On an occasion like this when we are on the eve of independence, after sixty years of independence, I think, yes indeed, this is time to celebrate, the fact that we have except for a nineteen month period between 1975-1977, when Mrs. Indira Gandhi imposed a state of internal emergency that we have retained the open democratic society that we had the semblance, I should say it was not a blown matured democracy , but at least we have had democratic process, the formal institutional systems of democratic process relatively intact. We go to polls every five years we elect our political leaders who rule us in the states and the centre, and since the 72, 73 amendments acts also in our panchayats. So the formal system and formal structures and formal processes of democracy at one level- one might say are relatively intact. The media is supposedly free. The possibility of the groups to organize themselves in dissent is available to most Indians. if you look around the Indian subcontinent, at Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, except for the past few month of developments in the Nepal, in comparison to ours, we might seem to be doing quite well.
Why then do I say? That there is need for introspection and probably not as much for celebration. Why is a need for introspection? Why is there really a critical need to locate within ourselves the strength and the capacity to resist what is happening in the country, what is unfolding around us and take steps concretely, how so ever smaller way to ensure what is happening now is not just stopped but it is changed. Therefore I think, at no other juncture last sixty years, has there been as much need for a very deep personal collective and political introspection on what we have given ourselves after sixty years of so called independence.
When we gained independence in 1947, there was a very hard and contentious debate within the country on what should be the nature of our constitution. You are familiar with the some of the debates in our constituent assembly, the group of people who traveled across the country, debate amongst themselves and invited people from all over the country, some people from the other parts of the world to discuss what should be the nature of constitution. We decided, after that period of debate and discussion and introspection particularly almost after two hundred years of British colonization, that we would give ourselves a sovereign, secular, and democratic society. And this introspection therefore should look at each of those three founding principles, founding pillars of our independence. How Sovereign are we today? How Secular are we today? How Democratic are we today?
And often this task doesn’t become easy, because if we look around us, we see a blossoming, as some people call it, of economic development and economic growth. We see in our markets the availability of wide and increasingly diverse range of goods. You can walk in to a store and buy a wrist watch of Rs.70 lacs and you can go into a show room and buy a car that costs Rs. 5cr, and every thing in between. And we consider this to be a mark of what classical economists; new liberal economists call the freedom of the market. And so the first point of introspection should be not just the question of how free is our market? But does a free market guarantee Sovereignty, and Democracy. And you come to realize if you look at the experience of the countries like Latin America, Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru, Brazil and Mexico, you realize that these countries that after nearly fifty - sixty - seventy years of being under the shadow of the United States implementing the kind of economic and social policies that we have implemented or we are seeking to implement now. And these countries have given up that path and are moving to the left. They are speaking the language which we were familiar with, in nineteen fifties and sixties and seventies of how do u build a socialist and caring country, where every citizen has the capacity to evolve to his/her fullest capacity respecting that they live in a committee of peoples. And collectivity of people’s communities has to be an interdependent relationship, one that is democratic, unjust. So the question before us today very much is, the first question is, Is a free market a guarantee of Democracy?
If u look at the kind of race that we are involved in as a nation to attract foreign direct investment, the argument being that more foreign investment comes in, the more economic activity it will generate, more the economic activity more economic growth we will achieve, more the economic growth that we achieve the more we will be able to address the critical problems that India has faced for long time of poverty. But, has this race to garner as much foreign direct investment as possible, really contributed to the realization of Democracy and Justice? That’s the linked question. Because, this foreign direct investment is coming in the name of creating a free market, but with conditionalties imposed on India. Luckily we have now broken away temporarily, I believe broken away from IMF. But still we have deep relationship with World Bank. It loaned India $60 billion. It’s not the numbers that are important, but it’s the influence that this institution has on the direction on our Economy and to large extent increasing direction on our social programs.
