Terra Incognita Indica: Building with Earth (Book Review)

Terra Incognita Indica: Building with Earth: a notable Textbook: "Building with Earth: a notable Textbook (Book Review) by Remigius de Souza ------------------------------------------------------------- ..."

© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Salesgirl (POEM) by Trini

Composed by Trini (Triningsih Ngadimun) on "Silhouette In The Moon" (Monday, May 25, 2009)

When she says you are nice
You don't believe in her
Because she said it for a plate of rice
to feed her daughter
What you do is to think twice
Whether to buy her goods or leave her forever.

I am amazed to see Trini has her finger on the pulse of Twenty-first Century.

The young poet diagnosis her time without sentimental melodrama, without mincing the words, about the omnipresent market and consumerism! Her compositions are featherlight, reading them is delight.
Or that's how I feel!

By simplicity and economy of means and by elegance this quoted poem reaches Iconic level.

Her poems are for people in the homes, in farms, on street, in workshops, not merely for the blog authors. The compassion in her poetry is universal, though humble she may be: I would rather say it expresses Universal Motherhood, that of “African Eve” the term that scientists use, rather than a term in currency, “brotherhood”, projected by the male dominated societies.

I would relish ‘a poem a day’ by her like a piece of jaggery in the mouth of country-lad than watching commercials on 24x7 TV channels.

- Remigius de Souza

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

THE OTHER INDIA in THE OTHER WORLD (Review)

Image 1: Changing skyline of Mumbai 

After writing this review in a decade's time Mumbai's skyline is fast changing, the fallout is many-fold. The slum-dwellers and squatters too have increased, which now constitutes half of Mumbai's population,so also, Mumbai's water woes.

Image 2: Survival - Squatters in Mumbai

 

These are displaced people from various regions where Mumbai has left its footprints. 

And they strive to live with dignity, which the planners, policymakers, administration and legislation continue to overlook, or look for solutions from the West, in vain.

Image 3: Survival - Squatter in Mumbai

This is a place where new waterline is being installed by the municipal for a mega-realty project. The squatters being illegal settlers have no legitimate access to water in the democratic India. 

Image 4: Survival - Squatter in Mumbai

The children of the displaced families  that live under the newly erected flyovers have found 

their sources of leisure. These come from families of different languages. They don't care

what the chauvinist politicians have to say about language/s. 

 

Water, work, education, leisure, health care etc are supported by the people's skills and creativity and imagination. This is in stark contrast with impotency of planners, policy-makers

and administrators. Planners don't show the areas occupied by the  slum-dwellers and squatters, i.e., the land use painted as gray areas,on the development plans of Mumbai 

(This article / event review was published in the Journal of Indian Institute of Architects, January 1995, Vol. 60, No. 1, P. 35-36. This is an edited version added with images.)

A workshop on “Working and Living in Cities” was jointly organized by Max Muller Bhavan, Bombay, Urban Design Research Institute, Bombay and Habitat Forum, Berlin on 25-26 November 1994 at Convocation Hall of Bombay University, Bombay.

Many scholars, architects, planners etc. from Bombay (India) and abroad attended the workshop. About 100 participants were students. The workshop characteristically displayed specialization typical of modern urban elite society.

The focus of the workshop was on Bombay (read Mumbai) and New Bombay (read Navi Mumbai) with reference to the prospects of globalization of Bombay, the highly populated megalopolis, the trends of shifting population, slums, land, housing, trade, transport etc. in the end there seemed to be no conclusive outcome of the workshop. Yet there could be some conclusions and observations, thanks to the clarity offered by the resource persons and the lively discussions.

For a rural migrant such a workshop would be a revelation. The experts in the highly specialized branches of learning [education] were present. Perhaps the number of participants was less than the number of specialized branches, sub-branches, sub-sub-branches in different disciplines which seemed most identical to the complex caste system prevailing in India. He/she would have felt himself/herself to be a ‘neo-Shudra’ in the august gathering of ‘neo-Brahmins’. Education and Science have yet to become globalize (or universal?). The workshop seemed to have forgotten this fact in spite of boost to Information Technology. Here everyone was concerned about globalization of Bombay – a political entity.
 
The workshop certainly helped to understand a very small fraction of what global economy is: That the Dollar, Pound, Yen, Mark have higher exchange value than Indian Rupee. And the economic disparity and imbalance in the regions, between North and South, West and East, Urban India and Rural India, First World India and Third World India…

Where does the propagation of such disparities and imbalance begin?  The question of affordability and relevance remains hanging in the development projects in India. It is futile to compare Bombay on the basis of its size of population with cities elsewhere, particularly from the developed countries.

One, therefore, cannot think of an issue connected to a city by isolating it from the region. It is also fashionable to use phrases like ‘integrated development’, ‘holistic approach’, ‘public participation’ etc. These do not work at a global level. Neither one could ignore disparities in spite of best intentions.     

At one time during the workshop, the planners washed of their hands for the ills of planning, which were pointed by the participants for some supposed undesirable elements creeping in the plans/cities. They clarified that these elements were imposed, forced upon from outside (?), or by external (?) pressure. This indeed is a real life situation revealed in the workshop. It is reminiscent of the trial of Jesus of Nazareth some two thousand years ago, when Pilate had washed off his hands. His godfather, Caesar was then in Rome. Where are the godfathers of the planners?

At the end of twentieth century, a large number of people of India were sentenced to carry the cross of displacement, in the name of common good, in the name of development, through legitimate process of legislation under democracy, or due to riots, floods, famine, unemployment to reach a final destination of rotten environment of slums in the cities, or are moving out of the city core.

It is an accepted fact from the pre-historic times that the movement of people is primarily connected with survival. Scholars and planners were concerned about providing better housing to the slum-dwellers while the poor kept on pouring in big and small cities and town. The experts have been concerned about congestion in the city. But the question of decentralization of power remains unresolved. Could it ever be resolved when the centralized power is the very foundation of a city?

The Supreme Court has recently reminded the people that they have ‘Right to Live with Dignity’. Does this have any bearing to planning at any level in any area: physical, economic, development…? Dignity is a tall word, but who is to exercise this right; the planners or the government or the people? Who is accountable: people, planners or powers? Theoretically the three are not supposed to be separate.

During the discussion, an often-heard statement was quoted: “Look at the major part of the revenue of this country that is contributed by the city of Bombay…” It seemed the professionals present were not aware of “Energy”, or perhaps ignored it. Typically almost everyone, anyone speaks of economy, prices, speculation, inflation, revenue etc. Revenue essentially is understood as currency. What is the value of currency anyway?

