The Nature of Humanity
This article by Jeremy Searbrook looks at the underlying ideology of the existing developmental paradigm. The author has been working with refugees in Britain - people from all over the world who, although fleeing tyranny, are horrified by the society they find her. [ pdf, 32 KB ]
Chronicle of A Struggle and other Writings
— Achyut Das and Vidya Das. Courtesy : Agragamee
Contents : Introduction, Chronicle of Struggle — Kashipur Anti-mining movement, Globalisation and Genocide, Kalinganagar — A First Impression Report, Republic Day Gift.
“ This short volume of writings by an activist couple who has the courage and tenacity to fight against all odds against the combined interests of corporations, financial institutions and compliant governments should be an eye-opener for all who still have eyes to see what is happening around us in the name of development and high rate of growth.” — Prof. Amit Bhaduri
[ pdf, 1.6 MB]
The Beautiful, Expanding Future of Poverty
It is becoming obvious that all large multi-ethnic societies, after attaining the beatific status of development, lose interest in removing poverty, especially when poverty is associated with ethnic and cultural groups that lack or lose political clout. Particularly in a democracy, numbers matter and, once the number of poor in a society dwindles to a proportion that can be ignored while forging democratic alliances, political parties are left with no incentive to pursue the cause of the poor. Seen thus, the issue of poverty is a paradox of plural democracy when it is wedded to global capitalism. And the paradox is both political-economic and moral. Presently the trendy slogan of globalisation can be read as the newest effort to paper over that basic contradiction; globalisation has built into it the open admission that removal of poverty is no longer even a central myth of our public agenda. — Ashish Nandy, Economic and Political Weekly, January 3, 2004. [ pdf, 40 KB]
Genealogies of Globalisation : Unpacking the ‘Universal’ History of Capital
This essay is a preliminary attempt to revisit the history of capital and capitalism with a view to unravelling its supposedly universal character and so-called historical inevitability. With this aim, it re-reads Marx as a crtic and historian of capital, and finds in him and his legatees a continuing tension between the belief in capital's universality and its actual failure-to-be in most of the world. This assumption of capital's inevitability continues unshaken even when it is clear that short of state elites' conscious intervention, capitalism just does not seem to take hold. — Aditya Nigam in EPW, 24 March, 2007. [ pdf , 436 KB]
A Model of Growth of the Contemporary Indian Economy
Why has a rising share of economic surplus in output not created any serious realization problem, and hence any consequent tendency towards stagnation in the Indian economy? Clearly, this is not because of exogenous countervailing factors, state expenditure and/or an export surplus of goods and services. The rising share of economic surplus in output has been accompanied by greater consumption by the surplus earners themselves and also by greater investment that has been stimulated by such consumption. The ability to introduce technological-cum-structural change through imitation of what prevails in the metropolis is what has kept up the level of aggregate demand in the Indian economy leading to an increase in the rate of economic growth. This article provides a simple model of this growth process and draws certain conclusions regarding its sustainability. — Prabhat Patnaik, Economic and Political Weekly, June 2, 2007. [pdf, 340 KB]
Neoliberalism and Rural Poverty in India
Many economic and social indicators suggest that not only is the level of absolute poverty in India high, there has also been an adverse impact of neoliberal policies on poverty. And yet, the poverty estimates by the Planning Commission and many individual academics, both using a method that renders irrelevant the question of a nutrition norm, show low levels as well as decline in poverty over the 1990s and beyond. This article proves that both comparisons over time of the all-India and state-level estimates of poverty as well as any comparison at a point in time of poverty levels across states, obtained by this method, are invalid. Using a direct poverty estimation route of inspecting and calculating from current National Sample Survey data the percentage of persons not able to satisfy the nutrition norm in calories, the author finds that in 1999-2000 nearly half of the rural population who are actually poor have been excluded from the set of the officially poor. For 2004-05, while the official estimate of rural poverty is 28.3 per cent, the author’s direct estimate of persons below the poverty line is 87 per cent. There is clear evidence of a large and growing divergence over time between the author’s direct estimates of poverty and the official indirect estimates. — Utsa Patnaik, Economic and Political Weekly, July 28, 2007. [ pdf, 448 KB]
Santa Clause visits the Tatas - Freebies from a deb-ridden government
— Ashok Mitra in The Telegraph, 30 March, 2007. [pdf, 52 KB]
Haldia Petrochemicals and Unemployment in East Midnapore
— Prof. Dipanjan Raichaudhuri
It supplements and amplifies the Haldia picture sketched in the in booklet “Shilpayan : Rupkatha Ar Bastob (Industrialization : Fairy tales and Reality )” [ pdf, 60 KB ]
Shilpayan : Rupkatha Ar Bastob (Industrialization : Fairy tales and Reality )
— Prof. Dipanjan Raichaudhuri, Courtesy : Sanhati
This booklet puts under critical scrutiny what is currently going on in the name of industrialisation in West Bengal. The author begins with a detailed discussion on “economic development” in China during approximately the last two decades. This is required, the author feels, as much of the current strategies of development is inspired by the Chinese experience. The Chinese experience compels one to ask questions related to generation of employment — this is what the author addresses next. The role of big capital also is seen critically in this context. The big investments by big capital, which are heralded as a panacea for the ills of West Bengal, are shown, through case studies, to generate employment pitifully insufficient for any meaningful attack on the unemployment problem. The discussion poses questions related to alternative strategies of economic development. The author has made a few suggestions keeping this in mind. In particular, he has discussed how market for agricultural and industrial products may be generated, bringing land reform into the discussion. Finally, the author discusses the important question of taking peoples’ consent as part of process of development. The booklet ends with the note that drive for industrialisation is part of a political struggle. The author has supplemented the discussion with enough data, including sources, and several relevant references. [ pdf, 268 KB ]
Rupkathar Unnoyan : Unnoyaner Rupkatha (Fairy tales of Development)
This article (in Bengali) by Abhee Dutt-Mazumder exposes the connection of about monopoly capital with the current development campaign.
Appeared on ‘Dainik Statesman’ (a Bengali daily from Kolkata) under the heading ‘Dalal Sorkar Rajyoke Dhwaongsher Mukhe Thele Dichche’ on 25th July, 2007. Please note that this title was not given by the author. [pdf, 68 KB]
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM : Corporate Retail And The Predicament Of The Neighbourhood Grocer
The author has examined consequences of the entry of giant corporate bodies in the retail market. This has gained additional importance in the backdrop of the current "rationing riots'" in West Bengal. Experiences of Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand indicate loss of livelihood of huge number of persons, as a consequence of such entry. It is estimated that we have in India roughly 1.25 crore of retail outlets having a turnover of Rs 8,75,000 crore employing about 4 crore of persons and contributing to 10-14 per cent to our GDP. India also is not going to be an exception, the author argues. — writes Debabrata Bandyopadhyay [First published in The Statesman, 4th November, 2007.] [ pdf, 52 KB ]
The Singur Nandigram Syndrome: Corporate Appropriate Ecosystem Services
— Rabin Mazumdar [ pdf, 52 KB ]
