VOICE OF RESISTANCE

IN THIS ISSUE
Economic Crisis and
Rulers' Remedy
Art, Culture and the
Marxist
Pravin Nadkar
WHY DESTROY DELHI
UNIVERSITY
Dr. N. Bhattacharya
Corporate farming in
India- Issues, concerns
and consequences
K.R. CHOWDRY
Brutalities and Murders
of Minorities
Aparna
Political Economy of
SEZ in India
Ish Mishra
INFRASTRUCTURE OF
HEALTH IN A RURAL AREA
S C Tyagi, Gunjan Sharma
FOOD SECURITY: THE
GAFFES OF THE PAST
Vikas Bajpai
Relocating the Question
of Dalit Experience
K.V.Cybil
Editor
Dr. N. K. Bhattacharyya
nkbhattacharyya@gmail.com
Voice of
Resistance
August 2013
Vol. 2 No. 6
Rs. 20
Sharp decline in the value of rupee this year has brought the focus to
the deep malaise affecting the Indian economy. The causes of the deepening
crisis of the economy are deep seated in the very structure of the economy.
Over two decades back new economic policies were pushed through as a
solution to the malaise, but these have only added to the ills of the economy.
The ruling elite have neither the will nor the capacity to address the same
as they have gained and continue to gain through the policies which have
wrought this havoc. The economic experts who have built their reputation
and fortunes by parroting the line of big capital, foreign and domestic, are
clueless while mandarins managing the economy, the trio of Manmohan
Singh, Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia have to climb down from
the mountain of denial and are looking forward to reinforcement in the form
of coming RBI chief.
Fall in the value of rupee is an expression of multiple factors, both
relating to domestic economy with sharp price rise eroding its value and
stagnation of domestic demand and also due to escalating negative trade
balance and linkage to foreign capital. However there is near unanimity
between main ruling class parties as well as corporates of India that it is
not the economic policies that are responsible for the deepening crisis.
Making a statement in Parliament Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed
the opposition, mainly BJP’s obstructionist tactics, for not being able to
carry these policies further as the legislations required could not be taken
up. On the other hand, the main parliamentary opposition party, BJP, has
blamed the ‘weak’ govt. for its inability to push forward the agenda stating
that if in power, they would have done so and would do so. A prominent
corporate leader Mr. Ratan Tata blamed the beating the image of India has
received world wide as responsible for the present predicament. This shows
a concensus among them that these policies need to be taken further and
they attribute the present problems to the inability to take that course
whatever the apparent disagreements they project.
Of the factors that are responsible for the fall of rupee, there is sharp
increase in the negative trade balance, imports far outstripping exports. In
the year 2011-12, the total imports were of $488 billion while the total exports
were of $303.7 billion, the trade deficit thus being $184.3 billion. (India’s
Foreign Trade, Reserve Bank of India) The Govt. cries only about oil import
bill and escalating prices of crude oil in the international market but it is
meant to hide the other parts of the Indian imports. The share of petroleum
products in country’s imports has been relatively stable amounting to less
than a third of the total. Over the last eleven years , between 2000-01 and
2011-12, it has been between 28.2% and 31.4%. In the year 2011-12 the
import of petroleum products amounted to $155 billion. The second big
propaganda of the Govt. is of increasing imports of Gold and Silver, which
Economic Crisis and Rulers' Remedy
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
were worth $61.5 billion in 2011-12. Besides these two,
the non-oil, non-Gold imports were of $271.5 in 2011-12
but the Govt. remains quiet on this large part (over 55%)
of India’s imports.
In fact this large part of India’s imports is due to
dependence of Indian economy on imperialism and due
to policies of the Govt. of promoting imports of products
of foreign companies. A significant part of these imports
is of capital goods which shows the continuing
dependence of our industries on the foreign capital goods.
Another part is of the compulsory imports under WTO of
the goods which have to be imported whether India needs
them or not. A part of these imports is of luxury items
which are used by a tiny section whose imports have
been liberalized by the Congress and BJP led govts.
The one-sided cry of the prices of oil is to hide the utter
bankruptcy of the Govt. policies on foreign trade.
Weak performance of India’s exports is also due to
slowing demand in the developed capitalist countries due
to continuing financial economic crisis. Share of India’s
exports to EU declined from 20.1% in 2010-11 to 17.5%
in 2011-12. Prime Minister and other leaders of the Govt.
are crying hoarse that they have not been able to
increase the exports of minerals due to struggles of
tribals and peasants. One can see the reality of the
policies of the Govt. which is eyeing to sell mineral wealth
of the country in the name of development. In fact there
has been sharp decline in the share of engineering goods
in India’s exports. Between April to September 2011 the
share of engineering goods in India’s exports was a mere
16.8% while the same was 49.5% in the corresponding
period of 2010. Over the last few years the rate of growth
in manufacturing sector has declined sharply and in many
quarters it has been negative. In the services sector
also the rate of growth has declined due to stagnation in
demand in developed capitalist countries. Due to US
pressure Indian rulers have abandoned Iran-Pakistan-
India gas pipeline which could have delivered gas at
reasonable prices and Iran is willing to accept payment
in Indian currency. Due to this pressure India has also
cut down on oil imports from Iran.
However this is not the only factor behind increasing
demand for dollar. Indian Govt. under TRIMs agreement
under WTO has allowed the foreign companies a free
hand to repatriate their profits abroad. In the second
quarter of 2013 the foreign companies sent abroad over
$3.8 billion in profits which was 44% more than the profits
repatriated in the first quarter. Obviously this was pure
profit and does not take into account other imports by
the foreign companies. In the last fiscal year, the total
outflow amounted to 2% of the GDP of India.
Besides foreign companies, Indian corporates' need
for dollars also contributed to its rising demand. Upto
March 2013 total foreign debt on the country has
increased to $390 billion and there has been 13%
increase in the last year alone. Of this debt a good part
is of External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) which has
increased to $120.9 billion. Big industrialists of India-
Ambani, Tata, Birla are among the borrowers and of these
loans 60.2% is secured loans. In fact overwhelming part
of the payment liability of the foreign debt pertains to
ECBs and is paid in dollars.
These external factors are operating on the base of
domestic factors. There has been a high rise of prices
over last several years and it has been in double digits
for considerable period. The price rise has affected all
commodities across the board which shows that this is
not accounted for by the increase in the prices of
production but because of decline in the value of
currency. While people’s income has increased in money
terms, it has declined in real terms. This has obviously
led to erosion in the value of rupee which is also being
expressed in the decline in its value in relation to other
currencies. The factors behind the high prices are
stagnation and low growth in the production of goods
and services; increasing fiscal deficit which Govt. covers
up by printing notes and high tax rates, particularly of
indirect taxes, whose burden falls on the people. Trade
related factors like hoarding, black marketing,
speculation operate on top of the underlying basic
factors. The main reason of the slackening production
is in weakness of effective demand which is directly
related to purchasing power of the people. This
weakness expresses the continuing bad conditions of
the vast masses, the workers and peasants. The rate of
unemployment and underemployment is very high and
the bulk of employment is of low wages. Instead of
basing themselves on increasing domestic demand the
Indian ruling classes adopted an export led growth model
which means that the increase in production must find
its outlet in foreign markets. On the other hand, in the
field of manufacture, dependence on foreign capital has
been maintained, rather increased leading to continuing
dependence of foreign capital goods due to close
relations of Indian big businesses with foreign capital.
To distract the attention of the people from the real
reasons of the deepening crisis, country’s rulers shout
about burden of subsidies which is baseless. The major
part of these subsidies relates to oil but the taxes levied
by the Govt. are nearly double that of the so-called
subsidies paid. They also shout about their ‘pro-people’
measures. Due to low wages and rampant corruption,
there is very little effective use of MNERGS. In this
year’s budget only Rs. 29,000 crores were provided under
this head while it was Rs. 40,000 crores in earlier years.
With rise in wages, it obviously means decreasing
coverage. There is big noise of economic burden on the
Govt. due to Food Security Act recently passed by the
Parliament. In this year’s budget, finance minister had
made a provision of Rs. 10,000 crores for this. This
amount may appear laughable for food security of two
thirds of 120 crore people but it is nearer to fact.
According to a report, the expected expenditure on this
scheme is about Rs. 1,25,000 crores while already
1,13,000 crores are being spent under this head, meaning
thereby an increase of only Rs. 12,000 crores. The prices
of fertilizers have continuously risen, the subsidies cut
(Contd. on page 40)
3
Voice of Resistance August 2013
A Marxist artist has to intervene in the progressive
cultural movement to help the progressive artists hear
the cries of the common people. Artists have to be
inspired to remove their middle class blinkers to clearly
see the social reality of the struggling people ever ready
for launching an onslaught on the prevalent social system.
The progressive artist must use art and culture as an
instrument of progressive social change. In Gramsci’s
conception intellectual and moral leadership in the field
of art and culture enables the ruling classes to maintain
the stability of their social order. Challenging this
hegemony of the ruling ideas in the field of art and culture
to evolve a new ideological structure complimentary to
the peoples' struggles is the foremost task of the Marxist
cultural activist.
Art and culture like politics and economy have their
own process of development. Culture, though it is a
product of socioeconomic and political development, it
also has its own internal dialectical process of change.
A working class organization needs to understand and
address the issues relating to this process in order to
provide an impetus to the progressive cultural movement.
It is necessary to note that progressive changes in the
cultural field do not occur only by sharpening the political
struggle. It is also true that a progressive cultural
movement is inseparable from the political struggle, but
if the political class struggle is not extended
simultaneously to the cultural sphere then the culture
even can act as a drag on an advanced political struggle.
The mere advancement in the political or economic
struggle does not guarantee a corresponding advance
in the culture. It is therefore necessary from time to time
to take a stock of the cultural movement in general and
corresponding organizational and ideological tasks in
particular as per the given situation. Without identifying
the immediate tasks in the context of the general
perspective of the revolutionary cultural movement it will
not be possible to effectively intervene in the ongoing
progressive cultural movement.
Given the world wide setback to the communist
movement in the recent past and fragmentation of the
communist movement in the country, a communist artist
has lost much of the prestige as enjoyed in the hay days
of the movement. In such a situation the communist
artist obviously cannot be effective without the
Communist Party embodying the tasks on the cultural
front in the main body of their work amongst the people.
It is not sufficient to have a party line on culture but a
communist party also needs to take serious
organizational steps giving its due share of importance
to the cultural field. It is necessary that the Party makes
the cultural organization a part and parcel of the ongoing
class struggle. A cultural movement equipped with the
ideology of the working class is essential to the success
of the political movement for a revolutionary change.
Art and culture codify the prevalent value system in
the process of social coexistence. A Marxist has to
distinguish between the progressive and regressive
values embodied in various artistic creations and cultural
traditions of the society. A deep study of theories of art
and a positive attitude towards working people can help
to determine the tactics of struggle against the
regressive values in society. A Marxist artist must
continuously work towards evolving a new standard in
aesthetics distinct from the prevalent bourgeois and
middle class benchmarks. Marxists can lead the
progressive artists by example only if they are able to
produce work of artistic value superior to the
commonplace petty-bourgeois or elitist art works. A
communist artist has a responsibility of organizational
activity in the cultural field besides carrying on with the
artistic work. Ivory towers of art history and aesthetics
have no place for the genuine Marxist point of view about
art and culture. It is therefore necessary for the artist
organizers to propagate the Marxist interpretation of the
above subjects among the artists. The Marxist theory
emphasizes the socio-economic factor as the basic
determining cause of the artistic phenomenon. Contrary
to the Marxist view point, various bourgeois theories of
art generally stress on the individual influence of the
artists' ideas more than the impact of the broader social
influences on the art product. Marxist theory of art has
proven historically to be not only a powerful system of
thought but also a basis for social action. Marxists should
therefore give importance to the propagation of Marxist
Art theories while working among the artists.
Cultural ideas of the epoch help cover the oppression,
injustices and other negative aspects of the ruling class
interests in the given society. Marxist theory formulates
that ideas of piety, honour, valour and military chivalry
were the ruling ideas of aristocratic classes of that time.
These ideas helped to legitimize their domination.
Similarly, values of individualism, profit, competition,
consumerism etc. articulated the ideology of the
Bourgeois class. The ideas of the ruling classes are so
well entrenched in the art world and the cultural field
that only an ideologically trained Marxist can identify
the negative influence of these ideas in any art creation
or cultural work. In the absence of Marxist approach of
evaluation of an art work or cultural practice, it is very
easy for a progressive artist to succumb to the pernicious
influence of the ruling ideology camouflaged in artistic
Art, Culture and the Marxist
Pravin Nadkar
4
Voice of Resistance August 2013
excellence. Cultural studies to articulate images, ideas,
narratives etc. necessary for the promotion of social
transformation and individual freedom from exploitation
are of utmost importance for that reason.
In Gramsci’s conception, ‘Some institutions and
groups violently exert power and domination to maintain
social boundaries and rules (i.e. the police, military,
vigilante groups, etc.), while other institutions (like
religion, schooling, or the media) induce consent to the
dominant order through establishing the hegemony, or
ideological dominance, of a distinctive type of social
order.’ The ideological domination of the ruling class
ideas is often invisible because, as for example, in case
of capitalism the ideas of self-centered individualism or
unbridled consumerism appear to be very normal and
logical in the societies with capitalist characteristics.
The contemporary Art education and Cultural studies are
based on the assumption of the permanency of the ruling
apparatus of ideological and political domination. The
ideas germinating from this type of ideological moulding
therefore appeal to the common sense of the artists for
the purpose of surviving in the given art scenario. It is
therefore necessary for the progressive Artists to see
beyond these common sense boundaries of thoughts
and discover new ways of expressions to challenge the
status-quoists and to propagate the progressive values
of revolutionary change in the cultural field. A renowned
western Marxist artist Benjamin in the essay ‘The Artist
as a Producer’ has stated that, 'The progressive cultural
creators should re function the apparatus of cultural
production like say theater or film into a forum of political
enlightenment rather than a medium of culinary pleasure.’
A progressive artist cannot understand the social
reality of the peoples' social existence without having
close links with them in their day to day lives. An artist
disconnected from the people and their struggle for
survival will not be able to serve the revolutionary cultural
movement significantly. The attitude of learning from
the masses if ignored, the artist may succumb to the
trait of intellectual arrogance. Artist has to understand
the driving forces behind the cultural practices of the
masses and evolve a suitable form which can be easily
acceptable to them in order to appeal to their artistic
sensibilities. Such art practice will inspire the people to
engage in the revolutionary struggle for social change.
Any artistic creation must be done with the view of gaining
acceptance among the so called ‘uncultured’ lot of the
common working people. Fascination for gaining
acceptance among the select circuit of the cultural elite
can be detrimental to the pursuit of producing a genuine
peoples art. A progressive artist should consciously
avoid such temptations to sustain their revolutionary zeal
in the field of art and culture. A Marxist should never
lose sight of the fact that the engagement in the field of
art and culture has to be recognized as a way of
participation in the ongoing political class struggle.
The popular art forms of today serve the purpose of
providing an illusory escape to the working people from
the drudgery of their day to day existence. There is no
sincerity of purpose and content in these art forms to
rouse the people against injustices in the society. These
art forms lack the scientific and logical content necessary
for stimulating the critical thinking regarding the present
day unjust social order. These types of art practices are
responsible for creating an apathy among the working
people towards assuming a role of the conscious and
responsible members of the organized working class.
The populist art forms often utilize their knowledge of
peoples' cultural practices and their popular language to
sugar coat their anti-people content. Many progressive
intellectuals on the other hand are often seen to be unable
to use the peoples language and their intellectual
approach is often ineffective in popularizing the
progressive content of their art product. Progressive
artists can not refrain from reaching out to the people at
their given level of consciousness. It is only by reaching
out to their level it will be possible to lift them to a
higher level of culture in a step by step manner. Working
people themselves are victims of many socially
regressive tendencies like male chauvinism, casteism,
communalism, opportunism etc. It is the duty of the
artists to condemn these tendencies through their art
and also to celebrate and promote the unique working
class qualities of social discipline, belief in organized
strength, readiness to fight against injustices,
constructive work culture, respect for manual labour,
social cooperative practices etc.
Middle class artists are often filled with romanticism
in their beginning period of exposure to the Marxist ideas.
It is necessary to educate these artists about the nuts
and bolts of building up the movement and the realistic
situation of the working class. These artists have to be
readied for the arduous task of promoting the progressive
values through art practices in a cultural environment
hostile to the Marxist ideas. The lack of financial
patronage, paucity of resources for the art production,
denial of prestigious platforms for presentation and many
such hurdles can get the romantic Marxist artist quickly
disillusioned about the Marxists art practices. It is
therefore necessary to imbibe the values of social
commitment and disciplined hard work among such
artists. These artists have to be trained in deep
understanding of the Marxist ideology and encouraged
to live a simple lifestyle of the working people.
Ideological remoulding is a long term task.
Overcoming force of old habits, acquired under the
influence of the ruling ideas and imbibing new ideas for
the revolutionary transformation is an essential part of
the process of ideological remolding. It is an endless
process which a progressive artist should never ignore.
(Contd. on page 40)
5
Voice of Resistance August 2013
A well planned short term economic crisis was
manipulated in India in early nineties to destroy India by
implementing a discredited economic policy dictated by
so called developed countries. Such policies are imposed
on poorer countries for the benefit of rich countries to
bring untold miseries to 99.9 percent of population of
these countries. ‘We the people of India’ promised a
sovereign, socialist, secular democratic republic
(Preamble of Indian Constitution). Since 1991 the dream
of a socialist India or at least in a diluted form ‘a civilized
welfare state’, was shattered by implementation of
destructive policies to accumulate wealth by corporates
at the cost of nation’s welfare. In 1991, Indian
mainstream political parties decided to follow destructive
LPG policies (Liberalization, Privatization and
Globalization) as suggested by World Bank ignoring the
wishes of their own people. Those born in 1992 will vote
for the first time in 2014 Parliamentary election and many
of them are already on the streets demanding fulfilment
of constitutional obligation of the state to implement right
to life and livelihood in letter and spirit. It is wrong to
think that youth of India is sleeping and it doesn’t
understand what is happening around it!
The so-called developed economies of West and in
far East were crushed to the ground like a house of cards
long back in 2007-08 and even then Govt. of India is
advertising ‘Bharat Nirman’ which is primarily serving
the interests and the greed of corporates and their
chambers of commerce. Developed world led by USA
is really worried because China, whose solid foundation
was laid by hard work of Mao-Tse-Tung, will be number
one country in the world though time required may be
guessed. Recession started in 2007-08 from Wall Street
and turned into a destructive epidemic. A very poor
country like India (new word used is ‘emerging economy’
and old words ‘poor’, ‘developing’ are dropped) is in worst
possible crisis. The mainstream political parties are
engaged to create maximum confusion among frustrated
youth of the country so that they get weaker by fighting
among themselves on various socio political issues.
I
Education and health of our people were never treated
as important issues by our mainstream political parties.
Our policy makers think that Indians having huge wealth
should go to USA and/ or to some selected countries of
Europe for higher education; in the same manner there
are many 5 star Hospitals in India for these increasing
number of millionaires and billionaires for temporary and
emergency treatment in India. It is a cruel joke in a
country where senior citizens are paid monthly pension
of Rs 300 only!
In 2013 Govt of India is proposing to change the basic
character of Delhi University. It has ordered, as an
employer, the present Vice- Chancellor to mould this
beautiful and vibrant University as a branch office of
any University of USA. Quality of education is immaterial,
courses to be taught are nobody’s headache and quality
of faculties is least important. What is important to Indian
bureaucracy in 2013 is quick ‘Americanization’ of Indian
Universities as dictated by corporates and their
Chambers of Commerce as part of reform process.
However, Indian Constitution is not helpful to achieve
their goal.
