Persistent mass poverty has been a major problem afflicting a large number of countries in the so-called developing world. Even if one conceputalizes poverty in the extremely narrow sense of inadequate food to generate a certain minimum calorie level, it seems to be a grim and pervasive feature in several countries across the world. In fact, as Marshall Sahlins once put it quite pithily, the proportion of people who go to bed hungry every night in the modern world of ‘affluence’ is much more than the comparable fraction in the ‘Stone Age’! Such a state of affairs, at the current juncture arguably generates lot more pessimism and analytical noise amongst researchers, scholars as well as general informed observers, compared to the situation in the golden days of development economics in the immediate post-World War II period, when the wave of political decolonization generated obvious enthusiasm and the spectacular economic success of planned development in the Soviet Union contributed to tremendous optimism as regards the prospects of rapid economic transformation in the developing world.
During the 1950s, it was a widely held view amongst researchers and policy makers that the state-led planned trajectories of development (in which industrialization would play a pre-eminent role) would, within two to three decades, result in significant improvements in the well-being of the masses; in particular, it was hoped that the benefits of development would trickle down to the lowest strata and worst kinds of poverty. However, it hardly needs emphasis here that such hopes have been largely belied in most developing countries.
Sure enough, the arguments underlying the above noted optimism were often complex and assumed a whole range of critical capabilities on the part of the state and the society; likewise, the failure of dirigisme to address core development deficits in most developing countries are not amenable to easy generalizations. Nonetheless, careful scholarship over the last several decades have thrown up significant pointers to help us understand better the key challenges and constraints confronted by developing countries if objectives of poverty eradication, inclusive development, etc., have to be realized.
The volume under review draws our attention to some of these issues in the countries of South Asia, a region which is plagued by problems of hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy and other development deprivations on a huge scale. A group of South Asian policy workers, scholars and activists have been engaged in ongoing enquiries since the mid-1970s, through a network known as the South Asian Perspectives Network Association (SAPNA in short), to reflect on problems and prospects relating to a trajectory of sustainable development in the region with equity and democracy as the central signposts. This group of South Asians have now expanded into a large network of institutions and individuals, drawing on policy makers, academics and thousands of activist-participants on the ground. The evolution of this network has been very ably steered by the vision and commitment of its chairperson, Ponna Wignaraja who has had an impressive academic and policy making career.
The present study is part of a series of publications that seeks to provide coherence to critical elements in a development paradigm whose central objective is ‘sustainable development with growth and equity in South Asia’. The editors suggest that, from SAPNA’s perspective, the present study ‘constitutes a current state of the art handbook/guidebook for implementers, trainers and facilitators and should be read in conjunction with the other seven SAPNA publications’ (preface, p. xiv).
The essential starting point of SAPNA was, as the editors put it in the preface to the present volume, ‘constructive and imaginative dissent from received wisdom and a priori theorizing’. The basic strategy of development pursued in the South Asian countries soon after they emerged as politically independent nations was, as per SAPNA perspective, fundamentally flawed. As is generally acknowledged, this strategy relied in substantial measure on control and coordination of the economy as a top-down process and hinged on public sector-led industrialization to facilitate rapid economic transformation. Wignaraja claims (presumably echoing SAPNA’s understanding), that this model not only ‘failed on its own terms, but also caused fundamental damage to the possibility of these nations mobilizing their own resources and shaping their own destinies’ (p. 10). Furthermore, he adds: ‘social mobilisation as an accumulation strategy, where a different pattern of development results in growth, human development and equity, as part of the same process and not as trade-offs, was not given priority. It requires the adoption of co-operative values and group (not individual) activities. This form of organization, which leads to a different pattern at the base of the political economy, has a specific bearing on the development with equity process’ (p. 11).
In a nutshell, aforesaid is the crux of SAPNA’s critique of the development paradigm experimented within the countries in South Asia. Based on such an understanding, it is argued that there is an urgency to highlight critical elements in a more ‘humanistic development pathway, a culturally rooted alternative modernity and a new social contract is necessary to replace the old welfare state that is unraveling and to manage the transition’ (p. 8). Towards this objective, it is suggested that SAPNA’s experiments in the field, which centralizes the agency of the masses and pro-poor partnerships for all social constituencies, have a lot to offer. The present volume documents a number of initiatives taking place in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to highlight various success stories of democratic decentralization and substantial increases in the well-being of the masses. Central to all these initiatives is the capacity of the organizations of the poor, their conscientization and articulations as empowered citizens (and not as beneficiaries of dole being dished out from the top); in other words, the volume suggests that these initiatives, which have been presented in great detail and with much lucidity, are powerful examples of political and economic democracy at the grass roots.
The case studies discussed are rich in insights and catalogue significant efforts that foster participation of the poor in the growth process, visualizing them as essential resource and agency, and deepening of accountability and transparency. There is much to celebrate and learn from these initiatives to address the major challenges of development confronting the countries in the south region in particular but also more generally. It is also worth highlighting that SAPNA’s efforts do not visualize development in a narrow economistic sense, but it is viewed as process that contributes towards the realization and unfolding of the creative energies and potential of the masses so that problems of political and social anomie are simultaneously addressed.
The problem of poverty in developing countries is a garagantum one, and generates much pessimism and analytical noise. This important contribution offers substantial and powerful insights. However, there is a range of critical concerns relevant at the current juncture, for instance in particular with reference to the altered macro-economic policy regime and constraints associated with it, that require more careful engagement and reflection. Scholars as well as activists will find this work stimulating.
Praveen Jha is on the Faculty of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.