World Bank has been arguing for the several years that it is no longer a bank- a conventional bank that gives loans but is playing the role of knowledge. What constitutes knowledge, what constitutes legitimate knowledge, will be directed by the World Bank. And what is this knowledge? It is precisely this so called wisdom and I hate to use this word for something that we say ideologically driven political attempt at controlling India. That’s not really wise. But at least, it is an explicit statement saying that India must move in particular direction, in which it must do the whole set of things, the so called conditionalities. And what are those things of building that we need to move towards building a free market? We need to reduce our tariff barriers, and reduce and eliminate our subsidies that we have defined to protect our workers and protect our farmers and protect our production systems, to protect what is uniquely grown in this country, what is supporting our peoples lives and livelihoods. Those protections must all be withdrawn. What’s ironic to me and again something for introspection is the very principles they want us to adopt are the principles they are not willing to adopt. The largest subsidies and and largest barriers that exist in the world to day, exist in the Western Europe and United States. So in deed they want to have a free market then why are they not free?? And why are they propagating free market in India.
Another conditionality is that there should be freedom from movement of capital. That’s money can move without any barriers. And investors can come in and invest in what ever they want. And they can take back the profits that are made. Some of you may be surprised know that of the money that came in last year 26% , came to buy real estate in India. Buy our land that is Indian property. Foreign Companies coming in to buy Indian property. It’s not any different from the historical phase when East India Company came in to India very gradually started having deals and side deals with diversity of our ruler and one day we found ourselves being colonized.
The introspection therefore has to make us understand in all its depth detail; that if we are not careful we have already taken the first steps to be re-colonised. And that recolonisation is not just in the context of 26% of FDI coming to buy our lands. That recolonisation is also is colonisation of the mind. And the introspection needs us therefore to look at those aspects of our mind, of our own behavior, of our own attitudes, that are being sold to the myths of these free markets - the myths of development, the myths of liberalization, the myths of privitasation in the name of democracy.
Have we any freedom to discuss these policies that are imposed on us? Not a single World Bank policy document, not a single policy statement, not a single loan and its not involved in giving individual loans that you want to a build Sardar Sarovar project on Narmada and you go and give a proposal to the world bank and it will say ok, we reviewed the proposal and we are giving you $400 million. Its no longer individual projects. They have written a document called ‘country assistance strategy’. It’s like a five year plan. That looks at every sector of our economy and big sectors of our society and makes stern recommendations on each of those elements.
Who is the world bank?? The World Bank is still one of those undemocratic institutions in the world. Seven countries of the most powerful countries corner 42% of its voting. They can over rule what the entire so called developing world might want to see as their own path to development.. It’s an organization, an institution significantly dominated by the world transnational corporations. It supports them. It supports them and funds them. It guarantees their investment. And it’s this institution has the audacity to write a country’s Assistance Strategy, which is not even debated I our parliament and we accept it in totality. And start changing our own internal policies. To bring our countries policies in convergence with what they are recommending. Is this a defense of our Sovereignty? Is this a respect for fundamental principle of Democracy that any major change or minor change, particularly of structural policy changes must be debated by those whom we elected.
So the first issue, I think needs introspection precisely is this, what is the direction in which country’s economy is going? how is that direction actually a violation of our sovereignty and violating fundamental democratic principles of public discussion, public debate, and the exploration of the alternatives at the same time? The second issue is of equally deep introspection is the democratic structure itself. First issue is central to governance. It’s not just about processes and structures in democracy. Governance is also about how we are and who is governing our economy. Why is it important? Because that is what shapes politics. Economics doesn’t exist as an independent discipline that has little to do with politics. It shapes the political direction in this country.
The second issue therefore to me is of deep importance, how democratic are our political democratic institutions? That’s where as people of this country we need to play a role. We need to play a role because it’s that process of deepening democracy that we have all to large extent forfeited. We have by our silence by our inaction become complicit. Our silence supports what’s happening. How can some one can come to my land, build over it special economic zone. How can some body come to my land and say I am going to build next steel mill here. And if any body protests we will see that there will be police men as it happened in Nandhigram and Kalinga Nagar, and we will shoot you down. How democratic is this process when fundamental institutions of the democracy at the base of our society are so weak. And mind you this is to me a very important point for introspection; we have been compared to almost all over the world including the Western Europe. We have legally recognised institutions of local governments the least explored of laws that we have given to ourselves. I refer here particularly, to the 72, 73 Constitutional Amendment Act recognizing 33% reservation for women and dalits in local governments and what came after that in the extension to the scheduled areas act for tribal areas. It is one of those radical pieces of legislation any where in the world. It gives tribal people and tribal communities exclusive not just provisional access and control to natural resources to our systems of government, to our systems of knowledge but how many tribal areas in the country taken this legislation constitutionally recognized and actually made use of it to ensure that local communities, are given that exclusive right to their productive natural resources. That they have exclusive control over their systems of local government, that their government at Gram Sabha level is superior to all other layers of government. That means u can challenge, these institutions of governance, above you if u do not want them. Or, if u do not like what they have decreed. So there is no question that any Reliance or Citi bank or POSCO or a Wal-Mart can come into your area and say we have permission from government of India to establish our selves here. Absolutely you can say no. This has been also a time, in which internationally indigenous and tribal communities have been fighting for fundamental change in international law. Which is now being recognized and also part of international law. Which is that no development intervention, no policy can be made in your areas, without your words and your free prior and informed consent. That means u must have total freedom to decide whether you want that project or not. That information should be given to you before any intervention is made prior and it needs to be informed if you don’t understand what that information is, it is the duty of that particular agency or particular company or government to educate you about what the implications of that project are. And, for you to then whether you want it or not. So, what is recognized after centuries of struggle internationally, what’s recognized nationally we have not been able to except in few corners of tribal areas in the country, we have not been able to implement.
