The Death of the Debate Culture

The debate culture is killed. No, it is actually murdered, by the people over the recent years. Why? Because it gets heated and may lead into violence. So why debate at all? Leave it all to individualism. So the society is breaking its thread slowly. Man is becoming individualistic. When man becomes solo, he becomes psycho and violent.

Society living forces man to become accommodative and appreciative of the differences. If you follow, Hindu tenets, the culture is so vibrant only due to its accommodation of various differences without killing the differences. There is appreciation of differences between opposing communities also. Communities are allowed to freely find their living and non-living gods.

For example in JP Nagar, Bangalore, we have 2 main local deities. Banashankari and Shakhambari.

Banashankari: Bana means Vana which is Forest. She is the forest god. The communities in ancient times lived on the forest produce & trade and they worshipped her as the Adhidevatha of Forest.
Shakhambari: Shakha means vegetables. The communities cleared forest to grow vegetables for their living & trade. So she becomes the Adhidevatha for the vegetable growers.
So if you see these 2 communities lives are in contrast. One protects the forest but the other clears it for their living. But they live in harmony! They respect each other’s god also equally.

Of course, there are skirmishes and violence erupted between communities in ancient India & even today. But what killed that violence? It is the reasoning and debate culture. Understanding and appreciating differences. Then coming to terms with harmonious living. Ultimately harmony prevailed & is sustained for many millennia.

Debate Culture in Ancient India

In India they say, the Veda’s were revealed to the Rishis and Munis by nature or by God himself. But being rationalist, I would not agree with that explanation. I agree with some saying, that it evolved over a period of many centuries through long debates. In Vedic periods, Yaga, Yagna was held for centuries in patronage of wealthy kings where there was large congregation of many Rishis. The story of debates and wins in those Yagna is well described in various later day texts. Through those debates of different views and opinions, the Vedas must have emerged.

In Mahabharatha, Bheeshma Parva is probably one of the largest sections. In that, it is all about stories & stories told by Bheeshma to Yudhistrira through long debates and questions. Bheeshma is a pithamaha having seen the world through his own eyes for 3 generations. He has immense practical knowledge. When is he is on Shara Shaiye (Bed of Arrows), Yudhistira after having won a long fought battle, which is a Dharma Yuddha considered Dharma’s win over Adharma, approaches the pithamaha to learn about what is Dharma and how to keep it up while he is the King of such a large kingdom? One of the main things he teaches through those various stories is that, god has created a divergent world. A Raja has to understand, appreciate and ensure harmony through maintaining those differences and not killing the differences.   

Bhagavad Geeta is basically Nara-Narayana Samvada, means dialogue between Man & God. Nara means Man, represented by Arjuna. God is represented by Krishna. Man is always in dilemma. He is confused what is right and what is not. In the middle of the war, Arjuna is in dilemma. Krishna is calm and at bliss even at the congruence of 2 largest armies, ready with venomous attack on each other. Krishna gives Vishwaroopa darshana to Arjuna & reasons with him to go to Dharma Yuddha. Arjuna listens and follows. Similarly when Krishna goes for Sandhana, not to go for war and reasons with Duryodhana, he does not listen. So the war breaks out. Dharma prevails.

Debate Culture in Medieval India

Chanakya the author of the Arthasasthra is another genius detailing various aspects of Raja Dharma. He emphasized the prevalent theory of: Sama, Dana, Danda, Bhedha: Means: Reasoning, Money Attraction, Force & Divide respectively, in that order of priority while dealing in political situations of differences cropping up between various groups. So here always, the first one takes preference and time consuming. One has to get into the reasoning first to take issues head on and resolve it through debate & reasoning.

Many religions came about in medieval India and still persist. Reasoning and debate was the basis of these religions. Budhism, Jainism came about espousing their theory in peace. Attracting people into their fold through utmost reasoning. In their quest for larger influence on the populace, they impressed Raja (King) and then carried out their conversion of the Praja (Public).

The great revival for Hinduism happened through Sankaracharya. This again was through peaceful means of reasoning and influencing the political powers of the day.

Of course there were community violence, attacks, burning, beheading breaking the long peace in pockets. But those skirmishes were quelled mostly by intellects invoking society reforms.

Thus you see, in Kannada history, great Jain literature coming out from the Hindu kings patronage. Pampa, Ranna, Janna, etc., were Jain poets, who produced great works under the ages of Hindu kings. Hoysala kings were Jains. They produced some of the sculptural marvels second to none in the world Viz., Belur, Halebid sculptures. In these great sculptures, everything is discussed from Puranas, Mahabharatha to visiting Chinese monks. Even sex is not a taboo for depicting. Nothing, absolutely nothing should be taboo for healthy discussing, debating and depicting in a peaceful society. Across India the same open culture persisted.

The great debates on Advaitha, Vishishtadvaitha, Dvaitha happened under the various Kings courts and patronage. Vijayanagara kingdom is termed as Golden Age of Hindu Culture. Under their rule, there was freedom of thought and expression. Dasa Sahitya took root and flourished well in their kingdom. All the 3 philosophies flourished well across the Deccan peninsula.  They protected the great monuments, temples, enhanced all ancient temples with their signature Gopura, Praakaara & Pushkarani. Not only Hindu temples, but the Jain basadi’s, monuments of significance were made to thrive. Muslim monuments were protected and they were allowed to absorb the Hindu tolerant culture.

Amartya Sen has written a book on Indian Debate Culture titled “Argumentative Indian”. It is a big book with very poor content. A thorough review is put up in another blog: http://npraveer.blogspot.in/2014/02/the-argumentative-indian-by-amartya-sen.html

Onslaught of Debate Culture by Islam in India:

The Islamic invasion on India started around 8^th century CE. Various invaders like Afghans, Turks, Moghuls, and Arabs invaded India & established their kingdoms here. Moghuls in north India and Arabs in South India had profound impact on Indian society and are well assimilated today in India.

The Islam’s debate culture is through “Jihad”. Jihad is a means of spreading the Islam tenets. But Jihad also espouses violent means to spread their religion. Jihad explained in Quran is highly inconsistent & incoherent. Scholars who want to engage with the scholars of other community for meaningful dialogue use it peacefully. But there is hardly any evidence of conversion through those peaceful means. Al-Beruni, Ibn Battuta were scholars of eminence and travelers of that time from Mid-East, accompanying invading Sultans. They were more impressed with the Indian scholars and translated great many Sanskrit works but never succeeded in conversions or may be too overwhelmed to get into theological dialogue.

