APRIL 21, 2012 Vol XLVII No 16

E con om ic& P olitica lw E E K L Y

A SAMEEKSHA TRUST PUBLICATION WWW.epW.jll

EDITORIALS Playing with Rivers

■ The Right to Learn Three articles point out the well-known dangers and
■ Vote Buying in Jharkhand impracticality of trying to connect India's rivers.
■ And Now 'Operation Hakka' Despite this, why has the Supreme Court mandated the
MARGIN SPEAK government to implement such a project? pages 45 to 54
■ Mayaand Dalits in Uttar Pradesh

COMMENTARY
The Chongqing Model
■ The Chongqing Event and Its Implications
An explanation of why the political initiatives of
■ Managing Childhood Under-Nutrition
Bo Xilai became a threat to the established powers in
■ Experiencing the Indian Archives
the Communist Party of China and how his ouster is
■ Dalit Politics in Maharashtra
rallying the left, page 12
■ Delhi Metro Rail: Beyond Mass Transit
■ Memories of a Good Man: M A Iqbal

BOOK REVIEWS Tribute to Kalyan Sanyal

■ Identity and Insurgency in Northeast India An appreciation of the intellectual contributions of
■ Essays in Honour ofAniruddha Ray Kalyan Sanyal through a personal homage and a
TRIBUTETO KALYANSANYAL critical engagement w ith his seminal book, Rethinking
■ The Many Lives of Kalyan Sanyal Capitalist Development, pages 38,41
■ An Essay on RethinkingCapitalistDevelopment
RIVER INTERLINKING
Delhi Metro's Failed Promise
■ Hydrological Obscurantism
Instead of providing inexpensive public transit to all
■ Resuscitating a Failed Idea
its citizens, Delhi metro is becoming a tool for capital
■ Danger to Bangladesh-lndia Relations
accumulation and gentrification of the city, page 25
■ SC Judgment: A Statement and an Appeal

SPECIALARTICLES
■ Does MGNREGA Guarantee Employment?
■ India-ASEAN FTA: Implications for Fisheries
■ How the Ban on the RSS Was Lifted
DISCUSSION
■ Obstacles in Agriculture-Nutrition Pathways
Evaluating MGNREGA
Does the landmark National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act deliver on its promises? An analysis based on NSS
data suggests that it has been a mixed score and lessons
need to be learnt to make it more effective, page 55

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 Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta

A. Call for Applications under Centre for Training and Research in Public Finance and Policy
(C TR P FP ), a research unit under Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (C S SS C ).

1 Applications are invited for positions of Fellow in Economics for the C T R P F P Unit
under C S S S C . Applicants for the position of Fellow should have a PhD in Economics
with peer reviewed publications dealing with Public Finance, Public Economics and
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allowances are applicable. Appointment may be either temporary (for a period of three
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position offers a consolidated monthly salary of Rs. 35,000/-. Applications should be
sent with a detailed CV.

Applications m ay be sent via mail to: T h e Coordinator, C T R P F P , C entre for Studies in

Social Sciences, Calcutta, R-1, B. P. Township, Kolkata 700 094, India, O R by E-mail to: ctrpfp@
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 APRIL 21, 2012 | v o l x l v i i NO 16
E conom ic& P olidcalw E E K L Y
Maya and Dalits in Uttar Pradesh E D IT O R IA L S
The Right to Learn ................................. 7
10 The Bahujan Samaj Party em erged with the promise o f providing an
Vote Buying in Jharkhand......................... 8
alternative strategy to dalit politics in India but has ended up no different.
And Now ‘ Operation Hakka’ ...................... 8
The Chongqing Event and Its Implications F R O M 5 0 Y E A R S A G O ........................................... 9
12 The political background and the long-term implications o f the faction fights
M A R G IN SP E A K
that led to the denunciation o f Bo Xilai and his ouster.
Maya and Dalits in Uttar Pradesh
Managing Childhood Under-Nutrition —Anand Teltumbde............................... 10

15 The Integrated Child Development Services scheme has its job cut out in the face o f COM M EN TARY

chronic poverty, food shortages and the relative failure o f other government The Chongqing Event and Its Implications
schemes to address hunger, malnutrition and mortality am ong children. —ZhunXu ......................................... 12
Managing Childhood Under-Nutrition
Experiencing the Indian Archives —Rajib Dasgupta, NKArora, Siddarth Ramji,
19 A call for a w ider public involvement in the protection and preservation o f Sanjay Chaturvedi, Sneh Rewal, K Suresh,
Vaishali Deshmukh, Neelima Thakur.............15
India’s archives which have long suffered due to government neglect.
Experiencing the Indian Archives
Dalit Politics in Maharashtra — Shilpi Rajpal.................................... 19
Dalit Politics in Maharashtra
21 What explains the grow ing disenchantment o f dalits with their traditional
— Harish S Wankhede............................ 21
parties in Maharashtra?
Delhi Metro Rail: Beyond Mass Transit
Delhi Metro Rail: Beyond Mass Transit — PritpalRandhawa ............................. 25
Memories of a Good Man: M A Iqbal (1945-2012)
25 An assessment o f the Delhi m etro’
s first decade o f operations shows that it is
—Nandini Sundar................................ 30
deviating from its stated purpose o f providing equitable mass transport.
B O O K R E V IE W S
Memories of a Good Man: MA Iqbal (1945-2012) Looking Back into the Future: Identity and
30 A personal tribute to a man who left the com fort o f government service to Insurgency in Northeast India: Moving Circles
live a life o f engagement and exploration. of Struggles and Agitations in the North-East
—BhaskarBarua..................................33
The Many Lives of Kalyan Sanyal The Varied Facets o f History: Essays in Honour
ofAniruddha Ray: A Quality Collection of
38 An appreciation o f the academic life o f the well-known political econom ist
Historical Themes—Kanakalatha Mukund.... 35
who never allowed him self to be curtailed by conventions.
T R IB U T E T O K A LY A N SA N Y A L
Capitalism, Exclusion, Transition: The Politics of the Present The Many Lives of Kalyan Sanyal
41 A review essay on Kalyan Sanyal’
s Rethinking Capitalist Development argues —Sugata Marj i t .................................. 38
for its importance for theorising the present econom ic processes because it Capitalism, Exclusion, Transition: The Politics
locates the political firmly inside the economy. of the Present—Satish Deshpande............... 41

R IV E R IN T E R L IN K IN G
Does India's Employment Scheme Guarantee Employment? Water Science in India: Hydrological
55 An analysis of 2009-10 data o f the National Sample Survey indicates that Obscurantism—Jayanta Bandyopadhyay...... 45
despite pervasive rationing and an unmet demand for work, the m g n r e g a Resuscitating a Failed Idea: Notes from Bihar
does appear to meet quite a few of its objectives. —Dinesh Kumar Mishra..........................48
Teesta, Tipaimukh and River Linking: Danger to
How the Ban on the RSS Was Lifted Bangladesh-lndia Relations—Imtiaz Ahmed ... 51
71 A close reading o f the correspondence o f the principal actors involved A Statement and an Appeal...................... 54
indicates that the Government o f India got major concessions from Golwalkar
S P E C IA L A R T IC L E S
before it lifted the ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in July 1949.
Does India’
s Employment Guarantee Scheme
Guarantee Employment?
Agriculture-Nutrition Pathways: Recognising the Obstacles —Puja Dutta, Rinku Murgai, Martin Ravallion,
79 A reply to Suneetha Kadiyala et al, “
A Nutrition Secure India”(25 February 2012). Dominique van de Walle................. 55
India-ASEAN FTA: Implications for Fisheries
River Interlinking —B P Sarath Chandran, PKSudarsan ...........65
How the Ban on the RSS Was Lifted
Water Science in India: Hydrological Obscurantism —RakeshAnkit.... ...............................71
45 An overview o f the ideology and technology which underpins the obsession
D IS C U S S IO N
with river interlinking in much o f official India.
Obstacles in Agriculture-Nutrition Pathways
Resuscitating a Failed Idea: Notes from Bihar —Simantini Mukhopadhyay.....................79
48 The experience o f Bihar is a g ood education in how and why the idea o f C U R R E N T S T A T I S T I C S ........................................ 8 l
interlinking rivers is impractical in the extreme.
L E T T E R S ............................................. 4
Danger to Bangladesh-lndia Relations S U B S C R I P T IO N R A T E S A N D
51 A view from Bangladesh on India’
s river-linking plans. N O T E S F O R C O N T R I B U T O R S ................................ 6

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 LETTERS
E con om ic& P olitica lw E E K L Y
ISSN 0012-9976