But no scholar or expert has ever told us about how much of the resources of the country are daily consumed by the city of Bombay, besides other cities? No statistician has ever told us about how much of the contributed revenue to the country was ‘ploughed back’ under different garbs by the city of Bombay? Leave aside the parallel economy, if it really exist, created by, or have a share in creating it, apart from the scams, extortion etc. by/in  the city of Bombay, the financial centre of the country? Why then Bombay has to borrow from World Bank etc. for the basic needs of the city: water, shelter, and roads?
  
But the question that remains untouched is “Energy”, and the price of energy consumed by the metropolis. How much energy would it consume when Bombay turns out to be a Global City – the pride of nation, and at whose cost?  

The millions in the villages and forests had rarely seen currency. They still hardly see it. They know of the energy – man energy, bull energy, sun energy, wind energy, tree energy… They worshiped it in blind (sic) faith. They knew of this million-year-old ‘currency’ named ‘Energy’ and they worshiped it in various forms. These people are named backward, ignorant, superstitious, uneducated, illiterate, uncivilized… And here in the city the learned of the West and the East with backing of science, technology and dollars etc. endlessly talk, talk, talk of numbers, economy, revenue… under the portals of Bombay University.

It is an obsolete and outdated thought/concept to talk of city planning or any physical planning, in terms of economy by ignoring Energy and Entropy in the growing threat to environment and ecology. How long the planners will continue to ignore entropy? 

The highly specialized (or compartmentalized?) scholarly views tend to drop the news of the people, and we miss the holistic approach and finally fail to resolve any of the issues in planning, accept some piecemeal adjustments for personal gratification. Bombay therefore has to live on the externally supplied lifesaving drugs, while diagnosis fail, the curative measures fail, because these are at cross-purpose with people. The issue of slums is several times larger than the riots though its impact is not felt. The root cause is elsewhere.

In the city of Nagpur, on the eve of workshop, on 23rd November 1994, there occurred tragic death of 113 tribal persons – not merely numbers – on the threshold of the State Assembly of Government of Maharashtra, when it was in session. No one cared, or dared, to mention it at the workshop, leave aside protest, or observe two-minute-silence in respect to the dead. As if it was an alien world!

And there are host of such events. Bhopal Gas Tragedy, one and half lakh textile workers rendered jobless, 107 martyrs of Sanyukta Maharshtra Movement, Due to Thal-Vaishet Development project several farmers were shot dead… Some of these events are cases of homicide by the government.  To a specialist these events belong to a different department or compartment. But in the process of development planning these cannot be isolated; these are vital links.

The scholars may write great number of discourses in volumes. The planners may design great complexes for the corporate society. But how could such professionals ever plan a city for the People without noticing the news of the people? It was a desperate lot gathered at the most appropriate place: the Convocation Hall of Bombay University.

In conclusion I have a wishful thinking that some day some clever brain will hijack this note and another workshop on energy would materialize, and thousands, perhaps millions, of Dollars shall be spent. The people, however, may continue to live with their woes while planners and scholars shall pamper their inflated ego. But even if the paper used for this note is recycled, it will be a great achievement.

The workshop was certainly a thought-provoking event. Many more such workshops are welcome – but with wider audience and in the Context of People not the glamor of Western wealth?

Mumbai on its way to globalization reminds me of the world-famous museum piece, Fatehpur Sikri, a ghost town. built by Emperor Akbar. The reason was there was no water supply.  He abandoned his newly built capital city during his life-time. The rulers and their wise consultants continue to fail to learn the lessons of history. He had also founded a new religion - Din-i-Ilahi  (Divine Faith): Thankfully, he was its founder and the only faithful; which otherwise added to the present extremism prevailing in India. Fatehpur Sikri is declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site, by the agents of feudal powers of the past, to keep centralized powers in the contemporary times! Would anyone in future regret Mumbai is lost?

NOTE: Urban planning must be inclusive of region of the city: Larger a city larger are its foot-print on the regions far and near. (Previous post: Urban Renewal in Regional Context)

Remigius de Souza

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Essays in early Indian architecture (Book Review)

By Remigius de Souza

Essays in early Indian architecture

Author: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

Edited by Michael W. Meister

Publishers: Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, New Delhi, and Oxford University press, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras. 1992 

Price: Rs 400/- pp xxviii plus 151, Illustrations: 164.

"Vastu, add the meaning, “real estate” (Meyer, “Liegenschaft”): “Vastu includes houses, fields, groves, bridges (or ghats, setu-bandha), ponds and reservoirs,” Arthasastra, III, 8”(A. K. Coomaraswamy, Indian Architectural Terms, P. 97)

THE BEGINNING OF 1993 saw two significant events in Indian architecture.
The INGCA and OUP made available five essays by Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877–1947) which were earlier inaccessible to the public.
The other event was the theme chosen by the National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA), India, “Back to the Roots” for their national convention held at Bhubaneshwar, Orissa (now Odisha).

Though it may not be perceptible, very few are aware of the Indian ethos in different areas of creative life and expression. But at the end of 20th century, with the imminent fall of ‘industrial civilization’ (or ‘economic civilization’), the awakening of ethnic identity is a global phenomenon. Parallel to the environmental movement, there is a ‘Anti-celebration to Columbus Day’ all over the world, and a new awareness in different disciplines.

The essays by Coomaraswamy reappear when people of India (not the statisticians) are groping for salvation in an ever-increasing chaos. The much sought-after development aping the west has only worsened the living conditions of the people of mainstream India. While this book may pamper the inflated Indian ego, it may be life-saving plank to multitudes in 20th century modernity called consumer civilization.

The common theme of the essays is to present a picture of secular, domestic, urban, rural architecture of India 2000 years ago, the remains of which do not exist because of impermanent nature of materials used. The book is about how the common man’s architecture, a hut of a villager that became a source – a form-giver – and developed into a unique architectural style, complex structural system and highly developed building vocation – into a tradition that materialised in thousands of and continued during the late medieval period under royal patronage ( Chapter IV. Huts and related temple types, P 103).

For instance, “Tree-cult”, tree worship which was adopted by the Buddhists in “Bodhi-gharas” was an animistic practice of the people before Aryans came ( Chapter II. BODHI-GHARAS, P 19).