But the barbaric invading army used the violent Jihad means, to loot, destroy temples, treasures. Anyone who wanted to question the Islam tenets or wanted to debate its merits were termed Kafirs and bulldozed.  All across India today, many of the great temples, monuments are mute evidences of their onslaught. Halebeedu and Hampi stand as grandeur cut to pieces in Karnataka.

The Hindus were caught unawares completely for this kind of barbaric culture of conversion in the name of God! For them God was a means of providing sustenance of life and livelihood. They could not fathom what is happening around.

The scholars and upper casts kept Muslims away and did not bother to engage with them for the fear of life. Invaders converted any hapless people who came on their way, through many cruel means.

Today, in India while in many work places, Hindus, Muslims work together. But there is very high fear of broaching the subject of religion or its merits, demerits. Lets keep it professional at work and not discuss faith & not mingle socially; is the way of life today. The onslaught of debate culture is near complete here.

Christian Propaganda Vs Debate

The Europeans came to India lured by her wealth. As they started establishing their political power, they also brought in their religion. And Christianity thrives on the missionary actions. They started directly with propaganda culture than wasting time in the debates. They had their successful experience of killing Pegan culture in Europe through those tactics. Through propaganda they started undermining Hindus. Indians were made to feel inferior. The superior culture was touted as coming through Aryans who they claimed were Europeans. Aryan invasion theory was ingrained so much, that it was there in our textbooks even in Independent India when we studied. Even today after so much of research and UN resolution rubbishing the Aryan invasion theory, many scholars do believe in that & write about it.

Swami Vivekananda outraged over this propaganda culture, went into their territory called for some meaningful research and dialogue. He was well received by the open westerners in the United States.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was one of the great Social Reformist during British India. He was fighting to remove the various superstitious practices in Hindus. He formed Brahmo Samaj towards this cause. An impressed Christian Pastor invited him for debate over the religious tenets of Hinduism and Christianity. It went for few weeks. And the at the end of it, the Pastor converted to become a Hindu Sanyasi, and Rajaram brought in various Christian tenets into his Brahmo Samaj for the revival of the Hindu Samaj.

The missionaries even today, are carrying out their propaganda culture in urban slums and in tribal areas. Those, less educated and impoverished fall for their propaganda & monetary attractions. And there is no debate culture in those echelons of class.

Today, Religion & Faith is a Taboo:

Recently a third rate Indologist wrote a book on India. Certain person took legal route to ban its publishing stating it hurt Indians. It is so Un-Hindu culture. It made the undeserving author & her book famous. It made us question our openness in book publishing. Social Media is more open!

Today due to the slow degradation and onslaught of foreign cultures, everything is a taboo for open discussion. Politics is taboo. Religion is taboo. Sex is taboo. Faith is taboo. Language is taboo. Caste is taboo. Even expressing Pride to be Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Or Kannadiga or Tamilian is a taboo.  We fear what they will brand me as. Nobody talks more than the twitter length on these subjects. Within that length you would be branded. For branding there are many isms.

No lengthy written debates. No assimilation of ideas. No lengthy reading.

Our work place is only profit & loss. School textbooks are only profit & loss. Politics is profit & loss. Religion is profit & loss. Sports is profit & loss. Even sociology is profit & loss.

The profit culture makes man chase his individual profit only. He becomes more individualistic & silos. No thought towards community good, no tolerance for differences, no appreciation of differences.

In the next article lets delve into Faith Conversion / Proselytization & its effect.  

It will be titled:
“Your God is My God” Vs “My God is Your God”

Context of Some World Religions

In Kannada there is a saying ಮನೆಯೇ ಮೊದಲ ಪಾಠಶಾಲೆ, means, Home is the first school. The education we get at home is immensely impactful in our life. And religion plays a major part in our home environment. Most people in the world are religious. In India majority of the population follow some religion. Very few question god’s existence. And yes religion is about god but definitely not only about god. So the education through religion is essential in man making mission.

Religion is a very vast subject and one can have only limited knowledge there. And writing about it is a bit of arrogance only. So I apologize for my arrogance. But I have to write what I know of. And being a proud Hindu, my writing will have that flavor or view.

Prakruthi in Religion

Gayathri manthra is one of the most potent manthra in Vedas. Every child who starts his intellectual journey is taught Gayathri Manthra in Hinduism. Gayathri is the embodiment of the entire Prakruthi. Vedas call upon the gods of elements as most potent gods. Every elemental God like Agni, Vayu, Varuna, Indra, Rudra, Vishnu, etc., are revered as the most powerful gods in Vedas.

Later Upanishads and Puranas came upon to define the concept of “Supreme God”, probably initiating Shaivaites, Vaishnavaites and other sects, where one God is Supreme. Like for Shaivaites, Shiva is the supreme god.

Hinduism originated with the exploration of the worldly elements and wondering of its strength. Pancha Bhoothagalu – Land, Air, Water, Sky & Agni form the basics of exploration. It is the beginning. Each of them have so much to study and wonder about its strength. That’s how the study of Khagola (Astrology), Ayurveda (Health Science), Yoga, Pranayama etc., started and is continuing. The nature is all powerful and meets all needs of man, animals and other forms. But man is the only enemy for man & other forms. Man instead of exploring the strengths of the nature in harmony with the nature, is involved in exploiting it in pursuit of something called luxury which is elusive.

Sandhyavandana is a daily ritual stipulated for all Hindus. In that we pay reverence to all the elements of the nature from earth to sun & beyond.

The nature worshipping extended beyond the basic elements in our civilization. For example, in Mahabharatha, Krishna lifted the Govardhana Giri, indicating, it is the life giver and saver for the Gokula community. Thus, very diversified, vibrant, beautiful culture & tradition developed through worshipping various forms of nature like, Mountains, Rivers, Forests, Trees, and different animals in different forms. For example fishing communities eat & trade fish. The richness they have is due to fish. Everything they can get for their life depends upon fish. So Fish becomes their God.

The religion encourages the communities to protect their richness, thrive their generations upon the nature’s peculiar gift to that community in that region. For many millennia’s, they have extracted the wealth without destroying it, but harnessing it. They have lived in harmony with it. Naturally they worship it as God. That’s how we got crores of Gods in India.