Ever since the first issue in 1966,

epw has been India’ s premier journal for Nonadanga Slum-Dwellers Expand the Food Security Bill
comment on current affairs
and research in the social sciences.
Attacked
his is in response to some criticisms
It succeeded Economic Weekly (1949-1965),
which was launched and shepherded
by Sachin C haudhuri,
who was also the founder-editor of epw . T
he People’ s Union for Democratic
Rights (pu dr) strongly condemns
T on aspects of the Food Subsidy, Food
Availability and the National Food Secu­
As editor for thirty-five years (1969-2004)
the violent demolition of the Nonadanga rity Bill, 2011 (nfsb).
Krishna Raj
gave epw the reputation it now enjoys. slums on 30 March 2012 in Kolkata, While the n f s b is still under consider­
and the subsequent police brutality on ation by Parliament’ s standing commit­
EDITOR
C RAM M AN OHAR REDDY peaceful anti-eviction protests followed tee, there have been a plethora of cri­
by the vindictive arrest of activists. tiques of this legislation. A significant
DEPUTY EDITOR
BERNARD D’
M ELLO Nonadanga is the area where the number of these critiques are a thinly
WEB EDITOR Kolkata Metropolitan Development Autho­ veiled attempt at derailing the legisla­
SU B H A SH R A I rity (kmda) has been resettling slum- tion on the grounds of food availability
SENIOR ASSISTANT EDITORS dwellers evicted from various parts of and affordability. It is frightening to see
L IN A M A T H IA S
Kolkata over the past five years under arguments that talk of dismantling the
A N IK E T A L A M
S R IN IV A S A N R A M A N I the Basic Services to Urban Poor (bsup) entire public distribution system (pds),
A S H IM A S O O D scheme of the Jawaharlal Nehru National replacing grains with cash or arriving at
B H A R A T I BH A R G A V A
Urban Renewal Mission. The resettle­ some sort of compromise “ solution”by
COPY EDITORS
ment projects have been run by k m d a reducing the grain entitlement to a pal­
P R A B H A P IL L A I
JY O T I SH ET TY and the Kolkata Environmental Im­ try 25 kg per household. These alterna­
ASSISTANT EDITOR
provement Project (keip) jointly. Prelim­ tive formulations are being justified on
P S LEELA inary reports indicate that slum resi­ the grounds of lack of availability of
PRODUCTION dents also include refugees from Singur food and funds and seek to reduce the
U RAGHU NATHAN and Nandigram, as well as people dis­ already minimalist propositions of the
S L E S L IN E C O R E R A
S U N E E T H I N A IR placed by Cyclone Aila. So, by no stretch of official NFSB.
CIRCULATION
logic are these slum-dwellers “ encroach- The Right to Food Campaign would
G A U R A A N G P R A D H A N MANAGER ers”as claimed by the state government. like to strongly argue that the question is
B S SH A R M A
In fact, the land in Nonadanga is very one of political will. Why do the critics
ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER close to a prime city location and the of the n f s b remain silent on the huge
K A M A L G F A N IB A N D A
present drive to clear the space by the subsidies to the tune of more than Rs 4
GENERAL MANAGER & PUBLISHER
Trinamool government is the first step lakh crore to corporate and service
K V IJ A Y A K U M A R
towards its plans of handing over this sectors through low taxation rates, tax
E D IT O R IA L
edit@epw.in land to real estate companies for “ beau­ waivers, etc, that are depleting the ex­
CIRCULATION tification and development” . chequer, but are quick to suggest ways in
circulation@epw.in
p u d r notes with concern that this which the government can cut costs on
ADVERTISING
advt@epw.in
demolition, attacks and arrests come in dealing with hunger.
a continuum of a worsening democratic The governments as well as several
E C O N O M IC A N D P O L IT IC A L W EEKLY
rights situation in West Bengal. Another experts who are opposed to food subsidy
320-321, A TO Z INDUSTRIAL ESTATE
GANPATRAO KADAM MARG, LOWER PAREL alarming phenomenon is the bringing do not wish to squarely address the
MUMBAI 4 0 0 013 out of the “ Maoist”bogey to define all problem of hunger and malnutrition.
p h o n e : (022) 4063 8282
f a x : (022) 2493 4515
democratic movements as if that gives To those who say that there is not
the state unmitigated rights to disregard enough grain in the country and there­
E P W R E SE A R C H F O U N D A TIO N the law and crush people’ s movements fore p d s should be cut down (either
Research Foundation, established in 1993, conducts
epw
and aspirations with armed might. in grain quantity or number of benefici­
research on financial and macro-economic issues in India.
p u d r demands that the eviction aries) or substituted with cash, we wish
DIRECTOR
K K A N A G A SA B A P A T H Y drive be stopped, all arrested activists to point out that total government pro­
C 212, AKURLI INDUSTRIAL ESTATE be immediately and unconditionally curement is now only around 25% of pro­
KANDIVALI (EAST), MUMBAI 4 0 0 101
p h o n e s : (022)
2887 3038/41 released, the demolished slum be duction (and that too only of wheat and
f a x : (022)
2887 3038 rebuilt, the guilty police officials be rice). If they were willing to think a little
epwrf@vsnl.com
punished, and the West Bengal govern­ more “ out of the box” , they would see
Printed by K Vijayakumar at Modem Arts and Industries,
151, A-Z Industrial Estate, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg,
ment stop attacking the fundamental the tremendous potential of an expan­
Lower Parel, Mumbai-400013 and rights of people to voice their protest ded p d s (near universal, with increased
published by him on behalf of Sameeksha Trust
from 320-321, A-Z Industrial Estate,
against injustices. and comprehensive entitlements) for
Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai-400 013. Preeti Chauhan, Paramjeet Singh agrarian revival and for a boost to food
Editor: C Rammanohar Reddy
PUDR crop production.

Ap r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 »M!Avi Economic & Political weekly

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 LETTERS

Why are the many critics of n f s b
silent on the demands of the campaign
that the Act provide for effective restruc­
turing of procurement, storage and dis­
tribution of grain: procurement of food
grains from all mandis at fair and as­
sured prices and, as far as possible, local
Medical Research norms per adult
consumption, and thus include 14 kg
cereal, 800 gm oil and 1.5 kg pulses per
head (half for children).
•Appropriate minimum support price,
procurement from all mandis of all
types of grain and localised storage.
alcohol. It remains doubtful whether
the cash transfers will improve the
consumption standard of the masses
in India.
Raosaheb Gyanobarao Jadhav
Patpanhale College
RATNAGIRI

distribution of local procurement. The •Removal of poverty ratio-based caps in

importance of government procurement
to rice-wheat farming in the current
major procurement areas suggests that
farmers will respond positively to such
measures. If pulses and oil seeds were
added to the p d s to ensure nutritional
security this would also boost agricul­
tural production in the now neglected
dryland areas, and of dryland crops.
Importantly, it would also reduce the
current prohibitively high transpor­
tation costs that are now as much as
30% of the economic cost of procured
cereals.
Further, it is also absurd to carry
on a debate on the basis of shortage
of foodgrains when, for around two
years now, the Food Corporation of
India godowns have been bursting, with
the government adamantly refusing
to expand distribution at lower prices.
Currently, there are about 54 million
tonnes in stock and based on last year’
experience we can expect around 20
million tonnes of wheat to be procured
in the next couple of months taking it to
more than 70 million metric tonnes. In
fact, this is the ideal time for the gov­
ernment to introduce a universal pd s.
The n f s b , by including reforms in pro­
curement, can then ensure that such a
system can sustain itself in the longer
term as well.
We hope that the debate around the
food security bill is elevated to discuss
these issues, rather than trying to find
“solutions”within the artificial frame­
work and limits set by a section within
the government.
The campaign reaffirms the need for
a comprehensive food security bill that
includes the following:
•A universal p d s, distributing cereals,
millets, pulses and oil, that covers the
whole population, especially the food
insecure, the vulnerable, and the de­
prived. The quantity should be decided
on the basis of the Indian Council of
allocation of resources by the government. Assessing an Index
Kavita Srivastava
Convenor, Right to Food Campaign his is with reference to Martin Rav-
Protect PDS
T allion, “Corruption in the m g n r e g s ”
(epw, 25 February 2012).
While agreeing with the prevalence of
his is in response to Peter Svedberg’
s corruption in the Mahatma Gandhi
T “Reforming or Replacing the Public National Rural Employment Guarantee
Distribution System with Cash Trans­ Scheme ( m g n r e g s ) it would be appro­
fers?”(epw, 18 February 2012). priate to emphasise that all is not well
The author has argued for cash trans­ insofar as its implementation is con­
fers to replace the existing public dis­ cerned. It is the flagship programme of
tribution system (pds). He has used the United Progressive Alliance govern­
National Sample Survey data which is ment, and has received very high alloca­
not a proper methodology since the tions of public money in budget after
Planning Commission itself has stated budget. Surjit Bhalla is right in conclud­
that consumption expenditure is under­ ing the high incidence of corruption in
estimated by the n s s . There is no Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan through
ground to reduce expenditures on his corruption index. Preliminary re­
welfare programmes. sults of our recent study also corroborate
The p d s is, in fact, a very big and the fact that the level of corruption is
useful programme taking care of the high in Andhra Pradesh though it ap­
s neglected masses and downtrodden peared that the systems are in place and
sections of Indian society. Further, the the implementation is going on smooth­
food security bill too confirms the rele­ ly. While there is a delay in the payment
vance of the p d s. There are certain de­ of wages to the labourers, there are very
fects in the p d s mechanism which have few durable assets that are created in
been stated by the author, such as wast­ the programme. It was also reported
ages, leakages diversion, underutilisa­ that there is a shortage of labour for ag­
tion, exclusion and inclusion errors, etc. riculture during sowing and harvesting
But this does not imply that p d s should seasons due to the implementation of
be replaced by cash transfers as sug­ the programme.
gested by the author. It is necessary to As a matter of fact, Andhra Pradesh’ s
find ways to improve the quality of the rural development minister declared
p d s rather than destroying it through in the media that corruption in the
cash transfers. Measures need to be scheme amounted to Rs 108 crore so
worked out to address the corruption in far, whereas Rs 18 crore of that has
the p d s and remove the errors in the in­ been recovered. This only shows that
clusion and exclusion, respectively, of the level of corruption in the pro­
the below-poverty-line and above­ gramme is very high in the state giving
poverty-line beneficiaries. Given the rise to doubts about the commitment
social and administrative conditions, of authorities in its implementation.
there is no guarantee that cash trans­ Secondly, social audit has become a
fers given to the needy and targeted routine affair in many places without
people will be spent on essential items people’ s participation.
of food and that it will not be m onopo­ T Prabhakara Reddy
lised by the dominant family member, Satavahana Development Studies
HYDERABAD
or even spent on harmful goods like