Though Coomaraswamy does not mention so, the “ Tree-cult” still exists in India in different forms, for example, “Tulasi-vrindavan”, holy Basil (Ocimum sanctum L.) on a platform or in a pot, is a common feature of the Indian household. The plant is known for its medicinal values and is also an organic insecticide. “Brahman” – a banyan tree with a built platform, is a common feature of villages in Konkan region – a well known monsoon forest region on the West Coast of India. “Devarai”, sacred grove, is a “protected forest” by the people for the Indian villagers and forest dwellers, by unwritten law of ancient tradition, though not recognised by the development projects, or by the British-made “Forest Acts” that still continue in modern India.

Why Tree-cult? Coomaraswamy has not posed this question here. Did some visionary scientists or wise men of the aborigine communities initiate tree-worship as a measure of environmental protection?

A. K. Coomaraswamy opens up the first essay on “ Cities and city-gates, etc.” with a statement, “…cities are despised and there are no ceremonies for urban life”(P.3). He quotes “It is impossible for one to obtain salvation, who lives in a town covered with dust” (Baudhayana Dharma Sutra, II, 3, 6, 33).

Elsewhere he says, “…but the village is still typical centre of Aryan life” (History of Indian and Indonesian Art, p 15) referring to Maurya period. Indian society has remained agrarian even under the wave of industrialization.

Among several features of city, Coomaraswamy describes city-gates: toranas and gopuras, which were used for protection and security or for honorific and ornamental purposes. In contemporary times, Mr Shankar N. Kanade, architect, has used city-gates in “Jala Vayu Vihar” township at Bangalore (now Bengaluru), enhanced by adding elevated water storage tank. In present day context, more than being ornamental it gives identity to a place in urban chaos; it is a symbol of celebration, besides utility. Isn't it embedded mimetic memory in Indian mind!

Indian Architectural Terms (P. 71 – 99) is a critical essay on two books written by Prof. P. K. Acharya, “Indian Architecture According to the Manasara-silpasatra” and “A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture”. It is a combative but constructive criticism. This essay helps to learn ‘how to criticise and how to take it, and gives access to ‘meanings’ of the terms.

Take the term, Vastu, much in currency these days, for example: “Vastu, add the meaning, “real estate” (Meyer, “Liegenschaft”): “Vastu includes houses, fields, groves, bridges (or ghats, setu-bandha), ponds and reservoirs,” Arthasastra, III, 8” (P. 97).

He has presented over 100 sculptured relief works in photographs and drawings – some of them restored in exquisite drawings by him, as visual evidence, from monuments built in or carved out of rocks centuries ago. The author referred to textual evidences from Sanskrit, Prakrit and Pali law books, epics and Kavya literature. These reliefs were executed by sculptors, guilds of master craftsmen who documented epics of Indian civilization on stone surface. It is worth noting that the sacred texts were handed over by mnemonic method, though writing was known, for reasons of accuracy, which is still being observed. In the relief sculptures there is no scope for errors or adulteration or manipulations.

The population of India around 1st A.D. was perhaps 30 million or so, with growth rate of probably less than 0.01 percent per year. As the feudal power over people increased, which is now growing to a global scale through its invisible tentacles, the epic writer in stone is now visibly disintegrated.

What happened to the guilds as the population grew? For instance, the communities of stone-cutters called “Wadar” and “Beldar” living in the slums of cities and towns not far from the famous monuments of Karla, Bhaja, Elephanta, Kanheri etc. and several forts in Maharashtra. Are these the descendants of the guilds of the ancient times? Just as the Brahmin descendants of the sages – Vashishta, Agasti, Vyas, Bhrugu, Vaishampayana etc. whose pedigree has been maintained by the high caste?

What Michael W Meister probably missed in the conversation with Joseph Rykwert is to give 20th century parallel in modern architecture to A K Coomaraswamy’s thesis of “primordial hut as a form-giver” to historical Indian Architecture (Afterword: Adam’s house and hermits’ hut: A conversation, P. 125) . In the twentieth century modern (western) world architecture there are only “master form-givers”, whose works go down as second hand and third hand imitations to the masses: Indeed a true expression of economics of Industrial Civilization that give the fruits of its development and progress, prosperity and powers to the society by the “trickle down formula”. This formula is also applied to the education system to support industrial civilization.

In today’s context, awareness of environment, ecology and energy which are being destroyed at unprecedented rate, Coomaraswamy’s work of timeless quality is all the more relevant, a ground prepared for ‘further work’.

It is a book for all: scholars and architects, planners and politicians, pundits and leaders alike: a collector’s copy. It may also help a new vocabulary – a new form of expression to emerge – a departure from twentieth century architecture and other disciplines (born and developed in the West); a restoration of dignity of labour; a change in planning parameters; a right to manage their own affairs to the local communities. What John Papworth calls, “Democracy after all does not mean government for the people; it means government by the people. We hope, in Coomaraswamy’s words, “…mark a final victory of the conquered over the conquerors” (History of Indian and Indonesian Art, P. 5).

(NOTE: This is an edited version of book review, published in INDIAN ARCHITECT & BUILDER, Mumbai, May 1993, P. 85-86)

Image: Portrait of Ananda Coomaraswamy by Arnold Ronnebeck, 1929. This bust represents Coomaraswamy at about the same he was working on "Early Indian Architecture" and other wor
ks in transition (P. 103).
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

The Slumdog Millionaire Laugh (Review)

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The Slumdog Millionaire Laugh (Review)

Entertainment 24x7 is Opium of Industrialism

After so much of hullabaloo on media I decide to write on the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”, which I had ignored so far, to pamper my ego. First, let me quote Coomarswamy:

“Modern pragmatism, of course, deals with the bastard truth of facts, according to which, we expect (though we do not know) that the sun will rise tomorrow, and act accordingly: Hence, also, the modern concept of art as a merely aesthetic experience”, (Anand Coomarswamy, “Time and Eternity”, Select Books, Bangalore, 1989, p 5).

The award winners of “Slumdog Millionaire”, and media were laughing at the awards collected by the movie. They were laughing at the grim reality not only of the slums in Mumbai and cities and towns all over India but also at the precariously grim reality of 900 million people of India’s agrarian society.

Capitalist society continues to capitalize on anything and everything available; the buzzword these days is Poverty. It capitalizes even on its condemnation by anyone – an individual or a group – that may condemn and criticise its systems, dogmas and society; it would bestow awards and titles upon them, (see for example, Nobel Awards and/or alternatives to Nobel Awards in the recent past), which, of course, do no make even a dent.

Or, for that matter, the gender exploitation and the feminist protests, both, flourish side by side, through multimedia, cyberspace and in real life in the capitalist societies, besides racism.

Poverty is a by-product

Poverty, in the contemporary times, is a by-product of Industrial Revolution, inflicted by the capitalist society. Poverty has reached to a shameful dehumanized state to a global scale.

