a statusequal to that of male Sikhs.

McLeod's definition restricG theterm 'Sikh' to mean 'Keshdhari Sikh'only. Mcleod has nothing to say of thesocial and religious philosophy ofSikhism except for the mention of 'Nam

Simran'. Sikhism gives pride of place tothe compositions of the 'Qurus', andthe 'Adi Cranth'is formally recognisedas the "Shri Guru Granth Sahib" or theEternal Curu.

When a Sikh bows before the 'ShriGuru Granth Sahib," he shows equalreverence for all the saint-poetsrepresented in this golden treasury ofmedieval lndian literature. Sikhism is amodern, practical, progressive andrevolutionary faith. These saints did notpraise a fugitive and cloistered virtue.Curu Nanak, in 'Babar-Vani ' raised hisvoice against oppression; he advisedhis 'Sikhs' to "be of the world, but benot worldly." He stressed theimportance of "truthful living." GuruArjun, the fifth Master, said theimportant thing is to "remember theName of the Lord, and perform gooddeeds". The saint Kabir denounced ttreliypucrisy ut Llre lrrglr-castc btaltttttllsin the strongest language, and said that"The brave man is he who fights for theoppressed." Curu Cobind Singh called

the "Khalsa" - 'the fumy of the Lord"and emphasized that "Men have onlyone caste - the caste of humanity."

Who, then, is a Sikh? ln the popularsense, 'a Sikh' is a person who keepshis hair unshorn, does not smoke, visitsthe GuruCwara and pay obeisance tothe Adi Granth. 'But in the widest senseof the term, "a Sikh" is a person whopractises the secular and ethical valuesof Sikhism. lt matters little whether he is"Sahajdhari" or amritdhari " or whetherhe also believes in some other religion.He may or may not fulfil therequirements specified by theParliament of Man, but if he acceptsand lives according to the values andideals adopted by the Parliament ofSaints represented in the "Shri GuruGranth Sahib," that is more thanenough. Such a man is "a Sikh" in thetrue sense of the word.

Revie.wed by InR. ISHWAR SI/YCH, Lecturer inEnglish, Klrti College, Bombay.

IN GANDHI'S FOOTSTEPS _ THELIFE AND TII{ES OF JA/VINAI-ALBAJA.J by B.R. Nanda; Oxford Univer-sity Press. Bombay; 1990; pp. 398:Rs 225.

This book is a biography of JamnalalBajaj who worked for Cundhiji all his lifeso faithfully and honestly'that Candhililor'ked rrpon him as .t son. !1ahadev

Desat telt ttrat Bayal was "a fiving linkbetween the outside world and Can-dhiji". lt has also been felt that 'this linkwas broken with Jamnalal s sudden

death in February 1942." The reasonsfor the unquestioned allegiance of Jam-nalalji to Candhiji are not known butcould not be other than his deep long-ing for the life of the spirit even beforehe joined Candhiji "probably in thesummer of 1915." lt is almost certainhe was attracted to Qandhiji notbecause of politics but because ofsocial and religious reforms - the con-structive work of Candhiji.

The major political campaigns ofGandhiji were in 1920-22, 1930-33 and1940-42. The attention of the world hasbeen centred on these years, whilstthere were long periods in which thework done was not political - hand-spinning, removal of untouchability, etc.As the author of this book tells us:"There was a division of labour. Gandhiplanned and Jamnalal Bajaj executedthese programmes." lf Gandhi figuresin th;s book in a big way, it is becausehis influence moulded the whole pat-tern of Jamnalal's life. Jamnalal ear-nestly tried to practise the Gandhianethic in every sphere of his life. This wasnot an easy task it was more difficult tobe a Gandhian than to be a capitalist, acornmunist or a socialist. He tasted tothe full "the pleasures and pains ofbeing a disciple of the Mahatma."