Economic & Political weekly IWW Ap r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 5

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Email: edit@epw.in, epw.mumbai@gmail.com

6 Ap r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 E3SC3 Economic & Political weekly

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 E co n o m ic& P o litica lw E E K L Y
The Right to Learn
Two years after the Right to Education Act, the government needs to focus on quality.
wo years is perhaps too short a period in which to assess
T how effective the groundbreaking Right of Children to Free
and Compulsory Education Act 2009 ( rte ) , which came
into effect on 1April 2010, has been in raising standards of educa­
tion in a country as diverse as India. The very fact that such an Act
was passed is significant. But assessments are inevitable and the
measurable results, although discouraging sometimes, need not
mean that the effort has failed. Union Minister for Human Resource
Development Kapil Sibal seemed to suggest just this even as he
acknowledged that despite impressively enhanced investment in
primary education, the results so far have not been spectacular.
The additional investment, up from Rs 7,166 crore in 2005-06
to Rs 25,555 crore allocated for 2012-13, has ensured that some
of the glaring gaps in physical infrastructure have been tackled.
Thus, more government primary schools today have buildings,
running water and other basic requirements that schools should
have. There has also been substantial progress in increasing
enrolment with the national average now at 98.3% (2009-10)
although non-government organisations would put that figure
at 96%. In physical infrastructure, a glaring hole remains in the
provision of toilets. According to an extensive survey by
Pratham of primary schools across India, two-thirds of the
schools surveyed had only one toilet and less than half had a
separate toilet for girls. Of these only 50% were unlocked and
therefore usable. The absence of toilets can be a real disincen­
tive to continuing in school for girls once they cross puberty.
Yet, although enrolment has increased, actual attendance in
classes has declined. The 2011 edition of Pratham’ s Annual
Status of Education Report (a s e r ) shows a decline in enrolled
students present in class over five years. For instance, in 2007,
73.4% of students enrolled for Stds i-iv/v were present in class.
By 2011, this figure had fallen to 70.9% in the same group des­
pite the r t e . The drop seems marginal on paper but is signifi­
cant given the thrust to primary education through the r t e Act.
These students might not necessarily have dropped out alto­
gether. But it is probable that what they learn in school is not
enough to keep them engaged. In fact, the increase in private
tuitions even for primary school students could be linked to the
absence of students from the classroom.
More than anything, the absence of students is linked to the
quality of learning in schools, something that the r t e Act does
Economic & Political w e e k l y BBS A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o
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A P R IL 21, 2012
not address directly although some of the requirements - such
as having a library - ought to enhance learning. But how much
children learn in school depends not just on the physical infra­
structure, but also on the methods of teaching, the type of text­
books and the skill of the teacher. There also need to be enough
teachers. This is perhaps the most glaring deficiency in the system
that still needs to be addressed. According to some assessments,
there are half a million vacancies for teachers in government pri­
mary schools. As a result, two-thirds of all classrooms are multi­
grade, that is, one teacher attending to children from different
grades in the same classroom. It requires little imagination to
visualise the quality of education imparted in such circumstances.
Quality of learning is difficult to measure. Successive a s e r
reports have tried to do precisely this over the last five years.
According to a s e r 2010,50% of Grade 5 children could not read
books assigned for Grade 2 level. The levels in mathematics
were even worse. For the r t e to have any real meaning, it is
clear that this problem must be addressed by improving the
quality of teaching - through appropriate textbooks and skilled
teachers. Half learning of the kind being imparted at present
can result in two things. One, given the urge of even poor par­
ents to educate their children, many will be compelled, as they
already are, to pay for private tuitions or even send their chil­
dren to private schools instead of availing of the free education
provided by government schools. Two, we will have a genera­
tion of so-called “ educated”youth without the skills to access
the livelihood options that education offers. Being semi-educated
and unemployed is a potent mixture in a society already
staggering under growing inequity.
The fall in attendance levels revealed by surveys, including
the government’ s own survey, ought to alert it to this very real
lacuna in the implementation of the r t e . This is the time, after
two years into the programme, to turn attention to the text­
books, the training of teachers - not just to improve the skills of
those there but to create more institutions to bring in many
more teachers to fill the huge gap that exists - and to make the
process of learning engaging enough to retain the children who
have been persuaded to enrol. The true measure of quality edu­
cation is how much children absorb and retain while being
taught. The thrust of implementing r t e now should be on
making this happen.
16 7
Vote Buying in Jharkhand
Stopped this time, what change is possible to prevent moneyed interests from buying seats?
n a decision which has had just one precedent in 1992, the
I Election Commission of India (eci) has countermanded the
2012 elections (two seats) to the Rajya Sabha in Jharkhand.
The decision followed a seizure of a large amount of cash from a
relative of an independent candidate, which was to be appar­
ently used to buy votes from Members of the Legislative Assem­
bly ( m l as). This incident came amidst other reports about m l a s
being bribed to cast their votes in favour of one or the other can­
didate. The e c i ’s order was challenged in the Jharkhand High
Court by the Congress candidate who fancied a win because of
the fractious divisions in the assembly. But the court has dis­
missed the petition and has ordered an investigation by the
Central Bureau of Investigation (cbi). Earlier, in the run-up to
the nominations, there had been a huge ruckus about the
decision of the Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) - which supports
the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (jm m ) in the state - to
nominate a non-resident Indian businessman as one of the
candidates. The b j p was ultimately forced to withdraw its sup­
port for its own nominee.
The events of 2012 are not new to Jharkhand. In elections
from the state to the upper house of Parliament over the past
few years, quite a few candidates who have never been resi­
dents of Jharkhand and are usually businessmen or corporate
executives have been party nominees in Rajya Sabha polls.
Those among these candidates who have won have later shown
no commitment to addressing the concerns of the residents
of the state and have instead used their positions to enhance
their business interests or serve their corporate bosses. The
welcome environment provided by the legislators of the major
parties - the j m m , Congress and the b j p - to moneybags has
emboldened many such businessmen to move heaven and
earth to get nominations. This also highlights the change in the
modus operandi of business interests, from pursuing their
needs through connections and lobbying Members of Parlia­
ment to directly getting elected to the upper house by bribing
state legislators.
An amendment in 2003 to Section 3 of the Representation
of People Act 1951 which allows non-domiciled candidates to
stand for elections to the Rajya Sabha has been exploited to
And Now ‘
Operation Hakka’
Take away Maad from the Maoists, but with profits taking precedence over people the movement will not die.
W
e do not think that Union Home Minister
P Chidambaram is so naive as to believe the narrative
of the counter-insurgency camp that last month the
central and state forces stormed the “
red citadel”of Abujmaad
(Maad) in Chhattisgarh as part of their Operation Hakka
8 A p r il
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the hilt in small states where m l a s are up for grabs. The “house
of the elders”- the Rajya Sabha - is regarded as the council of
states and its role is to provide representation to federal units.
It begs the question as how non-domiciles elected to the upper
house can represent the people of the state, especially when
they are more interested in serving interests related to offices
of profit.
Horse-trading during government formation and the use of
money power to buy the support of legislators are endemic in
many states. Jharkhand, a state that was created with so much
hope, has unfortunately stood out during the past few years
for the rule of money power in government formation and
legislative decision-making. Party-hopping, purchase of
legislators, the passage of dubious laws to protect m l a s hold­
ing offices of profit are all part of its recent political history.
Political corruption seems to afflict almost all parties - in
power or out of it - barring the small but disunited left parties
in the state.
The c b i enquiry, if taken to its logical conclusion, should
reveal the full details of how the vote buying operations were
planned and who were to be the beneficiaries. If the investiga­
tions bring out the involvement of the suspected candidate, the
e c i should immediately disqualify him and he should be prose­
cuted for electoral fraud. But it is difficult to say whether the
outcome of the investigations will end the practice of vote
buying since fraud is generally difficult to prove and there are
various means of bribing voters that can be done without the
e c i getting a whiff of the process.
Unless there is a drastic change in the political culture of
Jharkhand, vote buying and other means of acquiring power
will continue to thrive in the state. Various reforms such as the
establishment of norms to prevent legislators from occupying
offices of profit have been diluted by parliamentarians to pro­
tect their own interests. Declaration of a candidate’ s assets is
mandatory but this does not deter any moneybag from standing
for elections. Business and corporates have always been able to
find a way to work around the system because of the lack of
integrity in the political culture, the worst forms of which are in
evidence in Jharkhand.
(“Hakka”apparently means a hunt for wild animals in the local
dialect. So much for the sensitivity of the security forces). That
is what the corporate media propagated. But going by the us
Counter-insurgency Guide issued by Washington in January
2009 - which has been the doctrine of the Armed Forces of the
21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16 DDES Economic & Political WEEKLY
 EDITORIALS

