By Dr. Sawraj Singh
India is becoming the fifth largest economy of the world beating its colonial master this year. If we take GDP as the criterion then India will be behind America, China, Japan and Germany. However, if we take PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) as the criterion then India has already become the third largest economy after America and China. India is striving to become a five trillion economy soon. After 2030, India will beat America to become the second largest economy after China which is destined to be the largest economy even on the basis of the GDP. On the basis of the PPP China has already become the largest economy in the world.
However, the benefits of this economic growth have not reached the majority of the people. These have been usurped mostly by the upper class. Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world lives in Seattle in a house worth about 50 million dollars. However, the house of Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai is worth about one billion dollars (twenty times more expensive). Millions of people in Mumbai are either homeless or live in slums. The capitalist model of development has mostly benefitted the top 10% of the population whereas the remaining 90% of the population has not received the full benefits of this development. The unequal development has greatly widened the gap between the haves and the have- nots.
The development under the capitalist model has led to chaos and almost complete anarchy. We see Chennai suffering from severe shortage of water while in Mumbai many people drowned because of the floods. However, the main cause in both the cities is the unplanned or chaotic development. In Chennai, houses have been built in the areas which were acting as the reservoirs for natural water. In Mumbai, houses have been built without proper provisions for drainage of water.
This chaos and anarchy is not limited to Mumbai and Chennai, almost all the cities in India suffer from these problems. Punjab, the seat of the Green Revolution, a code word for capitalist development, is the worst affected in India. Whereas, in rest of India the chaos and anarchy is mostly limited to the cities, in Punjab, the rural areas have also been affected because of the effects of the Green Revolution and the unnatural imperialist induced migration. Punjab can easily lay claim to be one of the most chaotic and anarchic areas in the world thanks to the capitalist development
Green Revolution in Punjab brought the rural area under the capitalist development and agriculture in Punjab got integrated into the world capitalist economy. The resultant inward and outward migration has led to almost complete chaotic and anarchic urbanization in Punjab. Under the green Revolution natural diversity and rotation of crops ended and more than 90% of the land came under the two crops, wheat and paddy. Punjab is a semi arid area with natural scarcity of water. However, paddy requires abundant water. Punjab used its ground water to support the crop. The ground water level kept falling in Punjab and it is about to run out. Punjab is facing a real danger of becoming a desert. However, because of the chaotic and anarchic urbanization which completely disregarded the realities of the flow of the surface water as well as providing proper drainage of water, with one or two good monsoon rains, all the cities in Punjab face flood like situation and thousands of acres of the crops have drowned in the rural areas.
Because of the capitalist development, Punjab has become an epicenter of consumerism in India. Punjab with a population of about 2% of India’s population has more than 8% of India’s cars. With almost no regard for the speed or the driving rules, Punjab’s roads have become one of the most dangerous in the world. Every day many people are killed or injured in the road accidents. Every time you cross a road in Punjab you are risking your life.
With the imported breeds of the milking cattle another very serious problem has been created. There is no use for the male calves which are abandoned. These big cattle are now roaming allover Punjab. They have really aggravated the chaos and anarchy. They are responsible for many road accidents. Sometimes they attack and kill people. Some people get injured or even killed when they happen to be where these bulls are fighting.
Another danger to the people is the packs of ferocious dogs which attack, kill and even eat people. Many of these dogs become so ferocious because they eat the dead cattle which are not being properly disposed of.
Our inept bureaucratic system has so far been unable to handle the chaos and anarchy of the capitalist development. The biggest tragedy is that the people are almost completely devoid of any effective intellectual leadership. The Indian intellectuals who are mostly the product of the East India Company’s educational policies which were intended to develop a slavish mentality toward the west, have never been able to free their minds from slavish mentality toward the west. This phenomenon has reached its peak in Punjab where the intellectuals have been marginalized because of the prevailing Ujjadwad (anti intellectualism). Many Punjabi leftists have sought refuge in economism and bourgeois liberalism instead of revolutionary Marxism. Many leftists in Punjab instead of being critical of the capitalist model of development are one of its biggest admirers. They whole heartedly supported the Green Revolution. Now, they are fully supporting imperialist induced migration.
The solution to the present crisis cannot be found in the present capitalist model of development because the western capitalist system is going to collapse before the middle of the century. Only a miracle can save western capitalism after the year 2050. Moreover, western capitalist model cannot work in India. Even if India wants to stick to capitalism, it has to be capitalism with Indian characteristics. We need an alternative model of development which is based upon our own experience and which is compatible with our own concrete conditions and which is pro people and pro nature. Sri Guru Granth Sahib has such an alternate model of development.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