Writing on the constructive work ofGandhiji during the long intervalsbetween the major political campaigns,is more difficult than is normally imag-ined. lt is fortunate that this work hasbeen accornplished by B.R. Nanda whois known for his impartiality and inde-penCence. He has made this book abook with a purpose.

ln a short review we can only refer toa few among the large number of insti-tutions and the personalities involved. ltis important to note that Jamnalal wasinterested in social reform much beforehe met Gandhiji. "Long before he metCandhi, the transience of wealth, andeven of life, had been almost an obses-sion with him... After meeting Candhi, adramatic change took place in him".

It is clearly wrong to believe thatthere was no corruption before we gotour lndependence. Jamnalalji wasshocked about this. The formation ofCongress ministries and provincialelections were not an unmixed blessinq."Holding office in Congress commit-tees came to be viewed nst as it oncewas, a passport to prison, but to powerand partronage" (page 334). Congress

membership increased from fiue lakhsin 1935-36 to fortg-fiue lakhs inI 938-39.

We get discussed in this book suchimportant issues as the basic differenc-es between outstanding leaders likeMotilal Nehru and C.R. Das on the oneside and Candhiji on the other. Thesewere differences of principle - such asnon-violence considered in the contextof Non-cooperation. Hand-spinning,removal of untouchability, and the pro-motion of communal unity in the wayhe wanted, "failed to impress thepoliticians"

It is of some importance to note thatin the years before our 'freedom

in1947, the use of English as a languagefor work and communication wasaccepted. Gandhiji took classes in theEnglish language...". Jamnalalji prac-tised speaking English with Vatji Desaiwho was "one of the scholarly inmatesof the Sabarmati Ashram. Kamalnayan,the eldest son of Jamnalalji, insisted onlearning English." Vinoba gave himsome lessons. Mahadev Desai suggest-ed to Jamnalal that he should write tohis son only in English. Gandhiwrote toJankidevi 'he is very eager to learnEnglish. I am, therefore, of the opinionthat we should send him to Colombo.He will get there the opportunity to sat-isfy to the fullest his desire to learnEnglish." Kamalnayan went to Colom-bo in June 1935 and for his higher edu-cation he went to London. Gandhijigave him letters of lntroduction toHenry Polak, C.F. Andrews, HoraceAlexander and Muriel Lester. To HenryPolak he wrote,

"However we may fight Great Britain,London is increasingly becomingour Mecca or Kashi!"

Candhiji requested Polak to putKamalnayan in touch with ProfessorLaski, as he had advised Kamalnayan totake a course in the London School ofEconomics. About 50 years earlierCandhiji had been to London as a stu-dent; he offered now some usefuladvice to Kamalnayan.

Reviewed b.y Prof. P.N. DRIVFR, Principal(Retd.). Coltege ol Agriculture, Pune.

DEMOCRACY AI'{D ITS CRITICS byRobert A. Dahh Orient Longman. NewDelhi; 1991; pp.397; Rs. I lO.

In this work, Dahl brings hisconsiderable skills of both analysis andsynthesis to bear on the vital theme ofDemocracy. At a time when variousforms of authoritarianism have eithercrumbled or are facing relentlesspressures from within and without, thisbook focuses on the phenomenonwhich goes by the name of democracywhich means rnany things to manypeople. lt explores in depth the variousdimensions of democracy both asconcept and as praxis. lt traces thegroMh of the democratic experimentfrom the time of the 'firsttransformation' of the early politicalcommunity into the participative city-state, through the centuries of politicalevolution that led to the 'second

transformation' into the modern nation-state, and further on to the threshold ofa possible 'third transformation' into thetransnational state.

Osing the scholastic method ofnormative discourse, and availingextensively of the Socratic techniqueemployed in the dialogues of Plato,Dahl leaves no stone unturned toestablish a credible case fordemocracy. He takes on the adversarialcritics of democracy such as theadvocates of anarchism and of variousbrands of guardianship and rebutspoint with counterpoint. Though thisrnakes lor heavy readrng, rt serves theuseful purpose of bringing to the forefundamental issues of political debatewhich lie at the treart of every political

Frredom Firsl '19

controversy and political dispensation.ln the author's view, "the best possiblestate would be one that would minimizecoercion and maximize consent, withinlimits set by historical conditions andthe pursuit of other values, includinghappiness, freedom and justice.Judged by ends like these, the beststate ... would be a democratic state".