Philippines in its counter-insurgency strategy against the Moro
National Liberation Front and the New People’ s Army, and is
now being adopted in India against the Maoists - while identi­
fying and striking the centres of gravity of an armed guerrilla
movement at its core, the operation must be made to appear de­
ceptive by another component of its grand design, namely, a
psychological war (“ psy-war” ) conducted through the media.
The unthinking and corporate-controlled media in India is ideal
for this purpose. Apart from Aman Sethi’ s report in The Hindu
(“Chasing Shadows in Abujmaad” , 10 April 2012), free and
independent reporting on last month’ s paramilitary foray into
Maad has been hard to come by.
What does one make of the media reports claiming to be from
“ Inside the Red Citadel” ? The security forces were armed with
the best of weapons, “ Swedish Carl Gustav rocket launchers and
C-90 rifles, and satellite phones” ;“ flat plateau regions were
identified where helicopters could land and the Air Force kept
on alert - just in case” . Claims of having “ busted a major arms
factory at Hikonar”and of the unearthing of Maoist “ literature
on making rocket launchers and on hunting down choppers” , as
also the “drills”the Maoists have devised to “ successfully thwart
an aerial attack”surely make for spicy ingredients in the psy-
war conducted through a pliant media. But what will happen to
the claim of the security forces of having arrested 13 Maoists, if
it subsequently turns out that those apprehended are ordinary
villagers? Narayanpur Superintendent of Police (sp) Mayank
Srivastava seems to have inadvertently exposed what the secu­
rity forces actually do when they go on such forays when he
boasted about the forces having demolished some schools run
by the Maoists’ Janatana Sarkar. Of course, in his view, this is
what needs to be done, for these are centres for the “ easy brain­
washing of tribals” . In sharp contrast, Aman Sethi’ s independ­
ent reporting, to an extent, seems to corroborate some of the
claims of human rights violations of ordinary villagers (non-
combatants) by the security forces which were made by a 30
March report of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of
the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
There is one interesting aspect of police behaviour that
recurs in the Maoist version of events - after severely beating
an ordinary villager, the police gave him/her some money,
and if the person refused to take the money, he or she was
thrashed once again. This must be seen as part of a more
recent trend wherein the repressive apparatus of the Indian
state is made to participate in social welfare programmes to
convey an image of social service - Chidambaram’ s“ winning
hearts and minds” . In the “ Integrated Action Plan (iap) to
develop Maoist-affected areas” , the district sp s now play an
important role as part of the introduction of an element of
deception as regards Operation Green Hunt (ogh ). The
increasing say of the police at the district level in the construc­
tion of roads and buildings under the ia p will surely make
easier the task of the state’ s armed forces. And, the media
through its role in the psy-war will then use this portrayal of
the police as a developmental partner to manipulate public
opinion in favour of o g h .
Coming back to Maad, is it really the Red Citadel that it is
being made out to be? Is it really the main “ base area”of the
Maoists where the top-ranking leaders of the movement have
taken shelter? In 2001, Punjabi writer Satnam spent time with
the Maoist guerrillas in Maad and wrote about them in Jangal-
nama (Penguin, 2010). Gautam Navlakha (along with Jan
Myrdal) visited this “ guerrilla zone”and wrote about life in
the region “ Days and Nights in the Maoist Heartland”(epw, 17
April 2010). They found the guerrillas alongside the people en­
gaged in such activity as agriculture, education and health­
care. The guerrillas have harnessed the “ collective energy of
the people in improving their material conditions” . But now
what? In all likelihood, with the completion of the security
forces’initial foray into Maad, the process of setting up para­
military camps there will begin. Like elsewhere, whether in
the rest of Dandakaranya or in Jangalmahal, paramilitary
personnel will then pick on ordinary civilians (non-combat­
ants). Let us not make any bones about it - the ordinary adiva-
sis of Maad and the rest of Dandakaranya, backed by the Mao­
ists, are fighting for their rights to Ja\} Jangal aur Zamin
against the Indian state and its corporate backers who want to
appropriate these resources. Profits-over-people is what the
whole business is all about.

FROM 50 YEARS AGO northern border loomed in the background, historical intimacy dictates a policy different
a more immediate problem confronted from that which would be pursued by two
India when the King appeared to banish wholly independent countries...
ft journal of Current economic anb ^political Affair*
democracy - as India knows it - from his Nepal’ s relations with India cannot be
country by the arrest and dismissal of his judged on the basis of a hasty analogy with
VOL XIV, NO 16, APRIL 21,1962
elected Government. Burma. But that is not to deny Nepalese sover­
Pandit Nehru gave open expression to eignty or to assert that Nepal must live at the
EDITORIALS
India’s disappointment. Some critics have mercy of her big Southern neighbour...
characterised this as interference in Nepal’ s The right of national sovereignty hardly
King Mahendra’ s Visit confers on any regime the right to conduct its
internal affairs. They have contrasted it with
It would be a very welcome relief to the Nehru’ s silence on General Ne Win’ s take­ affairs in a manner that threatens the sover­
undertone of strain in Indo-Nepalese rela­ over in Burma... eignty of its neighbours. In the case of coun­
tions of late if King Mahendra’ s visit to this A point that is very often overlooked in tries like Nepal and India, with a long history
country produced some tangible evidence of discussions of Indo-Nepalese relations is that of close interdependence, that limiting factor
his rethinking on the issue of restoring despite the fact that the two countries have is particularly relevant and should be borne in
democracy in his hill country of ten million their national sovereignty to safeguard, the mind if their mutual relations are to be gov­
people. Although the Chinese threat to India’ s very fact of their geographical proximity and erned by realism.

Economic & Political w e e k l y BBSS A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16 9

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 M A R G IN S P E A K
Maya and Dalits in Uttar Pradesh
ANAND TELTUMBDE
While Mayawati is, all the way, a
winner, the dalits have been the
certain losers. The Maya (illusion)
of political power as the master
key for their emancipation has
proved to be a chimera.
Anand Teltumbde (tanandraj@gmail.com) is a
writer and civil rights activist with the
Committee for the Protection of Democratic
Rights, Mumbai.
10
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political power in a dalit’s hand can make
the state look different from others. Never
before had a dalit been at the helm of a
state. Many dalits had become chief min­
isters before but only as dalit mascots of
the ruling-class parties. The rise of the
O
ne of the adverse results of the bsp, aggressively projecting itself as a
recent assembly elections in five party of the majority (85%) against the
states is the big reversal suffered traditional ruling classes, albeit on a caste
by the Bahujan Samaj Party (bsp). Just count, was inspiring enough to common
five years ago Mayawati had stunned dalit folks, particularly in the context of
everyone by winning 206 seats in the the collapse of the Republican Party’ s
Uttar Pradesh (up) Assembly, well past the (rpi) experiment. Mayawati’ s previous
majority mark. In the hopelessly frag­ stints were brief, the first in 1995, the sec­
mented politics of the state, which had not ond in 1997, both of less than six months
seen the single party majority since 1993, each, the third lasting a little longer, about
this was a veritable feat that escaped all 16 months. But all these stints in power
predictions of the poll-pundits. As a matter required support from others and could
of fact, no one has ever predicted b s p ’s rise not therefore be expected to make much
in u p at any point in time. It always came of a mark. They were used to fortify her
as a bitter surprise in elite circles in which constituency. As she had declared during
such games are played. The year 2007 was her first stint, “ consolidation of the dalit
moreover the test of Mayawati's big vote bank”was her “ biggest achievement”
gamble on her sarvajan strategy abandon­ (The Pioneer; 23 October 1995). Renaming
ing the bahujan scheme that had cata­ public institutions and places after bahu­
pulted this daughter of an ordinary dalit to jan icons, particularly B R Ambedkar,
the chief minister’ s office in the country’ s erecting their statues across the state, cre­
largest state, not once, but three times. ating new districts after them, all these
The process of cultivating the bahujan moves worked well to impose a dalit pres­
with slogans like “ tilak, taraju, aurtalwar; ence all over the public space.
inako maro jute char”or abusively asking Some of the schemes she launched sig­
the upper caste m em bers to leave election nificantly benefited dalits. For example,
meetings right at the beginning, was not the Ambedkar Village Scheme (avs) she
yet completely forgotten. Nor were the launched during her very first stint allot­
promises made to dalits that all their prob­ ted special funds for socio-economic
lems would be solved with the master key development to villages which had a 50%
of political power. People were sceptical scheduled caste (sc) population. In June
about the sarvajan strategy. Would this 1995, during her second stint, she
grand design really bring upper caste extended this scheme to villages which
votes into the b sp kitty in face of the palpa­ had a 22-30% sc population. All told,
ble danger of alienating some of the Jatav/ 25,434 villages were included in the avs.
Chamars, who constituted her core con­ The dalits of these villages received special
stituency? The latter, and indeed all bahu- treatment - roads, handpumps, houses,
jans, stood by her, rock-like, and won her etc, were built in their neighbourhoods. It
unencumbered power. But what has hap­ is due to these material benefits that dalits
pened this time around? The upward enthusiastically called her government as
trend in the vote share -11.12% of the vote their own. People were generally untrou­
in 1993,19.64% in 1996, 23.06% in 2002 bled with her autocratic style of govern­
and 30.43% in 2007 - for the bsp, right ance as it meant a decisive response and
since its foray into electoral politics in u p improved law and order. Unfortunately,
has been reversed (25.91% in 2012). the imperatives of power misled her to
The electoral victory in 2007 really commit excesses in fortifying her core
offered Mayawati an unprecedented his­ constituency with huge investments in
torical opportunity to demonstrate how building Ambedkar and Kanshiram (and
APRIL 21, 2012 VOL XLVII NO 16 DSB3 Economic & Political w e e k l y
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