Sociology in Religion

Most of all the other religions in the world originated in that day’s sociological context. It is the sociological context which is the origin of many of these religions rather than a holistic universal view to begin with.

Man is a social animal. He needs society to live in. An enlightened man from the society emerges and questions the order. He questions the authority of that present day ruling system or living system & revolts against it. He creates followers. And then it is the followers who create a separate religion under him or his preaching.

Gauthama Buddha originated Buddhism. When he encountered poverty and despair outside his palace, the reality of the world hit him hard. He went for penance and was enlightened under the Bodhi Vriksha. He found that the “Desire is the cause of misery”. He called upon renunciation to attain moksha (Salvation). In that social context, the sociological class divide compelled him to run away and find answer to the cause.

Jainism started mainly in the social context of propagating nonviolence. Their doctrine is “Ahimso paramo dharma” which means the Nonviolence is the righteous path. Mahavira is one of the most revered 24 thirthanakara in Jainism.

Jesus is the author of the Christianity. The Judaism precedes the Christianity. And Jesus is one of their prophets. The social divide between the kings and the subjects were stark in those days. The prophets of Judaism tried organizing the oppressed slaves. The famous journey to the Promised Land started. The infighting amongst the subjects broke the peace. Then came the Ten Commandments to discipline them. The commandments being very rigid, made every man a sinner. And lord was not supposed to be forgiver for the sinners. And people remained sinner. In that social context, there came the great prophet, Jesus Christ to release the sin of the sinner. His simple message touched everyone. He said the “Lord is a forgiver”. His social message was simple and crisp. It was very appealing. The Bible is a holy book of Christians mainly from his preaching.

Prophet Mohammad is the messenger of God in Islam. The sociological context in that present day was marred with tribal conflicts. The conflicts used to conflagrate to bloody wars causing lot of loss of lives. His doctrine was that of “Universal Brotherhood”. He struggled to bring all humanity to accept one God calling him – Allah, The Great. Different tribes worshipping different forms and idols was discouraged by him and called upon all of them to accept and worship the formless God, Allah the Great. The peaceful message in the Holy Book of Quran of Islam helped coercing the warring factions to come under the universal brother hood of Islam. The Holy Quran is the book of his preaching. The followers of Islam are carrying out his example of Jihad on people to adopt Islam through various means which are not necessarily peaceful.

Sociology in Hinduism

“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” is a popular phrase in Hinduism signifying the entire world is one family. The Ramayana and Mahabharatha are epic stories depicting throughout the sociological conflicts between different styles of living clans. While Rama is Maryada Purushothama upholding the rules & abiding by it very strictly at the expense of personal agony, Krishna is at ease while breaking the rules in vogue to keep up the “Dharma”. So what is Dharma?

Dharma is simply Manava Dharma. That is to be compassionate towards another human being. “ದಯವೇ ಧರ್ಮದ ಮೂಲವಯ್ಯ” is a famous saying from the 12^th century social reformer Basavanna who started the Lingayat movement in Karnataka.

Every human being has personal liberty. But personal liberty often comes in conflict with the social well-being. Then the social well-being takes importance. It should take importance. That is what Dharma is. And through story telling technique, the righteous path was being taught in the ancient Gurukula system. The Ramayana & Mahabharatha are full of stories of such conflicts and underlining what is Dharma, Nyaya & Neethi.  

Because, through stories, you get into the lives of both the affected and the affecting people. So the listener will be able to judge the righteousness throughout the story.

Today's Sociology Study

But unfortunately today, in the schools and universities, the Subject of Sociology is very bland and boring. It is restricted to only in BA. Other important degrees like, MBA, BE etc., are about Business management, technology. For whom? For self. Not for people. Student coming out from BE, MBA is made to think for himself only and not for people at all. But shouldnt the masters degree student study both benefits and impact of technology on society as a whole?

Even sociology is deduced to numbers. Through numbers you really cannot understand the people’s lives and resonate. Policy decisions are based on sociological assessment. But sociological assessment in today’s parlance is only numbers & not people’s lives. Dharma is taken back seat. In fact in today’s milieu of politics Dharma is not Manava Dharma, instead it indicates “which god’s follower”? And hence Dharma is wrongly construed as religion.

Isn’t it wrong?

In the next blog we’ll discuss “The Death of Debate Culture” through religions.

Smart and Clean Cities For India

This article is about the state of our cities and how we can improve. As nation's people what changes we need to adapt to make it happen. There is a bit of sacrifice, there is a bit of service, there is a bit of fighting spirit required from all of us to make it happen.

Filthy Cities of Today

Transportation is the backbone of city. Our cities have become filthy by perennial traffic jams. The average speed has become 10-12KM per hr in the city. Pollution is the order of the day. Noise & Smoke fill the air from dawn to dusk. Excessive production & selling of cars, bikes has certainly made the country rich in money circulation. But it has made the cities ugly. Families buying private motorized transportation feel rich. But are they? Middleclass families have more private vehicles. But that has not made them rich but retained them as middle class only. That has not made them reach their office, schools, market faster. The upper class has got more luxury cars. But that has not made them reach their destiny any early.

There was very less or no slums in yester years. But a city today cannot grow further without the slums contributing to its wealth! Every major city in India has at least 40% living in filthy conditions. How can we boast of progress achieved? They lack clean water, air, sanitation. Where did they come from? They were driven from rural environs where they had at least clean lake, river, hills, forests, desert, plains, to laze, graze and live on god given natural resources.  Money was not a need to live. Why were they driven or opted for slums? Because the government snatched their environment & land and auctioned it off to businesses. For what? For the development. But that development has made our cities neither fast enough nor beautiful. Rural environs and people are also destroyed. Is this what is development?

So much of coal, petroleum, gas, minerals extraction; cars, bikes manufacturing has pushed people to be slaves at pittance losing their land and environment. It makes country rich on paper. Currently Economy is important. People are not. Large dams, coal mining, aluminum, iron, manganese all metal mining at a rapid pace is important for the country. Production of large quantities of cloth, metal, vehicles, phones, and its export are important for the country. Large consumption of milk, cereals, meat, vehicles, metals by few lucky city dwellers is most important for the country. Left out people of this luck are not important. This over production & over consumption brings down hills, creates artificial hills, concrete jungles, sucks up lakes, creates filthy rivers. Large dams have submerged many forests, villages. People still survive. Where will people go? They migrate to city slums. Few lucky get into apartments.

