From Pragati magazine. Waiting for the freemarket Mahatma
It's time for a new freedom movement NITIN PAI OVER A CENTURY ago, the idea of political freedom in India was the matter of debate in the parlours of the educated elite. It was more a matter of intellectual exertion among the few, rather than a popular movement among the many. It was not as if colonial Indians lacked the aspiration for political freedom; it was just that the concept was too abstract for the masses. It was the genius of Mahatma Gandhi that converted elitist objectives and popular aspirations into a simple mantra that everyone could understand. He also armed every single person with a simple, inexpensive weapon--non-violent civil disobedience--that could be used to further the objective of attaining freedom. A century later, India is in a similar situation--this time it is economic freedom that it seeks. Though it attained political independence in 1947, India to this date, and even after the reforms of the 1990s, is generally unfree from an economic point of view. Vestiges of the socialistic mindset, well-exploited by populist politicians forms a powerful political constituency, not least because the alternative--freemarket capitalism--has not been packaged into a form that is acceptable to the several hundred millions who actually desire it. Ajay Shah, a Mumbai based economist recently wrote: "In India, a broad majority appears to aspire to become a country based on open minds and an open economy. But the evolution of India in these directions is far from assured. Too many people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s have socialist instincts on economic policy matters. The present ruling coalition involves giving veto power on all legislation to Left parties who got 5% of the votes in 2004 elections, who aspire for a future for India based on a closed economy and a foreign policy which is sensitive to Chinese and Russian interests. The Shiv Sena burns books. How can India continue to chip away at making progress towards becoming a modern, liberal society characterised by ever-expanding freedoms for individuals in terms of both society and economy?" India has never lacked entrepreneurial talent. While many businesses in independent India came to rely on the socialist crutches that were put in place since Nehru, the most enduring ones were successful in spite of the government's best attempts to stifle them. Like India's largest IT companies, some succeeded due to the government's inability to regulate them. And then there are others that used their skills to game the socialist system to stay successful. Socialism did succeed in making Indian firms less competitive internationally. But it failed to completely smother India's entrepreneurial base. And it's not just the big corporates-- there are hundreds of thousands of small businesses who fit this pattern: though stifled by inflexible labour laws and industrial licensing they retained their highly entrepreneurial instincts. While there are a number of advocates of free market capitalism in India, none have been able to translate their ideology into a form that can be sold to India's myriad political constituencies that are cut along ugly lines based on geography, religion, community and language. Economic freedom has the potential to cut across these retrogressive divisions only if it is espoused in a form that is readily understood by the masses. It also has the potential to directly change the destinies of one fifth of the world's population forever. And when that happens, the remaining four-fifths of the world will not remain untouched. It's not hard to find people who have benefited from the whiff of economic freedom unleashed by P V Narasimha Rao's government fifteen years ago. But, as Niccolo Machiavelli explained five centuries ago, they remain diffident. And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, then to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the (reformer) has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them. Thus it happens that whenever those who are hostile have the opportunity to attack they do it like partisans, whilst the others defend lukewarmly... [Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter VI] The need for a new voice, however, has never been more urgent. If Gandhi could crystallise the idea of political freedom and simplify its practice, then surely, the same could be done for the idea of economic freedom. But even as we await the free market Mahatma, it is time for those who believe in rights and freedoms to organise themselves and add their voices, and their votes, towards shaping a new national discourse. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. - Joseph Stalin To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the paredon (The Wall)! - Che Guevara -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