Students belonging to SC and ST (22.5%) and OBC
(27%), physically handicapped (3%) and sports and
cultural quota (another 5%) or around 57 % of Delhi
University seats (54000 in first year) are reserved for
students of these categories. Most of them belong to
Govt. schools and their medium is Hindi language. Delhi
University is well known in the country for its very good
academic performance for decades in some of its wellknown
faculties like Economics, Commerce, Physics,
Sociology etc. etc. These faculties are liked by students
from all over the country and they have tried hard to
maintain that reputation all these years. In the same
manner some colleges like St.Stephen’s, Sri Ram
College of Commerce (SRCC), Lady Sri Ram College
(LSR) etc. are visited by students from all over the
country with very high percentage of marks in 12
standard. In 2012 SRCC cut off percentage was 100%
and they got sufficient number of students for B.Com
(Honours) course. This year too cut off percentages for
various courses have not declined. This year, a not so
well known college like Ramlal Anand college (morning)
in South Campus fixed cutoff percentage in Computer
Science around 100%.
Around 54000 students are admitted every year in
77 colleges of Delhi University and around half of these
students are given admission under constitutional quota
but every effort is made by vested interests to compel a
very large percentage of these socially backward
students to discontinue studies by creating various
hurdles and one commonly played game is to offer them
a subject/ language which he/ she can never follow. Girl
HIMALAYAN BLUNDER
WHY DESTROY DELHI UNIVERSITY
Dr. N. Bhattacharya
6
Voice of Resistance August 2013
students coming from Hindi medium Govt. schools and
securing more than 60% marks are found ineligible in
regular colleges and are compelled to join
correspondence courses and their number may exceed
1.5 lakhs every year. So Delhi University and such other
state funded Universities of the country are willingly
depriving many bright, willing and capable youth from
pursuing higher education in formal educational
institutions funded by tax payer’s money. Education by
sending reading materials (correspondence) is meant for
those who are busy in some other profession, but
unemployed boys and girls in lakhs with reasonable
grades can’t be denied formal education in Universities
in 2013! In Delhi University 70 % of new admissions in
1st year is in correspondence course! There is no dearth
of resources, why not open more Universities funded by
state and allow all willing and eligible students to
continue study in formal colleges? Why create obstacles
for these bright students in continuing studies in formal
colleges? Only 17% of eligible youth in India go for higher
education and Govt. plans to increase this to 30%, then
why not open more colleges under various Universities.
India needs more scientists, more research workers,
more learned Professors, how can we compel the
increasing number of brilliant youth to rot and suffer from
frustration? It is time to discuss and debate why
mainstream political parties are avoiding discharging their
social responsibility. One can’t compel millions of
meritorious students to suffer for no fault of theirs. Look
how Delhi University is allowed to avoid its social
responsibility all these years and everyone was asked
to praise such a insensitive Central University.
In developed countries they cannot afford this luxury
because they require their limited manpower to do all
types of jobs. That is why most of the education oriented
jobs in developed countries are done by educated people
from poor countries at minimum wage rate which are
simply exploitative or these jobs are assigned to poor
countries (BPO) where highly qualified manpower are
offered paltry wages. Indian mainstream political parties
miserably failed to provide education to millions of
students struggling hard every year to get an opportunity
to attend classes in institutions of higher learning. In a
democratic country such destructive higher education
policy must stop without delay, lack of financial and
qualified human resources are unacceptable and anti
national. India spends annually around 3.5 percent to 4
percent of GDP on education and around half of it comes
from ‘education cess’ imposed on Income Tax payers.
Approximately 50 percent of these expenditures are on
‘higher education’ and that is extremely inadequate. It
was agreed that budget for higher education should be
minimum 6 percent of GDP and that can be raised from
corporate sector and high income group. It is they who
are highly benefited by growth of education in general
and higher education in particular. What is the value of
non performing assets of our commercial banks since
2007-08? Why are bankruptcy proceedings not initiated
against rich corporates who are looting these banks
since independence? Why not publicize the names of
business honchos who are willingly cheating these
banks? WTO was brought to India in 1995 to bring foreign
financial institutions to India but their contributions in
social sectors' investment is a big zero. How many
educational institutions and hospitals in the public sector
have they funded with long term loan with lowest interest
rate? These are simple rules of a capitalist economy,
but in India rule of jungle still continues in 2013 and our
bureaucracy is pretending to be asleep. Why not RBI
frame policies so that lending long term loan to education
sector run by Govt.at nominal rate of interest is allowed?
It is totally unacceptable that when current account
deficit is hovering around 5% of GDP banks are allowed
to lend money to import gold and/or arms and
ammunition! Import of unlimited quantity of oil for growing
number of automobiles in a country of millions of
malnourished children is totally unacceptable because
this is completely an anti-national activity.
Recently, as reported in press, some well known
leaders of a political party were killed by armed cadre of
another banned political party in BJP ruled state,
Chattisgarh. Govt. is preparing in more determined
manner to engage in civil war with its own population.
This is going on since 1969 from Naxalbari days, but no
efforts were ever made to stop the widespread
exploitation of poor and tribals in India. Forests where
around 100 million tribals live for generations are
deforested and corporates are permitted to accumulate
wealth from various types of economic activities in these
tribal belts of India. Since 1947 tribals in lakhs were
made homeless to implement so called development
projects and that eviction process is still going on. It is
nobody’s headache where these homeless tribals have
gone and how they are living. Look what happened
recently (2013 June end) in Himalayas where
‘development’ in the form of constructing large number
of dams, tunnels through hills for hydel projects, wide
spread deforestation for urbanization—roads, bridges
etc. etc. A simple natural phenomenon like cloud burst
completely destroyed whatever the water could find on
its way in Uttarakhand causing huge loss of human life
in the entire region. Worst sufferers are poor daily wage
earners, but builders and politicians of India have no
regrets that they ignored all laws, rules and regulations
followed in construction process in such region; rather
they are happy to find a new opportunity to cheat this
country. Do we have any law in this country to make
people accountable for their decisions and actions? 82
districts are declared by Govt. of India as seriously
affected by ‘terrorism’ or ‘naxal affected’ and at the same
time greed of corporates resulted in massive destruction
of nature and millions of human and animal life are
7
Voice of Resistance August 2013
allowed to get destroyed. In Chattisgarh large number of
Private Universities were allowed to cheat innocent
students. Matter came to Supreme Court and they were
all ordered to close down. Salwa Judum created untold
miseries in Chattisgarh but politicians were happy killing
innocent tribals; again Supreme Court termed it
unconstitutional. Thus in India corporates are given
unlimited power to loot natural resources as if these are
their private properties and not national resources and
in that process they are allowed to exploit innocent and
illiterate masses and our criminal politicians are helping
these anti national corporates to loot this country. These
forests of India are very rich in minerals of all kinds and
everyone is engaged since independence to destroy our
minerals and other natural resources. How long Govt. of
India can allow such destruction to go on without
protests? Universities have to play a crucial role at this
juncture of Indian history.
II
New education policies are dictated by Indian and
foreign corporates and implemented in this country
without consultation either with students or with various
social groups. It is claimed that education has to serve
interests of corporates so that they can maximize their
profits and fulfil their ever increasing animal greed.
Private Universities during the last two decades have
grown like mushrooms and in the absence of any
effective regulation, almost all of them are functioning
practically as teaching shops of little quality and students
are forced to pay huge capitation fees. Their certificates
are useless. New Central Universities are opened
everyday (now around 42, 41 claimed functional) to
extract fabulous monetary support from Centre. Builders’
lobby and University Vice-Chancellors’ cartel are looting
public fund, of course there may be exceptions, but as
politicians are involved scams are getting publicized late.
Not a single vice - chancellor was ever brought to book
for such huge wastage of public fund without
corresponding benefits to students or to the society. Only
recently one Chairman of Medical Council of India was
sent to jail by court for accepting bribe in lieu of
recognition given to some private medical college.
The present Vice Chancellor is an old hand at Delhi
University. He started as a student in St.Stephen’s
College of Delhi University, then worked here as a teacher
in Maths Dept. and later went to the Dept. of Maths in
the University. His ambition to become Vice Chancellor
was fulfilled in 2010 after he completed 5 years’
apprenticeship as Director of South Campus. He agreed
before accepting this job to what his masters wanted
from him under so called economic reform packages of
LPG and demanded by corporates. When Vice Chancellor
of Delhi University is busy to implement order of his
masters, can we ask this learned Professor what is the
role of a University in a poor country under such
circumstances? Text books claim that Universities are
centers of higher learning by well qualified academicians
of world fame, what is their role in society and how they
react when human life is of no importance, profit and
accumulation of wealth by business men are more
important? Why Delhi University should bother that our
students should get easy access to US Universities?
How long US will survive this tough competition?
The present Vice Chancellor of Delhi University
started his job two years back with a conventional stick
of a village school teacher to discipline his staff of Delhi
University so that they don’t ask questions in 21st century!
He ignored what is happening recently in the streets of
Delhi started by Mr. Anna Hazare at Ram Lila Ground in
2011. How many people visited that site of fast and
why Govt. of India was forced to agree to his demands
but later nothing happened in Parliament. The anti rape
movement in 2012 December's chilly cold; youth of Delhi
spent several nights demanding laws against rape and
murder and Govt. of India had to yield to their demands.
A new law is added in the statute book, but one Chief
Minister of a state recently blamed her opponents for
such brutal mishaps and for publicizing rape and murder.
How long these types of dramas will go on? Entire socially
conscious citizens' groups of Kolkata came onto streets
protesting against crime on women and criminal attitude
of the Chief Minister.
Delhi University’s Vice Chancellor, to please his
masters, tried to discipline the staff, some of whom are
more experienced and better qualified than him, but he
refused to work unitedly with them to improve academic
functioning of this vast University. Those who remember
Prof. K.N. Raj of sixties as Vice Chancellor of Delhi
University, know he resigned as Vice Chancellor at the
age of 45 when he found the university community was
in disagreement with him, and teachers of this University
still remember him with respect because he functioned
as a democratic head of an institution and abolished a
cadre of teachers called ‘assistant lecturer’ who were
made to work as slaves of Principals. In contrast, in
2013, entire University of Delhi in this capital city looks
like a concentration camp, teachers, karmacharies and
students who helped this University to grow all these
years are forced to lead life in prisons, they are
humiliated as anti social elements having no right to
protest in a democratic country of 1.23 billion people.
What is the relevance of such educational institutions
to a society?
First he asked colleges ( around 77 Colleges) teaching
undergraduate programme to start ‘half yearly
examination’ of old days now sophistically termed as
‘semester’ so that teachers are kept busy in the colleges
and devote less or no time to study in the library or do
research work. He wasted precious time of the students
by picking up controversies with teachers and wasted
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
valuable time of this University. He is not interested to
appoint regular teachers based on approved work load
of UGC. Students are suffering for the incompetence of
head of Delhi University. University requires around 9000
full time teachers enjoying all privileges of Delhi
University teachers but is working with only 4000/4500
regular teachers and rest are contract labour. Here
contractors are political parties who make these
appointments including that of Principals and Professors
in the departments from among their cadre. Entire
University is stinking; there is no place for constructive
discussions either with staff of the university or with
people who fund this university. Sabji mandis (whole sale
vegetable and fruit market) are better organized and
managed than our present Delhi University. Is it not
planned destruction of a national institution in the capital
of the country in 21st century?
Vice Chancellors are appointed in a particular manner.
But present VC never appointed his team members in
the same transparent manner; rather most of the
appointees are picked up at random to show their
personal loyalty not to the University but to an individual.
Delhi University is run by tax payers money; every one
paid by University has to be appointed following proper
procedures, rules and regulations. Before his promotion
to this executive post, he learnt how to run college
administration by working as Director, South Campus
for 5 long years. He and his team have forgotten when
they last visited an Honours class of more than 50
students and how they taught them for 50 long minutes.
The situation becomes more critical only when such bad
teachers are appointed as Principals or Professors in
the Depts. for his/her political connection. Such
appointments are going on since Govt. of Delhi started
running these colleges from the head quarters of party
in power in Delhi Govt. Delhi University is being
deliberately destroyed in a planned manner by
mainstream political parties and a Central University is
totally misused by these criminal politicians.
III
Vice-Chancellors are accountable to society. They
have to explain why University of Delhi is not counted
as one of the top 200 world Universities after it is
functioning so systematically for 91 long years (it was
established in 1922 in the heart of India's capital). Its
100% expenditures are paid by tax payers who are
traditionally very poor in India. When the teachers and
students are protesting from day one of his promotion
as regular VC, how is it that his appointing authorities
are keeping mum, rather they are supporting such a Vice-
Chancellor who wants to introduce some new course
structures for undergraduate students who will study in
colleges. However, 70% of undergraduate students in
the first year admission in 2013 will follow the old
courses, i.e. in same University there will be two types
of courses for undergraduate students: 1) Confused and
irrational 4 year degree course without any printed reading
material approved by regulatory bodies and rejected by
social groups, teachers and students organizations. The
other is for 70% undergraduate students
(correspondence) of the same University— old 3 year
degree course without any change of comma and full
stop of old course. Can any University dream to have
different course structure for the same batch of students,
specially when their number is more than regular college
students and the University claims that new 4 year
degree course is a better option, under what rule it is
depriving 70% of students from such better option?
It appears that some social groups should appoint a
fact finding team so that it becomes clear whether what
present Vice Chancellor is doing is legal or not and if it
is legal, question remains of discrimination and favoritism
to selected academically sound students at the cost of
majority of students who are forced to get admission to
‘useless’ correspondence school. Where are huge funds
allotted to colleges long back by UGC to accommodate
huge number of additional students to be admitted under
‘Constitutional obligation' deployed? Something is
missing somewhere and for fair enquiry present Vice-
Chancellor has to be sent on ‘leave’ till the Enquiry
Committee submits its report. It is in the interest of
students and teachers of Delhi University that this group
of short sighted and thoroughly corrupt individuals now
managing affairs of this University is given a last chance
to explain their sincerity and honesty to 5 lakh students
of this University and to the society at large. Under no
circumstances they should be allowed to destroy the
life of lakhs of students of this country.
Elected members of Parliament have to assure the
countrymen that Central Universities like Delhi University
will receive proper care and guidance as required by
Indian Constitution. The University is wasting its valuable
time and resources by raising those issues which have
no relevance to the country at this point of time.
Politicians working as agents of corporates are short
sighted, corporates cannot be masters of this vast
country, real masters are millions of youth who are
fighting on the streets of this country to see to it that life
and liberty of our people are not mortgaged to any country
or group of countries. Delhi University must withdraw
unconditionally all the new adventurism and sit down to
evolve a consensus on how to make this University
friendly to people of this country and help in building a
vibrant democratic India.
9
Voice of Resistance August 2013
Government of India has been making concerted
efforts since the last few decades to corporatize
agriculture in general and initiate Corporate farming in
particular. Different forms are suggested and meanings
are attached to corporate farming. The announcements,
documents, notes, advertisements etc. are released by
the Govt. frequently and periodically on this subject.
These are released in subtle, unclear, ambiguous and
deceptive manner and forms misleading the people in
general and inducing farmers in particular towards
corporate agriculture. It is said that the information given
is too little, while the information hidden is too much on
the subject.
1. Govt’s arguments in favour of Corporate
farming
The govt has mentioned many issues and advanced
several arguments in support of or as justification for
corporate farming. It argues that land holdings in India
are too small and tiny, which constituted more than 80
percent in the total holdings. The average size of farm
holding was 1.55 ha in 1990-91, which came down to
1.23 ha in 2005-06. During 2005-06, 64.8 percent of the
total holdings have less than 1 ha. About 18 percent of
the holdings have between 1 to 2 ha (total 82.8 percent
of the holdings). The size of holding is shrinking and
further getting smaller and smaller. It means that Indian
agriculture is predominated by small holdings.
The productivity of small farms, according to
government sources, is of low order and hence
cultivation of these small farms is not viable and
profitable. The small farmers face the problem of shortage
of resources, such as bullocks for draught purpose, farm
implements, irrigation and infrastructure. Their poor
economic status does not allow them to invest on farm
development, farming operations and inputs. The small
farmers have little access to modern agricultural
production technology despite the government’s
extension services and even if it is available, the same
is not adopted in their fields due to scarcity of finance.
Mechanization of agricultural operations or practices is
not possible on tiny holdings. Further, they may not be
capable of growing commercial crops and export oriented
crops for reaping profits. The employment for members
of the family on the fragmented holdings is also limited.
Post - harvest technology, processing facilities, storage
and warehousing, cold storage and other infrastructural
Corporate farming in India- Issues,
concerns and consequences
K.R. CHOWDRY
facilities are not within their reach. Since credit and
marketing institutions and agencies are generally
unfavourable to small farmers, they face several
difficulties in credit and market sectors. In essence,
small farm economy is beset with many knotty problems
and further it is a losing proposition.
An analysis of the issues mentioned and concerns
expressed above reveal that some of them are true, while
many others are blatant lies or untruths. It is true that
small farmers’ investment on farming is marginal and
adoption of modern production technology is highly
inadequate on account of their poor economic status.
The argument is also true that small farmers’ farming is
associated with risks and losses. But the question is
who is responsible for this atrocious condition of small
farmers? Is it not the Government? What has been done
by the government to ameliorate their distressed
conditions and improve small farm economy and their
welfare? The answer is ‘precious little’. The government
has totally failed in its task, as it has neither interest
nor sincerity in the well-being of small farmers. Further,
it has been steadily withdrawing from its responsibility
of extending all the necessary help, assistance and
farmer-oriented favourable policies to small farmers. On
the contrary, the government has been thrusting largesized
corporate farms or farming as an alternative to
small farms, which is claimed to be panacea for all their
ills. This is really a misleading, dubious, deceptive and
dangerous plan of the government and corporate
companies.
One other pet argument put forth by the government
is that ‘small farmers are inefficient and productivity in
small farms is low and hence it is not profitable’. This
argument is totally untrue, false and wrong, which is
proved by a large number of researches and studies
conducted in several regions of the country under various
agro-climatic conditions. According to these studies
including that of Prof. Ch. HanumanthaRao, the small
farms are more efficient in utilizing the labour of all the
members of family fully and resources more efficiently.
The studies concluded that productivity of small farms
is higher than that of large farms. This is our common
experience in the villages as well.
Further, the view point or fact of higher productivity
in small farms in amply proved and fully supported by
the evidences available and experiences gained all over
the world, especially in Asian countries, namely, Japan,
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
China, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malayasia and
Thailand. In all these countries, the average size of farm
holding is much smaller when compared with that of
India. But the crop productivity is nearly three times more
in the above countries than what it is in India. The
predominant reasons for higher productivity in the above
countries are: the pro-farmer policies and programmes
formulated and implemented, such as radical land
reforms, supply of inputs, credit, technology, marketing
infrastructure, subsidies and incentives, remunerative
prices, processing and storage facilities, protection from
the attack of foreign companies, education, health and
other welfare measures to the farmers. Service
cooperatives are in the service of farmers. It may be
noted that no corporate farming is implemented in these
countries.
The foregone discussion clearly brings out that small
farms are more efficient and productive provided all the
necessary assistance is extended besides pro-farmer
policies. Instead of taking up such progressive policies
and programmes, the government has been consistently
harping on the so-called corporate farming stating that
small farms are inefficient and unviable. The lesson to
be learnt from the experiences of Asian countries is that
no corporate farming is needed to increase crop
productivity and enhance small farmers’ income. Despite
the advantages and benefits of small farms, which
provide major part of the food to the people, employment
to the significant sections of population and good family
bond and life to the people, the government is going
ahead to destroy the small farm system by encouraging
and vigoruously supporting corporate farming.
2. Forms and Models of corporate farming
The government is changing the nomenclature and
forms of corporate agriculture frequently. It is also
changing its models very often. Joint stock companies
in agriculture, contract farming, corporate farming,
cooperative joint farming, collective farming are the
various forms and models of corporate farming proposed
by the government. As and when the people demonstrate
their resentment and resistance to corporate Agriculture,
the government backsteps and withdraws its move
temporarily. But it strikes again and again and continues
its efforts persistently to implement its plan of corporate
agriculture. It is all in tune with the policies of
Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG)
formulated and implemented by the Government since
1991. As part of neo-liberalism, expenditure on
agricultural development has declined and the role of
government in agricultural sector declined. Government
formulated anti-farmer and pro-corporate policies. It is
extending fullest support and cooperation to private
corporate companies to enter into agriculture in a big
way and to throw the farmers into clutches of private
companies. Needless to say that private corporate
companies are not charitable institutions and their sole
objective is to usurp unbridled profits through cheating,
exploiting and looting the farmers. In this background,
an effort is made to analyze the issues, concerns and
consequences of corporate farming proposed in different
models.