Number of people living in apartments and number living in slums are equal almost. So what development achieved?

The main thing is to imbibe and educate “ಸರ್ವೇ ಜನಾಃ ಸುಖಿನೋಭವಂತು” (Sarvey Janah Sukhino Bhavanthu: Means let all people be happy). It is not correct to say someone has to sacrifice for someone’s development. Those who “have” should control their consumption to leave something for “have nots”.

Smart City Concept

For a smart city, we should have very good public transport. Metro, Bus connectivity should be improved for long distance commute. Metro especially will be safe and fast. But metro doesn’t reach your home and office. The last mile connectivity is the key. Lack of it is one of the main reason for high number of private vehicles on road.  

For last mile connectivity we need to have shuttles. How shuttles should serve the locality?

• They should be electric non-polluting or non-motorized vehicles. Something like buggies in golf field. Or maybe something more robust.
• They should keep running in locality covering 1-2 kms radius continuously. It should connect people from near door to nearby main road corner
• High frequency connectivity; But low speed for keeping up safe environment.
• Hop on hop off service to be provided;
• Ease of ticketing, multi-mode payment, seamless smart card integration with metro & bus services

Apart from this, city should encourage and adopt cycling mode of transport. It is all possible and not a fancy story. Most of the European cities have become safe with zero road fatalities by adopting cycling as a chief mode of transport. http://www.copenhagenize.com/

And especially in India it works. Because Indians are civilized, obedient & tolerant by and large.

Owning and driving private motorized vehicles should be made extremely expensive in cities. That much reduction in vehicles will lessen that much burden on earthly extraction of aluminum, iron, petrol, gas. That will retain our beautiful rural environs.

To limit Consumption, Limit Production

Another most important factor is to make private vehicle production prohibitively costly. Because actually it is costly. Since we treated environment & people as cheap commodity, we have reduced the cost of production. We have shown apathy to environment and people, getting environment clearance, giving false assurance to people about job generation, the production goes unbridled. A Factory gets clearance for one million ton ore production but goes on to produce 100 tons. They get clearance for paper, plastic, rubber, vehicle production, many such things only to flout the clearance guidelines, brazenly producing more than approved. River pollution, lake sucking, canal diversion goes on unbridled. When a strict officer occasionally comes and hits at it, people get divided and oppose the closure. Because they feel they lost jobs. But jobs can be generated if they work for themselves and not for someone else as slaves. But that needs a very long education.

One solution is to treat the mineral rich lands as ones belonging to those local villages & not to the government. The current system of auctioning off the mineral rich hills, forests by the government to individuals, companies, foreign companies should be stopped.

So when government identifies that area is mineral rich, then it should educate and enable villages to join together to form cooperative societies. Cooperative society should constitute all sections of people from land owners to landless laborers, tribals etc., And they should be given education, equipment, technology to do the mineral extraction and provide to the industry/ factory.

Who should run the factory? That needs entrepreneur. Highly educated, specialist or a scientist will generally become entrepreneur. But again, if he is all and sole owner, however nice person he is, the power corrupts that person. So government should enable policy to make villages to be stakeholders of the factory. So that the decision process is democratized in favor of people of locality, and not in favor of the productivity.

All these will put delays in production, initiation, clearance. It will limit production too as the stakeholders are the dwellers around the factory. And they take decisions people centric and not productivity based. But that is fine. What is the hurry?

Or like America, we should also outsource all manufacturing, mineral extraction, mining industry to other hapless countries.

Production of military equipment, nations security related, railways production should take priority in getting government clearance and building consensus with the villagers.

Education

If government doesn’t interfere in rural people’s lives, they do live happily. They don’t need government subsidy, food card, PDS, etc., to live. They just need to be left alone. They find their way by utilizing what god has given them. They make indigenous solutions to their life problems. If at all they need anything from the government it is Education & Health care. Even disputes, quarrels, violence breakouts can be quelled within themselves by their own indigenous set up.

Education should teach them about their environment and surroundings:

• To be proud of their surrounding and protect their surroundings. It should teach them that they are the collective owners of their hills, lakes, river, forest etc.,
• Government cannot and should not snatch it from them without their share or consent.
• Government should not auction it off to some individual or a company or a foreign state for exploitation

While we cannot put blanket ban on urban middleclass consumption, we can certainly educate children. Right things taught in early age will mend their brain and will remain a habit through their life for long. For example there are chapters for children today on deforestation, wildlife destruction. The causes for deforestation are taught as cutting trees, poaching, polluting industries etc., But why cutting trees, why industries? That is not taught. The root cause is over consumption, over indulgence on luxury & creating high demand on the environment. The linkage between the consumption based economies to the ecology destruction has to be simplified and educated in young minds. Growing up they themselves will resist their parents in indulgence. And also they become good citizens.

On the one hand controlling consumption, on the other hand, community ownership of our surrounding will be the right recipe for controlled growth and development. Villagers, tribals have to be taught to own their surroundings. They need to be educated from primary levels to involve in decision making process of their area. If factory, mining, dams are coming up they need to be able to question and own that themselves.

Swami Vivekananda says “The national ideals of India are renunciation and service (ತ್ಯಾಗ ಮತ್ತು ಸೇವೆ). Intensify her in those channels and the rest will take care of itself”   

Series 2.2: Idea of India: Labor Oriented Economy

This is in continuation of the previous blog in which we discussed the western economy idea for India. In this series, we discuss the Labor oriented Economy, which is purely an Idea of India which made the civilization here survive for many millennia and was in harmony with nature and people.

India like all other countries is rich in population. That is labor is available in plenty. And as humans, we are compassionate towards other humans. So says Dharma that we have to be compassionate to each other. Manava Dharma is basically to maintain basic human rights and dignity.

Basic human right is: to live & let live;

NOT live at the expense of others.

To live, god has given a beautiful earth to man. To live man’s basic needs are Air, Water, and Food. For growing food land is a basic need. Man’s civilization has always developed along where fresh water is available. Because after Air which is available all across globe in plenty, Water is basic need, without which a man cannot survive for more than a day or two.