So it is the matter of necessary, matter of deep introspection that we look at these institutions of governance of which we are an integral part, there is no pointing fingers at Ahulwalia, Planning Commission, Manmohan Singh, and say they are governing our country , badly. What is that we have done to ensure that these structures of governance available to us to democratize, and take control of. And part of the challenge there, when you go back to your areas get involved in work there, is precisely this; what role am I going to play to deepen democracy? What role am I going to play to create the institutions of democracy and democratic process. It is not a surprise to me that therefore many of you know this probably. It is not a surprise to me that almost 20% of the country now, Maoists have direct or indirect influence. And that influence is growing. There are more blocks that have come under the influence of Maoists. Its not a surprise, because this process of democracy and economic development, that was meant to address this grand 9% of growth that we keep hearing about, and talking about, and supposedly , celebrating, this 9%growth, was then meant to be used to address problems of inequality and poverty. And in fact in reality if you look at the annual reports of the United Nations development program they bring out something called Human Development report,. Look at that report, look at the last section which has table in it, which give you indication and also gives a historical sense of what is changed in every country.
And you find that, in a country like India, or in a country like United States, a country which we are rapidly seeking to emulate, the gap between the richest 20% and poor 20%, that the gap has tripled, in the last ten years. The rich have become richer and poor have gotten poorer. The rich have taken away, more assets and poor have very few assets or almost no assets. Bottom 20% of our society, have less than 0.1% of our assets. The top 20% are having 82% of our assets.
So, if democracy was working, if economic growth was working, if the governance in the country was addressing issues of social injustice, and inequity, then why the is polarization of wealth is increasing. Why are the rich becoming richer, poorer becoming poorer? I think it needs a profound introspection and a deeper understanding of why these processes are happening, in countries that internationally project themselves being most democratic nations, India the largest democracy, America the oldest democracy in the world.
The third issue, When we think about; whither freedom, is what’s happening to our media. For anyone parachuting in to India and looking at press looking at our daily new papers, looking at television will at one level be very much impressed, because we have more goods being advertised, we have more naked bodies of women being shown, advertising this and that, expressions of more real estate being designed and build, and so on and so forth. If u look at Hindusthan times the supplements of entertainment sections and u know what I am talking about. At one level it looks very impressive. We allot more space in news papers today to what is happening to bollywood stars than we do to what’s happening to dalits and tribals in different parts of the country. May be this is good according a few. But for a people like me and like you who see something, troubles them, feel the need to write about it, or to express themselves, and hope that they can be published somewhere. That space has dramatically shrunk. Media, which claims to be one of the pillars of the democracy, considers itself to be free, like the market, is actually the most intellectually shackled institution, which exists in the country. I can see over the last 25 to 30 years of our activity, character of journalist has changed, who comes to report our events. They are more interested in running away quickly once they get the press release, rather than really understanding what we are, trying to say. I remember a month ago, we held a press conference, on the environmental impact assessment; there was a law in India, which made it mandatory, which made it compulsory, that every project that was going to be implemented needed an environmental impact assessment. What have we done with this law, we have reformulated it, reformed it and now u can almost say that it’s not legislation anymore. They have diluted it to the, point where, almost anybody can come in and get some, local official to do a little environmental impact assessment, and that’s it, so we had a press conference, during this a book has come out which has a thorough analysis of this whole history, the book is called “Green Tapism”, which lays out in detail, what has happened to this environmental impact assessment, why? Under whose pressure? We had 25 to 30 journalists attending the press conference, what was report on the next day? May be a few line sin few places. Journalists got up even before the press conference ended. They asked questions which revealed their illiteracy. Just because one is educated in Miranda house, or Hindu college, doesn’t become litereate. To me literacy is not functional literacy, that is another issue of introspection. If u think democracy in its deeper sense, is understanding the processes, that are going on in our country, then how literate are u? Yesterday, I was told I didn’t see myself, that there was a rolling camera that went around Rajaya Sabha Lok Sabha, asking, the members of parlaimnet, what were their views on nuclear Agreement, between the US and India,? It was nothing short of shameful, 90% of those interviewed had no idea of what this agreement was. And not even read it. And here is an agreement that is going to make us significantly dependent on the US, not just in the nuclear arena, but also in the larger economic arena,. Majority of parliamentarians not even read the basic document. I would consider them to be totally illiterate. How deeply are we going to play a role, in understanding, in as much depth as possible what is happening around us.