I Four Models of Company Farming
For the purpose of virtualizing the land rights of small
farmers and bring their lands under corporate control and
management, four Models were proposed by the
Expenditure Reforms Commission, GOI. These are as
follows:
i. In the first model, Joint Stock Company is
registered under the Companies Act for taking up
agricultural operations. Compact blocks of 1,000 to
5,000 ha are identified and farmers are motivated to
become shareholders in the joint stock company set
up for managing agricultural production. Share
certificates are issued to farmers to the extent of their
land holdings. Cultivation of land is done by the
Company. Not only all agricultural operations but also
post-harvest technological practices and systems
including agro-processing and marketing of agricultural
produce are carried out by the Company. Farmer
shareholders get dividend income and wage
employment from time to time.
ii. In the second model, the joint stock company
leases in land from farmers and take up cultivation on
its own. The farmers buy shares from the Company
and derive income for the lease amount to be paid by
Company and also dividend income on the basis of
shares held by them. They will also get wage
employment from time to time.
iii. In their model, joint stock company does not
take up any cultivation on its own. The Company
provides only services relating to technological support,
credit support, input support, marketing support and
set up facilities for processing and marketing value
added products. The farmers do the cultivation for all
intents and purposes. They take up contract cultivation
though joint stock company and their income consists
of the sale proceeds received from the company for
their produce and dividend income, which will accrue
to them on the basis of shares held by them in the
Company.
iv. The fourth model envisages setting up of
producer companies on the basis of the
recommendations of the Committee headed by Dr. Y.K.
Alagh. The Company is required to be registered under
the amended Companies’ Act for setting up the
producers Company. The promoter Company organizes
farmers into Producer Company. The farmers become
shareholders of the Company. Cultivation may be done
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
jointly by the farmers but control and management is
carried on by the Promoter Company. The value of
produce is shared by the Company and the farmer
shareholders based on the extent of value of their land
holding. The Company gets its charges for
management and supervision and also the total amount
incurred on cultivation, which is provided by promoter
company. The Company also gets its share in the
income or profit accrued.
II. Cooperative Farming Models
a. Coop. better farming or Service Cooperatives
b. Cooperative joint farming
c. Cooperative collective farming
d. Cooperative Tenant farming. In the guise of
cooperation, Corporate farming is also being
promoted.
III. Public-Private Partnership for Integrated
Agricultural Development (PPP-IAD).
This is the latest proposal of the G.O.I. and this model
is nothing but corporate farming.
The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, GOI,
has issued a press note on March 5, 2012, through which
it opens a door for public private partnerships in
agriculture. In the past, especially during the green
revolution period, Public-private partnership was
conceived as partnership between govt and farmers.
This concept is totally changed in the present context,
as it means that the partnership is between government
and private corporate companies. In this model, farmers
have no role at all in decision making, farming and
marketing of produce. This is a scheme for facilitating
large scale integrated projects, led by private sector
players in agriculture and allied sectors, with a view to
aggregating farmers, creating critical rural infrastructure,
introducing new technologies, adding value and
integrating the agricultural supply chain. This scheme
is proposed to cover 10 lakh farmers across India during
the years 2012-2017. Each promoter company will
involve 10,000 farmers. The projects or Schemes
proposed by the companies will be processed centrally
by the Dept. of Agriculture and Cooperation (GOI) and
FICCI and sanctioned. Small Farmers Agribusiness
Consortium (SFABC) will provide professional support
services towards baseline surveys, organization of
farmer groups in identified clusters, provision of credit
with support from NABARD, assessment of technology
groups and farmers group tie-up with aggregators,
establishment and development of Post-Harvest
Management infrastructure.
Govt. proposes to have partnerships with 5,000
farmers, while private corporate companies desire the
partnerships with 10,000 farmers.
The main objectives of Scheme are to augmenting
the current farmer and agriculture reach programmes by
leveraging the capabilities of the private sector by:
· Addressing all concerns related to production and
post harvest management in agriculture and allied
sectors.
· Enhancing production and productivity, improve
nutritional security and income support to farmers.
· Promoting, developing and disseminating
technologies for enhancing production and productivity.
· Assisting States in addressing the entire value
chain, right from the stage of pre-production to the
consumers’ table through appropriate instruments.
· Creating employment generation opportunities to
skilled and unskilled persons, especially unemployed
youth.
· Improving value addition and ensuring farmers’
profitability increases.
· Making farming a viable business proposition.
This is what is expected from the private corporate
sector. Can any one believe that private sector would
accomplish such lofty ideals? Is it not a tall claim? Govt.
want the people to believe that private sector has better
capabilities than the Govt.
IV Implementation of PPP-IAD
The Govt. of India is implementing the Scheme in 17
states. 34 Private Corporate Companies have already
entered into agreements. GOI estimates that each farmer
shareholder requires about one lakh rupees and the
Central Govt. provides Rs. 50,000 to each farmer. The
rest will have to be mobilized from Banks and farmers’
contributions. Farmers have to mortgage their assets
for getting loans from the Banks. It is stipulated that
production of commercial crops, such as soya, cotton,
ground nut, chillies, sugarcane, vegetables, and also
milk etc. should be taken up by the Company.
Infrastructural facilities such as godowns, roads,
processing etc. will be created by the government.
Subsidy to the extent of 50% will be given towards microirrigation
and heavy machinery as is existing presently.
However, neither the government nor the company gives
funds to meet expenditure on inputs and implements.
The Central Government proposes to give Rs 7,000
crores under the PPP-IAD directly to the company but
not to the farmers. It is also proposed to provide
technology generated by Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR) and State Agricultural Universities
(SAUs) to farmers by the private promoter company. It
is not made clear as to why the public sector extension
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
ordinance issued recently by GOI shall certainly be in
jeopardy.
vi. Export-oriented crops – Private companies
accord top priority to export agricultural commodities to
reap huge profits. But the international market is highly
volatile and undependable. If the prices in the
international market fall huge losses will accrue. Who
will bear this loss? Farmers or shareholders in the
company shall be ruined totally.
vii. Termination of multiple cropping system –
Corporate farming leads to mono-cropping. The
advantages of multiple cropping are lost. Pest and
disease attacks predominate and crop production
declines. Environmental degradation becomes
dangerous. Food security is threatened. Imports become
inevitable. Poor and middle class people suffer due to
food and nutrition insecurity.
viii. Chemicalization of agriculture – Private agrocompanies,
in their hunt for profits use huge quantities
of agro-chemicals which damage ecology and
environment. Pesticide residues in the foodgrains /
vegetables cause enormous health hazard to the people.
ix. Technology – Technology adopted by the
corporates may not be suitable to local conditions.
Further, technology may be expansive. If the company
incurs losses, who will pay for the farmers?
x. Sale proceeds – Under PPP-IAD, it is proposed
that only 60 percent of the value of sale proceeds will
be paid to the farmers and the rest may be used as
reserve fund of the company or may be given to farmers
in input form or in some other form later. This shall put
farmers to great inconvenience and difficulties.
4. Past Experiences in India
i. Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister of India got
a resolution passed in the Indian Parliament favoring
Cooperative Joint Farming. The proposal was later
withdrawn due to opposition of farmers.
ii. Chandra Babu Naidu, the then Chief Minister of
Andhra Pradesh experimented with corporate framing in
the guise of cooperative farming in ‘Kuppam’ in Andhra
Pradesh. This was abandoned as it failed totally.
vi. The Agricultural Reforms Commission,
Government of India, has concluded that wherever
cooperative farming was introduced in the country, it
has totally failed.
Distinction may be made between corporate farming
and collective farming (Kolkoz, Commune and Kibbutz).
In Corporate farming, value of production, income and
profit is usurped by the corporate company, while the
same go to the state in collective farming. Kolkhoz,
Cummunes and Kibbutz do not fall under corporate
farming.
cannot do this.
3. Concerns and Consequences of Corporate
Farming
i. It is not made clear as to what would be the share
of the private company in this partnership. Funds are
provided and the infrastructure is created by the
government, but the control and management are put
into the hands of private company. Even the incentives,
royalties and subsidies are denied to the farmers and
are given to the company.
ii. Alienation or dis-possession of land – Under PPPIAD
the holdings of small and marginal farmers are pooled
into one large farm with 10,000-25,000 acres and large
scale farming is taken up by the company. The PPP is
meant exclusively for the small farmers. The first and
foremost danger of corporate farming is that farmers lose
their land, the only source of livelihood. Once the farmer
joins the company, he has to surrender his land to the
private company. All the field boundaries will be ploughed
up or wiped off to form a bigger or larger field or large
sized farm. Thus the farmer loses his land permanently
and it will be impossible to get back his land if he wants.
Farmers will become laborers and paid employees on
their own land. Even this facility may be limited to a few
farmers. Farmers may lose their freedom and dignity
and become slaves to the company since no alternatives
are available. No peasant agriculture will continue and
the system will come to an end permanently. In PPPIAD,
or company farming land concentration takes place
and the number of landless families increases. Further,
corporate farming is against land reforms and distribution
of land to the landless people. Furthermore, tenant
farmers will be thrown out of agriculture and they will be
the worst sufferers.
iii. Heavy mechanization – Since private company
takes up large scale farming, all the agricultural
operations are mechanized. Because of this, not only
farmers but also agricultural laborers will lose employment
and livelihood. Poverty is bound to increase.
iv. Farmer’s rights and freedom – In company
farming, all the decisions regarding the crops, crop
varieties, organic practices, processing, marketing etc
will be taken by the company management and farmer’s
rights and freedom on all the above issues are curtailed.
v. Commercial crops – As already stated, the private
companies under PPP-IAD shall take up cultivation of
only commercial crops. Hence, foodgrain productionwill
come down and this will cause serious food problem for
the people of the country. In addition to scarcity problem,
prices of food may shoot up hitting hard the poorer and
even middle class people. The country may be forced
to resort to imports of foodgrains. Under these
circumstances, the implementation of the food security
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
5. Case for Small Farm Economy
i. The U.S. government realized the disadvantages,
drawbacks and dangers of large scale farming and
appointed a Small Farmers Development Commission
for the development of small farmer. U.S. government
is now implementing programs for development of small
farms and family farms.
ii. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of
the United Nations declared 2014 as a Small Producers
year. This emphasizes the importance of small farm
economy.
iii. International Impact Assessment of Agricultural
knowledge, science and technology for development –
This was a study carried out by six international bodies
among which were included F.A.O, W.H.O, U.N.E.S.C.O,
World Bank. In this study 600 scientists and decision
makers from 30 countries participated. Indian delegation
also participated. This study has unanimously identified
suitable techniques which are adopted by small farms
over the years. These technologies are for sustainable
agricultural production. The document urges that
government should support and assist small farmers and
further warned that small farms should not be converted
into large farms. India has committed itself by formally
signing to implement these suggestions. But later, the
government says that small farms are not suitable in
Indian agriculture as they are not amenable for adoption
of modern and costly technologies. It prefers
corporatization by bringing lands of small farmers under
private corporate control.
The foregone analysis brings out the following
conclusions:
i. Land has to be surrendered to the private
company. Once it is surrendered, the peasants will not
get back the land and thus he loses his land permanently,
which is the main source of his and his family’s
livelihood.
ii. The land thus acquired shall go into the hands
of corporate sector. Land concentration takes place.
Corporate farming is against land reforms and land
distribution. Thus, it is against the principle of equity
and justice.
iii. The cultivation in corporate farming is done by
the company. Peasants do not have any role in decision
making. Moreover, they become coolies on their own
land. Their rich knowledge and vast experience gained
from generations will be lost. Farmers normally have
initiative, drive and dynamism in their profession. Farmer
has emotional attachment to his land. Sense of
possession is very much alive in his mind. All these
may not find expression in large farms controlled by
corporates.
iv. Corporate farming is bound to create
unemployment and increase poverty among the
peasants.
v. Food and nutrition insecurity will become serious
among poor and middle class people.
vi. Corporate farming ensures profits to corporates
and losses to peasants.
vii. The independent and individual peasant farming
system will be destroyed.
viii. Corporate farming will perpetuate capitalism in
farm sector.
6. The Alternative
The whole issue has to be examined in broader
perspective, especially within the framework of property
rights, method of capitalization, mode of production,
small peasant economy, cooperativization,
collectivization, corporatization, capitalism and
imperialism. However, keeping the current Indian politicoeconomic
situation in view, the following development
strategy is suggested.
Since agriculture provides the basis for the socioeconomic
development of the country special emphasis
or priority should be accorded to agricultural development.
The pro-farmer policies are important in this regard. Land
reforms are necessary to achieve progress in agriculture.
Quality inputs, credit, irrigation, infrastructure,
streamlined marketing, remunerative prices, agricultural
insurance etc. are some of the important and vital
measures required for agricultural development. Some
of these can be provided through service cooperatives.
Commodity Cooperatives are successful in different
parts of the country. Dairy cooperatives in Gujarat, sugar
cooperatives in Maharashtra, Arecanut marketing
cooperatives in Karnataka, handloom cooperatives in
Tamil Nadu are some of the successful stories. In
Andhra Pradesh, Mulkanoor multi-purpose cooperative
society in KareemNagar district and Ankapur cooperative
society in Nizamabad district are highly successful.
Producers’ Associations are running successfully in
Maharashtra. In all these societies, it may be noted that
production is done individually. However, input supply,
technology, processing, marketing etc are done through
cooperative societies and farmers reap benefits through
better bargaining power, bulk purchases and sales, scale
of economy etc. Even in advanced countries like
Germany, Denmark, Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam,
cooperatives contributed significantly to agricultural
growth and farmers’ welfare. It is therefore suggested
that Service Cooperative or Cooperative better farming
may be encouraged in all the villages instead of company
farming. Cooperative farming on individual lines, as the
famous German Economist Otto Schiller calls it, is ideally
suited to Indian farming situations. Farmer’s
organizations, political parties, intellectuals and other
sections of the people have to build a mass movement
for equity, justice and development in the agrarian sector
and certainly against corporate farming.
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
Apologists of Intelligence Bureau (IB), IB officials
themselves and of course the Home Ministry are on a
publicity binge. Prominent obliging journalists, ex-IB
officials are writing long ‘middles’ – centerpieces – in
English dailies and obviously their pieces are being
printed. The IB chief has reportedly represented to the
home ministry that if their special director and three junior
officers are acted against for fake encounters, then it
would upset other officers; that actions done during the
course of duty however unduty like, lawless, needless,
unconstitutional and murderous they be, should be above
questioning, above penalization. In effect AFSPA like
blanket covers should apply throughout the country now,
for all acts of the IB. All this discourse centres around
the recent CBI charge sheet confirming the cold blooded
murder of Ishrat Jahan and three others, nine years
earlier in 2004, by the Gujarat police and IB officials.
The Home Ministry has swung into co-ordinate action,
announcing that files pertaining to Ishrat’s case would
not be handed over to the CBI in ‘national interest’. A
junior ex-official of the Home Ministry (now in another
Ministry) has written a letter (which obviously ‘went
public’) to the Ministry against an IPS officer who is
attached to the CBI team investigating the fake
encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others. Maintaining
that the said officer pressurized him into implicating the
IB officers, he further found it necessary to state that
the IPS officer believes that the Parliament attack and
Mumbai attacks were staged by the GOI to push people
of India to quietly accept laws severely curbing their
human rights by bringing them after such incidents and
in the name of fighting terrorism. The issue is, even if
he holds this view, does it change a fake encounter into
a genuine one? A crafted campaign is alongside on in
the media on whether agencies like IB should be curbed
in any manner when they have to fight against ‘terrorists’
‘who do not respect human rights of others’. This whole
ridiculous exercise is in a country where eventually
‘terrorists' are proved to be quite others who are exact
opposites or even state agencies themselves, and now
these innocents – branded – terrorists, both living and
dead, have to be dealt with. Anyway the argument is
clear – those fighting ‘terrorism’ have to be allowed to
stretch the laws as they please, even breaking them if
they choose.
The list of guilty in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter
case is luminous. More than a dozen senior police
officers of Gujarat and names of some IB Directors are
doing the rounds. Those charged include DIG D.G.
Vanzara, G.L. Singhal (SP), Tarun Barot (SP), J.G.
Parmar (SP), P.P. Pandey (ADGP), N.K. Amin (SP).
The role of KR Kaushik (retd DGP) is being investigated.
The role of Rajinder Kumar (Special Director IB, now
retd.) and his three juniors is very much settled, but
what happens to them remains to be seen. Rajinder
Kumar was involved in planning, in deciding to kill, in
writing the FIR prior to the fake encounter, and also in
preparing the initial submission of the Home Ministry
asserting that Ishrat Jahan was a ‘terrorist’.
Whatever facts are now ‘dug out’, ‘brought to light’
etc, one point needs to fully clarified and has not yet
been pinpointed. In 2004 what was the evidence available
with the IB or Govt to show that Ishrat was a terrorist? It
seems that there was none. It is also clear that there
was no ‘encounter’ at all, but four people were picked up
separately (may be Ishrat and Javed together) and put
together and killed (or killed and put together).
Interestingly, all the threats to ‘kill’ Modi and the teams
to ‘Kill him’ surfaced and were countered by the 'efficient'
police between Oct 2002 and Dec. 2006. Gujarat saw
21 encounters in this period (Hindu, 7th July 2013).
‘Threats’ to Modi just stopped after that. The totality
told the entire country that Modi was under threat by
Muslim terrorists after the anti Muslim violence in Gujarat
in 2002, and that the police under Modi in Gujarat was
terrifically efficient.
Who was Ishrat Jahan ?
2004, and Ishrat was a nineteen year old Muslim girl
in Mumbra area of Mumbai. Her father had died of cancer
and she was a college going student who took tuitions
after college hours to keep the family’s income going.
Aspiring to be a doctor, she had joined Khalsa College
in Mutunga as Mumbra did not have a science college.
She had cleared the first year examinations and had
taken admission in the second year. Ishrat was the
eldest in a family of seven, and was called ‘apa’ by her
siblings.
As school and college holidays meant that children
stopped tutions, Ishrat had sought an interim job, and
she was working with Javed Sheikh for a period of not
more than a month, Javed Sheikh was reportedly known
to her father, which is why she applied to him for a job.
He was a converted Muslim; his name was Pranesh Pillai
and now it is believed that he was probably an IB mole.
Over the past nine years, Ishrat’s life story has been
repeatedly reported by different publications. Her life was
like that of many a urban girl whose family was not well
off. There was no TV in the house, so that the family
Brutalities and Murders of Minorities is ‘Course of
Duty’ for Police, Intelligence Agencies
Aparna
15
Voice of Resistance August 2013
got to know of the ‘encounter’ when reporters descended
on the house to take their point of view. The police had
not bothered to inform the family.
The fight for justice for Ishrat has been fought by her
mother, Shamima Kauser, who applied before the Gujarat
High Court that an FIR should be lodged against the
policemen who murdered her daughter. The Division
Bench of the High Court ordered an investigation.
Metropolitan Magistrate S.P. Tamang eventually
conducted the magisterial enquiry and gave a hand
written order running into 234 pages in 2009, holding
that the so called encounter was false, and naming 21
policemen as responsible for the same.
Identity of the other Victims
The other victims of this murder were Jeeshan Johar,
Amzad Ali and Javed alias Pranesh Pillai. The CBI’s
hunt for the identity of the first two has reportedly drawn
a blank in Kashmir in India. They were both picked up
separately, on different dates allegedly from Ahmedabad
(in last week of April and on 20th May) and at times have
been reported to be Kashmiris. As their identity hunt
has drawn a blank, it is quite likely their names were
other than those given by the Gujarat police and that
their identity will remain buried in the thousands of
minority youth who have ‘disappeared’ in recent years,
especially Kashmiri youth. They must have been young
Muslim boys working or studying in Gujarat who were
arbitrarily picked up.