So a civilization grown in a region around particular fresh water automatically becomes the custodian of that region. The wealth of the region belongs to the people of the region. The wealth could be water wealth, land wealth, fisheries, forest around it, minerals, animals, plants etc.,

They produce products from the region’s wealth. The livelihood of the region people depends on the region’s wealth. Hence they protect it. They worship it. That’s how the culture of worshipping a tree, mountain, goddess of forest, etc., come into being. They trade their produce with others only after taking care of themselves. They trade only that much which can be regenerated, re harvested. This creates a sustainable growth & development of the region.

So the people of the region collectively own and utilize the wealth of the region in a sustainable manner.

Loss of First Right Over the Produce

In the modern world, however that is not so. There is nothing called people of a region collectively owning the region’s wealth. All that is not private to a person belongs to the state. Everything is privatized, especially the land & water. So a river flowing or land rich with minerals belongs to no one, but the state. The state auction’s that wealth. It goes to an entrepreneur who bids highest. He then rises “Capital = Future Money = Loan” from the bank. Whose father what goes? The bank prints money and gives it as loan. He becomes single owner of all that wealth. It is called concentration of wealth with few. He then employs the people of the region.

So in this process you see, the people of the region loose the first right over their produce. They get employed. Enslaved. Earlier they used to utilize what they produce first and then trade what was excess. Now what they produce doesn’t belong to them at all. They get monthly “Salary”. And they are told to buy what they want from the market. Their own produce they have to buy from the market at a price manipulated by the “owner”.

The coal block allocation, iron, bauxite, gold, silver and various other metal mining is all privatized. Big hills are privatized for Tea, Coffee estates. Granite, marble quarrying is privatized. Even water is getting privatized diverting the tributaries and streams for accumulation in large dams. Rivers become dry. Canals are built instead which need high maintenance. And it gets utilized more by the rich setting up factories along.

In few cases, like Tata Tea estates in Nilgiris, to quell any upraise, the owner makes the employees shareholders. The company gains a lot of goodwill by this gesture. It is eyewash. Because, the locals don’t have first right over their produce. They don’t have any say in the financials, reporting etc., where there are many unethical deeds possible within the legal framework. So the state cannot do much, but the local stakeholder is deceived. And he doesn’t even realize because he never claimed his rights in the beginning when all this exploitation of his region and wealth started happening.

Hope: Locals have a say:

Every problem has a solution. Provided we acknowledge and understand the problem.

What is given to private properties for earth exploitation cannot be reversed suddenly. India is still very rich. What is still to be exploited should be left to the locals to decide.

For example, recently, Vedanta mining company was given rights over Niyamagiri hills in Orissa for Bauxite extraction by both state and center governments. The locals got educated about it by citizen activists. They brought Supreme Court intervention to seek 14 local panchayat sabha approval. All 14 sabha s unanimously ruled against the region’s exploitation.

Similarly, the silent valley, in Kerala, was saved by the active resistance from the locals from the exploitation. It is one of the richest bio diversity sites maintained today.

Kudremukha hill range in Karnataka was mined for several years before the local activists bringing Supreme Court intervention and bringing a halt to the mindless exploitation.

These examples show that through strong citizen awareness & involvement, procedural intervention is possible in the country’s wealth looting. Taking up arms against the state is not the only solution.

It is a shame, that the state colludes with rich to exploit the region. The state is run by politicians. The politicians are elected by people only. Still they sell their own people’s wealth. That means there is a disconnect between the people and people’s representatives. This means that people are indifferent to the governance. This is dangerous for the republic. People have to involve in governance. People have to create Sangha/ Panchayat at village level/ area level and have regular connect sessions with their representatives at Assembly and Parliament. Assert their views and seek information on what decisions are being taken by their representatives. 

 Hope: Local Cooperative Based Economy:

It is however important to create an economy for the region. Not just resist the exploitation and stagnate the economy. So people of the region should know their wealth and form Cooperative Society to en-cash upon that.

For example, in Tamilnadu, in one of the Granite quarrying areas, multiple village panchayats of the area formed together a cooperative society for the quarrying. Women self-help groups were part of it. Everyone participated in various aspects of the operation of the quarrying from extraction, transportation, machinery, and financials in rotation. So there is clarity, simplicity (most important factor in gaining confidence), transparency, accountability. The tax collection was highest amongst all equal areas. There was of course big lobby by the private contractors to get the license for quarrying. At that time CM was Jayalalitha. When the renewal for contract came about, against much pressure of the private contractor lobbyists, the contract was renewed for 5 long years for the cooperative society. This kind of people oriented decision making by the government heads, ministers is much desired.

The Operation Flood architected by Dr. Verghese Kurien is a great success. It is emulated by almost all states in India. A perishable goods like Milk has transformed the country, that too at the country side. It is such a great case study for many reasons for the country to emulate it. Firstly it creates self-reliance for a large rural population. Producer reserves the first right over his produce. It creates multiple cooperative societies at village grass root level. It requires all people to be educated & involved & question each other & follow certain defined discipline. It meets the urban demand in a controlled manner.

Another recent example is the implementation of the PDS (Public Distribution System) through cooperatives, panchayats, women self help groups (SHGs) in Chattisghad. This is a great success. While the India average leakage in PDS is 25%, in this state it is reduced to less than 5%.

The Kerala government has highest allocation by any state towards Panchayatiraj. Kudumbashree mission (http://www.kudumbashree.org/ ) of women empowerment through village panchayats has seen great success for it to force government to make such good financial commitments. Healthcare, education, agriculture, sanitary, water, urban slum development, products, marketing, almost everything related to people and their wellbeing is covered by this initiative. It is an amazing and successful initiative; It is an absolute prescription for entire India.

There are many such good examples in pockets across country. The point is there is hope of doing it right. Few important things stand out:

1.       All large mining projects, water diversion projects, non-perishable & perishable produce especially the raw materials, should be handled by the locals. Very widely participative Cooperative societies should be formed who handle everything from production, transportation, marketing and finance.

2.       Meet the local market needs first and limit the exposure to outside markets. It will force all regions to find solutions to their needs indigenously not go for easy option of exploiting other regions.