If the modern lifestyle cannot spare the natural environment from degradation, how could market economy / free market / globalization spare the disadvantaged across the world not to reach global poverty?

It is not only the global cities, but also the industrial capitalist societies (the western and westernised) have their footprint on the regions far beyond their sovereign state boundaries, from the North Pole to the South Pole, from East to West. Wherever they place their foot they leave the people of other cultures and other societies in utter poverty (just as it is said, “Wherever civilisation puts it foot it leaves desert behind”).

And the slums, not only in Mumbai, but in other cities and towns across India, are the by-product of the industrial capitalist society – the First World India – initiated by the past colonial masters, and followed by the development obsessed governments in India with their misplaced priorities for the past sixty years.

Indeed, if we should be ashamed of, it is not the “slumdogs” or the “underdogs”, but our democratic government, therefore, ourselves, we who staunchly believe in the First World India (of minority), or which we call the mainstream society of India!

Inspiration behind the plot

A fiction writer can map, manipulate and design acrobatics with characters and events for the purpose of entertainment, just as the stunts in the Hollywood / Bollywood movies. The book, “Q&A”, on which the movie is based, is one of them, authored by a bureaucrat (what more can one expects from a bureaucrat, though there are few exceptions)? Its questions and answers are inspired by “Kaun Banega Crorepati”(KBC) – who wants to be millionaire – TV serial programme. Hence, movie too is a typical vulgar farce and far-fetched.

Though it is said to be produced on a shoe string budget (by Western standards) is politically, economically and socially irrelevant and least creative: It does not do any justice to the people.

At last, a British Sahib reached Mumbai, slyly, to showcase the slums and poverty in India, which was initiated by the Empire. The movie has ploughed back its investment many more times not only awards.

Peasants are the Lifeline

“Kaun Banega Crorepati” (KBC), of course, was typically imitated or adopted from its western origin, like many development projects in India. KBC and other similar avatars that appeared on Tellywood channels, which have been epitome of vulgarity, had no relevance other than glamour, passive entertainment and profiteering: It squandered money, which go in to smoke, laugh at 900 million people of agrarian society- the real Third World in India.

The peasants are the lifeline of India, not hundreds of movies produced at Bollywood, and such programmes as KBC on Tellywood, or cricket…! “KBC”, “Jai Ho”, “Chak De India”, Dhan Shanaa Dhan Dhan”, “Mera Bharat Mahan”, “Pro-Poor”, “Garibi Hatao”… and such slogans and promises are not going to make any dent on the sordid condition of the slum dwellers and peasants.

Exodus of Peasants to Cities

In Mumbai alone there live more than 50% people in the slums. They have been self-supporting and self-reliant, though often accused as illegal occupants. Just as Mumbai’s footprint goes far and wide (Mumbai that lives the life of hydroponics) so are the affected, displace and marginalized people flock to Mumbai in search work to earn livelihood with dignity. They hardly dream of being millionaire.

They built Mumbai

The major workforce of skilled, semiskilled and unskilled building workers lives in these slums. They have built Mumbai. The government i.e. legislators and bureaucrats, experts and policymakers hardly know this fact, or perhaps ignore it. Slum dwellers of Dharavi and anywhere else are capable of rebuilding and developing these on their own in far more decent and economical way for sustainable living.

Corrective Measures is the Need of the Hour

Intelligence and creativity are not the prerogative of the elite alone. But the power lobby, greedy of profit, would stifle them with legal instruments, either in countryside or in cities.

They don’t need handmaidens of capitalist society help them to plan, design and build their homes and homestead. What is urgently needed is that the Democracy in India must restore their autonomy by providing proper tools.

Some Statistics

1. The United Nations World Food Programme says that the largest concentration of hunger in the world is in India: 230 million or 27% of the world total (see: M. J. Akbar, THE SIEGE WITHIN, Times of India Mumbai, Mar 1, 2009, p. 16)

2. “Wanted: property developer for Mumbai slum

The Indian government has invited developers from around the world to submit plans for the regeneration of a slum in Mumbai, home to Asia’s largest population of slum dwellers… …Nationwide India is facing a slum crisis as more people lock to the cities in search of work. The latest census data reveal that the number of people inhibiting India’s slums more than doubled between 1981 and 2001, rising from 27.9 million to 61.8 million”, (Geographical, Royal Geographical Society, UK, August 2007, Volume 79, No. 8, p.8).

WHEN SHALL NIGHT OF GLOBAL MELTDOWN SHALL END AND THE SUN OF FINANCIAL BOOM WILL RISE TOMORROW?

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Cow dung, Rice and Amartya Sen (a critique)

Cow dung, Rice and Amartya Sen (a critique):
Challenges of 21st Century

“Everything, in this world, exists in order to culminate in a book.”

—Mallarmé (1842 – 1898)

“The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions

may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding”
– Albert Camus

Illustration 1: Cow dung and Paddy Waste Recycled

(Key words: Land (with waters) is the source of Life and the sustenance to all living beings, and culture to humans. Peasants – the landless and the landholder alike, the artisans known as twelve ‘Balutadars’, and the forest dwellers or the tribal, which amount to 800 millions including those languish in the city-slums. Development is an ongoing process and not an abstract economic theory. When means and goals are same then there is possibility of development: here land is the means and goals, so also the peasants. Environmental-Ecological-Energy Cost (E-E-E Cost): It is not enough to count cost-price-profit (loss) in currency any more; it is already an outdated mode the economists have been following.)

I am browsing Amartya Sen’s book, ‘Resources, Values and Development’ (1984), a selection of his essays from 1961 to 1984, republished in paperback in 1999 (OUP), after about fifteen years. Perhaps the author and the publisher did not see any need to include subsequent essays, if any, a sequel to the theme of this book, perhaps due to the restraints of economy.

At the start of the introduction, Professor Sen declares, ‘Much of economics is neat and elegant; but some of it is not. The essays included in this volume belong to the later category (p.1).’ It is because, I think, they are holistic. They relate mainly to development economics that take into account many aspects. I, of course, skip theories, equations, diagrams, tables etc., as I am not equipped to comprehend; I look for fiction. I, however, find something amiss, something desirable to the heart of a peasant. Hence, without defining or theorising I straight go to an example: In the Chapter 13: Rights and Capabilities, Section 3: Capabilities, I notice:

"Consider a good, e.g. rice. The utilitarian will be concerned with the fact that the good in question creates utility through its consumption. … But that is not the only thing it does (p.315)." he further writes, "Four different notions need in this context. There is a notion of a good (in this case, rice); that of a characteristic of a good (e.g. giving calories and nutrition); that of functioning of a person (in this case, living without calorie deficiency); that of a utility (in this case, pleasure or desire fulfillment from the functioning in question, or for some other functioning related to the characteristic of ice) (p. 316)."