One refreshing aspect of this entire case is that the
facts have eventually been elicited also because lower
rank policemen have spoken up and given evidence. It
is also reported that one of them refused to fire on the
victims / Ishrat. It is established that Javed Sheikh and
Ishrat were travelling in a blue Indica which was stopped
at Vasad Toll Booth (Anand Dist in Gujarat) on 12th June
2004. Both of them were kept along with Johar at Khodiar
farm house outside Ahmedabad – evidently one of those
‘safe’ house maintained by intelligence agencies.
They were removed from there late on 14th night and
the ‘encounter’ took place on 15th June 2004 morning.
Constable Avinash Thakur has stated that they were
kept with their eyes blindfolded and hands tied. The four
were either killed in separate places and brought to the
encounter spot, or were drugged and brought to the spot
and killed. It was reported at that time that a sack of
yellow explosive powder was found in their car – this
has now been proved to be some harmless powder. The
AK 47 and two pistols found with the bodies had been
arranged by IB Special Director, Rajinder Kumar.
This entire instance – whatever may actually become
of this case, because it is extremely unlikely that the
guilty police officers and their political masters will
actually be penalized – is set against a bigger picture.
Also has come the lower court’s judgment on Shahzad,
who is the lone accused in the Batla House (Jamia) Delhi
case. He has been held guilty of firing on and killing
Special Cell Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand
Sharma and injuring two other policemen. The Court has
also ruled that the encounter was genuine. Relying on
seven witnesses- all policemen, not one a civilian- the
judge held that the prosecution had successfully proved
that Shahzad was present at the scene at the time of
incident. While admitting that there was no evidence on
record to establish that Shahzad was a member of the
Indian Mujahideen as the police have been alleging, the
judge has ruled that "It hardly matters whether accused
was affiliated to IM or not .... This Court cannot be
expected to endeavour in giving any finding about said
fact". Stange indeed, that what could effectively establish
a motive could not be established, but the court finds it
'hardly matters'! What was Shahzad's motive then in firing
on the policemen?
The court has held that circumstantial evidence and
call records were sufficient to establish Shahzad's
presence inside the flat when the encounter took place.
These have been hotly debated by local residents and
by democrats, civil rights and citizens groups in Delhi
since the police began sprouting these 'proofs'. The
police story is that Shahzad killed one policeman, injured
two and yet managed to run away from the large police
party. The issue is that the police entered a fourth floor
flat through the door on the landing. There is no other
exit from the room, and one cannot jump down from the
fourth floor and survive. He was not arrested from the
room and was named because his old passport was found
in the room. Another occupant of the room had earlier
called up Shahzad’s father (boy was from the same
district).The phone was registered in the name of Atif,
who was killed by the police in the flat. There was a
conversation from this phone with Shahzad's father on
the latter's phone. This has been stated by the police
and believed by the court to mean that it was Shahzad
speaking to his father, dspite both denying the same. A
third 'proof' is supposed to be the reservation of a railway
ticket in Shahzad's name, showing him leaving Delhi in
a train six days after the incident from New Delhi railway
station. Howevr, the impossibility of anyone escaping
from the flat by jumping down (leave alone the killer of
the lead policeman walking out unchecked from the flat
with police crowding the entrance to the flat, the stairs
and the street, as the police suggested) has not been
considered. Nor was the statement of a boy named Saif
who was in the flat, but locked himself in the bathroom
during the incident, that Shahzad was not present in the
flat, taken as evidence of Shahzad's innocence.
Shahzad was arrested from Azamgarh two years after
the incident on1st Feb. 2010. The weapon with which he
allegedly fired on the policemen was never found. The
bullet inside Mohan Chand Sharma was never found,
16
Voice of Resistance August 2013
and it was suspected from day one that it was extracted
and hidden by police friendly doctors in a private hospital
because it was a police bullet. But the judge, in holding
Shahzad guilty, has not answered any of the questions
about the encounter. There was much police and
establishment talk at the time of the incident and there
is much of the same talk now that the judgment has
come in, that the martyrdom of police officers must be
upheld, the force should not be ‘demoralized’ by
mentioning fake encounters and police bullets inside
policemen or repeatedly asking where did the said bullet
go. The most interesting interaction came when the issue
of lack of independent witnesses was raised by the
defence. Despite shops near the Abbasi Chowk where
the raiding teams met or a mosque on the way to the
flat, or the numerous people who were present in hte
area in surrounding flats and who would have very likely
given witness before an independent agency as they
have been giving to newspapers and channels; there
was not one civilian witness produced. The police
explained to the court that "Majority of the residents of
that area are followers of the same religion as the
suspects and if police officers tried to involve any such
local resident, it would have caused social unrest in the
area". The court found it necessary to retort "No religion
professes crime as its tradition" but did not comment on
this evidence of communal bias of police its its
judgement, leave alone castigating it. The latest is the
investigation by NIA into the Delhi police’s detention and
labeling of Liaquat Shah (a Kashmiri ex-militant returning
home with his wife and child from POK under the J & K
State Govt’s rehabilitation programme and with due
intimation to that Govt). HT reports that a senior police
officer has said that the tenor of the NIA investigation
‘will demoralize the force'. How are police and spy
agencies demoralized when lawlessness is questioned?
From where have they acquired the right to trample over
the law as they choose? The courts are also ending up
upholding them and the need for democratic sections of
people of India to speak up and protest has never been
greater.
In the background is the intensification of majority
communal attitude of state police and investigating
agencies. The Malegaon blasts were ascribed to Muslim
youth; nine were imprisoned for six years and eventually
hindutva elements were shown up as the real
perpetrators. The Hyderabad Mecca Masjid bombing
case was ascribed to Muslims who had supposedly not
bothered that coreligionists would be killed. 22 persons
were jailed on fabricated confessions; again Hindutva
elements were found to be the guilty. So also the blasts
on the Samjhauta express. A large number of Muslims
lay languishing in jails in Rajasthan before finally being
released as innocent. So too the earlier accused in the
Hyderabad blasts. In Uttar Pradesh a youth Khaled
Mujahid was absolved by a Special Commission which
found the STF story fabricated, but he died "naturally"
in Lucknow while being escorted back from court by
police. In all these cases the issue is also what of those
wrongly accused who are eventually walking free. Their
devastated lives, stigma on families, inability to get rid
of the past as the police visit again and again on petty
issues, all these are aspects which petty judicial
compensations can never cover. No police officer to date
has been sentenced for biased or wrong investigation
and thus the issue goes on and on.
Leave alone such penalization, no officer yet has been
penalized for murder in the name of encounters or other
forms of killings. No police officer has been punished
for bringing in false evidence, concocted stories, shoddy,
and communalized investigations.
At least in Ishrat Jahan’s case the truth has come
out, whatever be the subsequent cover up. In the Batla
House encounter, how much lies buried because
‘martyrdom’ must be hailed. One of the boys killed had
bullet entry wounds on the top of the head, which is
unachievable unless he knelt down to be shot. There
were physical injuries on the bodies of the youth killed.
Despite widespread public demand in Delhi, and ignoring
the larger interests of justice as well as the norm, the
NHRC conducted no investigation and govts ignored the
demands for an enquiry by a sitting judge to ascertain
the truth. The 2003 NHRC guidelines make a magisterial
enquiry mandatory. NHRC's position is that the LG
declined to pass an order for such an enquiry. The LG's
office said is response to RTIs that courts were seized
of the matter. In 2009 the Supreme Court dismissed the
demand for an impartial probe. But why did that stop the
mandatory probe? How did the LG know one year earlier
that the Court would refuse an independent enquiry? All
these youth involved in the Batla House case were from
Azamgarh, where reside prosperous Muslim families.
They were in Delhi to study and one boy was barely out
of school.
The majority communal bias in the state, police,
investigating agencies and even judiciary is self evident
now. The onus remains on the people, will we accept
this? Will we accept murder in the name of a ‘collective
conscience’ which is a myth fabricated to cover up lack
of investigative evidence and proof, and to violate
constitutional provisions.
No discussion on this issue can be complete without
acknowledging the role of Shamima Kauser, Ishrat
Jahan’s mother, who laid aside her lower middle class
life to seek justice for her daughter. Unknowingly she
has fought on behalf of all Indians who want the truth to
be out, and who must now at least move in to back her
fight. Another such woman, though from a different
background and with different ability to make herself
heard (though how much this applies in today’s highly
majority communalized situation is an issue) is Zakia
(Contd. on page 39)
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
Political Economy of SEZ in India
Ish Mishra
The contradiction of praxis is the eternal contradiction
of Capitalism with its innate attribute of unceasing
accumulation. It means opposite to what it says. It
appropriated political power and established itself with
the slogans of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity but its
very existence depends on the contrary principles, as
its prominent organic intellectual Adam Smith has aptly
defined the historical progress (of capitalism) in terms
of the “inadvertent consequence” of “profit making
activities” by individuals, organized and harmonized by
the “invisible” hands of the market1. That means the
growth of capitalism depends upon the principles contrary
to its declared ones as it is the matter of common
historical sense that profit cannot be maximized by
democratic principles of equality, liberty and fraternity
but just opposite to that — by maximum exploitation,
manipulation and repression. It began its journey with
the declared mission of civilizing the world and
dispossessed the peasantry in its own land; plundered
the riches and the resources of the rest of the world;
conducted programs against the people; grabbed their
land and resources; exterminated or enslaved them. The
present leaders of capitalism invade other countries for
plundering their resources and perpetuating hegemony
but would name it the fight against an abstract enemy –
“terrorism”. When the Indian agents of global Capital2
declare to establish Special Economic Zone (SEZ), it
means Special Eviction (of peasantry)/ Exploitation (of
workers)/Expropriation (of agricultural land)/Exemption
(to capitalist from taxes) Zones, regulated by, probably,
the invisible hands of the market. Adam Smith’s invisible
hands, were clearly visible to Karl Marx and Fredrick
Engels who did not seek just to “Interpret the world in
various ways” but to “Change it”3. The SEZ kind of
developments can be better understood in the context
of innate character of Capital to increasingly and
unceasingly accumulate and expand. The proposed
SEZs are the latest, easiest and cheapest instrument
of accumulation and expansion. Marx and Engels wrote
in the celebrated pamphlet, the Communist Manifesto:
“The need of constantly expanding market for its
products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface
of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle every
where and establish connections everywhere.”4
The nature of the modern State, i.e. the bourgeois
State from Renaissance Absolutism to present Global
Corporatism, which, according to Karl Marx, is “But a
committee for managing the common affairs of the whole
bourgeoisie”5, has been changing according to the needs
of capitalism. The latest phase of global capital is driving
governments of all hues including the so-called left, to
expropriate agricultural land, dispossess and displace
peasants by using brutal force. Land thus acquired from
the peasants for a meagre compensation is offered to
Corporate houses—The Tatas, POSCOs, Salems,
Ambanis and their ilk – at throw-away prices, a
reminiscent of Enclosure Movement in England during
the primitive phase of capital accumulation. As noted
by Marx:
The “Glorious Revolution brought into power alongwith
William of Orange, the landlords and the capitalist,
appropriators of surplus-value. They inaugurated the new
era by practicing on a colossal scale thefts of state
lands, thefts that had been hitherto managed most
modestly. These estates were given away, sold at a
ridiculous figure, or even annexed to private estates by
direct seizure. ……6
Capital accumulation by capitalists through
expropriation of agricultural land in connivance with the
governments for the development of real estate, multicommercial
complexes etc. and outsourcing can be
compared with Primitive Capital Accumulation (PCA) in
terms of extension capitalist rent, as described by Marx,
appropriated on the basis of resources that are not
replicable7. One of the logical corollaries of the
expropriation of peasant land in Enclosure movement
was creation of “free” wage labor necessary for the
development of capitalism. By now the capitalism has
already created a huge reserve army of work force. The
neo-liberal land grab drive swells its ranks. A perusal of
the provisions, terms and conditions of SEZ as enshrined
in The Special Economic Zones Act8 makes it quite clear
that these Zones would be like a foreign enclave in our
country — the islands of prosperity in the ocean of
poverty. One will need a passport or special identity cards
to enter these enclaves and will need to pay export duty
to buy goods from there. Many laws of the land will be
partly or wholly inapplicable in these zones. The SEZs
are territories demarcated by state governments with the
concurrence of the central government. The enterprises
located in these enclaves are exempted from the
customs and excise duties, income and other taxes.
They are also entitled to other privileges like free or
subsidized water supply and subsidized electricity
supply. The trade union rights of the workers in these
zones shall be suspended.9 This raises the pertinent
question why are governments – in the states and at the
centre— bent upon pursuing a policy that not only
dispossess the peasantry but also causes losses to the
exchequer? The official answer to this has been, ever
since 1991 when the then government embarked upon
the course of globalization, ‘there is no alternative’ –
the TINA syndrome. This answer is not acceptable as
only dead communities have no alternative; live
communities are never bereft of alternatives.
Imperialism is not a policy matter of or aberration in
capitalist development but innate into it, only the form
changes. The history of Capitalism that began with
primitive accumulation by expropriation of agricultural
land, proletarianization of peasantry and colonial plunder,
has taken a full turn and once again it has resorted to
expropriation of agricultural land for industrial/
commercial/real estate/SEZ purposes with the help of
the governments that follow the dictates of global capital,
displace the peasants from their land. In the neo-liberal
phase of capitalism, SEZs are the cheapest and surest
tool of imperialism. It is to be noted that none of the
developed capitalist country have anything like SEZ.
European Renaissance witnessed the emergence of
a new species of hero – the risk-free hero of finance.
This new hero, in less than 150 years became the hero
and moved from periphery to centre. The 17th century
liberal, John Locke, declared categorically that
governance is a serious matter; it can be entrusted only
to those who have already proved their worth by
amassing sufficient wealth.10 Their demand for freedom
and equality for the bourgeoisie was interpreted as
universal equality and liberty and which eventually led
to universal franchise and territorial-national universal
citizenship and establishment of representative
democracies, dictatorship of proletariat and their reversal
into capitalism.
The issue of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) as
the new mantra of India’s future rise as a potential
economic power became the focus of discussions in
political and intellectual circles, particularly after the
incidents of forced eviction of peasants and subsequent
peasant movements against the acquisition of
agricultural land in Nandigram. The Nandigram that
witnessed the death of dozens of protesters and injury
to hundreds in police firing on 14th March 2007 on the
orders of the 'Marxist' Chief Minister, Buddha Deb
Bhattacharya, became the focal point of anti-SEZ
discourse all over the country. Eventually the intensity
of opposition forced the government to roll back and
withdraw the orders of land acquisition11. Nandigram and
Kalinganagar12, have become the hall-mark and the
reference point for such anti-land grab movements.
History never repeats itself. As Heraclitus, a
philosopher of Greek antiquity had rightly said that every
thing in the world is in continuous state of change and
flux and that the only constant is the change itself.
History does not repeat itself, it only echoes. The
creation of “foreign territories” within the country under
the SEZ Act 2005 echoes the creation of fortified
enclaves by various – French, Dutch and English East
India Companies — in the costal regions of the country.
It appears that history has taken a full circle. But infinite
waves have soared up and down since then in the Bay
of Bengal. Capitalism and its innate attribute,
imperialism, has made multiple advances. In the present
phase of imperialist globalization, there is no need of
any Lord Clive, all the Sirajuddaulas have turned into
Mir Jafars13. The people of India are aware of the
imperialists' designs and are determined not to allow
Global Capital and its local agents to take away their
rights to land and livelihood, as is clear from various
anti displacement movements against forcible land
acquisition.
This paper seeks to look into the political economy
of SEZ as a technique of the latest stage of imperialist
capitalism” and to analyze the role of the governments
in following the dictates of the corporate led
Globalization.
The Prelude
In 1965 the first Export Processing Zone (EPZ) was
started at Kandla, Gujarat. So far there are only 14 EPZs
in India. Very little is heard about their contributions to
promoting Indian economy so far, except for the wage
slavery of workers and the riches made by a few. Now
with WTO calling for opening up trade in all its forms
and extending liberalization in all fields including land, a
policy was introduced on April 1 in 2000 by the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) led NDA government for setting up
of Special Economic Zones – SEZs – as foreign
territories in the country with a view “to provide an
internationally competitive and hassle free environment
for exports”. Units may be set up in SEZ for manufacture
of goods and rendering of services. All the import/export
operations of the SEZ units will be on self-certification
basis. The units in the Zone have to be a net foreign
exchange earner but they shall not be subjected to any
pre-determined value addition or minimum export
performance requirements. Sales in the Domestic Tariff
Area by SEZ units shall be subject to payment of full
Custom Duty and import policy in force. Further, offshore
banking units may be set up in the SEZs. The policy
provides for setting up of SEZs in the public, private,
joint sector or by the State Governments. It was also
envisaged that some of the existing Export Processing
Zones would be converted into Special Economic Zones
[see the box]. Accordingly, the Government has
converted Export Processing Zones located at Kandla
and Surat (Gujarat), Cochin (Kerala), Santa Cruz
(Mumbai-Maharashtra), Falta (West Bengal), Chennai
(Tamil Nadu), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and
Noida (Uttar Pradesh) into Special Economic Zones.􀁡 In
addition, 3 new Special Economic Zones approved for
establishment at Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Manikanchan
– Salt Lake (Kolkata) and Jaipur have since commenced
operations14.
Voice of Resistance August 2013
18
The setting
In 2004 general elections, parties and faces in the
government changed but not the policies. Montek Singh
Ahluwalia15 has been a common agent of influencing
India’s Political Economy in favor of imperialist
globalization during the regimes of various hues since
1991. The government announced to start almost 650
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) by 2007 with a target
to touch a record 1,000 in few years and a Bill for SEZs
— Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act, 200516 — was
moved in the Parliament in early 2005. It was passed
unanimously in both the houses of parliament within two
days. Ideally, such a Bill, which is going to affect the
future of agriculture and of those dependent upon it for
their livelihood, the whole rural sector, the land use,
employment generation, urbanization and the pace of
its expansion and other aspects of the social fabric,
should have been properly deliberated and debated.
However, the fact that both the Houses passed it within
two days of its introduction shows the “convergence” of
interests among all the parliamentary parties on the
issue. It undermines not only the constitutional rights of
the people but also the sovereignty of the nation in
conformity with the design of the imperialist globalization.
SEZ: The Objectives and Implications
As noted above, the idea of the SEZ was first mooted
by the NDA government in 2000 for the stated objectives
of integrated infrastructure for production and exports;
approval mechanism; a package of incentives;
concessions and tax exemption to attract foreign and
domestic investments. (See Box 2). The policy of SEZ
is stated in the Foreign Trade Policy, incentives and
other facilities offered to SEZ developers and units are
being notified through government rules and circulars17.
A circular of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry
describes the objectives of creating SEZ as:
The scheme shall aim at development of integrated
world class infrastructure for exports including carrying
out manufacture of goods, rendering of services or in
connection therewith and would include industrial,
commercial and social infrastructure. The components
of SEZ shall include roads, airports, ports, transport
system, generation and distribution of power, telecom,
hospitals, hotels, educational institutions, leisure and
entertainment units, residential/industrial commercial
complexes, water supply, sanitation and sewerage
system and other facilities required for the development
of the Zone.18
It is clear from the above circular that the SEZs are
not for only promotion of industry and manufacture but
also would contain hotels, IT parks, leisure and
entertainment units and the vague “social infrastructure”
that may include residential complexes, swimming pools
and health spas. Clause 2(r) of the Act defines
“manufacture” in SEZs as follows:
Manufacture means to make, produce, fabricate,
assemble, process or bring into existence by hand or
machine, a new product having a distinct name, character
or use and shall include processes such as refrigeration,
cutting, polishing, blending, repair, remaking, reengineering
and includes agriculture, aquaculture, animal
husbandry, floriculture, horticulture, pisciculture, poultry,
sericulture, viticulture and mining.19
The definition includes everything that is not exactly
manufacture – from agriculture to mining. Chapter 5 of
the Act contains provisions for single window clearance
of applications for SEZ units in order to make procedures
easy for global capital. The title of the next chapter is
‘Special Fiscal Provisions for SEZs’. Clause 26 lists
the exemptions and concessions to the developers and
units to be set up in SEZs20. (See boxes 1&2). SEZs
will be beyond the purview of most of the tax laws of the
land but are allowed loans and grants from the Central
Government (of course from the tax revenues), under
the clause 35 of the Act. The Act has provision of a
SEZ authority for each SEZ, who is to “undertake such
measures as it thinks fit for the development, operation
and management of the SEZ….”21 Each SEZ Authority
comprises a Development Commissioner, three officers
of the Central Government and two entrepreneurs of the
SEZ and no elected representatives. In the course of
designating erstwhile rural areas into urban areas, the
Act is silent on specific form of governance (Panchayat
or Municipal) giving apprehensions that even the
activities like town planning, issuing the birth and death
certificates will be responsibility of the SEZ authority.