3.       Educate the locals on the following points:

a.       The wealth of the region.

b.      To extract it in a sustainable, renewable manner; Not finish it off within one generation

c.       The purpose of extraction – Whether it is for providing security for the country or scientific development or Indulgence of the urban population or foreign population

d.      To involve all society members on rotation basis across functions in the cooperative society

e.      Wider involvement of the local society and community to bring out all differences and address it amicably

4.       What about Large Industries? They are the vehicles of countries economy?

a.       Large industry set up will claim large employment for a certain Taluq area or district. That will attract the locals to favor a large industry to be set up in their area. But education should be given to the locals of all the ills of it and wills of the owners of those industries. If industry set up makes sense due to the region’s wealth, then locals should demand making cooperative society to develop and maintain the industry themselves. We are very far from reaching this ideal situation. But at least for the raw material extraction, it should be controlled by the locals.

The basic of economy is Supply and Demand balancing. Consumption based economy spirals out of control to increase demand and create false demand only from urban self-indulgent population. The haves are going to have more and have nots are going to loose more of theirs.

The demand and the desire cannot be controlled. The supply needs to be controlled and checked.

If we shift the economy control over to the hands of the suppliers, it creates an equitable supply in a sustainable manner. Because it controls the earth exploitation in an acceptable manner by the locals:
-          It will check the rural to urban migration as it creates local employment
-          It will force lesser consumption & self-indulgence; It might result in enticing reverse migration to rural from urban
-          It will create rural employment, self-empowerment, dignity
-          It will give the producers first right over their produce
-          It will be labor oriented and creates large employment across India locally
-          It will bring down armed resistance to the state; Maoist menace is not good for country nor for the locals

Cottage Industries:

The idea of Charaka and Khadi Gramodyoga by Gandhiji was to create ‘Vocational’ Employment for the agricultural labors. There is very large landless agriculture labor population in the country. It was like that before and it is like that even today. The landless labors get work in agri fields only for 3-4 months of the year. The cottage industry is good way of keeping them occupied and creates an economy around it. Cottage industry is very wide spread. Examples include, Honey culture, Sericulture, saree weaving, Khadi, wool based industries, fresh water fisheries, art and artecrafts, bamboo, jute based products, etc.,

There was famous argument between Sir M Vishweshwaraya & Rajaji. Rajaji is Gandhian. Vishweshwaraya is a great Engineer who pioneered ‘modern state’ status for the Mysore state. Sir MV argued what 2-3 labors take 5-6 days to produce a set of clothes can be produced in a textile industry within a day. Rajaji’s argument was, so if it reduces so much employment what do they do? And besides who needs so much clothes?

Today we see the answer. All the cotton grown across India converges in Thirupur district of Tamilnadu. And the finished clothes get distributed to all urban clusters across the globe (not just India). They themselves can not afford some of the things they produce. Across India region specific textiles industry is shut. It brings in large scale migration to cities. Cities in India are about 3% land, housing 40% population, consuming about 75% resources, responsible for 70% energy consumption (Source: India Today, 17 March 2014 Edition). Of the 40% city population about 15% are slum dweller poor. That means the 75% produce is consumed by only 25% of our population. We are on a great quest to run the country like a tightly run company with maximum optimization in all ways. People are last priority. Productivity and output is first priority.

A cottage industry is one which is people oriented. It serves the people connecting their needs. It creates livelihood locally and services people locally not internationally.

For example, there is a low-cost Sanitary Napkin Revolution run by this simple man: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978

Sanitary napkin is a hygiene factor. It is generally produced in Thirupur or in some Chinese export zone for the entire world. It is sold only in urban mid & upper class across the world at a high price.

The subject is a stigma in rural India (even in urban India). But this man struggles against all odds to create awareness. Not only does he create awareness of its hygiene factor but he takes the simple machine he created to be a vehicle of employment creation amongst the rural women. In India it will give a million jobs. Each serve about 300 women. That means 300 million rural women serviced. Compare that with industrial output of 300 million napkins coming out from a factory by about a 1000 workers. And it serves only the urban populace and doesn't reach out to the rural due to profitability concerns.  
He wants to create 10 million jobs across globe reaching out to all countries rural areas. There is no overarching brand. Women SHG s can create their own brands. He has not patented it to make millions for himself. It is for everyone to use and benefit.

If the people at the village unit level are educated, encouraged to build strong unions and assert their rights, the country becomes the strongest. It is our responsibility as educated to educate and build stronger society at the grass root level.

Series 3: In the next series on Idea of India and Idea for India, we’ll delve into the Religions. What religions from India say, and what Religions from foreign say. Religions play crucial role in social aspect of human life. Religion reaches an illiterate also. Religion is the most crucial educator for every human being on the earth. It is well trenched in the fabric of our life. It can create powerful self-sustainable society or a blood sucker society. We’ll also see what the concept of God in each religion.

Idea of India And Idea for India: Series 2.1 – Capital Intensive Economy Vs Labor Oriented Economy

This series is on economic ideas of India and for India. This article is influenced by my reading of Made in America by Sam Walton the owner of the Wal-Mart, the world’s Fortune No.1 Company, and my reading of Small is Beautiful by E Schumacher, a very thought provoking book on sustainable economics.

Labor Oriented Economy is purely Gandhian economy which is practiced from ancient India. It is purely an Idea of India. It is people centric & not productivity centric. It is based on providing livelihood. The byproduct of this industry are: people’s harmony, need based consumption, equity of wealth, dignity of labor, sustainable development & production, regeneration of the raw materials, environmental harmony, art & cultural participation & appreciation, local art & artisan development, craftsman development and encouragement, local market etc., The world order created by this type of economy is mainly: Cooperative Movement & Cottage Industry. These 2 are discussed in detail later in the next article.

Capital Intensive Economy is a classic Western Idea for India.

Capital Intensive Economy means, the industry & economy centered on the Investment, Productivity, Quantity etc. It is simply driven on what is the return on investment. Time is of essence. Money is of essence. Industry has to produce maximum output in minimum time & effort. A by-product of this is excessive mechanization. Machines start replacing humans for quality and quantity production hence reducing labor requirement pushing up unemployment & agitation. Another byproduct is over production which in turn pushes for over consumption resulting in the monstrous “Consumerism”. Where one can live with 3 pairs of socks is enticed to buy 6 pairs for 3 pairs free creating a demand for 9 pairs which is not really the demand in a normal market. As one market saturates, companies are driven to find newer markets for their products. So this results in 2 major “World Order” s: Free Market Economy & Large Conglomerates. These 2 are discussed in detail in the sections below.