AS I READ THIS PART, I wander away from the book into the realms of my perceptions, experience, information and impressions that I gathered during my journey through places, events and time. It is also keeping in with an idiom in my native tongue, Konkani, “you need not check every grain of ‘rice’ in pot if cooked.”

Sometime around 6500 – 5800 BC, the archaeologists say, people in the Fertile Crescent in South-east Asia domesticated rice. That included a part that we now call India, Bharat, or Hindustan as per our convenience. However, even to this day the tribal, in the backyard of Mumbai, cultivate wild Jowar – millet – and use it for various purposes: grains for food, its stocks that grow 7-8 feet for fodder and in housing.

I take the example of Konkan, a rice-producing region on the western coast, where I was born, and grew up on paddy farms during my formative years. For a peasant, her homestead is the yard around her adobe abode with plants, fields, groves, grassland, hills, and of course, the community well, a stream, water reservoir if any; and a cow, goat, chickens, cat, dog or bullocks join her kinship.

During all the dry days, besides other chores, she collects cow dung, brushwood, dry leaves, which go for fuel and/or manure in a compost pit. She collects even the ashes from ‘Chulha’ – cooking hearth, and ashes from the burnt leaves and spread in the farms. For the peasants this is ‘conventional’ agriculture, which continues in many places. The western and the westernised call it ‘non-conventional’ or ‘organic’ agriculture.

In between, there are four months of monsoon that witness hectic activity at home and the fields – transport, process, sowing and caring paddy, other grains and vegetables.

The harvest brings the work that involves transport, process and storage. For example, there is a process for parboiled rice. Until few decades ago, they used the wooden grinding wheels (Ghirat) at home to remove husk, similar to stone-mill (Jaate) for flour. Now they take paddy to rice mills. They take home even the husk of the ground paddy. They feed the finer husk after boiling to the chicken / cattle. They mix the course husk in cow dung to make ‘govari’ – a flat cow dung disk – for fuel. Paddy straw is stacked in a mound (Koodi) around a wooden bully 10 – 15 feet high. It is stored for cattle feed during dry days, as green fodder is available during monsoon.

The seeds, paddy, parboiled rice and rice are stored according to the quantity in a bamboo mat silos, or in paddy straw bundles (Moodi). Silos are covered from outside with cow dung wash. The bundles look like huge pumpkins of about three feet in diameter. The paddy straw cover is about three inches thick when compacted. They use a hand-made paddy-straw rope to tie around the bundle, compacted by using a wooden batten. The vertically tied rope looks like altitudes on a map of the globe. Indeed, it was a beauty, a work of art (or craft!) now perhaps lost forever. Paddy straw is also used for roofing in some cases, as may be seen near salt pans to cover and protect the non-disposed stock of salt in the open, during monsoon.

This is a very brief description of few details of peasants’ actions related to rice in the example above. Simple and ordinary as they may seem, there is a complex interrelationship between resources, values and development, which modern economics may not have fully explored. There is much more: besides skills, tools, processes and products related to rice, so also number of other “utilities”, not only for livelihood, but also culture/s of peasants. This has been going on for generations, for ages.

“Consider a good, e.g. rice”, again. A few hundred miles north of my birthplace is Riagad District. Here, for example, in the coastal plains, the peasants don’t plough the paddy farm, but directly broadcast the seeds. They also use water-flooded paddy terraces to farm favourite local specie of fish, ‘Jitada’, by digging pits that retain water for few months after monsoon. People have used diversity and adversity both to their advantage discovered by ‘collective creativity’ and not by theories. In the land of great diversity that is India, what variety and wealth of knowledge, skills and practices must there be.

However there is no time or will among the ruling minority, which is obsessed with western-style ‘development’ of capitalism with a benevolent name ‘duel economy’, hence, no records of “Intellectual Property Rights”, which may come up or be ignored in future; every time there may not be cases like Basmati rice, Neem and turmeric. The theft and smuggling of plants and herbs out of the country that is taking place is apart! While the elite enjoy a status of neo-Brahmanism, the 900 million peasants are like Shudras, or second-class citizens, or an underclass; that’s ‘duel economy’! Without right empowerment how would the peasants care for the vanishing precious biodiversity?

With industrialization, and without appropriate rehabilitation, it is not only the loss of the people’s knowledge, tools, and skills and the indigenous seeds, but also the loss of environment of the natural habitat. The ground water is going lower or is getting poisoned. We do not hear the chorus of frogs during monsoon nights any more. We were shocked to hear a hundred peasants died at a stroke in Karnataka by consuming crabs that had concentrated pesticides in their bodies. What will be the fate of the land, waters and the people when the SEZs (Special Economic Zones) devised recently to take over agricultural farms in India) will become operative in near future?

The governments, at the centre or states, have shown total apathy for the past six decades to organize and implement rehabilitation of the peasants, while bringing in and supporting industrialization with their ad-hock policies, projects and the laws. Why is this apathy? It is only because the peasants and the farming communities in six lakh villages is not an organized sector like commerce, trade and industry, which can twist government’s arm at a single call. Are the peasants on their way out to annihilation? It is as mute a question as the peasants.

Perhaps the plain reason for this failure of the government is that the British Raj did not leave any formula as their legacy while parting; or it failed to invent any on its own; or it failed to imitate others. It failed because it failed to do necessary fieldwork. It is easier to produce nuclear weapons or space ships, at any cost. How could anyone invent a theory or an equation or a formula for application for such a great diversity and the great disparity?

Certainly, Sen must be aware of many examples as one cited above, and the anomaly thereby, as may be guessed from his writing. However, what will happen to economics, if it has to take into account the above example? It will have to count also the “Environment–Ecology–Energy Cost” (EEE Cost) of the conventional agriculture of the peasants, here and now, at least in the Twenty First Century, and revise all its equations and formulae, hypotheses and rationale. It will have to re-write the equations after assessing the “EEE Cost” of all the industrial products.

The example cited above clearly shows the practice is labour intensive, uses local resources, and conserves the soil regularly by its rehabilitation, and so far it is a model of sustainability. The capitalist society and its culture of production and consumerism beyond needs, and the waste thereby, do not envisage this aspect. Even by conventional system the peasants do not get a fair deal, even by the governments. The experts, even those rebellious against the system, are recognized by awards not by action. But who could guarantee the theories work? As Paul Valéry says, ‘there is no theory that is not a fragment.’

