A New Policy for Rural Development in South and South-East Asia— Its Sinister Significance
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A New Policy for Rural Development
in South and South-East Asia—
Its Sinister Significance - extracted text
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fi. R. Desai
A NEW POLICY FOR
RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN
SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST ASIAITS SINISTER SIGNIFICANCE
(UJith special reference to India)
C. G. SHAH MEMORIAL TRUST
PUBLICATION (8)
C. G. Shah (1896-1969)
C. G. Shah, in whose memory, C. G. Shah Memorial .Trust has
been created, was one of the most profound, persuasive and erudite
Marxists in India. He was a pioneer in spreading Marxist ideas in
India and influenced a large number of intellectuals, authors, journ
alists, lawyers, teachers, professors and political workers for many
generations. The depth of his understanding of Marxist thought and
his noble simplicity and dedicated life evoked respect from the
critics of Marxism.
C. G. Shah was born in 1896 in a middle class educated family
in Ahmedabad. He had a brilliant academic career. During his school
and college days, he mastered the thoughts of eminent democratic
thinkers. He also deeply assimilated the rich philosophical and artistic
creations of modern Europe. Mastery over Sanskrit language enabled
him to study the rich philosophical and literary works of India. After
completing a bright academic career, he chose a life of dedicated
service to the people, shunning all alluring higher positions in Indian
Civil and Educational Services, offered to him because of his
academic brilliance. Coming in clash with his family, on two issues
viz. job and marriage, he left Ahmedabad and settled in Bombay, as
a part-time teacher and subsequently earned his livelihood as
freelance Journalist.
C. G. Shah was among the first in India to react to the October
Revolution sympathetically. With his rich cultural equipment, he
took to Marxism quickly. He was among the first few intellectuals
in India, along with S. A. Dange, S. V. Ghate, Muzaffer Ahmed and
few others who became Marxists. From that time, he made mastery of
Marxism and dedication to the Socialist movement, his life objective.
C. G. Shah, along with Dange and others, became one of the'
founders and an eminent pioneer and a leader of Communist
Movement in India. During the period of 1920's and 1930's as
Philip Spratt, the famous British Communist sent to India points out
"Shah was considered rightly the most learned Marxist in Bombay".
C. G. Shah was actively associated with the founding of many
progressive, rationalist and anti-imperialist movements and organi
zations which arose in the twenties. He was one of the founders of
he first Birth Control League in India established in Bombay, the
Bombay unit of the Independence of India League, of which
Jawaharlal Nehru was the President, also of the Bombay Youth
League being one of the secretaries along with the late Yusuf
Meherally. He also actively functioned in creating cadres for Marxist
movement in India. A large number of Left intellectuals and
dedicated workers gravitated to Marxism under the impact of C. G.
Shah's written and persuasive oral propaganda. His main activity
C. G. Shah Memorial Trust Publication (8)
A New Policy for Rural Development
in South and South-East Asia—
Its Sinister Significance
(India / Case Study)
?
' ■■ ' Editor'
Or. A R: DESAI
C. G. Shah memorial Trust, Bombay
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C. G. Shah memorial Trust, Bombay.
Distributors :
1.
ANTAR RASHTRIYA PRAKASHAN
si Govindrao Dev's Wada,
Pratap Road, Raopura,
Baroda-390 001
Gujarat State.
r? Palm Place,
Calcutta 700 019 (West Bengal)
2.
s 11/B Manav Apartments,
Behind H. L. College of Commerce,
Navarangpura, Ahmedabad 380 009,
India.
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Mahim P. O., Bombay 400 01 6
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Price Rs. 3.50
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Published by A. R. Desai for C. G. Shah Memorial Trust,
Jaykutir, Taikalwadi Road, Bombay-400 016
and Printed at Omega Printers, 316 Dr. S.P. Mukherji Road, Belgaum 590 001
4 NEW POLICY FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT LN SOUTH
AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA—ITS SINISTER SIGNIFICANCE
(India a Case Study)
I.
Policy of Development in the Early Phase After
Independence
SINCE the end of World War II, the Third World countries
and more particularly South and South-East Asian countries
are attempting to eliminate the colonial legacy of under
development and social backwardness by adopting various
measures to reshape the economy, social structure and cultural
life. The newly emerged independent states have been trying
to follow a path of development which has been generally
described as the path of modernization based on rapid indus
trialization and urbanization and operating on the postulates
of mixed-economy capitalist indicative planning. Under the
■rubric of this path of development, measures of various types
affecting both urban and rural segments of the country were
adopted. The important measures adopted in the form of
economic development consisted of evolving an infrastructure
of heavy industry, power and transport, actively undertaken
by the newly emerged states and a series of steps to induce
and encourage private sector in the rest of the fields thereby
inaugurating a phase of rapid industrial and urban develop
ment. In rural areas, where overwhelming majority of the
★ In preparing this paper I have received co-operation from many sources. I
am thankful to Chandrasen Momaya for his active assistance in collection and
sorting out material as well as for his valuable help at various stages. I also
acknowledge gratitude to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy 110-120
Kaliandas Udyog Bhavan, Near Century Bazar, Worli, Bombay-400 025, Centre
for Social Studies, (Dangore Street, Nanpura P. B. No. 38, Surat 395 001) and
the library of the University of Bombay for making available to me important
material relevant for my paper.
4
population resided, the governments of these states adopted a
multipronged approach by elaborating a large number of steps
to reconstitute rural economic institution and rural social
structure on a higher and modern base. The measures included,
(it laws in the form of land reforms, enforcing ceiling, co
operatives, scaling down of debts, consolidation and reconsti
tution of extremely fragmented and sub-divided units of land;
(ii) steps to provide irrigation and power facilities, standardi
zation of weights and measures, building up of a network of
transport and communication facilities; (iii) provision of
necessary inputs in the form of seeds, fertilizers, improved
agricultural implements, pesticides and insecticides as well as
a framework of research and experimental centres to improve
the productivity of agriculture and augment production.
Further, with a view to generating an adequate framework for
an agrarian development, an infrastructure of administrative
and social institutions was also created, which took the form
of National Extension Programmes, Corrmjnity Development
Programmes, and culminating in a number of countries into
Panchayati Raj type institutions on one side and a network of
administrative offices starting at the bottom from Gramsevakas
and Sevikas to Sarpanchas, Block Development Officers to
Ministry in the States and the Centre. The governments of
these States also actively assisted in the formation of numerous
voluntary associations, like Youth Associations, Mahila
Mandals, Cultural organizations and a number of other
associations dealing with various aspects of life in rural areas.
The governments of these States inaugurated a large scale
network of educational and health institutions comprised of
schools and Primary Health Centres. They struggled to weaken
and eliminate the traditional, ascriptive institutional framework
and value system by putting the remotest corner of rural areas
into the mainstream of national market and money economy
as well as in the institutional and value framework, evolved to
modernize and develop the economy and society. This policy
which provided the basis for overcoming backwardness and
lifting the Third World countries to a take-off stage of develop
ment was considered as the great and most suitable path for
these countries to emerge .into prosperous Industrial, Urban,
Modern, Developed communities. Almost for twenty years,
since these countries started their conscious developmental
plans, it was believed that in spite of numerous hurdles and
difficulties in terms of resources and skills, this path was the
5
only, fundamentally democratic path for these countries'to
come out of their age-old backwardness and under-develop
ment.
It should be noted here that the strategy pursued for over
all economic development of these countries based on the
postulates which we have mentioned did augment agricultural
production compared to that during the colonial period.
Further it brought the agrarian economy within the matrix of
national and international economy It also stimulated a section
of agrarian population comprised of landowners capitalist
farmers, and owners of land with viable units for agraian
production, to stimulate production on modern lines and to
utilize the various facilities and inputs provided by the Govern
ment. In fact, one can say that the strategyof the Governments
in the rural areas which started with the all-round social trans
formation of rural area culminated in intensive area develop
ment and in green revolution in certain parts, a logical out
come of the major postulates underlying this strategy of deve
lopment to modernize Third World countries. We will now
concentrate our analysis basically on the basis of Indian
experience, though the analysis is on the whole applicable to
all Asian Third World countries.
II.
Alarming Tendencies Discovered
During the last ten years this strategy has revealed some
of the alarming deficiencies. This has caused grave concern
among the policy-makers shaping the development on the
basis of this strategy. The unfortunate tendencies unfolded as
a consequence of the operation of this policy have been
revealed in the following manifestations : (1) Though compared
to the colonial period industrial development has expanded
and diversified, the expected industrial and urban development
has not taken place to relieve the burden of excess population
from rural areas. (2) The industrial development has not
acquired a tempo which is necessary to augment or to speed
up economic development at a rate which would lead the
countries to a take-off stage. (3) The rate is not uniformas
anticipated in the plans, but it experiences jolts and also
zigzags of ups and downs. Particularly, during the last ten
years, it is experiencing a lowering rate and unpredictable
erratic behaviour in the different branches of industry. Even
plans started taking holidays or became rolling. (4) The
6
assumed capacity of industrial growth to absorb more and
more labour is being belied and in fact the operation of laboursaving machinery displacing labour is becoming more and
more prominent. This, in the context of migration from agrarian
and small town area into bigger cities and metropolitan be'ts,
has generated a massive proliferation of what the well-known
economist and demographer, Asok Mitra calls "a poverty
induced informal sector' comprised of unimaginable variety of
trade, service, and other categories of bread-earning activities
which even includes begging, hawking, prostitution and a
number of legal and illegal modes of hunt for purchasing
power and incomes. In fact, in the organized sector, it is the
government which becomes the largest employer providing
purchasing power to employees- (5) In agrarian areas, it has
been found that the land reforms, while chopping off a small
top of absentee landlords not interested in modern agriculture
and creating a section of landowners who could orient actively
to agriculture, have not basically solved the problem of
providing land to the vast bulk of tenants and small farmers,
share-croppers and agrcutural labourers. In fact, the land
reforms have been found to have aggravated the poor condi
tions of the small cultivating sections by depriving them of
even the security and assurances provided by old tenancy acts
and have hurled them into mass of insecure cultivators forced
to operate as backdoor tenants or to the status of agrarian
proletariat.
Scholars have revealed another alarming trend. Instead of
the number of peasant proprietors increasing as a result of
land reforms and other measures, actually, there is an alarming
rate of growth of landless agricultural proletariat. They have
also indicated that the income and asset inequality in agrarian
areas have been increasing with the unfoldment of plans.