The Authority is also responsible for receiving and
managing grants, loans and tax revenue of SEZ. The
SEZ has overriding effect on all the other Acts of the
Central Government (Clause 51):
The provisions of this Act shall have effect
notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith
contained in any other law for time being in force or any
instrument having effect by virtue of any other than this
Act.22
What is happening under this project is the biggest
land grab since 1947. The draconian Land Acquisition
Act, 1894 has been made more draconian for the
expropriation of peasant land. At present for the already
sanctioned SEZs a total of 125,000 hectares of prime
agricultural land are being acquired. The next phase
involves almost same area. In Punjab where almost
entire area is irrigated and under double crop or more,
the land is being acquired despite the growing resistance
against the displacement in violation of the provisions
of the SEZ Act itself. In Himachal Pradesh about 35,000
hectares in Kangra Valley is planned for an SEZ. In Jhajjar
in Haryana near Delhi, 10,000 hectares of double cropped
land, larger than Gurgaon, is taken over for SEZ. In
Voice of Resistance August 2013
19
· SEZ for gems & jewellry, IT-ITES-BPOs and biotechnology
would require a minimum 10 hectare (ha) of
built-up area. (Later notifications said that the land-area
may be reduced to 4 ha in special cases). Multi-product
SEZs must have an area of 1,000 ha, while multiservices
and sector specific SEZs should have a
minimum area of 100 hectare. (1 ha = 2.5 acres, approx.)
· Only in India, the task of developing SEZs is totally
transferred to private hands. In other countries these
tasks, in most of the cases, were performed by the
government itself.
· The processing area in SEZs would be mere 35%! In
the remaining 65% housing projects, hotels, restaurants,
hospitals, amusement centers, multiplexes, malls,
playgrounds, golf courses can be built!
· SEZ will be a duty-free enclave and considered foreign
territory within the state. If you buy goods from an SEZ,
you have to pay import duties. Example: Reliance
industries set up a new refinery in Jamnagar (Gujarat)
that “could end up ‘exporting’ bulk of its output in India”24.
· Generally, the government will provide land to private
companies that develop SEZs. Thus, SEZ developers
will have access to precious land at throwaway prices
(with the help of government muscle), cleansed of all
title and litigation issues.
· There will be no elected local government/civic
authorities. A development commissioner will govern it.
· So lucrative are the tax-holidays & other concessions
offers in these SEZs that there are strong possibilities
of older units to relocate in the SEZs to avail the
bonanza. Even Rahul Bajaj one of the leading
industrialists has publicly expressed such
apprehensions.
· In these SEZs all the units/enterprises will be declared
as ‘public utilities’ where existing labor laws do not act.
Among other drawbacks, SEZs will not be subject to
any town planning or supervision by the municipality,
thus negating the 75th Amendment of the Constitution
which ensures people’s participation in local government.
· What is most worrying in the SEZ Act is Section 49,
which empowers the government to exempt any or all
SEZs from the operation of any central law through a
notification. It puts SEZs, theoretically at least, outside
the pale of the Constitution.
· After all, the world over, SEZs are set up precisely so
that they can avoid the rigidity of domestic laws and
rely on smoother functioning without bureaucratic
hassles. The rub here is that the SEZs are being
developed by the private sector.25 India is, perhaps, the
only country to have promoted private SEZs — or at
least in such numbers. Fuelling the popular distrust is
the speed at which the zones are being approved by the
Ministry of Commerce. Around 20-40 on an average are
being cleared every other week, bringing the tally to 263,
plus another 169 that have got in-principle approval26.
· And, there is also the Godzilla factor — the sheer size
of some SEZs. Although these are small by global
standards, some have the making of a mega enterprise.
Reliance Industries’ twin block in Mumbai is scheduled
to cover 14,000 hectares or 140 sq. km. This may be
just a third of China’s Shenzhen economic zone (326
sq. km), but large enough to throw up some discomfiting
questions in the Indian context. For reference,
Jamshedpur, the steel city run by the Tatas, is just 64
sq. km and Chandigarh’s real estate, including its rural
periphery, adds up to just 112 sq. km. More to the point,
Reliance expects to house one million residents and play
host to two million others who would commute daily to
their SEZs.27
· The question, therefore, is what happens when large
SEZs eventually become townships whose population
could run into millions. There is, to start with, the
constitutional tenability of private monopolies running
local government for sizable cluster of the urban
population without being elected. Would the SEZs thus,
turn into sovereign states like the British East India
Company in 18th-19th centuries, accountable to none?
· What the law lays down is an SEZ Development
Authority (SDA) headed by the developer’s
representative and run by a development commissioner
(DC) appointed by the state government — a super
bureaucrat vested with enormous powers. Since SEZs
are being designated industrial townships by the status,
the DC would work independently with no municipality
or the third rung of governance to oversee his
functioning.
· All functions undertaken by the civic authorities and
some of those provided by the state government (water
supply, tax collection, law and order) would devolve on
the SDA. Several states have laid down detailed norms
for the SDA. From providing birth and death certificates,
maintaining cremation/burial grounds (all municipal
functions listed in 12th Schedule of the Constitution) to
laying out public streets, building bridges and culverts,
and fighting epidemics, everything lies in SDA’s
jurisdiction.
· Unlike municipality, the developer is not obliged to
provide services to all the inhabitants in “his territory”
and there is no mechanism for the redressal of their rights
to basic amenities. In fact given the profit centered
development, it is doubtful whether the corporate
developers would be able to or interested in providing
such services.
Box 1
Some Features of SEZs in India23
Voice of Resistance August 2013
20
Non-fiscal Incentives/Concessions
􀁸􀀃􀀃Exemption from industrial licensing for manufacture of
items reserved for Small Scale Industries (SSI). 􀁸􀀃100 per
cent FDI investment through automatic route to
manufacturing SEZ units. Facility to realize and repatriate
export proceeds within 12 months and no cap on foreign
investment for SSI reserved items. 􀁸􀀃􀀃“Write-off” of unrealized
export bills up to 5%. 􀁸 No License is required for
imports, including second hand machineries. 􀁸 Profits
allowed to be repatriated freely without any dividend
balancing requirement. 􀁸Full freedom for subcontracting,
including subcontracting abroad. 􀁸􀀃􀀃The area incorporated
in the proposed SEZ is free from environmental restrictions.
􀁸􀀃􀀃Water, electricity and other services would be provided
as required and the units would be given full exemption in
electricity duty and tax on sale of electricity for self
generated and purchased power. They shall also be allowed
to allow generation, transmission and distribution of power
within the Special Economic Zones. Single point clearance
system and minimum inspections requirement under State
Laws/Rules would be provided. 􀁸􀀃 For units inside the Zone,
the powers under the Industrial Dispute Act and other related
Labor Acts would be delegated to the Development
Commissioner and that the units will be declared as a Public
Utility Service under Industrial Dispute Act.
Fiscal Incentives
􀁸􀀃􀀃100 per cent income tax exemption for a block of five
years, 50 per cent tax exemption for two years and up to
50 per cent of the profits ploughed back for next 3 years.
Supplies from Domestic Trade Area to SEZ to be treated
as export. 􀁸􀀃􀀃100 per cent Income-tax exemption for 3 years
& 50 per cent for 2 years for off-shore banking units. 􀁸
Exemption from Central Excise duty on procurement of
capital goods, raw materials, and consumable spares, etc.,
from the domestic market. 􀁸􀀃􀀃Reimbursement of Central
Sales Tax paid on domestic purchases. 􀁸􀀃􀀃SEZ units may
import duty free, all their requirements of capital goods,
raw materials, consumables, spares, packing materials,
office equipment etc. for implementation of their project in
the Zone without any license or specific approval. 􀁸
Exemption from service Tax to SEZ units. 􀁸 Exemption
from State sales tax, octroi, mandi tax, turnover tax and
any other duty/cess or levies on the supply of goods from
Domestic Tariff Area to SEZ units. 􀁸􀀃􀀃Enhanced limit of Rs
2.4 crores per annum allowed for managerial remuneration.
Subsidies/Incentives Given to SEZ Developers
􀁸􀀃􀀃Developer of an SEZ may import or procure goods without
payment of duty for development, operation and
maintenance of the SEZ. 􀁸􀀃􀀃Income-tax exemption for a
block of 10 years in 15 years at the option of the Developer.
􀁸􀀃􀀃Exemption from Service Tax. 􀁸􀀃􀀃Investment made by
individuals etc. in SEZ developing companies eligible for
exemption under Section 88 of the Income Tax. 􀁸 100%
FDI allowed for (a) townships with residential, educational
and recreational facilities on a case to case basis, (b)
franchise for basic telephone service in SEZ. 􀁸􀀃􀀃Duty free
import/domestic procurement of goods for development,
operation and maintenance of SEZs. 􀁸􀀃􀀃Developer may
transfer infrastructure facilities for operation and
maintenance. 􀁸 Generation, transmission and distribution
of power in SEZs allowed. 􀁸􀀃􀀃Full freedom in allocation of
space and built up area to approved SEZ units on
commercial basis. 􀁸􀀃􀀃Authorized to provide and maintain
services like water, electricity, security, restaurants and
recreation centers on commercial lines. The area
incorporated in the proposed SEZ is free from environmental
restrictions. 􀁸􀀃􀀃The water, electricity and other services would
be provided by the government as required.
Clause 53 declares a SEZ to be virtually a foreign
territory inside the political boundaries of India:
A SEZ shall, on and from the appointed day, be deemed
to be territory outside the custom territory of India for the
purpose of undertaking the authorized operation.29
Section 3 of the guidelines for the SEZ developers
prescribes the minimum area 91000 hectares but there is
no limit for the maximum area. This gives the developers
ample scope for using SEZ for real estate purposes as
only a minimum of 35% of the area needs to be used for
setting up industrial units. It is interesting to learn the extent
of commitments state governments have to make while
forwarding applications to the Department of Commerce,
Government of India:30
􀁸􀀃􀀃The area notified for SEZ is free from environmental
prohibitions;
􀁸􀀃􀀃Water electricity and other services will be provided as
required ;
􀁸􀀃􀀃Full exemption on electricity duty and tax on the sale
electricity for self generated and purchased power;
􀁸􀀃􀀃To allow generation, transmission and distribution of power
within SEZ;
􀁸􀀃􀀃Exemption from state sales tax, octroi, mandi tax, turn
over tax, duty, cess, levies on supply of goods from DTA to
SEZ units;
􀁸􀀃􀀃For units in the Zone, power under Industrial Dispute Act
and other related Acts would be delegated to Development
Commissioner;
􀁸􀀃􀀃The zone will be declared a public utility service under
Industrial Dispute Act;
For the reasons best known to the Powers that be, the
guidelines treat all the SEZs to be public utility similar to
railways and power services, indispensable for daily life!!
Box 2
Concessions and Incentives for the SEZ Enterprises28
Voice of Resistance August 2013
21
Mangalore, Karnataka, 2200 hectares of double and triple
cropped land is being taken over for setting up SEZ. In
Orissa at Gopalpur land was originally acquired by state
government for a paltry sum and handed over to Tata
for a steel plant. But the plant did not come up and
farmers wanted the land back. There Tata is building
SEZ. 1600 hectares handed over to POSCO to build a
steel plant is also converted into SEZ. The pattern of
land acquisition for the SEZ boom is almost similar all
over the country.
It is not the concessions alone or the license to hire
and fire labour at will that attract global capital to an
SEZ but the covert means of land grab. The biggest
destination of global capital is speculation in stock and
money markets, the second most favoured destination
is the real estate and infrastructure development:
apartments, shopping malls, hotels, etc. Most of SEZs
are coming up not near the sea but near the big cities.
The Chinese Experience
The government spokespersons cite the example of
China in defense of SEZ policy through Goebellsian
tactics. So far in China only six SEZs are set up—
Shenzhen, Shantou, Xiamen, Zhuhai, Hainan and
Pudong. These are all built in public sector and mostly
on waste lands. Though underreported, that too did not
go unopposed. These export centered Special Economic
Zones were established by brutally suppressing the
peasants’ protracted massive struggles with more
intensity than the suppression of students’ movement
for socialist freedom in 1989. Chinese students’
movement, which coincided with the bi-centenary of the
French Revolution in chronological terms, was
essentially a resurgence of the “hundred flowers”31. Major
protests and opposition against the working conditions
in these SEZs are still taking place.32
China’s phenomenal growth has been attributed to
its single minded (or mindless) pursuit of export driven
SEZ policies and the success story has driven Indian
think tank towards this mad rush. It is true that􀁡exportdriven
policy for economic growth has helped China touch
record growth figures. But the fall out is more alarming􀁡as
along with increasing unemployment, the􀁡income gap is
widening and rapidly approaching the levels of some Latin
American countries. As per the􀁡recent report by the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China’s Gini
coefficient – a measure of income distribution where zero
means perfect equality and 1 is maximum inequality –
touched 0.496 in the year 2006 where figure for India
is􀁡0.33, for􀁡US is 0.41 and for Brazil is 0.54. Even􀁡the
rural-urban income divide is staggering. The􀁡annual
income of city dwellers in China is around US $1,000,
which is more than three times that of their rural
counterparts33. The massive unemployment, widespread
corruption and crime in China’s ruling establishments
have been intimate companions and part and parcel of
China’s rise as Economic Giant through liberalization
and privatization. To compete with the capitalist
countries in the world market on their terms, Chinese
leadership began to dismantle the systems of state
ownership and socialist values immediately after Mao’s
death beginning with the campaign against The Gang of
Four. Post Mao CPC leadership’s choice for capitalist
path anticipated the demands of corporate led
globalization.
China began the process of attracting foreign capital
in the 1980s􀁡by implementing a series of measures and
policies with the sole purpose of achieving rapid economic
growth at any cost and consequently paid heavy price
in terms of interest of the Chinese people in general and
the cause of socialism for human emancipation in
particular. The􀁡mindless pursuit of growth has lowered
the efficiency and effectiveness of economic policies,
besides huge resource wastage and devastating
environmental and ecological implications.
The Chinese experience offers a valuable lesson for
India. Chinese path to land grab exercise􀁡has not been
smooth and “voluntary”. It has pauperized the millions
of its rural population. China has to feed 22 percent of
the world’s population on only 7 percent of land. It can
not afford to embark on such an aggressive pursuit of
land garb. In July 2005, according to Chinese Minister
Li Xuju quoted in the People’s Daily, China’s countryside
had over 26.1 million people living in absolute poverty34.
During 1996-2005, “development” caused diversion of
more than 21 percent of arable land to non-agricultural
uses, chiefly highways, industries and SEZs. Per capita
land holding now stands at a meager 0.094 hectares. In
short span of time from 1992 to 2005, twenty million
farmers were laid off agriculture due to land acquisition.
The rampant protests against land acquisition were
brutally crushed, especially in the provinces of
Guangdong (south), Sichuan, Hebei (north), and Henan.
Guangdong has been worst affected. In 2004, the
government admitted to 74,000 riots in the countryside35.
Environmental devastations are irreparable. Shenzhen,
Chinese dream model of economic growth, after growing
at a phenomenal rate of around 28 percent for the last
25 years, is now paying a huge cost in terms of
environment destruction, soaring crime rate and
exploitation of its working class, mainly migrants.
Foreign investors were lured to Shenzhen by cheap land,
compliant labor laws and lax or ineffective environmental
rules. In 2006, the United Nations Environment Program
designated Shenzhen as a ‘global environmental
hotspot’, meaning a region that had suffered rapid
environmental destruction. More than 50,000 disputes
over environmental pollution occurred in 2005, and 97.1
percent of all environmental mishaps involved the release
of pollution. Water contamination made up 50.6 percent
of the total accidents. Almost 40 percent of
Voice of Resistance August 2013
22
environmental accidents involved air pollution. The
accidents collectively caused up to 105 million Yuan
(about 13.1 million U.S. dollars) in direct economic
losses. “This environmental problem has become one
of the main factors that affect national safety and social
stability,” according to Pan Yuen, deputy director of the
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
Around 20 per cent of the population lives in severely
polluted areas and 70 percent of the rivers and lakes
are in a grim situation. Around 60 per cent of companies
that have set up industries in the country violate emission
rules.36
Indian parliamentary parties have gone many steps
ahead of their colonial predecessors in using the
draconian colonial Land Acquisition Act 1894, in the
sense that even they did not acquire the agricultural land
for private capitalists in the name of ‘public utility”.
Opposition to SEZ
The SEZ Act is being opposed tooth-and-nail by
peoples’ movements as well as progressive and
democratic intellectuals, activists and the radical left
parties all over the country and abroad as it envisages a
“nation within the nation”, threatens the sovereignty of
the nation, would create mass unemployment and
endangers people’s livelihoods and nation’s food security.
So the message is loud and clear. Mushrooming of
SEZs will not deliver the desired goal of “export
promotion” but would make a heavy dent on India’s
exchequer and people’s democratic rights as Indian
citizens. The ruling class parties of India, instead of
looking into the pro-people models of development
without or with minimum displacement are acting as the
agents of imperialist globalization. Thus we find that SEZ
Act is a short circuit into people’s rights. Millions of
displaced people shall be turned into destitutes. Creation
of the “foreign territories” is a cheap and effective tool
of corporate led imperialist globalization. These local
battles would become part of and strengthen the global
forces seeking human emancipation against the
corporate led globalization.
On June 22, 2007, a few Mumbai-based Marathi
newspapers carried the news of the demonstrations of
hundreds of farmers against the land acquisition by the
state government for the Reliance Company for a 10,120
hectare Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The farmers in
the obscure Pen tehsil in Raigad district Maharashtra
took a strong protest rally of almost 4000 farmers against
Reliance SEZ on 21st June that was subjected to brutal
police lathi charge. The agitation continued. The villagers
were pitted against a formidable adversary – the giant
Reliance, which obtained 25,000 hectares land for its
own SEZ in Haryana. It is spreading its wings into
textiles, power, contract farming, medicinal herbs, sugar
industries and retail stores. The Company has enormous
sway over the political, bureaucratic establishment and
the media. This company has been given the largest
SEZ in the 45 villages in Pen-Panvel-Uran area, in the
name of the activities like manufacturing, trading,
services, processing, logistics, repackaging,
warehousing etc. 􀁡
􀁡The people’s movements from various parts of the
country have mobilized the nationwide resistance to the
creation of the SEZ. The organizations made it clear
that the issue at stake was not only the lands and rights
of the affected farmers and other villagers, but the larger
canvas of the way the political economy of the nation is
being usurped by the corporate interests with the
connivance of the political and bureaucratic elite.
Protests and opposition to SEZ are building every where
in the country. The victory of Nandigram movement
became further inspiration for the anti-displacement
movements in India after Kalinganagar.
(Endnotes)
1 Adam Smith, Wealth of nations (1776), quoted in D.P.
O’Brien, The Classical Economists, Oxford University
Press, 1975. pp.30-31
2 global capital is not geocentric either in terms of source
or investment.
3 Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach , Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels, Selected Works (in one volume),
1977, Moscow, Progress publishers, p. 30
4. Ibid p.38
5 Ibid. p. 37
6 Karl Marx Capital, Vol.I, Part VII, Ch. XXVI, Marx and
Frederick Engels, Selected Works (in three volume),
Volume 2, 1977, Moscow, Progress publishers, p. 108
7 Capital Vol. III
8The Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, The Gazette
of India, Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative
Department), Government of India, New Delhi, 23rd June
2005.