Definition of Non-working Population

See, for example, the Census Survey of India 1991 (Census 2001 is not yet printed). It defines, “persons engaged in household duties, students, dependents, retired persons, renters, beggars are some of the categories grouped as non-workers” (Section 10, part 10.2). This seems to be applied to both urban and rural populations. How crude? Among peasants, the women share major responsibility at farms as well as home; the help comes from the aged and the children – students, dropouts, or those never enrolled. The peasants, even if aged, never retire unless invalid. The village data, if checked, will show substantial number of non-workers. See also the number of inhabited villages in the Census data. How do the people survive? Where do people go?

How reliable are such data that may be extensively used by economists, other experts and planners to shape the fate of the people, but never reach the peasants? The amazing fact is the government may approve to send a man on the moon, but never sends complimentary copies of the Census Survey to the Gram Panchayats so they can scrutinize its work: only the peasants are qualified to do it, but they are languishing in illiteracy – innumeracy.

The peasants are not aware of their status recorded by the government every ten years. And now Census 2001 is available only in electronic form. What would be the response of the peasants, particularly women, who feed not only their families but also the nation, to their status of ‘non- workers’ along the beggars, in the country that is so rich in resources? Whosoever may be responsible, the hypocrisy is unprecedented, it has no match anywhere.

Having, of course, a will, in the modern times, and by hard work, the government can open many new avenues and areas to the peasants to elevate their skills, knowledge, livelihood, sustenance and self-reliance. Taking the example of rice, we name a few options as a reminder:

Farmers' options for ancillary products and by-products from paddy farming

Rice husk: cement; Paddy straw: cattle feed Paper; Rice bran: bran oil; Defatted bran: Agricultural farm;

Animal waste and farm residue: methane gas, manure;
Waste water: filtration plant --- algae pond (nitrogen-rich manure) / fish pond;
Recycled water: farm/ kitchen garden; Plantation: fruits / fibres / spices and condiments / medicinal plants / aromatic plants / colours and dyes / gums and resins /paper / timber / and conservation of vanishing species; and now bio diesel (e.g. Jatropha); Land: conservation, restoration, use of soil testing kit, and as the subcontinent now is known to be earthquake prone, to be prepared for self-help; Waters: conservation, recycling, aquaculture, health, recreation, use of water testing kit, and water management in the times of floods and draughts by self-help, having known that the government help does not reach in time to save life and property. Market: (1) arithmetic to derive the price-cost-value-benefit of their actions and input into their work, sustenance and the way of living; (2) idea of modern ‘economic developments that are conducive to a proliferation of middle-men, where commodities take over things, even humans, and prices from values; (3) work to master the market, neither to serve it or patronise it. (See the enclosed illustrations.)

These options should be the focus of education and main part of the curriculum for 900 millions peasants and 600,000 villages in the country, and not the British-made schooling, which is being followed by the authorities and the departments.

Having a will and courage, the government, as it has vast infrastructure, it turn every village into a Special Agro-tech Parks (SAPs) across the country. Taking a clue, if need be, from the West that sent the youth to the armed forces, or China’s example of ‘Cultural Revolution’, India too can develop on an indigenous tool, which is partially in operation.

Introduce a compulsory ‘internship’ of six months for all the candidates who go for Diplomas, Degrees, Masters and Doctorates from every discipline of higher education, without reservations. They must go to the villages and work with peasants and SAP, without any stipend. They should support themselves by using, and also testing, their learning of 15 / 17 / 20 years of formal education. (The likely fallout that there may be a countrywide wave of ‘bribery and corruption’ to escape the internship, or otherwise we trust the Response-Ability of the younger generation, irrespective of all the prevailing waves in the country!)

Deliver the “Pro-poor” products, not the promises.
Give them the ‘fishing-hook’, not the fish.
Be the facilitator, being democratic government, not a ruler.
Return the land to the peasants, by their ancestral right, don’t sale to the corporate.
Start six lakhs Special Agro-Technology Parks (SAPs) for six lakhs Villages of India on war footing. 

Illustration 2: Methane Generation by recycling organic waste

Traditional or conventional paddy farming is holistic. There the cycle of Environment and Ecology and Energy is complete, therefore, there is no waste of energy i.e. energy is changed in to other forms.
The Illustrations here may look contemporary, but the elements have been there for millennia.

Illustration 3: Rice production in Konkan Region and Some New Directions

It becomes necessity in the changing global situations that the peasants are well informed of the characteristics of Industrial Civilization and its mentality to colonize other societies and communities under the new tools of power and profiteering: So that the peasants could maintain and guard their autonomy.

Illustration 4: Cow dung cakes are labor-intensive energy option

Cow dung: The Industrial Societies are accustomed being less populated are mass producing, even beyond their needs.
Typically, we have heard that in UK there is a plant that recycles cow dung at a mass scale, may be about thousands of tonnes, imported from several farms.

Modern technology has failed to evolve forms for decentralization of recycling, building, or processes that are possible at family level.

Illustration 5:  Paddy Farms

Paddy farming is round the year action unlike industrial products. Man, Animals, and Plants, all receive sustenance.

Modern Industrialized Farming is detrimental to LIFE, though it may benefit the capitalist society, which creates enormous wealth as well as enormous waste at the cost of LIFE.

— Remigius de Souza
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

TERRA INCOGNITA INDICA

INDICA: I deliberately use the word ‘Indica’, a biological term, instead of ‘India’. It is precisely to indicate a ‘region’ and not political boundaries that associate with the State. In the historical time political boundaries have been subjected to change, anywhere.

TERRA: literally ‘soil’, which I refer to ‘Land and Waters and People, and Biotic and Abiotic Nature’. The biotic and abiotic nature is intrinsic in the life, therefore also in their culture, of the people – the daughters and the sons of the soil.

INCOGNITA: the literal meaning is ‘unknown – unexplored – unrecognised’ alike the medieval (European) map showed the known world encircled by ‘terra incognita’ where monsters roam.

Indeed even in the twenty-first century, the ‘soil’, in my way of comprehensive meaning, still remains ‘unknown (to the world) – unexplored (by the pundits) – unrecognised (by the so-called Authority or the State)’, whom I fondly call my ‘anonymous’ kin, from whatever glimpse I have had through my six decade journey in the Third World India and the Fourth World India.