Dahl sets about building his case fordemocracy by laying down theassumption, which he refers to as theStrong Principle of Equality, that allmembers of a human association "aresufficiently well qualified, taken allround, to participate in making thecollective decisions binding on theassociation that significantly affect theirgood or interests. ln any case none areso definitely better qualified than theothers that they should be entrustedwith making the collective and bindingdecisions". lmplied in this proposition isa Presumption of Personal Autonomy,according to which, "ln the absence of acompelling showing to the contrary,everyone should be assumed to be thebest judge of his or her own good orinterests." Thus, in any effectivedemocratic process of making bindingdecisions, "citizens ought to have anadequate opportunity, and an equalopportunity, for expressing theirpreferences as to the final outcome."For this it is equally important that the'demos' or people "must include alladult membe.rs of the associationexcept transients and persons proved tobe mentally defective."

For Dahl, both the substantive andthe procedural aspects of democracyare important and need to beaddressed in tandem. Democracy doesnot involve a zero sum game betweenprocess and substance. lt calls for finetuning between the rights and interestsof both majorities and minoritis as therecan be a tyranny of both if the case foreither is pressed too far. Dahl also goeginto the complexities of establishingsome sort of co-relationship amongvarious factors that affect thefunctioning of democracy in practice.such as the size of the political unit inquestion, the issues to be decided bythe demos or their representatives andthe levels at which various powers andfunctit.,rts rtray best bc exercised. Thediscourse is of necessity inconclusivebut is nonetheless significant inhighlighting areas of concern in

Frtx1om First 50

working out a viable and effectivedemocratic system.

Dahl further investigates themetamorphosis of the earlier small-scale democracies into the modernmacro scale 'polyarchies' of therepresentative democracies. Heexplores how and why polyarchysucceeded in some countries and failedin others and the vicissitudes that latter-day versions of polyarchic democracymust face if they are to eventuallyprevail. He lays stress on seveninstitutions that he considers vital forpolyarchy, and these are: electedofficals, free and fair elections, inclusivesuffrage, right to run for office, freedomof expression, alternative informationand associational autonomy. He isconvinced that a society that is modern,dynamic and pluralist (MDP) is mostlikely to sustain polyarchy. But thequestion can be raised as to whetherpolyarchy is out of bounds for non-MDPsocieties or for societies that have oneor two but not all three characteristicsascribed to a polyarchically inclinedsociety. lf that were the case, then byimplication Dahl is positing Western-style politics as normative for societiesthe world over. But such a conclusionwould at the very least lend itself todebate. Be that as it may, one cannotfauh Dahl for. laying down the axiomthat "civilian control over the militaryand police is a necessary condition forpolyarchy, and the failure of civiliancontrol is sufficient to account for theexistence of non-democratic regimes inmany countries."

ln his concluding chapter on'Sketches for an Advanced DemocraticCountry', Dahl succintly addresseshimself to the heart of the democraticdebate when he states that while hisexplicit concern is with political equality,his implicit and real concern is withfreedom, human development, andhuman worth. W€ need to be remindedof this fundamental concern in order tocounter the facile notion thatdemocratic instrumentalitiesautomatically guarantee a genuinelydemocratic way of life. ln an age ofeconomism and consumerism in whichthe market can loom over the commonman much like a leviathan, and inwhich the principle of politicalinclusiveness is often at loggerheadswith the exclusiveness andrestrictiveness of laissez-fairemanagerial policy in economic life, we

cement

need to be cautioned against thoseforces that surreptitiously work againstthe democratic ethos and culture overthe long term. Economic institutionsneed to be democratized no less thanpolitical structures if the citizens are todevelop not merely as consumers andproducers but as human beings. "Forunless the Strong Principle of Equalityapplies among the members of anenterprise, we cannot conclude thatthey'are entitled to govern themslves byrhe democratic process."