Another feature which has been observed is that the number
of people falling below poverty line is multiplying rapidly. But
the most alarming feature which has caused deep concern has
been the accelerating tempo of unemployment and under
employment.
Scholars studying the Third World have pointed out that
in social field institutions which were supposed to be modern
and which were to be utilized by all the citizens irrespective of
caste, creed and other ascriptive characteristics are monopo
lized and utilized by the upper strata comprised of landlords,
.
.
' *' ■
. ..
.
7
rich farmers, traders and others in rural areas, thereby weakening
social and political power of the rural'poor as well as prevent
ing them from active participation in various activities in rural
areas.
The inputs, financial, organizational as well as in the form
of infrastructure of power, irrigation and transport are also
basically helping the richer strata to strengthen their position.
All these developments in the rural area have generated a
sense of acute uneasiness among the policy-makers and have
forced them to think seriously about how to counteract these
trends.
III.
Search for a new policy of rural development
It was being realised that the strategy adopted during the
first twenty years of planning was consistently unfolding
certain tendencies which generated a titanic explosive situ
ation of tensions, antagonisms, conflicts, resulting in
growing apathy, resistance and protracted and intensifying
unrest among and struggle by the rural poor. This resulted
in the need of evolving a new policy for containing and
repressing the poor but also giving a small section out of them
some relief as well as generating a sense of participation in
overall development. Organizations like World Bank, ILO, FAO,
UNO as well as the planners of various Third World countries
have started having very intense and fresh look at the problem.
Pragmatically however the Governments in a number of Third
World countries had already started evolving certain progra
mmes to counteract tendencies mentioned above and elaborate
various programmes to provide some relief to the poor and to
evolve them in the various programmes which would meaning
fully enable at least a small section of the poor to secure some
purchasing power as well as to participate in augmenting
production In India even from the late sixties a kit of measu
res was elaborated which is becoming the unit for the new
policy which is to be characterized as strategy of "Integrated
Rural Development."
The measures which were worked out to be included in
the new policy could be enumerated as follows :
(i) More zealous implementation of land reform and
ceiling measures; (ii) Concerted effort to distributed
the surplus land which was not adequately distributed
8
(iii) Elimination of the loopholes in the land records to avoid
malpractices pursued by the influential persons m the rural
areas • fiv) Efforts to place the financial allocations to the
middle and poor farmers to enable them to take to profitable
production ; (v) Greater attention on organising farming and
other varieties of Co operatives ; (vi) Crash Schemes for rural
employment (CSRE) ; (vii) Small Farmers Development
Agencies (SFDA) aimed at small but potentially viable farmers
with a view to making available to them the inputs, including
credit, to enable them to utilize available technology and
practise intensive agriculture and diversify it; (viii) Programme
for marginal farmers, and agricultural labourers (MFAL) with
a view to evolving appropriate programme of institutional,
financial and administrative arrangements to enable them
gainful participation in production ; (ix) Along with this there
have been schemes such as rural work programmes for chroni
cally drought affected areas known as "Drought Prone Area
Programme" ; (x) Special schemes of non-agricultural nature,
but providing employment as well as increasing the production
of assets of a durable nature like (a) road building, (b) recla
mation and development of land, (c) drainage, embankments
etc., (d) water conservation and ground water recharging,
(e) minor irrigation, (f) soil conservation, (g) afforestation
and (h) special repairs, (xi) Area Development schemes.
Beforewe assess the possible success of the so-called
"New Policy of Integreated Rural Development," which is
presumed to take up the above mentioned separate measures
in an integrated area development plan and not as part of the
sectorial development schemes we should recognize that all these
separate measures have been tried out either as experimental
pilot programmes or as measures to counteract the earlier
tendencies. In India it took the form of 20-point programme
ot Indira Congress. Numerous assessments have been made
of the effectiveness of these programmes as they are being
operated.
We will review the findings of the various experts, and
expert committees in connexion with some of the important
measures which are being included as constituent elements of
the new policy.
IV.
Proposed land reforms and ceiling measures :
an evaluation
Before we examine the possibilities of success which may
'9
come about as a result of the so-called novel way in which
the land reform and ceiling measures are to be implemented
as a part of the new strategy, we should briefly point out the
real causes which led to certain successes and major failures
of land reform measures in realizing the goafs attempted up
to now. We will begin by quoting from one of the most
competent reports submitted to the Planning Commission of
India by the Task Force on Agrarian Relations under the
Chairmanship of P.S. Appu in 1973. The report gives an
overall assessment of the Indian land reforms in the following
terms : "A broad assessment of the programme of land
reforms adopted since Independence is that the laws for the
abolition of intermediary tenures have been implemented fairly
etficiently, while in the field of tenancy, reform and ceiling
on holdings, legislation has fallen short of proclaimed policy
and implementation of the enacted laws has been tardy and
inefficient. With the abolition of the intermediary interests,
lie ownership of land became more broad based and the
superior tenants acquired a higher social status. It should
not. however, be overlooked that as a result of the tenancy
laws enacted in the decades prior to Independence the
superior tenants had already been enjoying security of tenure
and fixity of rent. It is a moot point whether the abolition of
intermediate interests conferred any new economic benefits
on tenants. The programmes which could have led to a radical
change in the agrarian structure and the elimination of some of
the elements of exploitation in the agrarian system and ushered
in a measure of distributive justice were those of tenancy
reforms, ceiling on agricultural holdings and distribution of
land to the landless and small holders. As already pointed out
these programmes cannot be said to have succeeded. Highly
exploitative tenancy in the form of the crop-sharing still
prevails in large parts of the country. Such tenancy arrange
ments have not only resulted in the 1 perpetuation of social and
economic injustice but have also become insurmountable
hurdles in the path of the spread of modern technology and
improved agricultural practices. Thus the overall assessment
has to be that programmes of land reforms adopted since Inde
pendence have failed to bring about the required changes in
the agrarian structure."r
Various reasons have been given for poor performance of
and reforms to deliver the goods expected from them. The
same report gives the following reasons for poor performance
10
of land reforms in India :
i)
Lack of political will.
ii)
Administrative organization — Inadequate policy instru
ment.
iii)
Legal hurdles.
iv)
Absence of correct up-to-date records.
v)
tahd5 reforms viewed so far in isolation from the mainstream of economic development. For instance, according
to the report, the main ingredients ■ of the programmes
like abolition of intermediary tenant, tenancy reform and .
ceiling on agricultural holding were treated as disjointed
programmes and sought to be implemented as such.
Consolidation of holdings was conceived and undertaken
without providing for village roads, irrigation and drai
nage channels, land shaping, soil conservation, etc.
' vi)
Lack of financial support as a great hurdle to successful
Indian land reforms right from the beginning No separate
allocation of funds was made in five year plans for finan
cing land reforms. Many States declined to include even
expenditure on such essential items like preparation
of records of right (which would have qualified for
planned help) in their plan budgets.
•<
vii)
In the background of these limitations it has been claimed
by the report that the funds were not available for exten
ding and supporting services to beneficiaries of land
reforms. In the absence of adequate supporting facilities
the assignees have not been able to put the land allotted
to them to proper use
vii)
Non-availability of reliable and up-to-date data on various
aspects of land reforms even after two decades of land
reform.'
It is surprising that this competent report which claims that
"Enactment of progressive measures of land reform and their
effective implementation called for hard political decisions and
effective political.support, direction and control," and further
stating that, "in the context of the socio-economic conditions
prevailingr in the ural area of the country, no tangible progress
11
can be expected in the field of land reforms," does not examine
the class bias underlying the political will of the state and
attributes this failure to lack of political will.
In fact, a plan based on creating a rich farmer class descri
bed as "progressive farmers" producing for profit and for
market as the main agent of development from its inception,
logically guides the Government to concentrate political will in
strengthening this class. In fact, it was not a question of lack
of political will that was responsible for loopholes in the very
definition of "tillers of land. ' As rightly pointed out by H. D.
Malaviya, "Far from bringing about any equality and justice in
the Indian agrarian pattern, the initial failure to make the tiller
the owner and abolish unearned incomes from land has led to
increasing disparity and class differentiation."2 Further, the
political will has never remained weak when it comes to
suppressing the assertions of the poor in rural areas.
The fundamental issues connected with land problems are
rooted basically in the path of development which is being
pursued by the policy-weilders of the Third World Countries.
The problems of abolition of intermediary, the problem of fixing
up adequate ceiling and the problem of land tenure are vitally
bound up with the conception of who are to be the main
agents of economic growth and secondly, whether tl\e produ
ction is to be carried on for profit and market as commodity or
whether the production is to be determined as a part of central
planning whose objective is to produce for assessed needs of
the people and not as commodities for the profit of the proprie
tors producing for the market. This crucial problem of choice of
specific path of development is not applicable to India alone
but affects all countries of the Third World.
This issue is competently discussed in a profound paper
'Land Reform Programmes in East and South East Asia—-A
Comparative Approach' by Antonia T. Ledesma. After carefully
examining the land reform programmes adopted in various
South East Asian countries, both Communist and non-Communist, the author clearly points out the differentiating ingredients
with regard to the philosophy of land reform inherent in the
two paths of development as presented in the following chart, s
12
NON-COMMUNIST
VIEW
COMMUNIST
VIEW
Assumptions
regarding land
problem
Market imperfections in
the factors of agricultural
production—land, labour,
capital, entrepreneurship.
Class struggle between landlords and peasants.
Attitude
towards
property
Wider distribution of
private land ownership.
Private ownership of the
means of production, i. e„
land to be abolished.
Process of land
redistribution
According to legal norms
enforced by courts and
police power of the state.
Means for peasants to exercise power over landlords.
Duration of
land distribution
Final stage, supported by
infrastructure of services,
credits etc.
Transitional stage, prior to
collectivization
(Co-opera
tives and. or communes).
Landlord
Compensation
" Fair Compensation ”
based on land value or
some other norm.
None : all land and farm
equipment to be expropriated-
Tenure reform
beneficiaries
Share-croppers becoma
lessees or owner-tillers,
but landless agricultural
workers not benefited.
Poor and hired peasants
allotted land, middle and
rich peasants not touched.