When we talk about, whither freedom, and whither, true freedom to me therefore is not something that is out there. It’s also in your mind, in your own heart. How colonized is that mind is how colonized is that heart, that silently accepts what is happening around us. That doesn’t want to get involved. That doesn’t want to read a document that is going to significantly, transform, the autonomy, with which India has maintained its relations internationally. We were at one time, a very proud member of the non-alignment movement, with, global leaders like Julius Nyerere Nikrumah and others, where we committed ourselves not aligning ourselves with any super powers. What are we doing to day when we sign agreements that actually make us so critically dependent on the US?
What are we doing today when we allow Wal-Mart to come in through the back door, the company that actually formed to provide cell phone services , Airtel, signs an agreement to start 700 Wal-Mart stores under a different label, in a country where one of whose pillars has been small traders and small shop keepers, in a labour intensive society with over a billion people where every individual needs to find a dignified way of earning his or her livelihood. We are all allowing these stores to come in who will completely undermine large proportions, of those basic economic activities.
Some of you might say, therefore that but these are such powerful institutions, these are such powerful corporations, there are such powerful economic processes, such powerful multilateral institutions, like the world bank what are insignificant small people like us going to do? Do we have that strength in us? To actually challenge these incredibly powerful institutions, and indeed we do. I have seen, if you look at the history, of whether its national fish workers federation or you look at the Koellkaro movement in Jharkhand and there are some sort of growing problems there, but to large extent, that 25 to 30 years of history is a remarkable history of resistance and a movement to defend true freedom. It is possible for small people in small ways to make change. The first step, is to understand, and the second step is to say ‘no’ if you don’t agree with what it is. I recently wrote an article, which was circulated, to some of you, that was published, very recently a few days ago, on a very similar theme, ‘India at sixty’ in magazine called hard news, and I quoted in that magazine in the end, a very powerful quote from one of my favorite authors, an American historian, Howard Zinn. “If we do act in how so ever smaller way we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future, the future is in finite succession of presence, and to live now as we think human being should live as dignified Democratic Sovereign individuals now as we think human being should live in defiance of all that is bad around us to protest resist to organize to mobilize to rebel in defiance of all that is bad around is itself a marvelous victory.” We don’t have to wait for grand revolution; need not wait for grand political process of which we can become a part. We need to feel deep within us, by these levels of multiple introspection of what are the real sources of Justice, Equity and Freedom, and what is that we are going to do both to transform ourselves and to transform this India that we so dearly love of which we are part of whom we are its citizens. What are we going to do, to make this a better place for ourselves and our children?
-Smithu Kothari
(Smithu Kothari had addressed the theologians at Vidaya Jyoti, on the eve of 60 years of Indian Independence. Prof. T.K. John s.j had chaired the session and the same was facilitated by Prof. John Chathnatt s.j. the Prinicipal of Vidya Jyoti. Smithu Kothari is based at Lokayan, and he co-edits the Lokayan Bulletin. He is a member of Indian Coalition for nuclear Disarmament and Peace, the president of International Group for Grass roots Intiatives and visiting professor at Cornell and Princeton Universities)