But before delving into those topics, let’s look at what is capital and where does it come from?

Capital is “Tomorrow’s Money = Loan”.

Capital is very cheap. World’s big banks are ready to lend money at less than 1% interest. They need credit worthiness. If a city commits to complete a fly over in 25 months and meets the timeline, that’s it, it is credit worthy. Then all banks queue up with the city to complete more flyovers, metro etc., then the city, country, states will get into debt cycle infinitely. The USA for example is the biggest debtor. (Data: http://www.mdleasing.com/nationdebt.htm ). Who cares? The country also runs on debt and the same mentality is encouraged for the public also. Everyone in US runs on debt only. If anyone is debt free then he is fool. So they go for higher commitment, higher consumption & live on credit. There is no ‘savings for tomorrow’ mentality. Living on ‘tomorrow’s money’ is considered wise in developed countries.

So the consumer becomes rich, and producer becomes poor!! Horribly convoluted idea. Isnt it? Similarly foreign exchange, stocks, bonds, is all very complex webs of deceits. All producing countries in east & tropical are rich in natural resources, minerals, plants, animals etc., people are also pious, intelligent, well behaved and hard working. But they are Lilliput in front of the monstrous consuming western countries. So what is the root cause? I would vehemently argue the LOAN formulas are the root of this evil design. All sorts of mathematical formula towards, today’s economic confusion are well rewarded by Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize in Economics is only reserved for creation of wealth for the western nations.

When British came to India, they wanted to trade. They wanted to buy spices, diamond, emerald etc., But with what? They had to trade with something. Bullion in either Gold or Silver was standard trading means. But India already had plenty of it & didn't get excited. So they started with “we pay later”. They stocked and shipped items. They cut deals with local kings to build forts around ports of their exit. One important thing they did was fortification of ports and developing security of it using ammunition, guns, canons etc. Slowly they hit upon helping one feudal king to fight the other with arms & ammunition. And the rest is history.  

Coming back to the living on LOAN. In the ancient India, there was a visionary Philosopher called Caravaka. He proposed a system of Materialistic philosophy called Lokayata espousing religious indifference. Because our religion basically espouses, minimal living ideals like: vairagya (detachment), thyaga (Renunciation), seva (Service of elders & needy). His materialistic philosophy rubbished these ideals and espoused, take LOAN and live a life of luxury. His philosophy came about around 5^th-6^th cent BC. At which time, Buddhism was at peak which also espoused ‘desire is the cause of misery’. Mauryan kingdom was at helm. Most kingdoms adopted Kautilya’s Arthashastra to run their economy. There was very high opposition to Lokayata. No kings adopted Lokayata. But still it seems to have survived long in India in pockets. There are records of this philosophy debated in Akbar’s philosophy meets also. During Vijayanagara kingdom a great philosopher Sayana Madhavacharya, and Advaita vedanthi, wrote a book called ‘Sarvadarshanasangraha’. In that book he details the merits of Lokayata in the beginning and takes up thread by thread to demerit and demolish the ideals. It seems to have laid the final nail on that philosophy then. 

But alas! It is now raising its ugly head through western influence on India.

1.0 Free Market Economy:

This is one of the most embraced ideas around the world in the recent years. This is how the developed countries became developed. So this is vehemently thrust upon the developing countries to bring them up. India opening the flood gates since 1990’s though a series of trade liberalization legislations. It is reeling under its pressure now. It is also an irreversible phenomenon. So we cannot go back to the closed economy regime. Also in the closed economy, the Indian companies become laggards and compromise on the innovation, technological advancement, agility and global competitiveness. For example, Bajaj scooters were notorious for their bend & kick, difficult hand gears etc., But same company today is producing some of the best indigenous bikes and continuously innovating. Similarly, ITI phones, Ambassador cars, Televista TVs, Mafatlal suitings etc., Either they are bought over, or revived.

What is free market economy? Basically it is to make India a free market for the world. Removal of import duty on all items. So that makes all foreign products to compete with local products on equal footing. So immediately in the aftermath of the liberalization, in the 90’s, many local companies tumbled big time. Like Kirloskar, Videocon, Bajaj, Godrej, many units of Tatas like Tata Steel, etc., Because they couldn’t compete with the sudden surge of foreign brands vying to capture the Indian market. But most of our companies have revived big time since. Because once India signed Free Trade Agreement with other countries, our companies get free access to their markets. And hence the global competition has pushed our companies on the world stage. Today, for example, Tatas are a big conglomerate in UK!! J Spate of acquisitions there like Tetley Tea, Jaguar Landrover, Corus steel etc., has pushed it well on the world stage. Tables are turning!

1.1 Consumerism Monster

But the bad thing is free market economy has become a monster. It feeds only the greedy. It drives a very large section of people homeless, slum dwellers. It creates large scale migration, monotonous labors, long working hours, loss of dignity. It creates very large companies, large conglomerates, which can arm twist the governments in their favor.

Lets take American example. As a country of 250Million people it consumes about 25 clothes per person per year. The car population is about 1 per person. These are just 2 examples to give an idea. The self-indulgence life style is high but its consequences are unknown to them. They think they are leading normal life. For example, the high competition of apparel export creates unhygienic, high risk working environments in Bangladesh, China, and India. The producing workers don’t have enough clothes for themselves. But who does it matter? Recently in Bangladesh, a very large clothes manufacturing company building supplying to Wal-Mart collapsed killing thousands of people. America doesn’t ask for flouting security norms, hygiene norms etc., But it simply demands more, and does volume business. It goes to anyone who gives them volume discount. If the company supplying it, is squeezing humans and country is supporting it, it doesn’t care. We can see the same phenomenon of continuous squeeze in Software services too! In 90’s it was a sunrise industry, so the labor dignity was enviously high in that industry. Today it is not the case.

When it comes car production, it requires so much of minerals extraction, environment degradation, people displacement. For car running, it requires again all the fuel extraction, river basins impact, etc., So all those associated bad things are outsourced out of the country. Hence the developed country’s citizen doesn’t know & hence doesn’t care how he lives. He doesn’t even realize he is leading a self-indulgence life which has a spiral impact on someone else in some other country driving him to abject poverty, depriving his access to clear air, water, food.