Farm Operation
Family farms, increased
scale of production with
HYV and more inputs,
and service co-operatives.
Collectivized
agriculture;
production team biigades
people's communes, largescale farming.
Ultimate Vision '
To form a strong rural
middle class participating
in parliamentary demo
cracy.
To create an egalitarian rural
society, principles of the
mass line and democratic
centralism.
Some recurrent
problems
1) reconcentration
of
land-ownership
2) how to increase scale
and size of farm ope
ration
3) government co-opera
tion of peasant groups
towards fascism
1) problem of incentives
2) hew to provide specialized
training without return of
"capitalist tendencies"
3) control
by a central
government and the party
toward totalitarianism of
the left
The chart is extremely significant as it reveals the crucial
difference between two paths of development wherein the
conception of land reforms is not merely different and opposite
but also their utility in the overall development in the context
of classes through which this development is to be relied upon
is clearly brought out. One may disagree with some of the
ideas formulated in some sections as broadly based on purely
13
Chinese experience. However, one appreciates the
issues highlighted.
major
One of the crucial issues connected with land reforms is
the objective for which the land reforms are to be pursued.
Are the land reforms to be carried out with a view to
creating private entrepreneurs in the form of capitalist, rich or
middle peasants who would develop agriculture to produce
for profit and market basing themselves on the infrastructure
of inputs provided by the State wedded to capitalist path of
development?
Or are the land reforms to be implemented with a view to
seeing that the real toilers who actively operate upon land
either individually, co operatively or collectively, do not
produce for profit and for the market but for the assessed
needs as planned out under the rubric of central planning and
equipped with infrastructure of inputs provided by society and
the state wedded to a policy of planned economy operating to
produce for the assessed need of community as a whole ?
As rightly pointed out by Ledesma :
"Depending on the political ideologies of the governing
elites, the paradigms for land reforms have taken on different
and at times diametrically opposite directions in various
countries.
"At one end of the spectrum, following the capitalist strategy
for development, based on the concepts of private property
and free enterprise, the owner-cultivatorship of the family farm
has been upheld as the model for land reform in Asian coun
tries influenced by U. S. policy in the post-war period.
"The basic tenure pattern which has been woven into the
experience of Western man is essentially that which was
proposed by classical liberalism, and whose economic functio
ning was formulated in neo-classical economics. This remains
true despite all the problems of surplus production, price
support programmes, and all the rest. This is the basic pattern
which was adopted in Japan after World War II. The agricul
tural economy is based upon private ownership of land,
individual entrepreneurship geared partially into a market
economy, with credit facilities, appropriate education, market
information, and so on (Parsons 1961 : 286).
14
"On the other end of the spectrum, following the socialist
path of development, Communist countries such as China,
North Korea, a reunited Vietnam and conceivably today, also
Cambodia and Laos have all stressed collectivized agriculture
and the merits of the co-operative and/or the commune."4
The proponents of mixed-economy capitalist path of
development refer to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan as the
most successful demonstration of the effective implementation
of land reforms in countries pursuing this path. I will indicate
subsequently, from some of the studies of these countries,
how the generalization made, that a very efficient redistribu- v
tion of land reaching out to small farmers and creating both
incentive for production and equitable atmosphere in rural
area is feasible in all Third World countries, is fundamentally
erroneous. Even with regard to Japan etc. as observed by close
students of these experiments one cannot be very sanguine
of success. The small farmers of these countries are also
getting differentiated and according to scholars, serious pro
blems of the same nature which are being experienced by
other countries pursuing this path are being visible.
The basic fallacy underlying this hope of augmenting
productivity and also establishing equality lies in the fact
(which is either ignored or sometimes deliberately hidden by
scholars and policy-makers) that the beneficiaries of land
reform in the societies struggling to develop by pursuing
capitalist path have to produce for profit and market. They
cannot escape tough competition and cannot avoid the con
sequences of the law of concentration and centralization and
weeding out inefficient and uneconomic producers. It is one
of the ironies of the scholarship which battles to evolve
varieties of solutions without transcending this framework, that
they always ignore or underrate, or cunningly bypass the
fundamental logic governing production of commodities for
profit and market by private proprietors big or small industrial
or agricultural, even though backed by public sector and active
state intervention.
Antonio J. Ledesma, after an exhaustive review of material
available on the subject and having himself carried out
empirical survey in the Philippines, evaluates and summarizes
the effectiveness of land reforms in the following chart.5
15
SCPOE AND DEGREE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF LAND
REFORM PROGRAMME IN EAST & SOUTH-EAST ASIA
Land Redistribution Completed
COMMUNIST
NON COMMUNIST
SOCIALIST
China (1950-52)
Japan (1947-49)
North Korea (1946-48)
South Korea (1950)
North Vietnam(1954-1956) Taiwan (1953)
Burma?
Partial Reforms Consisting Primarily in
LAND REDISTRIBUTION
LAND SETTLEMENT
South Vietnam (1957)
(1970-75)
Phillippines
Indonesia (1962-65)
Philippines (1954-57)
Malaysia
Indonesia
Thailand
MINIMUM EFFORTS
Cambodia
Laos
We have already metioned how the same author while
examining three successful experiments of land reforms in
non-Communist countries indicated in the chart, considers
them as exceptional historical cases where land reforms
were extended under special circumstances and also in the
first flush of the post-Second World War developments.
Even for these countries, he points out on the basis of
number of studies of these countries that the same problems
of pauperization and small units being weeded out leading to
proletarianization have again started as second generation
problem, now coming to the fore after 25 years. As he points
out, very poignantly and pertinently, the logic of capitalist
path of development in the Third World is increasingly uproot
ing the small and marginal farmers marginalizing them in
terms of their productive role and hurling them into a category
of backdoor tenants or agrarian labourers.
The findings by Antonio J. Ledesma and others as well
as the overall assessment of the Appu Committee reveal that
land reform, ceilings and tenurial reforms, however enthusiasti
cally carried out. cannot go beyond a particular limit laid down
by the logic of the path of development. The lack of enthu
siasm and the consequent implications vividly described by the
Appu Committee and corroborated by a number of studies in
other Third World countries are rooted in the inevitable
consequences of pursuing this path. It is not surprising that
the recent document published by the World Bank, entitled
16
”
. ■ f'
The Assault on World Poverty, is astutely aware of this problem,
hints at this basic limitation, but still glosses it over by a very <»,,
tricky reference to it in subtle confusing language and dispo
sing of this entire vital topic in one paragraph of a massive
book of nearly four hundred pages.6
We will conclude our’discussion on the potentialities of
land reforms ceiling measures and an improvement in tenancy
relation even if they are not pursued sectorially but as a part
of integrated area development of the rural development
policy, to generate high productivity, ushering in equality and
invoking active people's participation by quoting from a very
thoughtful scholar on this subject. Or. Uday Mehta has
exhaustively dealt with this problem in his valuable work
Agrarian Strategy in India. I will quote him in full as it sums up
the incapacity of land reforms howsoever they are implemented
within the framework of the capitalist path chosen for develop
ment and pursued in Third World countries.
"The underlying presumption of the present government
land policy is to reorganise Indian agriculture by relying on the
rich farmers in rural areas. Other measures, including ceiling on
landholding, co-operative farming, co-operative village
management, rehabilitation of landless labourers on govern
ment reclaimed areas, village self-government through demo
cratic decentralisation, security of tenancy under certain
defined conditions show that a precise formulation of tenancy
rights are framed and implemented within the matrix of village
socio-economic structure based on private proprietorship. The
entire structure of land legislations is erected on the foundation
of village economy resting on capitalist farmers. Thus, the
central thrust of post-independence land policy and land
legislations as narrated above is to promote fusion of the right
of tenancy and ownership into one entity and thereby to
inaugurate an area of a new kulak class
"The present land legislations seek to resolve the Indian
agrarian crisis, inherited from the British rulers, by not only
safeguarding but also perpetuating the concept of private
property in land in agrarian areas. In other words, this
approach of consolidating and strengthening the capitalist base
in Indian agriculture instead of resolving any of the basic
agrarian problems has intensified the miseries and agonies of
the toiling strata in rural India.
>Q "As pointed out earlier, one of the central objectives, of
land reforms in backward countries, is to expand, the home
market for industrial, deyelpppient. Agrarian reforms in ..India as
well ^s in other newly independent,.countries with colonial.or.
semi-colonial, heritage have failed, to .achieve this,objective, as
thejr.implementation-, instead o,f; raising'.the- puchasing ipo.wer
of the overwhelming majority of the.rural population/ has.only .
resulted in increasing, pauperisation, of the toiling strata in rural
society. To this extent,, .land .reforms have failed to give any
decisive impetus to industrialisation in underdeveloped
countries.-' ■'
• » •'l
■ ■
i‘
"Secondly, it is also assumed that land reforms in under
developed countries would usher in an egalitariap social order,
by reducing economic inequality and disparity of ownership of.
landholdings and thereby impart social justice to hitherto;
neglected toiling strata in rural society. But as revealed by our
survey, the concentration of landownership has essentially
remained the same even’’after the implementation of landf
reform measures. So far as the vast bulk of poor tenants and;
share-croppers are concerned, they have, suffered.gross :inju-.
stice as a’result of land reforms as they are,..uprooted. from:
their cultivated land under the pretext of "voluntary surre-;
riders," which are actually forced surrenders of their land.
"Thirdly, any land ceiling measure, even of a, 'radical',
nature, in the prevailing socio-economic structure with its
excessive pressure of population on land in rural society could.
have only very limited significance. It becomes quite evident
from the above appraisal that these measures .suffer from
certain inherent conceptual limitations. With .the permitted,
loopholes, in the process of implementation, they are further
diluted. And the benefits in the form of distribution of small
patches of land among.the negligible sections of therural poor'
are hardly of much significance, as the land so distributed in
cases is of marginal or very poor quality. .
,
"Lastly, mere distribution of land cannot solve the problem
of the poor cultivators in any effective way. Because even if
they get small plots of land, from where are they going to raise
the necessary resources to improve agriculture and to make
cultivation practicable ? In this context, it is necessary to
realise the limitation of the slogan'land to the tiller' popula
rised both by the ruling classes as well as the Left political
18
parties: This demand may have significance as an aspect of
transitional programme for the toiling strata in rural areas. But
for the effective and lasting-solution of the agrarian problemit is imperative to advocate the need for promoting co-opera
tive and collective farming as the. only revolutionary way for
the genuine rural re-construction. It is not by strengthening
private property in land, but only by eliminating-it, one could
really think! in terms of just, effective and genuinely radical
solution of the agrarian problem in India."7
V.