even her own) memorials and organising
gala birthday bashes.
Surely, she could have used her adminis­
trative prowess to curb atrocities on dalits
with a heavy hand; she could have
improved basic public services such as edu­
cation, health, and transport, made her
administration people-friendly and possi­
bly tried to create village fora that would
lead to a weakening of caste-identity.
Instead, she adopted an ultra-feudal model
with all regal pomp and darbari culture,
distancing herself from the masses, distrib­
uting grants to those who were loyal to her
and extracting rents from others in
exchange for political favours. In a country
where corruption is a way of life, she
earned the dubious epithet of being the
most corrupt. While these traits could be
considered as stemming from the political
compulsions of her earlier stints, her
fourth stint in office confirmed that these
attributes were of her own making.
Marsh of Electoral Politics
While Mayawati could surely have
empowered the people, the real question
is whether she would then have survived
in mainstream politics. Do people really
matter in our so-called democracy? They
do figure once in five years at the polling
booths to decide who would govern them.
But such appearance is the reality of
intricate broking networks of castes and
communities and huge upfront competi­
tive investments to keep them oiled. These
upfront monies come from the money­
bags, and these days, even from candi­
dates who literally buy their candidatures.
An idea of the magnitude of the return
on these investments can be had from the
asset declarations of the candidates who
contested two consecutive elections. The
Association for Democratic Reforms (adr)
and Uttar Pradesh Election Watch (upew)
revealed that the average individual
assets of the 285 re-contesting m la s for
the 2012 u p assembly elections increased
from Rs 1.21 crore (2007) to Rs 3.56 crore
(2012), registering a growth of 194%. And
these are just the average asset values!
Paradoxically, as these returns soared over
the years, the voice of people, the metric of
democracy, has suffered contraction.
Could Mayawati escape this inexorable
logic of mainstream politics? The answer
Economic & Political weekly IB3S3 Ap r il 21, 2012
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is certainly no. As the facts reveal, she has
not just played the game, she has, by far,
outdone her competitors. Her party had
the maximum number of candidates who
re-contested the elections (120) whose
assets grew by a whopping 226% - from
an average of Rs 1.22 crore in 2007 to an
average of Rs 3.97 crore in 2012. The aver­
age b sp legislator seeking re-election has
exceeded her/his counterpart in the pace­
setter Congress (27) by 244%, r l d (6) by
421%, Qaumi Ekta Dal (2) by 343%, and
Ittehad-E-Millat Council (1) by 523%, but
they are relatively insignificant in terms
of the numbers involved as indicated in
the respective brackets against each of
these parties. In the top 10 recontesting
candidates ranked by quantum growth in
assets, b sp tops the list - its candidate
from Allahabad, Nand Gopal enhanced
his wealth by Rs 79 crore. b s p dominates
the list of the top 10 with five candidates
compared to the Congress’ two and Sama-
jwadi Party’ s one.
Money and criminality are not essen­
tially disconnected. But insofar as the
latter as measured in terms of the number
of registered criminal cases goes, it is
dependent upon which political party is
in power. Since b s p was in power, the
criminality of sp, its arch rival, may be
amplified and that of b s p dampened.
Notwithstanding this fact, the a d r / u p e w
data reveals that the b s p is not far behind
in terms of putting up candidates with
criminal charges. The s p had the maxi­
mum of 199 out of 401, i e, 50% candi­
dates with live criminal cases against
them. The bjp, the self-proclaimed “ party
with a difference”stood next highest with
144 out of 397 (36%) and the Congress
came third with 120 out of 354 (34%). The
b s p stood fourth with 131 out of 403 (33%)
in terms of candidates with pending crim­
inal cases. Look at the b s p from any other
angle: it appears no different from any
other ruling class party, fully sucked into
the foul marsh of electoral politics.
Illusion and Option
The immediate comment Mayawati
made about the election result was that
her core constituency of dalits is still
intact and that she will come back to
power in 2017. It is a typical statement
that Indian politicians make. What
v o l x l v ii n o 16
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
MARGIN SPEAK
makes them so confident? Their confi­
dence actually stems from the great
electoral system we have adopted to
actualise our constitutional vision of
giving ourselves a “ sovereign, demo­
cratic, socialist, secular republic” . The
first-past-the-post type of electoral sys­
tem cements the hope of any party with
a solid backing of as less as 10% to 12%
of the vote, which practically could be
ensured by caste and/or community
allegiance. It means that one could rule
with the consent of just 10% of the vote.
Look at the paradoxes of this system.
The Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab got
56 seats this time with 34.75% of the
vote as against Congress’46 seats with
40.11% vote, b s p ’s share of the vote in u p
declined by only 4.52% but this costs it
126 seats, i e, 31.04% of the total number
of seats.
Mayawati will now go to Rajya Sabha
and after five years, helped by the all-
pervasive “ anti-incumbency factor” , and
a little fine-tuning of caste calculations,
will regain her throne in Lucknow. But
what about the dalits, particularly the
Jatavs/Chamar who are her core constit­
uency? They do not have any other
option but to cling to her as they did.
Contrary to the inference of some of the
analysts based on the loss of reserved
seats by the b s p that dalits deserted
Mayawati, it appears that the core of the
b sp’s support base, as Mayawati claimed,
is largely intact. It is true that the b s p lost
a number of the reserved seats - from 62
out of 89 in 2007 the party got just 16 out
of 85 in 2012. But since reserved seats are
not won or lost only on dalit votes, it
would be erroneous to correlate them
with dalit support or desertion. The dal­
its, her core constituency, will continue
to support her as long as they see hope in
the b s p winning power, lest they get
beaten up at the hands of s p goons in the
villages as is happening currently in up.
While Mayawati is, all the way, a
winner, the dalits in this game have
been the certain losers. The illusion of
political power as the master key for
their emancipation has proved to be a
chimera. They better realise that their
real emancipation lies in radical change
of the system and not in being the play­
things of someone within it.
11
 COM M ENTARY
The Chongqing Event
and Its Implications
ZHUN XU
The sudden removal of Bo Xilai
from the post of secretary of
the Communist Party of China
in the Chongqing metropolis
and his suspension from the
c p c politburo and central
committee points not just to
a power struggle in the upper
echelons of the party but also
a rejection of the “
Chongqing
model”by the leadership. By
itself, the Chongqing model was
a redistributive, reformative
programme that intended to
address the failings of
neo-liberalism, but its repression
has united leftist opinion in
favour of Bo Xilai.
ZhunXu (zhun@econs.umass.edu) is at the
department of economics. University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, United States.
12
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ramatic political events have
D occurred in the Chongqing muni­
cipality in China since the begin­
ning of 2012. On 6 February, the former
police chief and vice mayor of the metro­
polis, Wang Lijun mysteriously visited
the us consulate in the nearby Chengdu
city. Although the government later
claimed that it was an isolated event, a
series of related events took place imme­
diately. On 14 March, Prime Minister
Wen Jiabao provided an unusually harsh
critique of the Chongqing party leader­
ship by implying that they had followed a
path parallel to the cultural revolution.
In official Chinese political parlance, the
cultural revolution is referred to as the
so-called, “ ten years of calamities” . On
the following day, the Chongqing Com­
munist Party secretary Bo Xilai - the son
of late and influential veteran Commu­
nist Party of China (cpc) leader Bo Yibo
- was removed from his post. On 10 April
2012, the central leadership suspended
Bo X ilai’s membership in the politburo
and the central committee of the c p c .
We do not know the actual story
behind Wang Lijun’ s visit to the us con­
sulate as yet, but two sets of rumours -
opposite in their reasoning to each other
- have been floated around. Some sug­
gest that Wang found evidence of illegal
business operations by Bo X ilai’ s wife
who is a retired lawyer and had to flee to
the us consulate to avoid political perse­
cution from Bo, who is a member of the
politburo. Others offered a different story
in which Wang actually found evidence
of illegal business operations by Prime
Minister Wen’ s family which controls a
large share of China’ s jewellery industry.
Wang went to the us consulate because
Bo Xilai could not protect him from the
central leaders’ pressures.
What has happened in Chongqing in
the last two months is perhaps the most
A p r il 21, 2012
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
significant political event in China in
the recent two decades. It involves an
unusually open political struggle at the
25-member politburo level of the c p c . It
is also marked by a high level of public
discussion of the event. Many people
and leftist intellectuals have expressed
sympathy and support to Bo Xilai and
the “Chongqing model”that he has been
seen to represent ideologically.
So what is the whole struggle about?
What impact does the Chongqing event
have on Chinese politics and the left in
the country? This article will first review
the so-called Chongqing model and its
conflict with the mainstream path, and
then discuss the different implications of
the Chongqing event both in the short
and long terms.
The Chongqing Model
From the late 1970s China has been
shifting away from state socialism and
has of late steadily adopted a neo-liberal
model of development marked by mas­
sive lay-offs, privatisation and increasing
market liberalisation. The Chinese ver­
sion of capitalism achieved fast growth
at the cost of severe and rising inequa­
lity, a deteriorated environment and
widespread corruption. These problems
in turn created serious threats to the
China growth model itself. With unsus-
tainably heavy reliance on investment
and export, depletion of natural resources
and the lack of confidence and support
from the working people, the internal
contradictions of the current develop­
ment path has begun to unravel in recent
years. The increasingly large-scale strikes
and frequent “ mass incidents”in various
areas suggest that the relations between
the ruling class and the working people
have been far from “ harm ony” . In par­
ticular, workers in the public sector who
experienced the socialist era have pio­
neered these struggles, whose numbers
are only rising.
It is in this context of a crisis in the
current growth model that we need to
appreciate the essence of the Chongqing
model. Bo Xilai was one of the most
notable leaders of the c p c who tried to
rethink the mainstream developmental
v o l x l v ii n o 16 Economic & Political weekly