ln sum, this book represents Dahl'smost ambitious attempt to interpret andadvocate the grand democraticenterprise as being capable of the leastevil and the most good in comparisonwith any of its alternatives. His attempthas the merit of situating democracy inan evolutionary time-frame in whichunderstaMing is sought to be maderetrospective, prospective andintrospective at the same time. Thediscourse tends to be laboured at timesand may give the impression of a hair-splitting exercise. But this perhapscannot be avoided in a serious work ona serious theme. Withal, there is nogainsaying the fact that here we have athoroughly researched work thatunderlines the importance of rcrnsand values in political life and socommends itself to the attentive public.

Revlewed by Dr. UONEL FERr'nNDES.Dcpartmcnt of CMcs and Politics. Onivcrslty ofBombay.

THE NEW WORLD ORDER bySundeep Waslekar: Konark PublishersPrivate Ltd.. A-149. Main Mkas Marg.New Delhi llO O92: 1991; pp 214;Rs.200.

The world as we have known it forover four decades is undergoing afundamental transformation before ourvery eyes. To describe the currentmulti-layered convulsions inconventional terms as a period oftransition, flux or change etc. is simplyinadequate. lt is too early to come upwith an overarching concept that canencompass the paradigmatic shift onthe global anvil. The end of the cold warand the collapse of the East or the socalled Second World merely signify thebeginning of a revolution in theestablished power/ideologicalrelationships all over the world. How far

will the tide go? Whtre will it stop? Whatwill be the future shape of the globalpower structure? Nobody knows ordares to speculate let alone predict. ltlooks as though the ideologicalrivalriesof the past could disappear altogether,and this may happen sooner than wenow imagine possible. But, sub-national ethnicity has emerged as aferocious new force all over the globe.

As political rivalries be.ween nationssubside, economic conflicts are movingto the fore, and environmental erosioncould threaten the very survival of manon the planet, Sundeep Waslekarobserves. As the nuclear arms race isdecelerating and nuclear weapons arebeing actually destroyed, the spectre ofterrorism has raised its ugly head onceagain and the so called low levelviolence has become a global concernof the highest importance. Almost allnations in the world are confronted withpowerful challenges to the centralauthority from internal disaffection andviolence. ln many countries a powerfuland dangerous nexus has developedbetween the lucrative drug-traffickingand smuggling of arms and gold on theone hand and the entrenched powerstructures in business, government andthe military, on the other.

Even as the legitimacy andcapabilities of the national governmentsare being challenged from within, theyare also being subjected to severepressures from the outside. ln thiscontext the collapse of the Soviet Unionand the near complete loss of credibilih,of the communist model makes thesituation of the third world countriesextrernely precarious. The "elbow

room" they enjoyed in the cold war erahas disappeared, Waslekar points out.The historic North-South divide nowassumes an added significance and a

new urgency.

How should we conceptualise thenew world situation that is unfolding?What are the short-term and the long-term patterns one can detect, howevertentatively? What should be thecontours of the emerging new globalparadigm? What could be achieved?What would the world most probably belike ten, twenty or fifty years from now?The spirited and optimistic editor ofThe New World Order has broughttogether (between the two covers so tosay) a collection of responses,statements, messages and reasoneddiscourses from the widest possiblecross-section of leaders, public figures,men of ideas and men of action from allover the world. Such a miscellanynaturally, is not exactly a "book" as wenormally understand it. But,nevertheless, and partly because of thisvery free flowing nature of the book, itcan be seen as a social testament, asort of a "period" essay on the historicalevolution of international society.However, unsatisfactory it may be fromthe perspective of coherence andsustained analysis, the book representsthe essence of the best thinking on thecentral concerns confronting worldsociety today. Waslekar should becommended for his courage (nayaudacity) to embark on the enterprise.As he rightly observes, his illustriousrespondents were reacting to thenagging conceptual void on hand andonly incidentally to the unknowninterlocutor from lndia. That only showsthe relevance and the significance ofthe basic idea, the theme of the book:How to conceptualise and concretise abetter world order? lt is neither possiblenor necessary to comment even verybriefly on the essays, responses andmessages included in the book. Someof them are as brief as a page or twowhile some others are well crafted andstructured essays of considerablelength (even after drastic pruning by theeditor.)