Scope
of Co-operative
Development
Movement
for
Rural
One of the major thrusts in the new land reform policy
which is being forged for increasing production bridging
inequality and 'encouraging people's participation for the Third
World countries, is to intensify co operative movement in
various fields. It is assumed by many scholars that in the Third
World countries haying meagre resources and also suffering
from scarce capital particularly for agricultural sector, co-opera
tive movement is the crucial solution to ensure growth with
social justice and production with equity. As a consequence,
the policy-makers have also felt that conscious encouragement
of co-operative movement is one of the sound methods of
motivating people and mobilizing resources in rational,
efficient and equitable manner. For instance, the late Prof.
D. R. Gadgil. one of the stalwarts among Indian economists,
and once Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission for
some time, considered co operative farming as an ' obvious
and logical ' solution to the "basic problems of agriculture in
this country" and described the sceptics as "dogmaticallyoriented ones."8
Without going into the details of the development of and
the operations of the various aspects of co operative move
ment in India, we will only quote the editorial of one of most
outstanding specialized newspapers classically reflecting
capitalist interests, viz. Economic 7/7ms which has reflected upon
the achievements and failure of the co-operative movement as
a whole until 1978. This report candidly points out that Indian
co-operative movement has not satisfied the faith placed on it
by scholars like Gadgil, and the policy-makers, To quote :
"In a year from now the co-operative movement in India
will be 75 years old. Today it has a membership of nearly 70
19
million. The annual value of its activities is estimated at about
Rs. 15.000 crores. Despite its size, the impact of the co-opera
tive movement on our economy has been marginal.
"It had started during the days of our freedom with the
noble objective of building a self-help movement among the
poor. Today its structure is totally unrelated to the realities of
our economic situation. At the ground level it is dominated by
affluent farmers, traders, the local bureaucracy and politicians.
Two massive apex bodies have been super-imposed, instead
of growing naturally from the roots upward. The credit
co-operatives set up to provide cheap and easy credit to the
rich farmers form the backbone of the movement. This provides
great scope to members of the ruling parties in different states
to extend their influence through disbursal of largesse and
opens up opportunities for corruption. There are a number of
agro-based production and marketing co-operatives. Apart
from these, there are rural, industrial crafts, housing and trans
port co-operatives. Leaving aside the weavers co-operatives.
in 1974-75 there are 22,000 industrial co-operatives with a
paid-up capital of Rs. 73.74 crores and a working capital of
Rs. 332.1 5 crores Of these, the sugar, cotton, oilseeds, fertili
zers and dairy products co-operatives have emerged as giant
profit-oriented commercial enterprises, catering mainly to elitist
markets.
"In the whole process of creating and meeting the needs
for vested interests, the vast majority of the population, the
rural and urban poor have been completely lost sight of. It is
no wonder that most of the other industrial co operatives have
been totally neglected. At least fifty per cent have become
dormant. Membership has fallen from 32.30 lakhs in 1969-70
to 26.50 lakhs in 1974-75. In some states, industrial co-opera
tives have practically ceased to exist. In this context current
government measures, such as the Rs. 1,000 crore allocation
in the sixth plan for the development of co-operatives, the
42-point action programme to enrol and ensure full participa
tion of the rural poor in existing primary co-operatives and
strengthening the national co-operatives development corpo
ration can only have a marginal impact. Given the existing
structure, the weaker sections, even when constituting a
majority, cannot possibly exercise their democratic rights against
the economically and socially powerful minority. The co
operative movement in the rural areas cannot be effective
20
uneless it is able to mobilise the vast majority of the poor
separately and bring them into the production processes
through viable enterprises. What is required is a mass movement
with dedicated and technologically equipped voluntary
organisations interacting intimately with the rural poor. Through
such an effort alone the co-operative movement can cover s
whole range of agro based and agricultural developmet oriented industries and establish viable links with marketing, credit
and service enterprises in different sectors of the economy.
The comprehensive review of the co-operative movement being
considered by government should be conceived with such a
perspective."9
The above quoted editorial in its last few sentences uses
the same jargon which has been used from the very beginning
of the movement but without taking note of the fact that a
developmental planning based on reliance on profit-chasing
proprietary classes and founded upon production for profit and
market inherently contradicts the possibility of rosy proposals
placed in this editorial. The editorial was written in the context
of the new draft plan (Sixth Five Year Plan) inaugurated by
the Janata Government which was supposed to be evolving
the new strategy of rural development, though within the same
capitalist mixed economy postulates.
While this editorial describes the failure of co-operative
movement, Gunnar Myrdal candidly gives one of the crucial
reasons for this failure in the fol'owing words :
"Unfortunately, the notion that co-operation will have an
equalizing effect is bound to turn out to be an illusion. While
land reform and tenancy legislation are, at least in their intent,
devices for producing fundamental alterations in property rights
and economic obligations, the 'co-operative' approach fails to
incorporate a frontal attack on the existing inegalitarian power
structure. Indeed, it aims at improving conditions without
disturbing this structure and represents, in fact, an evasion of
the equality issue. If, as is ordinarily the case, only the higher
strata in the villages can avail themselves of the advantages
offered by co-operative institutions and profit from the govern
ment subsidies given for their development the net effect is to
create more, not less, inequality. This will hold true even when
the announced purpose is to aid the disadvantaged strata"10
21
Gunnar Myrdal rightly points out that in any inegali
tarian society the benefits of the co-operatives are bound
to enhance economic and socio-political power of the richer
section.
A number of scholars have pointed out that small co
operative farms are not suitable on the ground of economic
rationality. Here we may refer to the observations by one of
the specialists on the subject Dr. S. H. Deshpande has recently
conducted an exhaustive study on co-operatives in rural India.
After examining various aspects of co-operative farming both
with regard to small farmers and also of large farmers he points
out how the problem of co-operative farming tends to get
more thorny as we go down from various categories of large
farmers to small farmers. He categorically states that rich
farmers have one saving feature, i.e , they are creditworthy:
This basic weakness in the small, farmers according to him will
result in "the worst of all the worlds in so far as co-operative
success is concerned."
. .
Dr. Deshpande in this book in a special chapter on the
'Co-operative Farming and the Small Farmers' has very
cogently discussed how in the context of an economy founded
on capitalist mixed economy postulates, the co-operatives of
the small farmers cannot succeed due to a number of reasons
such as inability to procure finance, incapacity to save, greater
difficulties for work incentives, lower skills of management,
etc.11
Some scholars have also examined co-operatives from
other aspects. According to them, if co-operatives are a part
of a larger economic framework which itself is based on
competition and mad craze for profit, they cannot remain
unaffected by this basic underlying gestalt of the overall
system. At best, the co-operative societies within the frame
work can operate only as agencies in the hands of the members
of the specific co-operative societies to fight out collectively
their competitions. In other words, the co-operative movement
in the context of the capitalist economic system can only
function as an agency to pool some resources to carry on
struggle in the competition.
At this point it will be interesting to note the views of
Prof Thorner, Prof Khushro and other specialists about the
L)
)t9
- Mo
COMMUNI TV HEALTH CELL
4,7^ (First Floor} St. Marks Road.
Bangalore - 560 001.
22
working of the co-operatives in India after independence.
Sharad Jhaveri, an eminent marxist scholar, in his article 'The
Co-operative Movement and Growth of Capitalism in Indian
Agriculture' sums up the conclusion of these competent
scholars on the working of co-operatives as follows. «
(1) Leadership in co-operatives comprises of big land
holders or big people or the village moneylenders; (2) To a
certain extent co-operatives present a picture of concentration
of power in a single or a group of big families; (3) Mostly,
joint cultivation is carried on by permanently hired labourers;
(4) The management of such farms is invariably in the hands
of the biggest partner or contributor; (5) The proportion of
relatives to total membership exceeds considerably the
proportion of non relatives; (6) Vast disparities exist between
small landholders and large landholders; (7) In some cases
co-operatives are organizations of absentee landlords evolved
to protect their landed interest against the inroads of new land
reform legislations.
We will now survey the functioning of co-operatives in
other Third World Asian countries. Mr. Inaythullah in his
recently published report on 'Co-operatives and Development in
Asia' gives us valuable information and observations about the
functioning of co-operatives in Sri Lanka, Iran and Pakistan.
For Sri Lanka, he tells us that "the co-operative movement
in Ceylon did not address itself to various problems which it
had potentialities to deal with. For example, given the small
size of operating units, it is uneconomical for individual culti
vators to own machinery and improved farm implements. Given
a nigh level of unemployment it may not be advisable to use
machines which displace labour. Co-operatives, however,
could make a substantial contribution by owning and renting
out machinery that is not labour displacing. The Ceylonese
co-operatives also were not active in the direction of integra
ting land ownership and production and integrating rural and
urban productive process.' 13
Experiences of Iran are also not more encouraging.
"Frustration of the hopes of Koshneshin to get land after the
land reform has created hostility between them and the
gavband. The rift accompanied by concentration of ownership
in the hands of the gavband has reduced the co-operative
.iV- z.--v
■<,.'>
.A
23
potentiality of the Iranian community. If the co operatives are
uniting anyone, it is the gavband class, which is accumulating
benefits extended by the government. The Iranian village is
thus being exposed to new divisions.''1*
Pakistani experience is also the repetition of the satne
story. "The co-operative movement in Pakistan has not in
general changed the rural communities to any significant
extent. Co-operation was received originally only as a credit
supplying device and was to be limited only to this aspect of
rural life. Later when the concept of the role of co-operation
was broadened to include building an economic democracy,
the principle of co operation was not extended to other
economic activities. In fact, policies contrary to co-operative
piinciples, that is encouragment of private enterprise to
increase agricultural production, were pursued."15
A review of the functioning of the co-operatives in various
countries of the Third World clearly reveals that while the
co-operative movement may involve a few smaller and middle
farmers in the process of production as well as may involve a
few groups in other categories of co-operatives, it cannotwork
as a solution to combat immense poverty of unemployed,
under-employed agricultural labourers, small tenants, sub
marginal farmers as well as ruined artisans. To involve this
category in the co-operative movement would require a
fundamental structural transformation where land ceases to be
a commodity but an instrument co-operatively operated by
actual cultivators backed by a gigantic infrastructure of nputs
and other facilities on a different basis with regard to theobjective of production and distribution.