INDIA has almost a continental size. Broadly there are about 50 – 60 cultural and social sub-groups (as illustrated….). No. We are not referring to the castes or cults or the creeds. We are not taking of, in American lingo, of the Class or the classless society. We are speaking of the ethnic and adivasi – tribal – communities (that is the cohesive collectives), not the civilised advance societies (that is the fragmented collectives in the modern times).

She indeed is a thousand-petal lotus, our national flower. There have been as many topographic and climatic regions – bioregions – that have great hand in shaping the culture, expressed in food, clothing, shelter (or architecture!), visual and performing arts and crafts, languages an folklore… and thus as a result a superior quality of sustainable living. I call it a model for the modern world, a world heritage, now facing a wipe-out.

Unfortunately in the global race to make India an industrial power by the petty imitators – the ruling minority – comes at cross-purposes with the survival of the agrarian society and the diverse bioregions. The petty imitators are out to homogenise them with monoculture of industrial civilisation. The industrialisation here, so far, only helps the power mongers and profiteers through their invisible tentacles.

Indeed one lifetime is not enough to see and to assimilate and to understand this phenomenon for any person or even a group of persons. Any documentation, even a fraction, would reveal great treasures of wisdom and knowledge and skills, across these diverse bioregions, accumulated over generations of anonymous People of India.

India is such a vast country with diversity that it is impossible to manage even the welfare of the people (for the lack of understanding) for any centralised power, even with an iron hand. This is true of any region in the world which has been proved time to time. Decentralisation of powers, down to earth in practice, (power in the hands of peasants) is the only answer to this malady; M. K. Gandhi came very close to it in his concept of Panchayati Raj – power to village self-rule.

See LINK (TERRA INCOGNITA INDICA)
10-05-2009


© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

‘Hell-Heaven’ – Story by Zhumpa Lahiri

‘Hell-Heaven’ – Story by Zhumpa Lahiri
Review by Remigius de Souza

Aesthetics of hedonism

Zumpa Lahiri’s “Hell-Heaven”, a short story (from her collection ‘Unaccustomed Earth’ is being released in India by Random House on April 4, 2008) was circulated by Hindustan Times last Sunday to its readers.

The story is about Bhadralok – the Elite Bengali – Family migrated to America (in 1970s), and the cross currents and undercurrents between two cultures. The protagonist is Pranab Chakraborty, and the story is told by Usha – the daughter of the family – in first person.

I am not writing about the technique of or critic on the writing. The theme of the story, of course, is love, largely interpreted as ‘sex’ these days.

The story is an excellent documentary, which also includes how Usha grows in the cross cultural environment: First she has crushes, then dates, then she has love affairs that lead to sleeping with different (I suppose American) men, and finally a heartbreak, as the story of Pranab comes to an end. By this time Usha is reaching thirty – her middle age, and sooner may run into menopause; her mother reaches fifty.

By now the mother has accepted (or submitted) to the way of life Usha is going through, and consoles her daughter that she would find another love – as we say here in Hindi: “Tu Nahin, Aur Sahi; Aur Nahin Aur Sahi” (If you are not then another, if not then yet another…).

These are common experiences, now, everywhere, not only among the immigrants in foreign countries but even in India. The wealth, prosperity, the surplus… have their obvious fallout, even among the “have not” as well as the “haves”. Neither the affluent nor the orthodox societies have any answers. The elders have miserably failed them. Meanwhile the young have found their options/ alternatives irrespective of traditional values and /or religious commandments; violence in reality or in virtual reality is not ruled out.

At fifty Usha’s mother has not come off her age; she seems to be still an adolescent.

Reading "HELL-HEAVEN" by Zumpa Lahiri has been most stimulating for me.

~~~~
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Govt. of India must file Returns

Govt. of India must file Return to the citizens


There is a customary ritual pre-budget address by the President of India to the nation on a previous day. It should be authenticated with facts and figures, which should include the following:

1. To take an account of the previous budget's provisions;


2. The actual expenses incurred, and where it was not consumed;


3. The areas where the budgetary provisions where utilized, and not utilized, and how many people were benefited, how many are left over;


4. How much amount of the provisions were spent for the government executive machinery - personnel, transport, allowances, salaries, perks etc.


5. What were the success and failures of each project, mission, campaign, Abhiyan etc. in terms of reaching the target groups, and implementation, and usefulness.

In other words, the governments - at the centre, states, districts, cities and village panchayat levels (i.e. local self-governments) must file their annual returns just as individuals and associations are made to file the return on their income and expenditure and performance.

In fact, all the corporations and undertakings of the governments and local self-governments must also be subjected to file their returns of their performance every year to be scrutinized by the citizens.

According to the region - the nation or the states - should file their returns in all the regional or the respective languages of the regions, and should be published in the national and local newspapers.

It is unfortunate that budget speech is in English, and our government cannot afford to make it available in all the regional languages, at least those mentioned on our currency notes, so that a larger number of citizens could access it.

Why the Budget Speech should be only in English? Why this Neo-Brahminism in the secular India?

Let the citizens too do the Monitoring and Evaluation of their government's performance every year rather than waiting for the election times to hear the lies and concocted stories by the contestants!

~~~~
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Budget India ’08: A grand cover-up act

Budget India ’08: A grand cover-up act:
India’s Budget – A commoner’s View

by Remigius de Souza

Episode: India’s Finance Budget 2008, │ Main Cast: Finance Minister (Fin-Min) P. Chidambaram │ Date: Friday 29 February 2008

India’s Budget – A commoner’s View

The first World India has harnessed so much wealth that it (not she, not Mother India: note it) can waive 60K crore rupees bank-debts to the farmers: indeed a great cover-up. Very, very sexy! As expected it created a great buzz in the media.

The dead-by-suicide farmers and those had paid their loans, and those dying by hunger and malnutrition (reported / unreported) – the second-class citizens, the Third World India (and the Fourth World India) – are redundant.

The peasants and adivasis, displaced due to development euphoria, e.g. special economic zones (SEZs), dump themselves in the slums in metropolises, cities and towns to earn their daily bread with dignity rather than begging, in the past sixty years that still continues, are redundant.

This is apart from atrocities by the ranks and files the fundamentalist, the extremist, the regional/ provincial chauvinist of many colours and shades, the law and order lapses, the black money economy, the scams, rampant bribery and corruption – the man-made calamities that affect the poor most. When there are natural calamities we need foreign aid.


By waiving 60,000 crore rupees debt, the government has not really given the farmers anything tangible. Fin-Min says, it is ‘the accumulated dust’ (Interview, Times of India, March 2, 2008, p.15), perhaps, in the files or the system! No one really knows how many farmers, and where they are? They begin the count now, not when the calamities started.