Once the developed countries became saturated market, they are making developing countries as their free market. And India’s urban population is best field to play. We are playing well into their hands. We have created a similar self-indulgent society in the urban middleclass in India. And that society creates enormous demand on the earth’s natural resources by their insatiable consumerist lifestyle. It starts a spiral effect exploiting the earth and its resources, impoverishing the people and regions. 

References:

https://www.wewear.org/assets/1/7/usimportsapparel1112.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_per_capita

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22476774 

2.0 Large Companies, Conglomerates:

This is a very typical Idea of the western world that India has greatly embraced. But it is quite unfortunate for the country. It doesn’t create equitable wealth. It concentrates ugly, humongous wealth with few individuals.

There is a very wide deep rooted belief that large conglomerates are the saviors of India’s economy; Following are some of the myths of the large conglomerates:

1.       A large conglomerate is responsible for a very large employment & hence socially responsible
        a.       Otherwise people would die of unemployment?
2.       A large company is large tax payer and helps running economy
3.       Large company is environment sensitive, responsible
4.       They can invest on R&D and future of the world innovations

2.1 Large Tax Payment Myth:

Lets say a trader opens a shop in a corner in a city. He does business for couple of years, and he does well. He balances his accounts, pays salary for his employees & himself, and makes profit. On the profit, he pays tax. The post-tax profit he either ploughs back into the business or takes home as personal money.

He then looks at the prospect of opening another shop. He takes loan from a bank. Bank allows loan based on his business & balance of accounts. The loan is basically tomorrow’s money and bank takes the risk on his ability to generate that tomorrow’s money.

He does well & business grows well. His risk taking appetite gets him to open few more such shops, all on loans. The loan keeps increasing, but the risk is shifted to the bank & he keeps increasing his asset building. For accounting purpose the shops are liabilities and not assets. But for him it is assets. So the loan also helps contain the taxes to bare minimum. And that also encourages the entrepreneur to keep growing his business across cities, counties, states, countries, continents and on and on. 

So the large tax payment myth is busted. If he were to run a small business, after the loan clearance, he would pay taxes on one shop & continue business for ever. And similarly 100 such shops by different individual owners would do business paying taxes from each of them. Now they are all bulldozed by one large player who doesn’t pay tax as he is on loan always!

2.2 Social and Environment Responsibility Myth

Back to the story. His ambition to expand further is limited by lot of accounting, balancing loans and that revenue is trickling branch by branch. So he intends to go public! This public trading is another big scam that the western world has created. When he is going public, the market analyzes his business & prospects and gives a verdict that he will grow by 20 times in next 5 years! That’s it. If his revenues are $1Mil for annum today, the market evaluates his company as $20Mil. So he rises $20M overnight that too from the public! So the entire risk of the business is shifted to the public! If “he fails”, the “public lose money”!! But do the public see it that way. No it is a crowd mentality; everyone is upbeat as long as it lasts.

It lasts as long as that business idea keeps generating revenue as per market expectations. In this case as long as he keeps opening shops and generating revenue. That’s why he goes across county, country, continent, world. Apply same logic for Car manufacturers, Earth movers, Oil&Gas extractors, Airplane manufacturers, Software, Hardware product developers, services etc.,. If they are public companies, they have to keep growing. Any slowdown they go down in history. All of these industries (Yes even software, hardware also) require enormous amount of earth excavation, hills, forest, and rivers destruction. Tribals in hills, forests, rural population to become victims of displacement.

The government is so helpless in the tax collection from big companies, that they have given up, and pushing “mandatory  CSR spend” by large corporates now. CSR = Corporate Social Responsibility. It is another very big scam. Corporate buys a million, 20Rs Notebook, and hope to distribute it to poor students. It calls for corporate individuals to donate “time” for the distribution. The corporate while encouraging the rat race doesn’t incentivize CSR activities. I have seen even good hearted people getting frustrated and giving up. So where do those note books end up? It is up to your wild imagination. No level of CSR can match government, not even, Azim premji’s education foundation. I’m not undermining that great person’s good heart. It is greatly laudable. But private entities are private. One quarter results go bad, they pull the plug out.

References:

http://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/mandatory-2-csr-spend-set-to-kick-in-from-april-1/

2.3 Large Employment generation Myth:

The large conglomerate of course generates a lot of employment. Because it is large. But it is at the cost of killing SMB s (Small & Medium Business). And in comparison of those SMB s would otherwise have created a lot more jobs, lot more independent businesses. Take for example Apollo pharmacy chain or any other medical shop chains. You won’t get any medicine there. But only get toothpaste, soaps, cosmetics etc., and some cough syrup/ crocin. Why? Because they are a profit making company & not a public service company. They have to have optimized storage, inventory, maximum goods transportation in minimum trips, maximum sales in a day etc., So they become only FMCG company and not medicine shop. So their service to the society is also bad.

If it is a group of multi owned medical shops, then they need to serve their customer’s needs in order to make business. Because they have only one shop to survive on & few customers in their area. So they work with multiple suppliers. So it creates an environment for specialized suppliers in each area. Some are general medicine suppliers, some are cold storage based, etc., Similarly inventory owners in each area and their network.

So each are independent business owners. SMBs. So they hold their head high with dignity and work hard, under nobody’s compulsion but their own desire to do well and serve better. They create large employment, independent small businesses.

So why not everyone become big tycoons if it is so easy? By just passing the risks from himself to bank and then to the public.

A formal education ends with certification or graduation etc., A high point of graduation is landing a high paying job in a big company. At that point in time nothing beats that feeling. And normal population once financially independent, doesn’t look for risk taking in life. Entrepreneurs are rare in population, probably 1 in 1000. They have such abundance of energy, they don’t wait for formal graduation, certification etc., they jump out and start out on their gut feel. Again in that most end up being SMBs. But really perseverant, brave, intelligent are those who break out of the league. It takes lot of courage. Once they become big, then it is not the personal greed but the whole system including government, private competition, employees, doesn’t let the corporate settle down at a certain level at all. It has to grow, big, large and enormous.

Next Series 2.2: I wanted to cover the topics of Labour Oriented Economy in this series itself. But this itself became so big, that I have to carve out another article to complete the Economic Ideas topic.

Kindly put your comments and suggestions to move forward.