It is surprising that the critics of the co-operative move
ment do not take into account the fact that the co-operative
movement has in fact succeeded in strengthening that section
of the rural population comprised of the richer strata which
is considered as a main change agent for economic develop
ment. It is remarkable that our scholars never examine the
real intentions of the rulers who are bent on pursuing the path
of relying on the rich, and basically use egalitarian and other
slogans as propaganda for evolving a smoke-screen to hide
this fundamental strategy based on accentuating the economic
inequality founded on private property in means of production.
This is the hard core of capitalist path of development.
24
z '
Endeavours to artificially working some‘experiment of expand
ing the co-operatives among the poor may serve the purpose
of creating confusion among those who suffer as a cop
sequence of logic of this path of development, may create, a
few showpieces in the form of some 'hot-house' units. But
experience as well as logic prove that the co-operative move
ment within the framework of capitalist path of development'
cannot basically operate as lever of abolishing inequality and
generator of atmosphere for people's participation in production J
VI. Crash Scheme for Rural Employment (CSRE), Small
Farmer Development Agency (SFDA), Marginal Farmers
and Agricultural Labour Programmes (MFAL), and Area
Development Schemes
The other elements which are to be the components of
hew policy of rural development, as we have indicated earlier.
attempt to generate employment as well as to reach out to
small and marginal farmers to make them participate more
productively in economic development. We have referred to
public schemes for employment expansion in India and other
countries, chief amongst which have been crash scheme for
rural employment (CSRE), small farmer development agency,
marginal farmers and agricultural labourers programmes,
drought prone area programmes and others. Not merely such
schemes are being tried at number of places all over the Third
World but some model experiments in the form of Area Deve
lopment Schemes are also being organized. As the World
Bank report points out, "an emphasis on area development is
common in many countriesforagricultural as well as rural deve
lopment projects. Basically, arguments in its favour stem from
the often complex nature of the traget groups; the complexity
calls for specific programmes locally prepared and tailored to
local conditions. Technical considerations related to specific
requirements for agricultural improvement also tend to favour
(placing development schemes in the framework of an area,"
and further "the special advantage of comprehensive area
development projects, however, is the opportunity to focus
directly on the needs of the rural poor through diversified crop
and integrated farming systems. The development of these
activities can then be linked with training and social services
and possibly with rural wo.rks programmes."10
Jezira Settlement Scheme in Sudan, Comilla Projects in
25
Bangladesh, Puebla Projects in Mexico, Lilongve Land
Development Programme in Malavi are some of the well-known
experiments of such area development schemes.
i
'
We will point out the limitations of these programmes as
indicated by a number of scholars. Prof Amartya Sen in his
recently prepared study for tha ILO Office has given a detailed
evaluation of the CSRE, SFDA, MFAL and other miscellaneous
schemes. We will briefly summarize his chief criticisms.
The recent Indian schemes to promote employment
partly reflect increasing public concern with the phenomena of
rural poverty.
"The magnitude of this poverty, no matter which estimates
one accepts, is, however, so large that even if the schemes
all prove highly successful, no dramatic impact can really be
expected''. Further
"Those who are affected do not in fact come from below
the poverty line as was noted in reviewing the CSRE, SFDA
and MFAL programmes.
"The policy schemes seem to focus their attention on
those close to the corresponding 'viability line'. The philosophy
and the specific approach of the public employment pro
grammes have been critically evaluated in this light and their
regressive character been brought out.
"The class composition of the beneficiary is by no means
as straightforward as it may first appear. Through significant
loopholes in the conceptions of programmes it has turned out
that many among the poorest cannot benefit at all from this
programme, while some of the relatively better off can be
covered by them. The Institutional framework of rural India
makes this problem extremely real.
'"The schemes have suffered from an inadequacy of criteria
for selecting projects or participants.
"The biggest deficiency of these schemes lies in the
absence of the systematic framework for evaluating productive
contributions of work programmes."1’
The observations on similar experience in other countries
are not very different. Regarding the area development
26
schemes indicated earlier, the World Bank Report points out
major potential dangers in the following terms : (1) the schemes
may concentrate a disproportionate share of the resources on
providing benefits to a group that is relatively small in relation
to the overall size of the national target group.- (2) The
schemes stand to suffer from a programme designed that is too
ambitious and complex, calling for exceptional leadership that
cannot always be made available on a sustained basis.
(3) They may distort priorities in the allocation of resources
among the sector. (4) Too large a part of the available
resources is taken for showpiece or 'enclave' projects. (5) The
comparative influence in terms of management and finance
enjoyed under many of the large projects during the imple
mentation period often does not survive the transfer of function
to the local administrative system. (6) Such area development
projects based on experiment with decentralization and with
the working of new administrative structures and procedure
can be launched only in a few pilot areas and requires a very
delicate balancing of economic and social components which
however can be more easily stated than practised which
implies a basic consideration of the limits of fiscal resources
available.
(7) Similarly with regard to rural public work
programmes which have been receiving increasing attention,
the World Bank report points out that "a review of the past
and ongoing rural works programmes identifies these recurring
weaknesses in the design and implementation of primary pro
grammes." The report points out that "while the target groups
among the rural poor gain from secondary employment, the
owners of the assets, specially land, typically obtain large
benefits from infra-structure created. The benefits constitute
one motivation for political support of public works pro
grammes by non-target groups which is a necessar/ condition
for the succes of this programme in most countries. However,
if land ownership is highly inequitable the incidence of
secondry benefits will be similarly inequitable." Further, this
report points out "how some governments may be tempted to
introduce public works programme as a substitute for more
fundamental reforms and policies which promote a sustained
growth in income for the rural poor. Such a course of action
should be resisted because the scope for immediately reducing
under-development and poverty are necessarily limited by
budgetary constraints and a shortage of suitable projects
would be offset by the inequitable distribution of the
27
secondary benefit."
.
The report concludes, "the most importantgenerafconclusion is that public works need to be a part of afarger
employment and development stategy."18
The observations by eminent scholars and expert bodies
like the World Bank and the ILO have pointed out the major
limitations of the programmes which are to be included as main
components of the new policy of rural development which is
being forged for' increasing production, removing inequality
and stimulating people's productive participation as well as in
democratizing the rural social and cultural atmosphere.
Whether these elements, even if they are woven into an
integrated rural development policy, can suddenly deliver the
goods expected from the new policy will be examined sub
sequently. However, before taking up this issue, the much
talked of concept of 'peoples participation' which is supposed
to be the lynchpin of the New Policy of Rural Development,
will be reviewed.
VII.
People's Participation — Its Scope
Recently there is a growing feeling among the policy
makers that the failure of the earlier policy of development was
due to its inability to activate grassroots-level socio-economic
institutions in regions and sub-regions of rural area to ensure
'people's participation' in rural development. In fact, the Centre
for Study of Development in India, Delhi has launched a
massive research project entitled "Apathy, Protest and Partici
pation in Rural Development Projects."
Similarly, the report of the working group on 'Block Level
Planning' under the Chairmanship of Dr. M. L. Dantwala also
emphasized in the recommendations, the necessity and
importance of public participation at all levels of planning.
The World Bank report also emphasizes the need of
people's participation in its own technical terminology while
discussing the issue in its section on 'Organisation and
Planning of the New Rural Development Strategy.' To quote :
"There is a growing consensus that the effective planning and
implementation of rural development programmes require the
following elements ;
28
.
"1. A national plan or programme of action for rural develop
ment, together with supporting national and regional, policies
and adequate central-local financing arrangements.
"2. " A strong organization at the national level to co-ordinate
vertically organized, central government sectoral departments.
”3. Greater decentralisationwith effective machinery at the
regional and local level to co ordinate the sectoral activities
of national departments1 operating in the region and regional
and local departments.
~
“ '■
"4. Participation by the rural poor in the planning and imple
mentation processes through local government project advisory>
committees, co operatives and other forms of group organi
zation.”"''' • - -i.r- ' ri' :
-h •»'
The report with its remarkable precision does not leave,
also the concepts of 'Decentralization' and 'Local Participation'.
nebulous. The report clarifies the meaning of decentralization
in the following terms. "The many meanings of decentralization
should be clearly distinguished. Decentralization may mean,
decentralization of authority : (i; to formulate project, (ii) to
administer projects and run enterprises (iir) to allocate expert-/
diture and (iv' to raise revenue."20
:V -The report has also highlighted the importance of local
participation in the following words : "Community involvement
in the selection, design, construction and implementation of
rural development programme has often been the first step in
the acceptance of change leading to adaptation of new
techniques of production and further local institutions such
as farmers' associations- and co-operatives have obvious
potential advantages for coping with administrative difficulties
imreaching the rural poor "-1
. There is almost a chorus sung by experts and policy
makers of late, having as its central theme that lack of people's
participation has been the major lacuna of earlier policy and
that the new policy will concentrate on mobilizing rural people.
In fact, the draft Sixth Plan (1978-83) very emphatically
highlights this feature in a section of a chapter on 'Planning
and implementation.' As this statement is the most eloquent
and detailed presentation on the subject by the most authorita
tive policy-forming body, we would reproduce it extensively
29
to bring o’fit‘the importance of this issue for the success of the
new policy~K" ...
yl,
.
......
"12.10. The Plan, whose primary emphasis is on rural
development and rural services, will demand a much greater
level of organisation and public participation than past plans.
It is relatively a simple matter to prepare projects for setting up
industries or power stations or expanding capacities of ports
or airlines or telecommunication systems. A limited number of
experts, planners, construction workers, managers, and
operatives are needed to implement such schemes. A pro
gramme of rural development involves investment decisions by
hundreds of thousands of individuals and the ability to evoke
the response of millions of potential beneficiaries. Officials at
all levels can only play a limited role in such an enterprise as
effecting the deliveries of certain essential inputs. The efficient
management of this countrywide network will, in the first
instance, impose tremendous responsibilities on the Govern
ment machinery. But in the final analysis the Plan can only
succeed if there is full participation of all the groups who will
be affected in one way or another by the massive new rural
investment programmes.
"12.11. Besides the rural poor, the other groups whose
effective participation has to be sought in implementing a
radical plan of rural development is the youth of the country.