The book is divided into foursections, each with an "lntroduction" ofits cwn Section I covers the challcngcsof the 1990's with very thoughtfulcontributions from such luminaries asJavier Perez de Cuellar, the (recently

Freedom First 5l

retired) Secretary Ceneral of the UN, K.Subrahmanyan of lndia, DouglasRoche of Canada and Soedjatmoko oflndonesia. Section ll deals with the"Role of the lnternational Community".Section lll deals with the "New Role ofthe State" and Section lV tells us how"The People Respond". A summary ofrecommendations called "Blueprint ofa New World Order" is the capstone ofthis unique and slim volume of over200 pages.

The UN Secretary General de Cuellaroffers a very perceptive analysis of howthe 0N was conceived as the managerof the world in the post war era and howits functioning was stymied by the coldwar from the very beginning. Eventhough the Security Council wasparalysed, he asserts that manychanges occurred in the world andconsequently in the world body. He liststhe disorientation caused by rapidchange as the single most importantgeneric challenge confronting the worldtoday. Dr. Masamichi lnoki, Chairmanof the Research lnstitute for Peace andSecurity, Tokyo, points out that whilethe cold war in Europe is over, conflictsare raging all over Asia. Outstandingissues of the past should be settledbefore we go on to the New World, lnokiinsists. l-le rightly argues that too muchconcentration on EuroPe will not makethe rest of the woild secure.

What is it individuals like you and I

can do to helP in raising a sustaineddebate over the constant andcontinuing concerns of Man? Poverty''hunger, deprivation, terrorism andminorities (ethnic and religious) werealways with mankind. The only thingthat is new is that now theY havebecome global Problems. SPillingbeyond the national boundaries thesepeiennial issues have become theurgent common concern of mankindas a whole. War economies shouldbecome Peace economles.Decentralisation of economic Powerbetween the nation states as well as

within each of them has become a vital

necessity. Attitudes of cooperationbetween nations and individuals needto be strengthened. ln the shrinkingplanet of ours tlrere is no room forrrations to tigltt orte artotl tct i

The liberai democratic Politicalsystem with a mixed economY has

certainly emerged as the new and

tn cdont Firsl 52

"successful" global idiom. But within itsvery inclusive frame of reference, theinstitutions of the new world order areyet to be visualised, conceptualised andoperationalised. Man has a long way togo. Let us hope he will not get tired andgive up hope.

As Buckminster Fuller rightlyobserved, what the World urgentlyneeds is not reformt but new forms. Amore secure tomorrow with greaterjustice for all will not happen by itself. lfit is to happen at all, men and theirgovernments have to make it happen. ltis in this spirit that the lnternationalPeace Initiatives, a small group ofthinking men and women based inBombay was launched a couple ofyears ago. These talented professionalsand academics are concerned, amongother things, with the promotion of anintellectual ambience that is committed

to anticipating conflicts (at local,national and international levels) and tonurture research projects andpersonnel capable of offering rationaland consensual "solutions" that self-consciously rise above narrow andparochial considerations, be the areaunder scrutiny the village, the city, theState or the globe as a whole. Theoptimism of these youthful and wellmeaning men and women may seemto be unrealistic to the more seasoned(or cynical?) among us. But, theircommitment is sincere and their goalsare laudable. ln wishing them well, weare only doing a favour to ourselves, thehumankind. The enlightened businessleaders who extended a helping hand tothem also deserve praise.

Revlewed by Dr. B. RAIqESH BAB0. Head of theDept. cf CMcs and Politics. University ofBombay.

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