9 Ibid
10 Quoted in Sudipta Kaviraj, Concept of Man in Political
Theory, Social Scientist, No. 76, December 1979
11 The Times of India. Kolkata, May 29,2007
12 Ish N. Mishra, The Heat and Dust of a highway at
Kalinganagar, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW),
Mumbai, 10-16 March 2007.
13 The East India Company, which had initially sought
permission of trading rights in India from the Mogul
Emperor, Shah Alam, subsequently got the Diwani Rights
over Bengal
Voice of Resistance August 2013
23
􀃎
24
Voice of Resistance August 2013
India has nearly 17 percent of the world’s population
and a large proportion of the world’s poor with poor health
indicators. On the one hand the successive governments
of independent India have been claiming impressive
economic reforms, on the other hand it still has a large
proportion of population below the international poverty
line of a dollar a day. Emerging profile of health in India
is drawing the world’s attention, not because of its poor
infrastructure but of its irrational and inegalitarian
structure. It may be galling to our pride but it is true that
public health is one of the most neglected aspects of
development in India. [Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze
2002]
The disparities of rural and urban health regarding
the crude birth rate, crude death rate, total fertility rate,
infant mortality rate, numbers of deliveries attended by
untrained persons etc. are challenging to the policies
implemented by the successive governments of India
till now. Jana Swasth Abhiyan, a national network of
organizations, worked out that after 1991 the proportion
of those who are unable to afford health care has
increased from 10 to 21 percent in urban areas and 15
to 24 percent in rural areas during 1991 to 2001. It is
also important to remember here that most people of
rural India, who are the prime victims of policies, work
in most hazardous atmosphere and are living in worst
conditions. In addition to this, contagious infectious and
water born diseases, mechanical accidents, pesticide
poisoning, snake, dog and insect bites all are quite
common in rural areas.
Keeping this in view, the aim of this study is to
highlight the current infrastructure of health in rural areas.
The question we propose to answer is whether policies
implemented to treat the rural people in independent India
are rational /egalitarian or not?
STUDY AREA AND METHODOLOGY
This study area is located in south-eastern part of
Meerut District in U. P. state. It is a part of well
INFRASTRUCTURE OF HEALTH IN
RURAL AREA - A CASE STUDY OF
MACHHRA BLOCK, DIST. MEERUT (U.P.)
S.C. TYAGI, GUNJAN SHARMA
Deptt. of Geography, CSSS (PG) College, Machhra, Meerut
􀃎
. Sirajuddaula was Nawab of Bengal and Mir Jafar was his
General who in the battle at Plassy, that led to 200 years
of British rule in India, was bought over by the cunning
Governor General of the Company, Lord Clive in the same
manner as the governments of various states are being
bought over by various giant corporates.
14 www.SEZ.nic.in
15 Montek Singh Ahluwalia continues to be in position of
influencing economic policies since 1991.
16 The Special Economic Zone Act 2005, op.cit.
17 Aradhna Agrawal, Special Economic Zones:
Revisiting the Policy debate, EPW, 28 Oct.-4 Nov. 2006.
18 Ibid.
19 The Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, op.cit.
20 ibid
21 ibid
22 ibid
23 The figures are based on SEZ Act and news paper
reports
24 Business Line, 22January, 2006
25 “Set up SEZ enterprises” SEZ www.google.com
26 ibid
27 ibid
28SEZ Act, 2005, op.cit.
29 ibid
30 ibid
31 Manoranjan Mohanty, Students’ Movement for
Socialist Freedom in China, Third World Studies,
Volume 1, No.1, July-September 1989.
32www.chinalabourwatch.org
33 ibid
34 Peoples Daily, Beijing, 23 July 2005
35www.chinalabourwatch.org
36 Peoples’ Daily, Beijing, 0p.cit. June3,2005
25
Voice of Resistance August 2013
developed agricultural belt of western Utter Pradesh.
Machhra Block consists of 48 inhabited villages and
only one town- Kithor. About 85 percent of total population
of this block belongs to rural area. Machhra primary
health centre [PHC] extends Govt. health services
through four sub centres namely- Kithor, Amarpur,
Kayasth badha and Shahjadpur to the total population
of this block.
This study was conducted by the authors in Jan.
2010. Data regarding drinking water, sanitation facilities
have been collected from the office of B.D.O Machhra.
All the details about PHC and sub centres have been
collected from the office of MOIC, primary health centre
Machhra. Moreover, to know the reality, a village level
survey has been conducted by the authors. During the
field survey detailed information has been gathered
regarding rural medical practitioners and interviews were
held with ‘DAIs’and 'ASHAs'.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
Rural population work in the most hazardous
atmosphere and live in abysmal living conditions. Unsafe
and unhygienic birth practices, unclean water, poor
nutrition, subhuman habitats, degraded and unsanitary
environments are challenges to the public health in rural
areas.
It is unfortunate to note that about 80 percent rural
population in this area belongs to small land holder,
artisans and agricultural labourers with limited resources.
They spend chiefly on food, clothing and shelter. They
have no money to spend on Education and Health. About
10 percent of total households are living below poverty
line. The average per capita land is 0.13 hectare. The
majority of rural population is hand to mouth. Malnutrition
is one of the most dominant health related problems. So
the nutritional deficiency based diseases- anaemia,
diarrhoea, night blindness etc. are increasing rapidly. It
is also remarkable that after introduction of modern
capitalistic agro- technology and economic reforms,
sharp changes have been emerging on agro-land scape
of this study area. The area under pulses is declining
sharply. Hence the pulses, major source of protein, are
out of reach for the poor. The vegetables, which are the
main sources of iron and vitamins, are becoming a luxury
for the poor.
No doubt, longevity and reduction of mortality are
more related to public health. It includes better drainage,
hygiene-sanitation and clean drinking water etc. This
study reveals that over 70 percent people are invariably
using vacant sites nearby the settlements for disposal
of night soil. Hygiene and sanitation conditions in rural
area, particularly in the poor section of society are still
in the pits. Quality of drinking water in Machhra Block is
not good. The TDS level of drinking water has reached
near the critical stage in some villages. It may be the
effect of intensive use of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides to grow market oriented crops. Except few
landlords and rich peasants, none have clean drinking
water facility in this area.
INFRASTRUCTURE OF RURAL HEALTH
No doubt, some progress has been made since
independence in the health status of rural people. But it
is also true that the policies of liberalization, privatization
Table 1: Health Infrastructure in Rural Area of Machhra Block-2009
Name of Nyay No. of Population No. of PHC/SC ANM No. of No. of Govt. No. of Private
Panchayats Villages Centre Beds Doctors Practitioners
Male Female Male Female
1. LALPUR 5 13251 SC (Shahzadpur) 3 4 1 – 20 –
2. MANPUR 6 14805 SC (Kayasthbadha) 2 4 1 – 33 –
3. DABTHLA 6 13139 – 3 – – – 27 –
4. BHATTIPURA 4 10614 – 2 – – – 17 –
5. HASANPUR 4 15040 SC (Amarpur) 2 4 1 – 32 –
6. MACHHRA 5 12913 PHC (Machhra) 3 7 2 1 19 –
7. AMINABAD 6 17909 – 4 – – – 30 –
8. SHAHAJHAPUR 5 24673 SC (Kithor) 2 4 1 – 37 3
9. MAHALWALA 7 17066 – 2 – – – 40 –
TOTAL 48 139410 5 23 23 6 1 255 3
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
Globalization (LPG) are in favour of highly modern profit
making private health centres in major cities. It is worth
noting that India is increasing the number of medical
and paramedical educational and training institutions.
On the other hand public sector of health care is
collapsing gradually in favour of money making private
sector of health care. Moreover it is also remarkable
that the incidence of all diseases are higher in rural areas
and the health facilities are concentrating in the urban
centres. The following Table-1 helps to understand the
emerging health infrastructure in this study area.
On paper, infrastructure of health in public sector
appears a reasonable level of coverage for this study
area. In reality the PHC and sub centres have been so
located that the distances to be covered by the patients
of 30 percent villages to seek treatment at the nearest
centre is about 8 to 13 km. All SCs including main PHC
Machhra are located in curve pattern. This pattern of
health centres does not support the significant utilization
of health facilities in this study area This study reveals
that the daily average of patients attended by MOs were
12 patients at Shahzadpur, 15 at Amarpur, 40 at Kayasth
Badha, 85 at PHC Machhra and about 150 at Kithor Sub
centre during 2008-09. It is also remarkable that by and
large the PHC and sub centres are located in road side
villages or market centre. So, it is safe to assume that
not a single MO stays at their service centre.
Table 1 also indicates that population served per
government doctor is 19915 persons that is much higher
than national average of 15980 persons per doctor.
Moreover, the ratio of population served per govt. hospital
bed is 6061 persons which is also very high in comparison
with that of India of 2834 persons per government hospital
bed.
It is unfortunate to note that while there are 47%
female population among the total population of the study
area, there is only one “AYUSH” female doctor working
at PHC Machhra. It shows the very ugly face of health
infrastructure in rural area.
Table1 also highlights that there are 23 ANM centres
in the study area. More than 20 percent are in rented
building. Only few ANM centres have some facilities such
as examination table, BP apparatus, weighing machines
etc. It is remarkable that none of the 25 ANMs are staying
in their field area. It has been observed during field survey
that except few number of ANMs, mostly visit villages
infrequently.
The poor health infrastructure in rural area is
undermined further by large scale absenteeism, poor
training, lack of motivation in staff and lack of medicines.
Profile of Health services:
The internal structure of Indian society was ab initio
iniquitous but what has emerged under the impact of the
dynamics of socio-economic development is all the more
inequitious (TYAGI 1987). In this inequitious society,
groups of society have their own beliefs, practices
Table 2: Profile of Health Service in Rural Area of Machhra Block-2010
Qualifications of Private Medical Practitioners/Govt. Doctors
Unregistered Johla Chhap Daktar
Name of Primary Junior High School Inter Graduate DAI RMP BAMS BUMS BHMS MBBS Total
Nyay
Panchayat
Lalpur 1 4 6 6 2 3 - - 1 - 1* 24
Manpur - 3 11 8 2 5 8 1* 1 - - 39
Dabthla 1 4 10 9 2 6 1 - - - - 33
Bhattipura - 5 5 6 1 3 - - - - - 20
Hasanpur 2 4 10 7 8 6 - 1+1* - - - 39
Machhra - 8 4 6 1 5 - - - 1* 2* 27
Aminabad 1 5 9 9 5 7 1 - - - - 37
Shahajhapur 2 8 9 10 3 7 1 5+1* - - 2 48
Mahalwala - 13 13 12 1 6 - - - 1 - 46
TOTAL 7 54 77 73 25 48 11 6+3* 2 1+1* 2+3* 313
Source- Based on field survey Jan 2010 * Govt. Doctors
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
regarding health. The poor and illiterate section of society
still believe that disease is caused by hostile spirits or
by the breach of some taboos. They therefore seek
remedies through magico-religious practices. On the
other hand, some rural people have continued to follow
undocumented, traditional medicine system, in addition
to recognized cultural systems of medicines such as
Ayurveda, Unani, Sidda and Naturopathy, to maintain
positive health and to prevent disease. Now, the question
is why all systems of medicine including witchcraft to
unethical medical practices both indigenous and modern
are surviving particularly in rural society of India? Is it
the effect of social disparities, economic inequalities,
state of public health system and health policies
implemented by the successive governments of
independent India or implementation of irrational and inegalitarian
health policies to treat people? Whosoever
is responsible, but it is true that public health is one of
the most neglected aspects of development in rural India.
Table 2 helps to understand the current health profile of
health services in rural area.
Table 2 reveals the following facts regarding the
quality of health services in this study area.
1. It is unfortunate to note that about 97 percent of
total medical practitioners belong to private medical
practitioners. It is painfully clear that 91 percent of
private medical practitioners have no registration, no
medical background; they are known as JOHLA CHHAP
DAKTOR in rural area. As table-2 reveals, about 58
percent of Jhola Chap Daktors have not attended even
any Biology class in their school life. Almost all
practitioners of this category do provide services to
pregnant women and have BP instrument but most of
them do not know how to operate the BP instrument.
2. It is also remarkable to note that about 90% of
private practitioners are prescribing drugs without
considering pharmacological properties.
3. As table-2 reveals that only 4 percent of private
practitioners have their bachelor degree in Ayurveda,
Unani, Homopathy and Allopathy. But most of them do
practice allopathic medicine.
4. This study also shows that not a single qualified
female doctor is available among the private
practitioners. Only one AYUSH female doctor’s services
are available at PHC centre. She looks after the delivery
cases. This tendency shows not only gender inequality
in society but also it indicates that the women are the
prime victims regarding the lack of health security in
rural areas. Such a horrible condition of rural health
system is challenging to planners, intellectuals and policy
makers.
5. As table 2 reveals that the presence of Dai in each
Nyay Panchayat is challenging to National Rural Health
Mission (NRHM) in rural area. The main objectives of
NRHM are to reduce infant mortality rates. The
Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) are supposed
to be activists, but they are going through untold
helplessness at every level. Their training is poor. Drug
kits are either not supplied or not refilled. The drug kit
consists only of iron tablets, chloroquine, paracetamol
and ORS packets for diarrhoea. In reality, ASHAs are
not equipped to undertake their complex social roles in
rural areas. Hence the dais are still conducting deliveries
with the help of Jhola Chhap Daktor when required. It is
also notable here that the dais are handling about 50
percent of total deliveries case.
CONCLUSION
The inescapable conclusion is that the location of
PHC and sub centres are not in rational order regarding
the distance to be covered by the patients to seek
treatment at nearest centre. Such locations of public
welfare institutions neither support the significant
utilization of services nor do they fulfill the national
commitment of equity and social justice, except
perpetuation of inequalities in society.
Number of people served per doctor is much higher
than national average. It does not matter. As a matter
of fact, not a single gynaecologist practitioner is available
to attend the serious delivery cases. It is unfortunate to
note that JHOHLA CHHAP illegal male practitioners are
covering the delivery cases with the help of Dais. One
may draw the result that it is due to the in-egalitarian
structure of health care in public sector.
Non availability of female doctor in both the sectors
shows that the gender inequalities in health care are
growing and women are the prime victims regarding the
security of health particularly in rural areas.
Poor infrastructure of health in public sector and LPG
polices are providing the ground for flourishing of private
health care system in urban centre.
References
Dreze, Jean and Amrtya Sen (2002): India: Development
and Participation, Oxford University Press, PP 200-02.
Tyagi RC (1987) “Big noises and little noises “The
deployment of Municipal funds A case study of HAPUR”
Annals of the National Association of Geographers,
India, Vol. Vll, No. 1, June 1987. P. 23-36
28
Voice of Resistance August 2013
Introduction
As the difficulties in ensuring food for the people have
increased over the past decade, anxious calls for a
‘second green revolution’ (SGR) have gained stridency
(Business Standard 2006; Dorin, 2000; Subrahmaniam,
2010; FAO 2006). It leaves an impression that everything
else possible under the sun to resolve the worsening
crisis in food security has already been done. The crucial
question however is – is present crisis of food security
inevitable in the dearth of further technological
advancement or is it the result of the policies pursued
by the governments over the years? Answering this calls
for a scrutiny of trends and issues related to food security
in India.
Conceptual framework of the paper
According to FAO food security is said to exist when
“All people, at all times, have physical and economic
access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets
their dietary needs and food preferences for an active
and healthy life” (FAO, 2008). As per this definition there
are four aspects of food security – food availability, food
access and food utilization; the fourth aspect is the
stability of the first three aspects in perpetuity.
Accordingly, policies directed at ensuring food security
ought to be designed to impact favorably on all these
aspects.
This paper is organized in two parts. The first part
examines the impact of government’s policies, especially
since the beginning of the neoliberal economic reforms,
on the aforementioned aspects of food security with the
purpose of judging whether they have succeeded in
ensuring even minimal dietary requirements of the
people. We have examined the following trends – the
per capita yearly net food grain output and availability in
India before and after 1947, variation in food grain stocks
in the country over the years, trends in food grain
exports, trends in rural and urban poverty and the impact
of targeting in the Public Distribution System, trends in
financial outlay for the rural sector and last but not the
least the consequences that have followed the fabled
First Green Revolution (FGR). The logical sequence
drawn from here should enable us to decipher the real
causes of food insecurity and thereby the possible
solutions.
The second part of the paper deals with the policy
initiatives that are being put in place by the government
to meet the food policy challenges before the country.
The different steps initiated for rolling out SGR have
been discussed as an integral part of these policy
initiatives. Drawing from the discussion on the
aforementioned aspects a broad framework of alternative
approaches has then been suggested for securing food
security of the vulnerable masses in the second part.
Per capita yearly net food grain output and
availability in India
By now the facts regarding net per capita food output
and availability in the country as obtaining in the available
literature on the subject have adequately settled that
foodgrains available for per capita consumption in the
country has been declining over the years. In fact the
highest per capita food grain output and availability in
the country was observed in the period 1897-1902 at
201.1 and 199 kg respectively (Patnaik, 2003). (Patnaik
U (2003): “Food Stocks and Hunger: The Causes of
Agrarian Distress”. Social Scientist, Vol. 31(7/8): pp. 15-
41.) This achievement was inspite of the British exporting
475 million tons of food grain from India during this period.
After 1947 the highest triennial average per capita
availability of food grains was reached in 1990-91 at
176.6 kg i.e. on the anvil of the neo-liberal economic
reforms. Since the beginning of the economic reforms,
there has been a halting slide down the slope. According
to the figures available from indiastat.com at the
beginning of the new millennium, even as the
government committed itself to achieving the Millennium
Development Goal of banishing extreme poverty and
hunger from the country, the net per capita yearly food
grain availability touched 151.9 kg in 2001; equivalent
to the levels seen in early fifties. Average food grain
availability in the first decade of the 21st century has
been 162.6 kg, equal to the average availability in the
sixties, which was a decade of perpetual food crisis.
Again these figures are only availability and not actual
consumption, for indeed there has been a growing
divergence between availability and the purchasing power
of the people which has been falling over the years.
Only to bring out the gravity of the situation it may
be reminded that even the Famine Commission
FOOD SECURITY: THE GAFFES OF THE
PAST AND THE OPTIONS FOR THE
FUTURE – PART 1
Dr. Vikas Bajpai
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
appointed by the British administration in 1880 held the
per capita yearly availability of 200 kg of foodgrains to
be the minimum required for staving off famines (Bajaj
and Srinivas, 2002).
Alongside declining foodgrain production, the
agricultural sector has been starved of investments.
Investment in agriculture and allied services (at current
prices) as a percentage of GDP (at factor cost at current
prices) declined from 0.6 % in 1990-91 to 0.4 % in 2000-
01 and was only 0.5 % in 2009–10 (calculations based
on figures in tables 1 and 107 in Handbook of Statistics
of Indian Economy, Reserve Bank of India, 2011-12),
whereas agriculture’s contribution to India’s GDP has
been much higher; varying from more than 50% during
the first five year plan period to about one fifth during
the eleventh plan period. Besides, agriculture forms a
firm foundation for growth in other sectors of the
economy. The share of public sector in capital formation
(such as expansion in the irrigation systems, seed
production and research and development facilities etc.)
in agriculture, declined from 33% at the beginning of
1990s to a mere 24.2 % in 2000 – 01 and 17.1% in 2009-
10. The Gross Capital Formation in agriculture as a
proportion of overall GDP (at factor cost at current prices)
has stagnated to around 2.5 to 3 % between 2004-05
and 2009-10 (GOI, 2010-11). These statistics show that
agriculture is receiving back just a tiny proportion of what
it has contributed to the country’s growth. Such nihilism
in government policy towards agriculture is inexplicable
in a country where more than 50 % of the work force is
still engaged in agriculture and allied sectors. The
ensuing crisis in agriculture is reflected in the
unprecedented rise in farm suicides. During the period
of economic reforms more than two lakh farmers have
taken their lives under duress (Sainath 2010)– a
protracted human tragedy that is little talked of either in
the media or among policy making circles.