While on the one hand the lack of employment opportunities
results in constant pressure for jobs, on the other hand no
sustained effort has been made to harness their talent and
energy in programmes of national construction. Young people
everywhere ask what they can do but we have not been able
to provide an answer The National Service Scheme and the
National Cadet Corps could be augmented and reoriented to
develop the kind of momentum that is needed. The time has
come to organise, through these and other agencies, a pro
gramme for the involvement of youth on a mass scale for rural
development. The scope for such enterprise is wide ranging
from schemes of adult literacy and non-formal elementary
education to rural sanitation and drives for immunisation and
family planning. Rural youth with some degree of technical
skill can be organised into groups to implement specific projects
in demarcated areas for the development of agriculture, animal
husbandry or rural industry. Similar projects could also be
30
developed for urban slum improvement. The possibility of
making year's national service on rural development and
similar projects compulsory for students, which has been
mooted in the past, might be re-examined.
"12.12. There are four elements needed for the success
of any radical plan for restructuring rural life. First there must
be a national consensus on the plan itself. Over the years such
a consensus has prevailed in respect of every national plan.
The strategy set out here is the appropriate one for the next
phase of the country’s development The Planning Commission
is confident that the objectives, priorities and policies laid down
in this document will find general acceptance with the Central
and State Governments, all political parties and all sections of
informed opinion in the country.
"Secondly the plan demands determination of Govern
ment as a whole to raise and deploy all necessary resources
and to devote all their energies to the fulfilment of its objec
tives.
"Thirdly, it requires of the community the readiness to
accept a degree of restraint on the expansion of its current
levels of consumption for the sake of the future.
"Lastly, and most vitally, the plan must evoke the enthu
siasm and participation of the vast number of citizens whom it
will affect, more particularly the target groups to whom the
benefits of the rural employment strategy have to be carried.
The poor and the dispossessed will not come into their own,
only by plans and programmes, however, well-conceived, by
declarations of intent or by exhortations to thrift and labour.
If the plan is to succeed, they have to be helped to organise
themselves to claim as a right the benefits that should flow to
them, so that in turn they may make their due contributions
to society.
"The goals are attainable, given only the national will be
to pursue them without faltering."-2
I wonder whether the criticism levelled agaist the old
policy on the ground that it did not take into account the
need for people's participation is really justified and correct.
In fact, if one reviews the statements embodied in various
policy statements of the earlier policymakers of the Third World
31
countries as well as their advisers from the advanced capitalist
countries, one could prepare an encyclopaedia, proving how
those policy-makers were eloquently convinced about their
plans and were also sure that they would rely upon and
stimulate participation and would depend upon the role of
non-governmental voluntary organizations. Similarly, if one
assesses the endeavours of these planners to evolve grassroots
socio-economic organizations as well as politico-administrative
organs, one would not fail to find the massive creation of
organizations involving various sections of the community.
The entire programme of 'National Extension Services',
'Community Development Projects’ and the so-called decent
ralized political organizations christened as Panchayati Raj,
based on elected representatives of villages, are nothing else
but striving to evolve grassroot organizations for people's
participation. Similarly, creation of thousands of voluntary
organizations in the form of various categories like 'Youth
Associations',' Mahila Mandal' and a variety of associational
network clearly prove that during the period of earlier policy
of development, proliferation of voluntary associations did
take place. To charge the sponsors of the earlier strategy that
they did not evolve infrastructure for people s particiption is
either to deny the reality or to give wrong causes for the
so-called failure of people's participation in the 'old strategy.'
A large number of scholars and observers have pointed
out how these organizations did operate but were controlled
and manipulated by the emerging rural rich, who were the
outgrowth of the path of development pursued by the
planners. In fact, these institutions became the additional
instruments in the hands of the emerging proprietary classes
in rural areas to utilize, divide, control and repress the poor.
Actually the apathy and protest from the poor were also the
result of the consequences of effective operation of these
associations in favour of the rich.
It is remarkable that neither the sections referring to the
people's participation in the draft plan, Dantwala Committee
recommendations, nor the World Bank report examine why the
gigantic infrastructure created by the earlier strategy services
the richer sections. Nor do they give any explanations and
valid arguments as to how their new conceptions of people's
participation would overcome these difficulties and tilt the
32
balance in favour of these very organizations for activating
the poor.
The notion that multiplications of voluntary organizations
within the present framework of class structure would pro
gressively curtail peole's dependence on the government as
argued by the Dantwala Committee does not sound very
convincing. It may, on the contrary, build up a stronger
alliance between the rural rich and the government and place
the poor under a complete control and hegemony of the richer
sections in rural areas.
Similarly, the enthusiasts advocating increased people's
participation do not answer some very simple truths. How can
the interests of the richer proprietor classes who can secure
profits by pumping out more and more surp'us value from the
poor, and the interests of the poor who are exploited can be
harmonized and reconciled ? They also do' not provide any
reasonable set of arguments to convincingly prove as to how
between the voluntary non-class. technically open associa
tions, which are instruments in the hands of the rich, and the
class or organizations of the poor, it would be the latter orga
nizations which would be consciously strengthened with a
view to ensuring active participation of the rural poor, when
the entire philosophy of planning and its maior thrust go
against this approach ?
In fact, during the last thirty years or so it has been clear
that the active participation of the poor through their class
and mass organizations to counteract the effect of the plans,
to assist the government in implementing land reforms, ceiling
measures and expose the funds connected with land transfers,
ill-prepared records violations of tenurial regulations, hoarding,
black marketing and social and other oppression, has been
almost systematically suppressed by the government on the
ground that such assertions and active involvement of the
people for justice, equity and participation in production and
decision-nuking fundamentally disturbs peace and causes 'Law
and Order' problems for the pursuit of the chosen path of
development.
In fact, the World Bank report assertively states that pro
grammes for area development for various categories of
marginal and poor farmers and others should not be undertaken
33
in a manner which
sections of the areas.
would antagonize richer enterprising
In a short paper like this, it is not possible to point out in
detail how it is not possible to evolve effective participation
of the poor if the new policy is to operate on capitalist assu
mptions. The renewed emphasis on the idea of people's
participation is repeating the same old slogan mongering in a
new garb. It may sometimes serve the purposes of involving
a small sector of the poor under artificial conditions with a
view to preventing the basic class solidarity of the poor to
organize for rooting out the real cause, namely, the very path
of development based on the reliance on the rich.
It will, thus, be clear that the proponents of the new policy
who bank on people's participation as element for its success
neither confront why such organizations failed in the past, nor
point out how they will be able to genuinely involve the rural
poor in both production and equitable distribution, within the
framework, which they have accepted. They nowhere point
out how the poor will be able to involve themselves in the
basic task of reshaping the decisions underlying the philosophy
of development pursued by the rulers. In fact, the countries,
where such talks about evolving new strategy of rural develop
ment based on people's participation are going on, ironically
are witnessing that the governments are becoming more and
more authoritarian, anti-poor, hostile to people's genuine
participation and are evolving either dictatorial, semi-military
or military regimes to repress the poor.
VIII.
Review of the New Strategy
As pointed out earlier, the policy-makers of the Third
World countries alarmed at the consequences of the earlier
strategy of development are seriously battling to evolve a
new policy which would include rural development as a major
fulcrum round which overall plan is to revolve.
It has been pointed out how this policy relies on certain
elements as major components of any plan for rural develop
ment. The strength and weakness of various elements which
are to form the constituent units of this new policy of rural
development have also been examined in this paper.
There is an underlying belief that the limitations of the
various elements would be overcome if they are rationally
34
integrated into an area development p.vgramme, instead of
being operated as distinct segments of an unco-ordinated policy
based on sectorial approach.
This belief has certain assumptions which need proper
appraisal.
The World Bank experts, in the report mentioned earlier,
have indicated the key points which should be taken note of
by farmers of this new strategy. To quote : "A strategy for
rural development must recognise three points. Firstly, the rate
of transfer of people out of low productivity agricul’ure and
related activities into more rewarding pursuits has been slow,
and, given the relative size of modern sector in most developing
countries, it will remain slow. Secondly, the mass of the people
in the rural areas of developing countries face varying degree
of poverty, their position is likely to get worse if population
expands at unprecedented rates while limitations continue to
be imposed by available resources, technology, and institutions
and organisations. Thirdly, rural areas have labour, land and
at least some capital which, if mobilised, could reduce poverty
and improve the quality-of life. This implies fuller development
of existing resources, including the construction of'infrastiucture such as roads and irrigation works, the introduction of
new production technology, and the creation of new types of
institutions and organisations. It is concerned with moderni
sation and monetisation of rural society, and with its transition
from traditional isolation to integration with the national
economy."33
There are other assumptions underlying the new policy
which should be taken note of. This new strategy would be
oriented to target population comprised of the rural poor and
is based on an assumption "that new seed-fertilizer-water
technology for wheat, rice and maize provides first major
opportunity for extending science-based agriculture to low
income, small scale producers of traditional crops." It also
presumes that fiscal policies which are often against the rural
poor should be tilted in their favour. And finally the public
sector spending which is heavily skewed in favour of the urban
population and in rural areas in favour of the rich should be
changed into its opposite in favour of the rural and more
particularly the rural poor 31
35
According to the policy makers of the Third World countries
and the World Bank report the new policy of rural development
will necessiate what is described as "New Style Projects"
which will have the following main elements ;
"(i) They are designed to benefit large numbers of the
rural poor, while earning an economic rate of return, that is
at least equal to the opportunity cost of capital.
"(ii) They are comprehensive in their approach to small
scale agriculture and provide for a balance between directly
productive and other components (where inclusion of the
latter is appropriated).
"(iii) They have a low enough cost per beneficiary so
that theycould be extended to other areas, given the availa
bility of additional resources "-5
'
, .
The eminent observers including the World Bank placing
faith on this new strategy of rural development admit that the
task of implementing such a plan is not an easy one. According
to them there are various reasons. To quote : •
" “■Hr.