path in order to maintain the existing
ruling order, ever since he took up the post
of secretary of the c p c in Chongqing. A
campaign that he had started, “ Chang
Hong Da Hei”- Praise Red and Destroy
Black - led to a crackdown on organised
crime in the metropolis as it attempted
to maintain social order (“ destroy
black” ) while mobilising/educating people
with so-called “ red songs/books”which
praised the revolutionary legacy in China
(“praise red” ). Another feature of the
Chongqing model - “ Guo Jin Min Jin”
(developing both the state and private
sectors) implied a more significant role
for the state-owned enterprises in the re­
gion. Bo’ s plan included cheap public
housing for the poor and substantial
support for small businesses.
These campaigns and policies distin­
guished the Chongqing model from the
mainstream one. First, the local mafias
and their political allies in the govern­
ment form an integral part of the cur­
rent development model. The crack­
down on organised crime is in essence
the war against the most corrupted
political and business elites who remain
mostly untouched in other parts of China.
It has also helped rebuild people’ s confi­
dence in the government. Second, the
emphasis on public sector is a subtle
rejection of the neo-liberal doctrine and
the efforts to improve the living condi­
tions of the working class in terms of
safety, health and housing also imply a
vision for a more sustainable economy.
Third, the mass mobilising efforts in the
“ praise red”campaigns have partly re­
vitalised the c p c ’
s tradition of mass organ­
ising and could potentially re-politicise
the people after a long period of depolit­
icisation entailed by the reforms.
Yet, one should not overestimate the
significance of the Chongqing model. It
is not a real model in the sense that it
has only been experimented with, for
less than five years and is still evolving.
The vision of the model is also limited
and fails to offer a fundamental change
to the social relations of production in
the region. Chongqing still embraces
multinational corporations and labour
sweatshops just like other regions in
China do. There is no clear improvement
in people’ s participation in the local
Economic & Political weekly w an a p r il
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politics despite the mobilisation cam­
paigns of the “ Praise Red”nature. The
Chongqing model is still far from being
a socialist project. Nevertheless it is a
serious effort from part of the ruling
class to provide an alternative to the
current model.
But it seems that most central leaders
do not appreciate the Chongqing model.
There might be several reasons behind
this attitude. First, Bo’ s efforts in crack­
ing down on part of the business and
political elites potentially threaten their
families’and allies’interests. Second, the
leadership has agreed on continuing the
neo-liberal reform and does not tolerate
any serious challenge to this line. This is
clearly shown in a recent editorial in the
People's Daily calling for further reform
and acknowledging the potential oppo­
sitions as “trivial critics”. Third, the cur­
rent Chinese leadership is afraid of any­
thing that involves mass political cam­
paign. Chongqing’ s campaigns are not
politically against the current model yet
but they could become so in the future.
Therefore, the Chongqing model, how­
ever beneficial it might be, is in violation
of the interests of part of the ruling class.
The Chongqing event - on the surface
a struggle between Bo Xilai and the
central leaders - is indeed a struggle
between Chongqing model and the
mainstream neo-liberal model within
the ruling class.
Implications of the Event
It should be kept in mind that notwith­
standing the removal of Bo Xilai from
his leadership in Chongqing, neither his
political career or the Chongqing model
is in any sense over or done with. The
central leaders of the c p c have not yet
made the final decision regarding these
matters and rumours suggest that there
is still uncertainty in the power strug­
gles that are taking place at the upper­
most level of the party. However, the
Chongqing event has resulted in and
will have important impact on the cur­
rent Chinese politics and on the leftist
political current in the country.
In the short term, the Chongqing
event is an offensive from the ruling
class against the left and the working
class. The removal of Bo Xilai sent a clear
21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16
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COMMENTARY
message to the people that the authority
is not tolerant of any alternative to the
neo-liberal model, however moderate it
might be. Although the Chongqing event
is a struggle within the ruling class, the
war against the Chongqing model is
clearly aimed at the Chinese left.
Within minutes of the official announ­
cement of the removal of Bo on 15March,
all the major Chinese leftist websites and
online forums, such as Utopia (wu you
zhi xiang), Mao Flag (mao ze dong qi zhi
wang) and Red China (hong se zhong
guo), were paralysed by network attacks.
On 6 April, the central government shut
down all the major leftist websites be­
cause they “ violated the constitution and
attacked national leaders” . Even on other
websites people could not have discus­
sions on the Chongqing event due to
censorship. Clearly these timely attacks
and censorship were in order to prevent
discussions and mobilisations among
the people.
The atmosphere in Chongqing has
also begun to change. The key members
of the leadership under Bo were replaced
by the central government. The “ Praise
Red”campaign in Chongqing is now
forbidden for being “ too n oisy” . Chong­
qing t v is also planning to reduce the
frequency of “ Praise Red”shows. Rumour
goes that the sidelined local mafias are
back. Under the pressures from the
central government, we can expect to see
systematic retrogression in economic
and political policies in the near future.
At the same time, the mainstream media
in China and the world has embarked
upon a demonisation of the Chongqing
model by creating various rumours
about Bo and his family. The right-wing
intellectuals have argued that the Chong­
qing model is fundamentally flawed and
is not sustainable. Ironically, many right-
wing “ dissidents”have also begun to de­
fend the central government’ s decision
of removing Bo and continuation of the
neo-liberal path. These rumours also at­
tack the Chinese left, saying that the
leftists must have received financial aid
from Chongqing and the left should be
blamed for the tragedy of Bo Xilai.
Despite the attacks and repressions,
the Chongqing event also provides a
historical opportunity for the Chinese
13
COMMENTARY