Engines to uplift the poor

To uplift the poor (they are in great majority) the rulers have devised many engines, in the past and now, of course, with benevolent intentions. The engines, Bharat Nirman (literally Bharat Creation. They conveniently change India to Bharat on occasions: here it actually means the Third World India that also includes the Fourth World India, who are beneficiaries.), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Rural Health Mission… to mention a few are from the long list. Several thousand crores of rupees are provided in the budget. But no one knows how these will be managed, who will manage them, and when would they materialise? This is sixty-one years old story. Time now flies faster.

It took sixty years for the rulers of the Republic of India to wake up to the fact (though not fully yet) that neither the great trickle down development/ prosperity nor the great engines, mentioned above, succour the poor (there are about 200 – 300 million persons below poverty line (BPL); their numbers, however, fluctuate with new definitions of BPL devised by the Planning Commission of India, time to time). The great engines remain promises if they fail to deliver results in time bound frame.

They are now devising yet another engine, Monitoring and Evaluation (Ref: Fin-Min’s Budget Speech, 115 and 116) that I quote below:

Monitoring and Evaluation
115. Robust economic growth has thrown up many new challenges, among them the need to put in place effective monitoring, evaluation and accounting systems for the large sums of money that are disbursed by the Central Government to State Governments, district level agencies and other implementing agencies. I think we do not pay enough attention to outcomes as we do to outlays; or to physical targets as we do to financial targets; or to quality as we do to quantity. Government therefore proposes to put in place a
Central Plan Schemes Monitoring System (CPSMS) that will be implemented as a Plan scheme of the Planning Commission. A comprehensive Decision Support System and Management Information System will also be established. The intended outcome is to generate and monitor scheme-wise and State-wise releases for about 1,000 Central Plan and centrally sponsored schemes in 2008-09.

116. Government also intends to strengthen evaluation. Some ministries have started concurrent evaluation. This needs to be supplemented by independent evaluations conducted by research institutions. The Planning Commission will authorise such evaluations of the major schemes and complete the task by the time of the mid-term review of the Eleventh Plan.

For the last sixty years the same stories repeat. The Five Year Plans are not implemented to the end; thousands of court cases remain pending and get accumulated; budgetary provisions are not fully utilized – either because of ignorance of the people or apathy of the executive bodies, or both; money and resources meant for the people do not reach the remote places (not by distance and time). Besides how much, what proportion of the money, provided to make engines work, goes for the executive personnel, and how much is hijacked by the undeserving persons is not known?

But why, why does this happen? Any sane person can tell that there are not enough persons – educated or even literate – motivated / rewarded persons to work in the rural areas.

The second reason: There is no scientific, economic and environmental evaluation of peasants’ work and their form produce. None of the social and natural scientists has done this study in the last hundred years from the late Justice M. G. Ranade to this date (I am ignorant if there is any). We are speaking of organic, labour intensive traditional faming, not mechanised farming with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Instead the feudal practices of yesteryear to treat peasants as subjects- now called beneficiaries continue. Are there any exception/s in foreign countries?

The third reason: The ‘haves’ do not want to share with the ‘have not’, their work, knowledge, education, skills and resources, which they monopolize, and which ethically should belong to all: occasionally they give out dole and charities. Why otherwise the planners, experts, policymakers, the creators of great engines to uplift the 80 percent people should fail to deliver?

The reason: They, in the first place, are the products (or victims?) of the great engine of education (that gives them the blinkers of compartments / departments) devised by the British rule. Hence, they continue to copy, collaborate and borrow from the West, and compare with the West, and ironically, also, want to compete with the West on borrowed technologies.

They don’t meet the 80 percent people on equal ground, on one plane. They utterly lack any sense of community participation – the millennia old ancient tradition that still prevails. It could have opened them to many time tested vital aspects of the people’s wisdom, knowledge and skills. The government could learn from the farmer’s action of watering the farms how to save money/resources during their distribution from pilferage and waste.

Even the street vendors (migrated from the hinterland) are better economists and planners; they sustain with right and affordable tools and right place, and don’t miss an opportunity to upgrade. Even a spider knows where and how big or small web it should place. Even a weaver bird (male), knows what resources to use, and where to place his nests; in fact all birds know.

To this date more than 60 percent people are illiterate; in some places, in any of the regions, up to 100 percent illiteracy prevails. This amounts to politics of literacy and politics of education of the First World India by denying the peasants and adivasis the right to education and the right education. Whatever model education they are receiving, if continues, will do more harm to them and the country, both.

The changing times demand appropriate education to all in all 600,000 villages and habitats in India.

"By the direct proportion to places and people in rural India (and the migrants in urban areas), the managers of country’s affairs should have started farming schools, colleges and universities, by the rule of majority then, and now.

As the count goes, the anticipated 600,000 schools should lead to 60,000 colleges and 6,000 universities spread over entire country, all of them from primary to higher education in the farming discipline to enhance the farming skills, knowledge understanding and practices of the people of India’s agrarian society; these must be added with non-formal education. To supplement these, the Farming Training Institutes (FTIs) similar to Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics should be started for the adults and the school dropouts." (Farming and the Politics of Education in India: Challenges of 21st Century)

This must be stupendous job! The present rulers are not even mentally equipped even to think of it because it doesn’t fit their departmental protocol. It demands many disciplines to come together and above all the decentralization of power.

This is only a glimpse into one part of the budget, which is meant for peasants – the unorganized sector the Third World India. There are many aspects besides education that are ailing the peasant in India. The great promises will never work without the people’s participation; but here again the first requisite is the decentralization of power.

The other part of the budget is the reality management of the great realty bazaar of the First world India – the organized sector.

The two parts expose the Bharat – India dichotomy, the promises and the reality – the great Indian divide. Fin-Min’s great cover up act exposes the naked truth. Any half-naked, illiterate, the so-called backward peasant could tell you that, if he could even the text in any language.

The peasants have sustained themselves with their education and within their limited local resources – land and waters – for more than ten thousand years. This place then had no name – India or Hindustan or Bharat, there was no boundaries, and was no civilized society. They had then (as the scientists say) domesticated plants and animals (biotechnology), without any laboratory.

They, we, don’t need either Nuke-deal with the US, or we don’ need to go on the Moon.

We are 1100 million people strong human energy spread over 3,287,263 square kilometers land.

The first step is to put to creative work this immense human energy, and to reach the realities Down to Earth.
Remigius de Souza (06-03-2008)
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.