"(i) by definition rural development cuts across all
sectors ; (ii) rural programmes more than most other kinds
of programmes, ideally should flow from national and regional
planning ; (iii) the kinds of supportive policies discussed
earlier involve fundamental political considerations and (iv)
the information base is poor." Further it is recognized that
there is no clear idea even of overall size of the population,
the location density and economic characteristics of specific
target groups of potentials for development in the area where
the rural poverty is concentrated.20
One is also confronted with the problem "whether
or to what extent greater emphasis on rural development
implies diversion of resources away from meeting the urgent
need for increasing food production." It is felt that a possi
bility of such direction can arise for many reasons, such as
those pointed out by the World Bank report.
'*1. Heavy investment in projects for those with the lowest
incomes could lead to a concentration of effort on a group
which command a small proportion of the basic resources
required for food producing land. Based on a study of 52
36
developing countries, if the poor small holders are considered
to control less than two hectares of land per family, collectively
they would control only about 1 6% of the arable land.
"2. It is sometimes more difficult and takes more time to
provide services to a large number of small farmers than to a
smaller number of large farmers. Then Bank's experience
indicates that the cost of providing credit to small farmers can
run 14 percentage points or more above than for large farmers.
Similarly, a large number of small farmers need more extension
workers, so there may be diversion of scarce resources away
from largest producers in addition to the higher costs of ex
panding these services.
"3. The urgency of the need to expand food supplies
over the next few years may mean that investment resources
will have to be concentrated in areas where the potential is
greatest for substantially increasing food production within a
short period of time. Farmers in these areas might well be
better off in terms of resources endowment and infrastructure,
they may not be among the rural poverty target groups.
We have presented, as faithfully as possible, the major
assumptions underlying the new policy of rural development.
and an indication is given as to various elements, which
according to the designers of this new policy, constitute the
chief elements. We have also pointed out how it will be
target-oriented and will be comprised of what they describe
as "new style" projects. A hint has also been given of some
of the possible loopholes against which the policy makers
shall have to be conscious.
Some of the major fallacies underlying this entire strategy
will be examined beginning with some of the assumptions
which are held as hard-core, the heart of this new strategy.
(I) The formulators of this new policy never examine
whether the low rate of industrial development was due to
weakness of the old policy in terms of faulty calculations
about resource allocation to industrial and agricultural sector
or whether it has been due to the fact that this strategy was
founded upon mixed economy capitalist postulates. (2) The
policy-makers do not clearly point out how the new strategy
of rural development will be fitted into the overall strategy of
economic development wherein industrial, urban and rural
37
programmes will have to be harmonized and total resources
co-ordinated. One is not sure whether the industrial, urban
sector which is to be given less attention by the public sector,
is to be left to the operation of private entrepreneurs in
collaboration with foreign capital and aid. (3) Further, they do
not point out how the necessary infrastructure in urban areas
and the one which will co-ordinate the urban and the rural
sector will be worked out. Will the private sector wedded to
maximization of profit undertake necessary activities supplying
goods and services but not profit yielding or demanding long
gestation? (4) Who will augment the resources for provid
ing minimum needs, sufficient employment as well as cheap
goods and services to the large majority of the urban poor as
well as to those who will remain in the villages without
adequate purchasing power ? (5) The planners do not
clearly indicate to what extent the government which is
wedded to a poFcy of development by providing varieties of
inducements and incentives to the rich will be able to drasti
cally tax the richer classes, who are the major agents of the
development to finance the various types of programmes
oriented to target groups. It is sometimes not made clear
whether it is feasible to generate adequate resources in a
developing country pursuing a capitalist path which would
meet both the contradictory claims. The policy-makers and
their advisers have never squarely confronted the dilemma of
generation of adequate finances for the "New Policy". They
nowhere point out how they will overcome the problem of
the increasing burden of foreign debt, deficit financing
recourse to indirect taxation and inflation necessitated by the
very capitalist path pursued in the context of Developing
Countries. (6) The plan formulators have nowhere pointed
out how the richer class pursuing for profit and producing for
market and the poorer classes the overwhelming majority
of whom belonging to agricultural labourers, tiny marginal
farmers,
ruined artisans
and
a large category of
unemployed and underemployed will be integrated harmoni
ously within this area development project. (7) It is also not
clear whether the production in this area will be for national
and international market to be sold as commodity for yielding
profit for proprietors of this area and also to pay off foreign
debts or whether this production will be oriented to the
satisfaction of assessed needs of the people of that area. If
the rural development is to be a part of a large plan which is
38
determined to produce for profit and market, the objective of
production in the area plan cannot function on the basis of
the objective of assessed need of the people. In this context
we feel that policy framers of this new strategy have not even
cared to examine systematically the entire phenomenon of
how the goods produced will be distributed and exchanged.
In fact, viewed in the total context, it appears that the entire
distribution of commodities will be carried out on the principle
of free market tempered with certain state intervention. The
logic of this principle of distribution contradicts the very
principle of "distributive justice" because it has been observed
that even in advanced capitalist countries state power with
enormous resources can only slightly tinker with the logic of
bourgeois distribution. The state is not able to basically
reshape this policy into a policy based on distributive justice.
(8) In spite of massive evidence produced by the economic
development in non-capitalist countries of the second world
and in spite of the fact that a number of serious scholars have
provided evidence to the contrary, policy-makers of the
capitalist path of development accept the basis of neo-malthusian concept of over-population as the major stumbling block
for economic development and adequate redistributive ethics.
This was so in the earlier and also in the new policy. The
planners never adequately examine whether the scarcity of
resources for investible surplus to augment production is due
to the squandering away of the already available resources
and wastefuily diverted to types and methods of production
conducted by private sector comprised of competing units
producing only those goods which will yield them profit in
the market or whether it is due to the resources drained by
"exploding" population. We urgently draw attention to an
observation made by the authors of the profound book Food
First — Beyond the Myth of Scarcity. "Already with the few facts
we presented in the first section of our book, it should become
clear that 'too many people' is not the cause of hunger. 'Too
many people' is an illusion growing out of increasingly con’
centrated control over resources. The spectre of over-popula
tion arises as more and more people are severed from the
control over and participation in the production process. Thus
they appear as super-abundant. Often the very people who
prefer to blame the poor themselves and their breeding for
deplorable social conditions are those who stand to lose by
the redistribution of power over productive resources that for
39
the first time would give people the reat option to limit their
family size "2S
It can be see man the basis of above mentioned evaluation
that the ideology, the framework, as well as the new styles of
projects comprising this new policy of rural development suffer
from the same basic contradictions within the strategy as of
old. This new policy also remains ambiguous or silent on
many important issues germane to the major goal of economic
development intending to augment production by strengthenin'g
the grassroots level organizations and inducing greater and
greater participation of people founded on equity and justice.
IX.
Conclusion
In this paper, we have pointed out how during early
twenty years after World War II, the Third World countries
detremined to overcome backwardness and evolve a prosperous
society, adopted a policy of development based on mixed
economy capitalist path of indicative planning. We discussed
briefly the major measures adopted to implement this strategy.
Subsequently we pointed out how during the last ten
years, it was increasingly recognized that the measures for
development unfolded numerous tendencies of alarming nature.
We then pointed out how pragmatic efforts were made to
counteract these evil efforts by adopting various devices.
We subsequently indicated how international bodies as
well as policy-makers of various Third World countries have
been struggling to forge a new policy comprised of a large
number of elements to inaugurate a healthy development
founded on economic growth, based on bridging inequality
and involving more active participation of the people in the
process of production.
We examined the scope and limitations of the important
measures which are supposed to be the main components of
the new policy, as revealed by the findings of scholars who
have studied the impact of these elements in different countries
of the Third World. We then examined, in brief outline, the
assumptions, techniques and the new style approach to
projects forming the heart of new policy of rural development.
We pointed out the major limitations underlying the new
policy which is being forged.
40
On the basis of our assessment, we- firmly asset that the
so called new policy of Rural/Development, 'n terms of its
basic thrust, is only a variant of the old .policy and operates
within the same basic postulates which are guiding the
direction of development since independence.. -The postulates
underlying the path of indicative, mixed economy capitalist
planning, oriented to production, for profit and market and
basically relying on the proprietary classes, is kept as axis also
in the new strategy.
'■*'
We are strongly of the view that the new policy will not
only not realize the objectives for which it is claimed to be
forged, but as pointed out in our other studies, will aggravate
the trends generated by earlier policy and will introduce a r
number of sinister currents which would confuse and sow
seeds of internecine fratricidial ferments among exploited
and oppressed masses so needed by the ruling class to salvage
the capitalist socio-economic order, which it' is attempting
to generate.
In the context of our closer study of.Indian situation, it is
our contention that the New , Strategy is being evolved to
subserve a number of purposes :
1. It is being evolved because the so-called overall
strategy of development pursued by the Iridian State and
also by the States of other Third World countries, is experienc
ing jolts, stagnation, stagflation threatening to reach a crisis
situation. It has exposed the fundamental incapacity not only
to complete the bourgeois democratic tasks, including the
agrarian tasks, but is exhibiting its incapacity to provide
limited growth with so-called justice in the form of redistribu
tion of income and welfare.
2. In fact, it is being e/olved to counteract the growing
disillusionment among the masses about the myth generated
among people that the planning adopted in the country by
the rulers is abridging inequality, redistributing income from
the rich to the poor, and is welfare-oriented for the masses.
The new strategy is evolved to generate new myths, basically
to hide the more ruthless anti-people, authoritarian policies
which the rulers are now forced to undertake. The new strategy
while blatantly pursuing a policy of concession and support
to richer classes in rural area to augmencproduction, is masked
41
under various schemes which may. appear to throw crumbs to
a very small layer of various slrat^ of the rural poor. It is
also adopted to induct a small section of middle farmers into
emerging mainstream of capitalist development, as well as to
selectively pacify a tiny fragment of the poor,er strata. Thus
the new strategy is a subtle device of increasing support to
rich farmers and land owners, throw some crumbs to a small
tiny insignificant section of the poor, to sow seeds of division
a nong them, and use them as counterpoise to those who ate
evolving struggles, and to launch a massive ruthless repression
of the growing struggles of the exploited rural masses by
fragmenting them, by suppressing them segmentally, and by
evolving devices institutional, financial and others among
various sections of agrarian exploited classes to penetrate
among them and defuse and confuse the struggles.