left. In recent years the Chinese left has
been deeply divided in their understand­
ing on how to (re)build socialism in the
country. Many people believe that there
are genuine socialists within the c p c
leadership and it is very likely that they
can take power and steer China towards
socialism. Therefore they oppose radical
politics and always hope for a “ left turn”
like what transpired with the Chongqing
model. Other people disagree and argue
that the left should rely on the revolu­
tionary workers and peasants instead of
some politicians amongst the communist
party. The debate between the two sets
of leftists has been fierce but has failed to
form a majority view among the left.
However, the Chongqing event has
provided a hard lesson to those who
believe that socialism can be achieved
by ways like the Chongqing model. Con­
versely, many people who were critical
of the Chongqing model have declared
their support for Bo Xilai after the
Chongqing event to oppose the ruling
class’s repression of a genuine alternative
to the neo-liberal model. This historical
contingency offers a potential chance to
unite the different factions within the
Chinese left and form a united front
against the neo-liberal reforms and for
future socialist projects.
Long-Term Implications
In the long term, the Chongqing event
implies more opportunity than chal­
lenge to the left, just the opposite of the
short-term impacts. First and foremost,
the short-term successes from getting
rid of the Chongqing model will become
burdens in the long run. The Chinese
model is indeed in crisis and the neo­
liberal prescription is unsustainable and
harmful to the Chinese political eco­
nomy and society. The current problems
in China will be even more severe if the
Chinese government goes further on the
path of privatisation and market liberali­
sation as suggested in the influential
World Bank-authored report “ China 2030” .
There is hope that reaction to this would
be in the form of radicalisation of the
left and further mobilisation of the
working classes.
Second, we are starting to see a gen­
eral trend of changing popular attitudes
towards Chinese politics. The Chongqing
event has unintentionally re-politicised
people who were hitherto not interested
in politics previously, but now have clear
sympathy for the Chongqing model and
Bo Xilai. As the crisis of the current
model deepens, the sympathy will also
be stronger. This change in the popular
psyche is subtle but crucial and should
further strengthen the left.
Third, the Chongqing event as a les­
son is a form of bitter medicine for the
incipient Chinese left. Bo Xilai is not the
only one among the leadership who
want to revise the current model. In
future circumstances, it is possible that
some faction of the ruling class might
offer other reformative models. In such
cases, the historical lesson from Chong­
qing will be invaluable in dispersing
any overly ambitious imaginations
among the left.
After the recent events. Bo Xilai has
gained widespread support among the
people and the left. At this point, it is
not clear what political role Bo will play
in the coming days. If in the future he
actually becomes a leader of the leftist
camp (which is not unlikely), the poten­
tial tension between the Chongqing
model and socialism might again split
the left. Of course we do not have to
worry about it now but this remains a
question for the future.

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14 Ap r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 B S 59 Economic & Political weekly

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Managing Childhood
Under-Nutrition
Role and Scope o f Health Services
RAJIB DASGUPTA, N K ARORA, SIDDARTH RAMJI, SANJAY CHATURVEDI, SNEH REWAL,
K SURESH, VAISHALI DESHMUKH, NEELIMA THAKUR___________________________________
This study provides insights to
some of the key functions of the
Integrated Child Development
Scheme and health services in the
management of childhood
under-nutrition in six key
empowered action group
states. It explores the underlying
process and determinants of
under-nutrition and the manner
in which these two key services
are playing out their role and
scope in contributing to the
management. Despite the recent
emphases on management of
under-nutrition, the health
services are yet to respond to
the enormous challenges in a
significant manner.
The study was conducted from the INCLEN
executive office. New Delhi. We thank the
Ministries of Health and Ministries of Family
Welfare and Departments of Women and
Child Development of the Governments of
India and Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, and Jharkhand
for supporting the study. We would also like to
thank the World Health Organisation (India)
and MCHSTAR-USAID for funding the study.
The authors are solely responsible for the views
expressed herein.
Rajib Dasgupta (dasgupta.jnu@gmail.com)
is the corresponding author. He teaches at the
Centre of Social Medicine and Community
Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi.
Economic &Political w e e k l y DDEB A p r il
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s the Eleventh Five-Year Plan draws
A to a close the phenomenon of the
“south Asian enigma”(characte­
rised by relatively higher levels of child­
hood under-nutrition compared to pov­
erty, food production and death rates)
continues to challenge policymakers,
planners, programme managers and
activists in finding appropriate and sus­
tainable solutions (Ramalingaswami
et al 2006). Sundararaman and Prasad
(2006) attributed this to relatively higher
levels of gender inequity. The modest
decline of under-nutrition levels bet­
ween the last two rounds of the National
Family Health Survey is well known
and India continues to remain off-track
from the Millennium Development Goal
(m dg-i) target. Prevalence of under­
weight children increased in eight states
(Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Har­
yana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and
Mizoram), remained stagnant in another
seven states and decreased in the
remaining states.
We share the findings from a qualita­
tive study un dertaken in six states that
sought to unravel some of the complexi­
ties around the “ enigma”touching upon
the intersections of the child, mother and
the family (both rural and urban poor
households) on one hand and the oppor­
tunities available in services (the Integra­
ted Child Development Scheme (icd s)
and health) on the other for addressing
the enigma. The focus was on six em­
powered action group (eag) states (one
district each): Bihar (Samastipur),
Jharkhand (Gumla), Orissa (Sonepur),
Madhya Pradesh (Tikamgarh), Rajas­
than (Chittorgarh) and Uttar Pradesh
(Mathura). State Hunger Indices (com­
puted for 17 major states) for all these
states fall among the “ alarming”category
except Madhya Pradesh which is labelled
as “ extremely alarming” (Menon et al
21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16
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COMMENTARY
2009). These states are also ranked
among the lowest in the Multidimen­
sional Poverty Index (mpi) of 22 states
recently released by the United Nation
Development Programme (undp) (Alkire
and Santos 2010). The prevalence of
under-nutrition according to the District
Level Health Survey (dlhs-2) among
under-five children in the districts
selected from these states ranged bet­
ween 50.7% and 65.2%. Significantly,
for all these six states the proportion of
rural population with low Standard of
Living Index (sli) went up by about 1%
between d l h s 2 and 3, except Rajas­
than; in contrast the corresponding
indicator in these districts went up by
10% or more, except Gumla (a decline by
about 3%).
Recognising Under-Nutrition
Despite the important position that pov­
erty and under-nutrition occupies in the
political and administrative agenda, it
was revealing that nearly half the state
and district-level technical officers (of
the departments of women and child
development and health) and district
magistrates grossly underestimated the
prevalence of child malnutrition in their
respective districts. A higher proportion
of block-level officials underestimated
the prevalence; they put it to about 10%,
perhaps referring only to the level of
severe under-nutrition. The panchayat
leaders and private practitioners were
similarly ignorant.
Mothers distinguished between an
undernourished and a well nourished
child by the “ physical appearance” . Half
the respondent households had children
with moderate under-nutrition and the
other half had children with mild under-
nutrition/normal weight for age (chil­
dren were weighed during the survey).
Mothers of both the groups misclassified
their children, unable to distinguish bet­
ween normal and undernourishment.
The provision of periodical monitor­
ing of children's weight (monthly for
children under two years and quarterly
for two to six years) under the i c d s is
aimed at addressing corrections at the
local level. Monitoring involves periodical
weighing and comparing serial records
with reference charts of weight-for-age,
15
COMMENTARY

identifying the undernourished and
their management. Management of an-
ganwadis includes nutrition counselling
for parents of undernourished grades i
and ii children and additional supple­
mentary feeding for grades h i and iv,
referral to nearest health facility and
follow-up of the child for sustained
actions to prevent any reversion. In con­
trast, the health department has the
mandate of assessing children’ s weight
at birth and at every contact thereafter
at home or at the facilities when the
child is brought for any illness. This
would enable them to identify under­
nutrition and take appropriate remedial
measure at every such encounter with
some improvement. The growth curve,
its interpretations and explanations,
were not shared by the a w w with
mothers; most of the advice was about
hygiene and sanitation, thus limiting
the usefulness of the exercise. One-third
of the a w w were not able to interpret
the graphs, leave alone explaining to
the mothers.
The district and sub-district level
supervisory officials pointed out the
challenges of running the supplementary
nutrition programme: staff shortages,
bad roads and mobility problems, dela­
yed release of funds and banking
problems particularly during the end/
beginning of the financial year. The sup­
its services and mushrooming of private
playschools in peri-urban and rural
areas. Thus, a sizeable proportion of
those vulnerable for under-nutrition
(under two years) did not get the benefit
of supplementary feeding.
Utilisation of the services by back­
ward castes was constrained by the loca­
tion of the a w c and the fact that most
mothers left home early for work or sea­
sonally migrated making it difficult for
young children to be reached to the a w c .
It was reported that there were less
class differences among pregnant women
beneficiaries than among children.
Starting additional a w c s and mini-
a w c s in areas with poor (geographical

the child and their family.
ICDS: Tough Challenges
It emerged from the triangulation that
feeding programmes at the anganwadi
plementary feeding was not available
for nearly 15-20% of the expected number
of feeding days (200/year). In practical
terms this means the children get sup­
plementary feeding for only about 50%
and social) access was a means to
increase the reach of the programme.
Most of the a w w s reported that they vis­
ited less than 10 houses a week; several
a w w s claimed that they visited houses