Hungry masses and the burgeoning food grain
stocks
Figure 1 shows the situation of buffer stocks of food
grain from 1982 till 2008. The situation of the food stocks
has in general been good even as the people consumed
food grains at much below the poverty line level.
Beginning from 1998 there is a sharp increase in the
stocks which peaks at close to 60 million tonnes around
2002-2003, while the per capita food grain availability
during this period dipped from 173.5 kg per year in 1996-
98 to 162.6 kg per year in 1999-01 before recovering to
a level of 169.7 kg per year in 2002-04 (calculations
based on figures available from indiastat.com). In fact
2003 was one of the worst drought years in recent
memory with per capita food grain availability of only
159.7 kg.
There have been attempts by the government to
explain this through bunkum theories of ‘diversification
of diets’ and ‘voluntary choice’ of the people to move
away from consumption of foodgrains (Government of
India 2001-02, General Review in the Economic Survey
2001-02). The simple fact of the matter however has
been the inability of the people to buy enough food and
the government’s lack of willingness to provide cheap
food to as many as required it. (For a more detailed
discussion on the subject one may refer to Patnaik,
2005.)
Figure 1: Buffer Stock of Foodgrains (Central and
State Governments) in India (01.07.1982 to
01.01.2008) in million tonnes.
Source: Indiastat.com: Buffer stock of food grains.
Continuing exports of food grains
A tendency has been visible to privilege trade in food
over using it to satiate people’s hunger. Food grain
exports picked up during the reform years beginning from
1994-95 and reached their peak in 2003 (Figure 2) – the
drought year that was particularly harsh on hunger front.
There has even been export of pulses, a food grain
that has been among the biggest losers in ‘green
Figure 2: Export and import of Food grains from
India in thousand tonnes. (1980-1981 to 2007-2008).
Source: Data based on which this graph was drawn
is available from indiastat.com.
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
revolution’ driven expansion in acreage of High Yielding
Varieties of wheat and rice. The saddest part of the food
grain export is that the government chose to heavily
subsidize the exports rather than make it available to
the poor who went hungry (Damodaran, 2001; World
Bank, 2005; Gaiha&Kulkarni, 2005).
Increasing poverty and the declining demand for
food grains
We have already indicated the relationship between
rising food grain stocks and the decline in peoples
purchasing power due to phenomenal increase in poverty
during the years of neo-liberal reforms. The increasing
levels of poverty in India during the period of neo-liberal
reforms have been attested to by a number of academics
and government committees (GOI 2009; Deaton A and
Dre‘ze J 2009; NCEUS, 2007; Mehta, 2005). By the time
of 61st NSSO round 87% of the rural population was living
below poverty line calculated by direct method.1
The consequences of this are borne out by the report
on the State Hunger Indices of selected Indian states.
The report states that “All 17 states have India State
Hunger Index (ISHI) scores that are significantly worse
than the ‘low’ and ‘moderate’ hunger categories. Twelve
of the 17 states fall into the ‘alarming’ category, and
one —Madhya Pradesh, falls into the ‘extremely alarming’
category. Punjab, the state with the best hunger score
at 13.6, falls in the serious category of hunger index.”
(Menon et al, 2009).
Impact of targeting in PDS
In 1998 the Government of India resorted to targeting
in the Public Distribution System (TPDS) with the
objective of directing the food subsidies only to the poor.
One crucial objective of the TPDS was to keep the
“Budgetary food subsidies under control to the desired
extent” (UNESCR, 2008).
In all talk of ‘mounting food subsidy bill’; the need for
‘fiscal prudence’ or diversion of wasteful food subsidies
to ‘productivity enhancing investments’, what is
deliberately not mentioned is the meagre proportion of
subsidies compared to country’s GDP.
It can be seen from Figure 3 that India’s food subsidy
bill has consistently been much below 1% of the GDP
for better part; it touched a maximum of around 1% of
GDP only in three years – 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-
05. Moreover, in proportionate terms the food subsidy
bill has actually increased after introduction of targeting
in 1997. These figures belie the claims of ‘huge subsidy
bill’ and distortion of ‘fiscal health’; neither has targeting
1Direct method of poverty line estimation entails reading
directly from the various NSSO rounds data the MPCE
(monthly per capita expenditure) class that is able to afford
consumption of 2400 and 2100 calories per day in the rural
and the urban areas respectively. As opposed to this indirect
method entails deriving the new poverty line by adjusting
the original direct poverty line deciphered initially in 1973-
74 (NSSO 28th round) with price indices for the agricultural
laborers and the urban unorganized sector workers to derive
the poverty lines for the rural and the urban areas
respectively. The later however does not give a correct
estimate of the rise in poverty line for a variety of reasons
such as increasing monetization of the economy, especially
the rural economy and progressive reduction in access to
the common property resources for the poor has meant
that the non-formal sources (i.e. without having to purchase)
of arranging food and other utilities of life with which the
poor could support themselves have decreased over the
years and they are increasingly having to directly purchase
their necessities including food. This means that while earlier
prices of commodities were only partially relevant in fulfilling
the daily needs of life for the poor, their relevance has
progressively increased over the years with the poor having
to directly purchase a larger share of their needs. This reality
is not adequately captured in adjusting poverty lines with
price indices, of taking the MPCE class that afforded a
calorie consumption of 2400 kcal (Patnaik 2007). The
corresponding figure for urban poverty was 64.5% by 2004-
05 (Patnaik 2010).
Figure 3: Trends in Central food subsidy bill as a
proportion of GDP.
Source: To make the figure, figures for GDP have
been taken from Table 1: Macro-economic aggregates
(at current prices) in ‘Handbook of Statistics of Indian
Economy, 2010. Figures for food subsidies have been
acquired from the table on Food and Fertilizer Subsidies
in India (1976 – 2010), available from indiastat.com on
29th July 2011.
Note: Components of food subsidies
comprise:Acquisition costs (these include cost of grains,
statutory taxes, storage and interest charges etc. at
acquisition stage.) – Sales realization, Distribution costs,
and Carryover charges paid to state agencies. Dsitribution
costs include: Freight Charges, Handling Charges,
Storage and Interest Charges, Transit and Storage
Shortages and Administrative Overheads. (Source: Table
on Major Components of Food Subsidy in India (1999-
2000 to 2003-04.), available from indiastat.com.)
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
improved the efficiency of subsidies in providing relief
to the poor. A much clearer, albeit subtly put intent
behind targeting is to gradually phase out food subsidies
to prepare ground for opening up food procurement,
storage, distribution and retail to private sector. This
cannot be done in one go for obvious political reasons,
hence the intermediary stage of targeting.
It is interesting to note that among those asking for
universal PDS today is the Parliamentary Left which
promptly shifted to targeted PDS in 1997 in all the states
ruled by it – Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal. This was
so while even ‘non-progressive’ rulers of neighbouring
Tamil Nadu chose to revert back to universal PDS under
public pressure. It is a tribute to the people of the state
that PDS system in Tamil Nadu is among the best in
the country. (RTF 2007).
Industry has been swift in its follow through of the
government’s overtures. The Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry came up with a
report on the restructuring of PDS that calls upon the
government to privatize the procurement, storage and
distribution of food. FICCI released its report on 23rd May
2010 and on 26th May 2010 in the first meeting of the
newly constituted ‘Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and
Industry’, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh
requested the captains of Indian industry to “to reach
out to the rural economy and help the government on
food security and affirmative action.” (The Hindu, 2010)
These developments give rise to serious doubts over
the government’s commitment to strengthening social
security measures to alleviate the food insecurity of the
people.
Just how much of a priority has agriculture been?
We have already pointed out above to the neglect
and stagnation that bedevils Indian agriculture; here we
wish to elaborate just a little more on this.
Country’s political leadership often resorts to rhetoric
like - ‘India‘s development is the development of her
villages’ or that ‘India lives in its villages’; however, this
has failed to make a dent in the more concrete
development policies pursued by the political leadership.
“Nehru‘s vision of ‘modern India’ was anchored around
heavy investment in industrial production in centrally
located urban centers” (Sanyal, 1983). In a country where
80% of the people lived in villages and derived their
income primarily from agriculture and allied activities,
the first five year plan devoted barely 32.1% of the outlay
for Rural Development (which for the purpose of this
paper includes Agriculture and Community
Development,Irrigation and Flood Control.) Same trend
continued subsequently. Table 1 clearly shows that in
proportional terms this outlay got further constricted over
the subsequent five year plans. In fact it can be seen
from Table 2 that rural development expenditures have
remained consistently below 1 percent of GDP
throughout the 1990s and 2000, with this dipping to as
low as .48 percent in 2004-05. For a country where 70
percent of the population lives in rural areas this is indeed
remarkable. As a proportion of the total budget it has
barely managed to hover around 10 percent.
Table 2: Rural Development Expenditures through the decade of 2000s.
Year 1996-97 1998-99 2000-01 2002-03 2004-05 2006-07 2008-09 2011-12
GDP (Rs in crores)* 1301788 1668739 1991982 2338200 2971464 3953276 5305367 8232652
RDE** as % of GDP .73 .74 .6 .52 .48 .66 .65 .86
Total budget*** 87086 105187 117334 144038 163720 254041 375485 592457
RDE as % of budget 10.9 11.8 10.2 8.4 8.8 10.3 9.1 11.9
*GDP at factor cost at current prices, **RDE = Rural Development – includes Agriculture and Allied activities,
Rural Development schemes, Irrigation and Flood Control. Note: Figures for GDP are from Table 1, Handbook of
statistics of Indian Economy, Reserve Bank of India, 2011-12. Total outlay and allocation for Rural Development
Expenditures were obtained from the ‘sector wise outlay’ in budgets of respective years available from the
Ministry of Finance website.
Table 1: Decline in Public Development Expenditures in Rural Areas in Nineties (As percentage of GDP)
Year 1985 – 90 (7th Plan) 1991 - 92 1995 - 96 1997- 98 2000 - 01
Rural development 14.5 11.7 6.0 5.6 5.9
expenditure
Source: Patnaik, 2003. Note: GDP is at factor cost at current prices. Rural Development Expenditures include
Public sector plan outlay for Agriculture and allied services, Rural development and special areas programmes,
irrigation and flood control,.
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
While it is true that there are non-industrialized
developing countries with even less proportion of their
national budgets devoted to the development of their
agriculture sector, as for example in Africa, but it need
be borne in mind that neglect of rural and agricultural
development in a country of India’s size and population
can have potentially destabilizing impact on food security
not only in India but also in other countries dependent
on imports of food to feed their populations. If India
imports food, the quantities involved are invariably so
huge that international prices of foodgrains become
unaffordable for smaller countries.
Between 2000-01 and 2006-07 only about a fourth of
the total cropped area in the country is sown more than
once (Planning Commission, Undated a). If the average
duration of one crop is taken to be 4 months, then nearly
3/4th of our total cropped land goes waste for nearly 8
months in a year and the main reason for such colossal
waste of India’s arable land mass is the lack of irrigation
which stood at only 31.41 % (net area under irrigation
by all sources) of the total cropped area in 2006-07
(Planning Commission, Undated b). This amounts to an
increase of just 1% since 2000-01.
It is really remarkable that while the multilateral donor
agencies like the World Bank and the IMF have
proactively advocated withdrawal of subsidies for
agriculture in developing countries, subsidies for
agriculture in the OECD countries remain much higher.
Compared to many developed countries where agriculture
is a much smaller sector of the economy, the
government support that agriculture receives in India is
woeful. Figure 4 gives a comparison of the subsidies
given to agriculture by different countries as a proportion
of agricultural GDP, which is the lowest in case of India.
Low investment in agriculture and rural development
is coupled with the number of people dependent on
agriculture increasing all through since independence.
Table 3 gives decadal trends in employment in agriculture
since 1951 census. With productivity in agriculture
declining, this increase in labour force dependent on
agriculture means concentration of unproductive labour
in agriculture which directly feeds into the vicious cycle
of poverty in rural India and thereby in undermining the
food security of the people.
However, there are further ominous signs; for the first
time since independence the number of cultivators
decreased in 2011. It is ominous because this first time
decrease has come about because of prevalent agrarian
distress in the country that forced the cultivators to give
up agriculture even as the picture on employment front
is not very rosy in other sectors of the economy either.
Green revolution; a panacea or a Pandora’s Box
An entire generation in India has come up being fed
on the folklore of India having become self-sufficient in
food due to the ‘green revolution’ unleashed by the
leadership of the Congress party. And yet within the
same generation we are now hearing that the ‘green
revolution’ has run out of steam. The very areas to which
‘green revolution’ was largely limited – i.e. Punjab,
Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh are now witnessing
declining output in foodgrains (Kumar & Mittal, 2006;
Figure 4: Agricultural Subsidy in Selected Countries
and India {Base Year (1986-1988)}(1997 to 1999) as
percentage of agricultural GDP.
Source: Based on data available from Indiastat.com.
Table 3: Employment in agriculture sector in millions
Agricultural workers / year 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011
Cultivators 69.9 99.6 78.2 92.5 110.7 127.3 118.7
Agricultural laborers 27.3 31.5 47.5 55.5 74.6 106.8 144.3
Total 97.2 131.1 125.7 148.0 185.3 234.1 263.0
Source: Swati Dhoot (2006): National Agriculture Policy – A Critical Evaluation, Briefing Paper is published by CUTS
Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment. Note: The corresponding figures for 2011 census have not
been released yet; however, a 2009-10 survey with smaller sample size shows that the share of agriculture in total
employment has come down to 45.5 % of total employment from 52.1 in 2001 census (GOI, 2010). Figures for 2011
are from the corresponding census.
33
Voice of Resistance August 2013
Dutta, 2012). It is being increasingly acknowledged that
cereal based, input intensive mono-crop farming model
has already led to deterioration in soil quality, depletion
of water table and other ecological consequences, and
as such is no more sustainable (Datta S (2012).
Food systems are supposed to last for generations,
but here we are confronted with a situation where it has
run out of steam within a generation. Even at its peak
“In Punjab (including Haryana)- the throbbing heart-land
of the ‘Green Revolution’-the percentage of the rural
population below the minimum level of living nearly
quadrupled between 1960-61 and 1967-68" (Bardhan
1970). In as much as the impact of technology is
mediated through the existing social, political and
economic structures of inequity and power; there remains
a possibility of technology having quite the opposite of
its anticipated effect; in case of ‘green revolution’ that
of increasing rather than decreasing poverty. With
respect to the First Green Revolution (FGR) of 1960s
and '70s this possibility has been attested to by a number
of authors (Wolf Ladejinsky, 1969; 1970; Wharton Jr,
1969; Sanyal, 1983; Shiva, 1991). Even when green
revolution percolated to smaller farms, the proportional
gains for them were minimal compared to those of the
richer farmers (Beck T, 1995). FGR led to considerable
inter-regional disparities which need to be accounted for
in its final assessment (Chakraborty, 1973).
It had led to the creation of a class of rich peasants
who monopolized the resources pumped into ‘green
revolution’ areas and led on to cement the social,
economic and political power structure in the rural society
in alliance with the urban based bourgeoisie and ruling
class politicians.
In the realm of production, supported by a system of
both supply and demand side incentives it led to vast
expansion in the acreage under wheat and paddy. This
was to the accompaniment of shrinking crop area
devoted to coarse grains (Figure 5) and decline of coarse
cereals in the diets in different parts of the country.
The single most important lesson of FGR is that while
on one hand it was the story of high yields of wheat and
paddy monoculture in a limited region of the country
(Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh), on the
other hand it is also the story of neglect of agriculture
and the livestock economy in the rain fed areas of the
country which constitute about 68% of the arable area.
The approach paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan in a
way admits this by acknowledging that of the total
subsidy on irrigation, fuel and fertilizer, the rainfed areas
have been receiving only about 6 to 8 percent (CSSPERU,
2012).
Figure 6 shows the trends in the production of major
food crops in the country. While production of rice and
wheat has registered considerable increase that of
coarse cereals registered only a marginal increase and
the production of pulses has remained virtually stagnant.
The coarse cereals are now being rediscovered as ‘nutricereals.’
Given the fact that these cereals are less input
intensive and can be grown with relative ease in arid
and semi-arid areas, it would have done a world of good
to India’s food security if an appropriate growth model
for agriculture in rainfed areas that privileged these
cereals was promoted instead of projecting the GR
growth model as the one size fits all solution for India’s
food security.
Unfortunately, the planners seldom take into account
the insidious and less tangible costs involved in the
Figure 5: Changes in area under different food crops
since 1950s.
Source: Based on calculations made from figures in
Table 1.12: Area under principle crops – All India, Data
Bank on Agriculture & Allied Sectors, Planning
Commission, Government of India. Available from http:/
/planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/agri_html/selagri/
T%201.12.xls on 13th June, 2013.
Figure 6: Trends in production of principal food crops.
Source: Based on calculations made from figures in
Table 1.11: Production of major crops – All India, Data
Bank on Agriculture & Allied Sectors, Planning
Commission, Government of India. Available from http:/
/planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/agri_html/selagri/
T%201.11.xls on 13th June, 2013.
34
Voice of Resistance August 2013
introduction of a technology. Water table depletion, soil
degradation, loss of biodiversity and environmental costs
are only some of the insidious costs associated with
FGR technologies that are being acknowledged now.
However, what is not acknowledged upfront is the long
term impact that FGR has had on the diets of the people.
Besides diminishing the consumption of ‘nutritious
cereals’ (the erstwhile coarse cereals) FGR may also
have been responsible for reducing protein consumption
in the diets of most Indian families. Pulses are the most
common source of proteins in Indian diets. Between
1950-51 and 2005, while the country’s population
increased three times, the production of pulses barely
increased one and a half times. Between the same
period the production of ‘nutri-cereals’ (coarse cereals)
increased only two times. This thereby indicates a net
decline in consumption of pulses and ‘nutri-cereals’ in
the diets of an average Indian family. In contrast to this
the production of rice and wheat in the referred period
increased by four and ten times respectively.
Higher yield of the hybrid varieties of wheat and rice
in the presence of irrigation and high fertilizer inputs has
been only one of the factors in giving high yields of these
crops. More than this an incentive structure comprising
of public investments made available in certain irrigated
regions of the country, setting of agricultural prices,
considerable fertilizer subsidy, using Public Distribution
System to generate massive demand for rice, wheat and
sugar, and tying up of agricultural credit with adoption of
specific varieties of wheat and rice were some of the
more important structures deployed to make FGR a
success (CSSP-ERU, 2012).
FGR thus created a model of agricultural growth that
has so imbued the agriculture policy establishment as
to make it inimical to the alternative strategies for
agricultural growth suited for non-FGR areas of the
country (CSSP-ERU, 2012). Tragedy of the situation is
that inspite of the consequences of the FGR technologies
showing up; the refrain continues to be – ‘Extend the
Green Revolution to eastern India’ or as already noted
above – ‘the second Green Revolution’ which are nothing
but efforts to extend the prevailing model of agricultural
development to the rainfed areas (Raina & Shankar,
2011). The need clearly is for developing sustainable
agriculture in line with the requirements of regional agroecology.
The potential for agricultural growth thus
remains untapped in much of the country.
The FGR revolution strategy stood in negation of the
fact that “Backwardness of Indian agrarian systems is
not simply a result of low productivity but also due to
factors like caste, patriarchy etc. that prevail to deepen
exploitation and inequality. Hence, technological frontiers
as well as social barriers have combined to result in the
continuance of agrarian backwardness and poverty”
(CSSP-ERU, 2012). Keeping this cardinal truth in mind
a meaningful agrarian change can only be consummated
through a change in both the forces of production
(technology, skilled human resources) as also a change
in production relations.
Though not by way of acknowledgement by the
country’s planners, a profound requiem to the FGR is
being written in the villages of India, that too in the very
heart of ‘green revolution’. Driven by agrarian distress,
a non-descript village, Harkishanpura in the Bhatinda
district of the food bowl of the country – Punjab, attracted
much attention for itself by passing a dramatic resolution
in the ‘Village Panchayat’ (Village Council) to put itself
up for sale in 2001. Similarly placed Bhuttal Kalan and
Bhuttal Khurd in the Sangrur district of Punjab followed
suit - up to 80 percent of the villages being mortgaged
to private money lenders and commission agents
(Sharma, 2006).