3. To illustrate from Indian experience, the Government
of India is alarmed at the growing assertive struggles of a vast
section of pauperized and proletarianized rural people. The
special survey done by the Home Ministry in 1969 on the
nature and causes of current Agrarian Tensions in Rural
India is a clear indicator of the growing unrest
The New Strategy evolved by the State is a double-edged
pincer against growing discontent :
To refine and intensify repression of these
struggles and also to add subtle multipronged
elements to astutely divide, confuse, contain
and disrupt the growing unity of the exploited
and oppressed classes in Rural India.
(b) As observed earlier, the state is systematically
evolving almost in an intergrated manner,
various institutional and relief devices ment
ioned in the paper. Through these devices, the
rulers are evolving a few associations, throw
a few financial crumbs, provide employment,
house site and other loaves to an insignificant
stratum of the poor separately so as to create
division among them, create illusion among
few, and thereby disrupt the unification among
them to expand the united struggles to over
throw the state and present socio economic
order which is fundamentally adversely
affecting their conditions.
(a)
42
It is unfortunate that the Left Parties wedded to National
Democratic and Peole's Democratic Revolution and also
those who are involved neck-deep in parliamentary cretinism
and are in desperate search for alliance with various categories
of bourgeois parties for seats in assemblies, parliament and
ministries and cabinets, are not able to see the sinister
implication of the new policies which are being consciously
evolved by the ruling class and their state in the Third World
countries. They fail to evolve alternative organs of struggles
of theexploited and oppressed classes comprising of proletariat,
agrarian proletariat, poor peasants and other sections of
oppressed toiling strata, but are busy with evolving unprin
cipled alliances for electoral purposes with various sections
of bourgeois and new-rich farmer classes.
References
1.
Report of the Task Force on Agrarian Relations.
Planning Commission
New Delhi, 1973, pp. 6-7.
2.
H. D. Malaviya, Implementation of Land Reforms—A review and an immediate
programme, Socialist Congressman Publication, 1970, p- 21.
3.
Antonia J. Ledesma, Land Reform Programmes in East and South East Asia
—A comparative approach. Land Tenure Centre, 1976, p. 22.
4.
ibid., p. 35.
5.
ibid., p. 3.
6.
The Assault on World Poverty, A World Bank publication, 1975.
7.
Uday Mehta, Agrarian Strategy in India, Vora & Co., Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
1975, pp. 78-9.
8.
'
D. R. Gadgil, 'An Assessment of Co-operative Farming in India.' Indian
Co-operative Review, vol. Ill, no. 4, July 1966,
9.
The Economic Times, Monday October 30, 1978, Editorial.
10.
Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama, Pantheon, New York, 1958, p. 1335.
11.
S. H. Deshpande, Some Problems of Co-operative Farming.
Himalaya
Publishing House, Bombay, 1977. See Chapter IX entitled 'Co-operative
Farming and the Small Farmers.'
12.
Sharad Jhaveri,'The Co-operative Movement and Growth of Capitalism
in Indian Agriculture,' The Call, February, 1965, p. 7.
43
13.
Inayathullah, Co-operative and Development in Asia,
Publication of the
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva 1972
pp. 76-7.
14.
ibid , p. 86.
15.
ibid , p. 97.
16.
The Assault on World Poverty, p. 44.
17.
Amartya Sen, Employment, Technology and Development, Oxford University
Press, Delhi, p. 144-5.
18.
The Assault on world Poverty, pp 47-52
1 9.
ibid., p. 52.
20.
ibid., pp 33-4.
21.
ibid., p. 35.
22.
Draft Five Year Plan (1978-83). Government of India, Planning Commission
Publication, pp. 86-7.
23.
The Assault on World Poverty, p. 3.
24.
ibid., pp. 3-6.
25.
ibid., pp. 60-1.
26.
ibid., p. 62.
27.
ibid., pp. 62-3.
28.
Frances Moore Lappe and Joseph Collins, Food First-Beyond the Myth
of Scarcity, Houghton Mufflin Company, Boston 1975, p. 71.
was to propagate the principles of Marxism, interpret Indian pheno
menon from Marxist point of view and thereby help in evolving
appropriate programmes of movements in India. He profusely contri
buted to Leftist papers and magazines during his long period. As a
freelance Marxist writer, he contributed articles in various Indian
journals and foreign magazines. C. G. Shah's study circles became
famous. A number of youths who subsequently joined and some of
whom even became active leaders of various Leftist parties in the
country, attended his study circles.
C. G. Shah's political life can be divided into two distinct
phases. The first phase lasted upto nearly 1937, when he was still
recognised as one of the undisputed intellectual influences by all
groups of Marxists. From 1937. particularly, after the full signifi
cance of Front Popular line was becoming clear and, also the inner
bureaucratic structure of the C.P.I. was ossifying into a hard,
monolithic, edifies, Shah became critical of Stalinism and the
Bureaucratic stifling of Party organization. From 1937 onwards and
more particularly after the C P.l. supported British War Efforts in
India when Soviet Union was attacked by German Nazi forces,
Shah's critique of Stalinism, alienated him from the official C.PI,
From 1941 onwards, C. G. Shah was isolated from the
mainstream of Stalinist Communist Movement. However, his
unflinching faith in Marxism, his systematic critique of Stalinism,
and his growing recognition of the profound truths inherent in and
contributions of Trotsky, made him pioneer again of this critical
Marxist Leninist Trotskyist current in the country. Though isolated
from the main stream of organised Stalinist movement, he slowly
emerged as a focal point and inspiration to a small and growing
body of dedicated anti-Stalinist revolutionaries who were emerging
in India. Particularly after the confusion and disillusionment created
among the Marxists by Khruschev's exposure of Stalin Era, Shah's
, intellectual influence grew and attracted a number of non-Stalinist
and disillusioned Stalinist groups which were emerging in India.
Though isolated in his later life, he devoted his entire life to a
cause and spread of ideas which he considered correct. He became
one of the most systematic expounder of Trotskyist ideas, presented
in the context of Indian developments.
C. G. Shah died in 1969 at the ripe age of 74, in harness,
leaving a deep imprint of his ideas. His ideas are increasingly being
recognized as authentic for evolving correct strategy and tactic for
developing socialist revolution in India. C. G. Shah had many
political opponents but no personal enemy.
C. G. Shah Memorial Trust is formed to continue to spread the
ideas of authentic Marxism, for which he lived and died.
was to propagate the principles of Marxism, interpret Indian pheno
menon from Marxist point of view and thereby help in evolving
appropriate programmes of movements in India. He profusely contri
buted to Leftist papers and magazines during his long period. As a
freelance Marxist writer, he contributed articles in various Indian
journals and foreign magazines. C. G. Shah's study circles became
famous. A number of youths who subsequently joined and some of
whom even became active leaders of various Leftist parties in the
country, attended his study circles.
C. G. Shah's political life can be divided into two distinct
phases. The first phase lasted upto nearly 1937, when he was still
recognised as one of the undisputed intellectual influences by all
groups of Marxists. From 1937, particularly, after the full signifi
cance of Front Popular line was becoming clear and, also the inner
bureaucratic structure of the C.P.L was ossifying into a hard,
monolithic, edifica, Shah became critical of Stalinism and the
Bureaucratic stifling of Party organization. From 1937 onwards and
more particularly after the C P.l. supported British War Efforts in
India when Soviet Union was attacked by German Nazi forces,
Shah's critique of Stalinism, alienated him from the official C.PI,
From 1941 onwards, C. G. Shah was isolated from the
mainstream of Stalinist Communist Movement. However, his
unflinching faith in Marxism, his systematic critique of Stalinism,
and his growing recognition of the profound truths inherent in and
contributions of Trotsky, made him pioneer again of this critical
Marxist Leninist Trotskyist current in the country. Though isolated
from the main stream of organised Stalinist movement, he slowly
emerged as a focal point and inspiration to a small and growing
body of dedicated anti-Stalinist revolutionaries who were emerging
in India. Particularly after the confusion and disillusionment created
among the Marxists by Khruschev's exposure of Stalin Era, Shah's
intellectual influence grew and attracted a number of non-Stalinist
and disillusioned Stalinist groups which were emerging in India.
Though isolated in his later life, he devoted his entire life to a
cause and spread of ideas which he considered correct. He became
one of the most systematic expounder of Trotskyist ideas, presented
in the context of Indian developments.
C. G Shah died in 1969 at the ripe age of 74, in harness,
leaving a deep imprint of his ideas. His ideas are increasingly being
recognized as authentic for evolving correct strategy and tactic for
developing socialist revolution in India. C. G. Shah had many
political opponents but no personal enemy.
C. G. Shah Memorial Trust is formed to continue to spread the
ideas of authentic Marxism, for which he lived and died.
C. G. SHAH MEMORIAL TRUST SERIES
Published :
1. Ends and Means : Their Dialectical Unit C. G. Shah Rs 30.00
2. A Positive Programme for Indian
Ed. A.R. Desai Rs 1.50
'Revolution (out of print)
3. The Generalized Recession of the
International Capitalist
Economy (out of print)
Ernest Mandel Rs 1.50
4. The State in the Age of Late
Capitalism
Ernest Mandel Rs 2.00
Ed. A.R. Desai Rs 3.00
5. The Marxist Theory of State
6. Communism and Democracy
Ed. A.R. Desai Rs 3.00
7. Changing profile of Rural
A.R. Desai Rs 3.00
Society in India (2nd edition)
8. A New Policy of Rural Development
in South and South-East-Asia—its
Sinister Significance (2nd edition)
A R. Desai Rs 3.50
9. Public Sector in India-Controversies
about its role.(new enlarged edition)
A.R. Desai Rs 3.00
Under Publication :
10. What is Behind Assault on Democratic
Rights in India and Public protest in
Parliamentary democracy
(New enlarged edition)
A.R. Desai
11. Trends of Urban Development in
India and proliferation of slums
A.R. Desai
12. Economic Functions of State and
Public sector in third word countries
(special reference to India)
A.R. Desai
13. Atrocities on Harijans and Minorities
A.R. Desai
in India
14. Nationality question in India
and Centre State relations : (revised
enlarged edition)
A.R. Desai
15. National Integration and Religion in
A.R. Desai
India
16. Contradictions in Education system
A.R, Desai
in India
17. Health and Safety in Independent
India
Ed. A.R. Desai
18. Changing status of women in India. Ed. A.R. Desai
Rs 3 00
Rs 3.00
Rs 3.00-
Rs 3.00
Rs 3.00
Rs 3.00
Rs 3.00
Rs 3.00
Rs 3.00
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