In July 2005, the 150 year old Malsinghwala village
in Mansa district of Punjab put itself up for sale. “Lack
of food, water, loss of soil fertility, incidence of diseases,
deaths, huge debts, poverty and indifference of the
concerned authorities” are said to be the reasons. 50
percent of the agricultural land in the village has been
left barren. As per the statement of a villager – “Earlier,
when we had water, we had enough to eat. Now we are
totally finished and are ready to leave the village”
(Bhattacharya, 2007).
Elsewhere, outside Punjab the condition is all the
more pathetic. Unable to pay their mounting debts, the
residents of Chingapur village in Yeotmal region of the
state of Maharashtra decided to sell off their kidneys in
2005 and invited the then President of the country, Dr A
P J Abdul Kalam and the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan
Singh to preside over a ‘Human Market’ organized for
sale (Sharma, 2006).
Nothing exemplifies the nihilism of the establishment
towards this deeply entrenched agrarian distress better
than the following statement of the country’s Prime
Minister. Commenting on the situation of a debt ridden
farmer in a Bollywood film, who migrated to the city, he
said – “There is no such thing as a free lunch …. The
only way we can raise our heads above poverty is for
more people to be taken out of agriculture” (Varadharajan,
2010).
Concluding discussion
The foregoing discussion on the food policies that
have been pursued by the governments over the years,
especially since the beginning of the neoliberal economic
reforms clearly show that many of these policies have
had a role in undermining the food security of the country
both in the short and the longer term. The few positive
steps like assuring the minimum support prices for
various crops have also been used selectively to largely
35
Voice of Resistance August 2013
enhance the production of the green revolution crops
overlooking the desirability of such crops for the vast
rain fed areas of the country. Given the present grim
situation on the food security and nutrition front in the
country it would be reasonable to expect that the policy
makers revisit these policies to draw appropriate lessons
for future policy.
However, there seems to be an assumption of
infallibility on part of the food policy establishment. In
the seeming absence of any visible efforts to learn from
the mistakes of the past one gets an impression that
probably the prevailing thinking is that this is about the
best that could be achieved under the circumstances.
The only lessons that seem to have been learnt are
directed at gradually withdrawing the few concessions
that had been granted to the poor and the vulnerable.
It is least surprising then that what is being offered
as a solution in the name of ‘Second Green Revolution’
is more of the same that has been done in the past; and
as the things stand today, the SGR holds the promise
of being an even bigger Pandora’s Box than the FGR.
Some of the other measures like ‘Going hunting for
farmland in Africa’ are out-rightly regressive and
abominable. In the second part of the paper we shall
discuss the solutions to India’s food security being
proposed by the ruling class along with suggesting the
desirable alternatives.
References
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
· Mehta J (2005): Poverty in India. Revolutionary
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2010012654871000.htm.
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Voice of Resistance August 2013
[This short article is an attempt to enter a debate on
the role of theory in Social Sciences, by looking at a
few articles published over the last two years in India,
on its academia, especially the Universities to provide
a few criticisms, integrate a few ideas and dissect the
field for new opinions2.]
3One of the alternatives suggested by Claude Alvares
in his “A Critique of Eurocentric Social Science and the
Question of Alternatives” (EPW, 28 May, 2011) is to
exclude European researchers from Indian Universities
unless a negotiated balance is arrived at for Indian
scholars to do research in their Universities. Alvares’
article which begins with a critical disavowal of the
Eurocentrism in Humanities and Social Sciences belies
his own position in advancing claims for having found
answers to questions which were already answered in
the past. So with Alvares’ article this debate about the
relevance of imparting knowledge in a European
curriculum we are completing a vicious circle which was
already in the act of drawing itself. In any case being a
debate that has a history as old as the great Alexander
himself and the Greeks when they came in conquest of
India who were so fascinated by the sight of the unclad,
unshorn, wandering mendicants of India and wanted to
learn from their wisdom succeeded only in converting
one of them to their own likes and that too not before
the ascetics of Takshashila had challenged convincingly
the Greek claims to wisdom while clinging to “such
superfluities as clothes” (Briggs: 1938). 2300 years hence
the different sects of the ascetics have grown and
multiplied and continue to be as mysterious to the rest
of the world as they were to Alexander’s own envoys.
The reason why the ascetic sects of India become
the point to enter a debate on the state of knowledge
and its independence is in order to point out the grounds
where one is standing. There is a kind of primitivism or
archaism that works in every mind when one uses the
term Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences. Foucault had
addressed it as the anthropological sleep being the soft,
safe realm into which all discourses on theory wound
itself into in relation to the sciences of man (Foucault:
1966). There have been a few disciplines like
psychoanalysis, linguistics, ethnology which try to dig
deeper into this dark matter which is asleep in order to
understand it better by variously terming it as the
unconscious, structure or pre-history. To the extent
these disciplines have by-passed a significant amount
of labour that has been carried out in the name of
knowledge about the industrial revolution and the modern
nation-state, their outreach has been far but not without
its pitfalls. Often their point of departure becomes unclear
to its practitioners and they tend to wind up in non-
European systems of knowledge to subsequently avoid
any tackle with their parent disciplines. That such a
position can only remain an illusion and that there is a
need for these disciplines to work backwards to the
centres of knowledge and radicalize or transform its
content is one of the challenges Foucault had foreseen
for these disciplines.
In India no University system has acknowledged the
reality of such tenuous relationships between disciplines
often grading the disciplines in an order that determines
its distance from the Sciences. Inter-disciplinarity here
is often a marriage of convenience occasioned by
structural constraints of resources in doing research from
any single discipline. A vision that is appropriate to the
future of the various disciplines which are being taught
is yet to be worked out. So every discipline from the
Sciences or Humanities just conjugates with any other
discipline in order to create a new one according to the
need of the hour. While a report on its contingency is
most admirable what it proffers for future is never
reported. It remains a condition to which both parties
remain silently acceptable without any debate.
The reason why this becomes important in the
backdrop of a discussion on the centrality of Europe to
knowledge in India is that it is still largely thought that
all this is the result of an idea invented by someone and
used to control or govern the people of India as Alvares
writes about Lord Macaulay. Trudging the domain of
knowledge must be like crossing the tundra as it can
never be easy. To assign to individuals the cause of
epochal transformations in the history of Nations is an
outdated project in any case. In the domain of knowledge
thus speaking there are only certain statements regulated
by certain rules of formation and exclusion which can
be studied only by means of their containment rather
than their association with truth. There can be few
enlightening ideas, inventions or individuals who/which
can be said to have created or rendered knowledge a
liberating, enlightening experience or its opposite.
Once one understands the significance and relevance
of such a position with respect to knowledge one can
Relocating the Question of Dalit
Experience in Social Sciences
K.V.Cybil1
38
Voice of Resistance August 2013
start introspecting the state-of- the-art social sciences
in a country like India.
A rupture from the naiveté of position represented by
knowledge in Claude Alvares is therefore significant
before taking the argument further. George Varghese
(EPW,July30,2011) who in response to this article
summarized this lacuna and sought to cover it with
additional inputs into the very trajectory social sciences
trod in coming into its present form in Europe nonetheless
reveals little by way of what events or statements are
plausible by way of its impact on India. Nonetheless he
succeeds in throwing the court wide open to players from
all hues by bringing in someone like Gopal Guru rather
than restrict it to the Left- Liberal escape route of
resistance a la Alvares through creation of knowledge
as a ‘greater’ realm of human affairs. The resistance
here is even more meaningless because it has not
adequately explored the processes involved in the kind
of domination which it talks about.
This process which I wish to exposit is the kind of
division that is formed within the Indian academy itself
on the basis of the scaling by which proximity to Europe
is defined. Often amongst the student circles this goes
by way of the number of scholars who studied abroad
preferably in Europe or the States and those who are
the products of Indian Universities. There are divisions
amongst these too, though by and large for the uninitiated
or the newly initiated this appears as the big difference.
That there is a distinct difference of perception on Europe
if you take a cross section of the scholars in the
academia is a truth by and large accepted. It is with
respect to a new division which is emerging that needs
to be focused and on to which light has to be thrown in
order to understand the dynamics of power into which
the debate on Eurocentrism in Humanities and Social
Sciences has been inadvertently thrown without Alvares
realizing it.
This is the polarization in terms of who handles theory
in these disciplines and who does not as establishing a
neat division of the scholars. Initially pointed out by
Guru as a polarization between theoretical Brahmins and
empirical Sudras, the division as it rests as pointed out
by Guru in his article How Egalitarian are the Social
Sciences in India? (EPW, 14 December, 2002) and later
affirmed by Sundar Sarukkai in a response to this article
titled Dalit Experience and Theory (EPW, 6 October,
2007) is on the question of experience. But neither Guru
nor Sarukkai had mentioned the constraint that often
works on experience as a category in itself. For them
the debate was if theory could come independent of
experience or not. Guru maintained contra Sarukkai that
it could not be argued that theoretical positions which
emerge independent of experience must be respected
for its universality.
The conditions or the rules which govern such ideas
needless to say are normative to a high degree of
sophistication. Claude Alvares has not in his deepest
thoughts contemplated it before launching his assault
on the Eurocentrism in Social Sciences. That is the main
reason why I am relocating the whole debate in a more
concrete setting. To speak then of theory is far from
cowering to Western paradigms but in fact challenging
them with the deepest sentiments of raw, unprocessed
experience if at all it ever exists in a University system.
Is that possible is actually the question.
As ordinary folks one always knew from childhood
that speaking about an experience was always a break
away from the caring one received as a child, in
adolescence it was the experience of moving out of the
shelter of morality of the adults, and as adults experience
is largely the experience of fate. For a University to
articulate on experience it has to move beyond the three
and emerge a platform that is neither that of childhood,
nor adolescence or adulthood but nonetheless combines
the three in some form or the other and delivers
something entirely new. For this one has to outlive the
body of experience given by a University itself as an
order of some kind. No narrative that is bound by rules
of a shared understanding of norms can produce
experience. Transgressions are a must for experience.
They are universal too as George Bataille (2001) says,
transgression completes the rule by breaking it.
For an academic system such as a University then
to build theory is to have such experiences that have
broken all the rules of theory. This is the point that needs
to be studied rather than sticking to compartments of
thinking. Such discourses then arise which exceed the
boundaries of the University and hence one gets an
amplitude of vision to study works like that of Sharad
Patil which demonstrate the inextinguishable drive and
curiosity that can be generated in the meeting points of
different paradigms of thought like Marxism and
Buddhism, which will then begin to emerge with vignettes
of theoretical insight. No writer has so eloquently
summarized the relationship between the ruler and the
priest or ‘Indian political theory’ as Coomaraswamy put
it (Patil:1982:145) as Sharad Patil who called it a
homosexual union. “Ritual preserves a reality that is no
more” wrote he. “The homosexual marriage of the ‘female’
king and the ‘male’ priest is but the patriarchal
modification of the matriarchal sacred marriage of the
rashtri with a Brahman” (Ibid:146).
His work Dasa Sudra Slavery that emerged initially
as a book review of Who Were the Sudras by Ambedkar
for the Economic and Political Weekly had to wait a full
ten years before it was published as a book in 1982.
Had it appeared in 1972 or the year it was finished it
could have generated a very intense debate with Dumont
whose magnum opus Homo Hierarchicus also turns on
39
Voice of Resistance August 2013
a similar argument and which was also published in
English two years earlier. But as it stands today while
Dumont is a colossal figure in Sociology and
Anthropology whom by and large one is scared to
approach for the sheer exaggeration in his presentation,
Sharad Patil remains an obscure outsider whom scarcely
is anyone inclined to read let alone research.
Notwithstanding this Sharad Patil has made the point
and has consistently argued it in volume after volume
writing on ancient India, how its gynocracies or conclaves
of women rule were the progenitors of the ritual of
marriage in which sexual union was performed with the
woman leader of the tribe (rashtri) and a Brahmin to
propitiate the earth. Buddhism and Brahmanism were
two subsequent developments of these gynocracies that
grew into distinct religions which reacted to this primordial
form of government, one with the invention of Sangha
and the other with the invention of Varna. For the
discipline of Sociology these are points of important
though extreme divergence from the consensus built
around Dumont himself. But the tragedy is such that it
is difficult to say what Dumont himself would have to
say about it because of the very consensus that had
academically surrounded him since the publication of
Homo Hierarchicus had removed him far from any such
debates.
To conclude one can say that the dominant paradigm
in which knowledge is thought today removes scholarship
from its perspective to give importance to individuals
and institutions rather than issues and statements which
alone can sustain the reciprocity of function by which a
discipline gives to and receives from other disciplines
thus ensuring its freedom from isolation. The point is
not to exclude foreign scholars but to contextualize them
within a polemic that is endemic to their field and hold
them accountable to it. A perspective on theory that
begins by building on events, individuals and their actions
can be of little consequence today because no one waits
to listen to who did what. The time as it is, is of who and
why one did not do something or why one individual and
not another was involved with an event or statement of
a certain kind (Foucault: 1989). This involves invoking
themes like those of Gopal Guru but with a word of
caution that they must acknowledge the very
crowdedness of behavior (by which I mean that there is
little to be thought of as unique, rooted or sophisticated
when it comes to experience) and rarity of exemption
(to affirm that experience is hardly ever a matter of
choice) with which an experience visits an individual and
also testify the extreme difficulty only with which it can
take the form of an utterance.
References
Alvares Claude (2011) A Critique of Eurocentric Social
Science and the Question of Alternatives, Economic and
Political Weekly, Vol - XLVI No. 22, May 28, pp..
Bataille, Georges (2001) Eroticism, Penguin.
Briggs, G.W (1938) Goraknath and the Kanphata Yogis,
Motilalal Banarsidas, New Delhi.
Dumont, Louis (1980) Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste
System and its Implications, Chicago, Univeristy of
Chicago Press
Foucault, Michel (1966) The Order of Things - An
Archaeology of the Human Sciences, Tavistock
Publications, London. (1989) Archaeology of Knowledge,
Routledge, London.
Patil, Sharad (1982) Dasa-Sudra Slavery, Allied, New
Delhi.
Footnotes
1 NMML Junior Fellow.
2 I wish to thank George Varghese and Roshni Babu for
their comments
Jafri, fighting in Gujarat against the police, political
leaders and administration’s complicity in the burning
alive of her ex MP husband and others during the anti
Muslim pogroms in Gujarat. It is educative to remember
that this Congress MP suffered this fate in Ahmedabad
city where the mayor was from the Congress party. The
hurdles in the way of Zakiz Jafri’s fight for justice only
prove how difficult it is for minorities.
Will these dead get justice? Can this abuse of police
and stage agencies for furthering a communal agenda
be stopped? While it needs a huge peoples movement
to make any difference at all, every single conviction
can help. Ishrat Jahan’s murderers can be brought to
book to some extent maybe, and the state prevented
from finally labelling her a ‘terrorist’ to play with the
understanding that her murder had ‘some’ justification,
maybe only if people come forward widely to support
her cause.
There is an interesting study of CNN – IBN – Hindu
Election Tracker Survey conducted by CSDS across 18
states (Hindu, July 25, 2013). Asked whether Muslim
youth were being falsely implicated in terror cases, 41%
voters either fully or somewhat agreed with the assertion.
Among them, 40% Hindus and 56% Muslims agreed this
was happening. Of the total number of respondents, 34%
did not offer any opinion, and only around 25% of
respondents disagreed with the proposition.
(Contd. from page 17)
Brutalities and Murders of
Minorities is ‘Course of Duty’ for
Police, Intelligence Agencies
To the Readers
We invite your comments on the articles published
in this issue.
We also invite you to write for this magazine.
Please send your articles/comments on the
following address:
Dr. N.K. Bhattacharyya
50 D, Ad Block
Shalimar Bagh,
Delhi-110088
40
Voice of Resistance August 2013
and these were any way being paid to companies.
Subsidies on these three- Fuel, Food and Fertilizer- are
small and if we take into account the taxes being levied
on them, these are in fact negative. If so much noise is
made about them, it shows the ruling classes’ drive to
further increase the economic burden on the people.
The subsidies which are least talked about by the
Govt., ruling class parties, corporates and media
controlled by them, are subsidies being given to
companies, particularly big companies. This is in the
form of taxes foregone, tax theft and special concessions
offered to them are in addition. This subsidy was of over
five and a half lakh crore rupees in the last year and
nearly 21 lakh crore rupees over the last five years.
Silence over such a huge amount is noteworthy when a
large part of the people of the country suffer from hunger
and malnutrition.
While addressing the parliament, Manmohan Singh
mainly blamed international factors. He specifically
mentioned the US Federal Reserve move to phase out
Quantitative Easing. He did not feel a bit of shame that
he has brought the Indian economy to a state where any
change in monetary policy in US shakes the whole Indian
economy. He repeated the conventional wisdom that fall
in the Indian rupee is good for Indian exports. Probably
he is visualizing a situation where this value falls to
abysmally low levels and Indian wealth can be sent
abroad for a song. Moreover if we analyse the Indian
exports and imports, value of rupee is not the only factor
in their changes.
Manmohan Singh and the ruling class politicians are
not commenting on why this fall has been so severe in
India much more than our neighbours like Sri Lanka,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand. In the period
between 1.1.2013 to 20.8.2013, Indian rupee fell by 17%
while this fall was only 3% in Srilanka, 4% in Thailand,
6% in Pakistan and in fact 3% increase in case of
Bangladesh. It is obvious that the real reasons of this
fall are in the policies being pursued by the Indian Govt.
The main parties of Indian ruling classes and the
corporates see increasing foreign investment as the only
way out of this crisis and for this they are trying to finish
off labour laws, reduce workers’ wages, hand over their
PF money to corporates, hand over mineral resources
to foreign and domestic corporates and even those
sectors of Indian economy to foreign capital where their
stranglehold was not so strong. This foreign investment
dependent economic growth model will not increase
domestic demand, will deplete the mineral wealth and
increase unemployment. Whatever demand it will
generate, it will ruin an even bigger part by ruining
traditional sectors. Temporary success of this model is
dependent on very high rate of growth of FDI so that it
can more than compensate the ruin brought about by it.
Only a part of this investment goes on to create demand
in the country. The economic policies of Manmohan
Singh and his team are a sort of Ponzi Scheme in which
high returns are given due to even much higher deposits.
But ultimately, the reality of economy- the increasing
production of goods and services and to absorb it, the
need for increase in the effective demand- exposes the
reality of these policies. Manmohan Singh and his team
of experts will definitely be duly rewarded by western
developed capitalist countries and the international
financial institutions controlled by them but they would
have pushed 120 crore Indians into abyss of poverty,
destitution, want and hunger.
Economic Crisis .....
Idealist and metaphysical views are mainly predominant
in the contemporary art theories. Both the modernist as
well as post modernist range of bourgeois theories
essentially fall in the above categories. The art styles
based on these theories dominate the artistic trends
among the middle classes. Vulgarization of the folk
forms for the sake of cheap populism and commercial
exploitation is also taking place in the cultural field. The
artist is often pulled in both directions either by the
glorification of the exclusive or the popularity of the
populist art. The entire spectrum of art spread over
between exclusivity at one end and the populist at the
other is dominated by the ideas suitable to the ruling
elites. Influence of these ideas has to be shaken off
continuously. It is necessary to study these theories
with the Marxist point of view to draw valid lessons that
can be useful for the formulation of the progressive art
theories. A theory separated from practice becomes
dogma and therefore it is also equally important to
concentrate on a regular art practice. This art practice
should create its own distinct place in the cultural field
and should be meaningfully relevant to the masses. A
great piece of work of art completely incomprehensible
or beyond the accessibility to the commoners, does not
serve the progressive cause. As stated by Com. Zhou
Enlai, 'Political way to judge a work of art is to ask whom
it serves.’
Art, Culture and the Marxist
(Contd. from page 4)
(Contd. from page 2)