centres (a w c ) was well received by the
community though they expected quality
and variety of supplementary nutrition.
About half the respondent mothers
reported preschool education being im­
parted for children of 24-59 months and
nearly all the mothers reported provision
of immunisation and micro-nutrient
(iron-folate tablets and Vitamin a ) sup­
plementation. Surprisingly, two block-
level officials did not consider food sup­
plementation as a major concern. Most
anganwadi workers (a w w ) mentioned
weighing children at least once a month,
or more frequently. Maintenance of
weighing scales was a significant task
and weights were not taken when the
scales were out of order; repairs were
not a smooth process either. Our own
observations put the proportion of func­
tioning scales at about 25%. A majority
of mothers reported that children had
been weighed, one to three times.
Almost all mothers were aware of the
relevance of weighing, as a marker of
growth and development. Mothers of
about half of the sampled children were
informed, after weighing, that their chil­
dren were undernourished. Those with
severely undernourished children were
advised to seek healthcare from a doc­
tor. Food-related counselling was given
to those with mild and moderate under­
nutrition and many children showed
16
of the total days in a year. The a w w according to a predetermined schedule.
reported that the constraints included However, a majority of mothers reported
difficulties in distribution of food, poor that there were no home visits within
cooking infrastructure, inadequate space, the recall period of three months. Lack
lack of drinking water and living up to of home visits is a key constraint in chil­
the expectations of the communities dren under two. Of those visited, inter­
who demand better quality services. All views revealed that the advisories cov­
categories of respondents agreed about ered a range of issues including rest,
the underutilisation of the i c d s services; immunisation and micro-nutrients for
the most important causes included: pregnant mothers and feeding, hygiene
perception that this is a service for the and immunisation for infants and chil­
poor, lack of awareness of the a w c and dren. Health and nutrition sessions were
CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Thiruvananthapuram
Call for Papers for ESRC Seminar Series
Emerging Fertility Patterns in India: Causes and Implications
23-24 July, 2012, at CDS, Trivandrum
The Centre for Development Studies jointly with the University of St. Andrews,
UK and the University of Portsmouth, UK is organising the above seminar. We
welcome theoretical, methodological and substantive contributions, especially
comparisons between regions, states, and communities with low fertility and papers
considering the implications of the emerging patterns. Early career researchers and
Doctoral Scholars are particularly encouraged to submit abstracts.
Please send a one-page abstract (including title, aims, data, methods and conclusions)
to Professor Irudaya Rajan at rajan@cds.ac.ln and a copy to Dr Saseendran
Pallikadavath (8asee.palllkadavath®port.ac.uk) by May 31, 2012. Successful
authors will be notified by early June. The seminar is free and open to all; even if
you have no paper you can participate, but pre-registration is essential using the
above email. Early registration is recommended as space is limited. Limited funding
is available to meet travel and accommodation. Priority will be given to early career
researchers and Doctoral Scholars with innovative and high-quality abstracts. In your
e-mail application, please indicate whether you need funding.
A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16 DBQ Economic & Political w e e k l y

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being organised regularly, generally
once a month; often on the day of distri­
bution of take-home rations or in con­
junction with meetings of the mahila
mandals. The messages were generic
(giving good food, maintaining food
hygiene) but not child specific to address
under-nutrition.
Health Services: Serious Gaps
Most state-level officers were aware that
guidelines on under-nutrition issued by
national programmes and technical
bodies were available but many could
not specify them. The ambiguity of
guidelines were triangulated by the
district medical officers; most denied
having any such guidelines at the
facility level.
About half the surveyed districts did
not have a specialised unit for manage­
ment of undernourished children (nutri­
tion rehabilitation centre-NRc) though
all state- and district-level officers opined
the need for such units at the district
level. Some community health centres
(c h c s ) had n r c while many children
were also referred to the district level
both by the i c d s staff and the health staff
practising Integrated Management of
Neonatal and Childhood Illness (i m n c i ).
Currently, no such facilities are available
at the primary health centre (p h c ) level
though the National Rural Health Mission
(n r h m ) and Reproductive and Child
Health (r c h ) programme managers
spoke of strengthening this level. Private
sector health providers had no such
units and referred children to the n r c s
or hospitals. Most Accredited Social
Health Activists (a s h a s ) reported that
the auxiliary nurse midwives (a n m s )
were advising mothers on feeding and
referring the undernourished to health
facilities. Medical officers and private
practitioners were asked to describe the
methods for assessment of nutritional
status of children. A majority of them
mentioned weight, height and skin-fold
thickness. A few private practitioners
mentioned using the Indian Academy of
Paediatrics (i a p ) charts; only a few prac­
titioners were using laboratory tests to
assess nutritional status.
There was a perception among some
senior supervisory levels that communities
Economic & Political w e e k l y DDSI a p r il
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were not aware of the services available
at the health facilities and that explained
low utilisation. Also, under-nutrition
was not considered a health problem
and care-seeking was therefore low. A
majority of state- and district-level pro­
gramme managers and heads of
hospitals were however of the view that
inadequate human resources, poor
quality of services, lack of laboratory
support and poor timings were barriers
to efficient utilisation of services. Inade­
quate referral transport facilities, loss of
wages of poor parents and social barriers
of class and caste were additional
critical barriers.
Infections in undernourished chil­
dren complicated the management.
Most severely undernourished children
(grades in and iv) were admitted with
complications such as refusal to feed,
diarrhoea, pneumonia and rapid weight
loss. Though there was a compensation
of Rs 30 per day for those admitted in
the n r c s some parents found it difficult
to sustain the long period of nutritional
rehabilitation. The doctors reported that
follow-up services were conspicuous by
their absence. The a n m s and a s h a s were
reported to follow-up to some extent.
Observations of health facilities bro­
ught out some serious shortcomings.
Only two district hospitals had kitchens
equipped to provide special diets for
undernourished children. Tube feeding
was not available in about a sixth of the
district hospitals and half of the private
hospitals and c h c s . A quarter of all
health facilities did not have weighing
scales and 40% did not have measuring
tapes. One hundred and thirty children
each (in the age groups of six months to
two years and two to five years) were
observed across different categories of
health facilities. Weights were not recor­
ded for 75-80% of ambulatory patients
and height not recorded for 99%; no
attempt was made to plot their weights
for age on a chart and infer on nutritional
status. In about half the children a clini­
cal assessment of anaemia was made.
Two-thirds of the physicians questioned
mothers of children between six months
and two years about breastfeeding and
only 10% of the physicians probed about
complementary feeding. In the case of
21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16
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COMMENTARY
older children 80-90% of the physicians
did not enquire about patterns of feed­
ing altered by the current illness.
Discussion
“Nutrition dynamics”ought to be seen
over the life course and across genera­
tions. Between the National Family
Health Surveys (n fh s) 2 and 3, stunting
declined in all states while the propor­
tion of underweights went up in Bihar,
Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh; an
indicator of periods of acute scarcity
affecting large number of children.
The i c d s has its job cut out in the face
of chronic poverty and food shortages.
The failure of the Integrated Rural
Development Project, most marked in
Madhya Pradesh (and a few other states)
and the lack of microfinance institutions
(it has its critiques though) in the area
could propel a large number of families
into debt traps and a downward spiral of
chronic poverty (Kabeer and Subrah-
manian 1999). The proposed rejuvena­
tion of the i c d s - iv is thus keenly awaited
and shall be closely watched (http://
wcd.nic.in/1CDs4gl.pdf, viewed on 11May
2011). Centralised kitchens and efficien­
tly managed freshly cooked food distri­
bution systems could be a good business
model as well as ensure variety with
quality. The decision in May 2011 to
make i c d s services available to children
of migrant and temporary residents is a
positive step, brought about by relentless
advocacy. This has implications for the
vast majority of children of migrant
workers in the construction industry,
brick kilns, agriculture and other sec­
tors; a right that was being denied to
them since the inception of the scheme.
Running cr&ches (for under the under-
three year olds) for childcare with the
help of elderly women in the villages
(paid under m n r e g s ) may be a value-
added service under the i c d s .
The performance of the health servi­
ces left a lot to be desired. Village Health
and Nutrition Days (vh n d) have been in
operation for some time now and serious
evaluation is in order. Many district-
level officers expressed reservation
about the quality of its implementation,
agreeing that the concept was good but
its operationalisation was inadequate.
17
 E ssays from the E con om ic a n d P olitical

Village Society
Edited By
SURINDER S JODHKA

The idea of the village has occupied an important place in the history of post-Independence India.This volume presents
a set of readings which primarily focus on the social, political and cultural aspects of village life.
A comprehensive introduction provides a detailed historical analysis of the study of rural India, the changes in rural
social life, and the forces shaping life in villages today.
The articles, drawn from writings in EPW over four decades, cover various features of village society: caste and community,
land and labour, migration, discrimination and use of common property resources. They include writings by some of
Pp x + 252 Rs 325 the pioneers of the study of the Indian village as well as by contemporary experts. This volume caters to a renewed
ISBN 978-81-250-4603-5 interest in village society born partly by the need to understand caste discrimination in post-liberalised India and partly
2012 by the concern about contemporary agricultural stagnation and environmental degradation.

Authors:
M N Srinivas • Andre Beteille • Surinder S Jodhka • G K Lieten • K L Sharma • Mukul Sharma • G K Karanth • Partap C Aggarwal • Jishnu Das
• Roger Jeffery, Patricia Jeffery and Andrew Lyon • Leela Gulati • Sudha Pai and Jagpal Singh • Anil Kumar Vaddiraju • Dipankar Gupta • John Harriss,
J Jeyaranjan and K Nagaraj • N S Jodha

Environment, Technology and D evelopm ent

Edited By
R o h a n D 'S o u z a
Many political battles, policy initiatives, academic debates and our understanding of the world in general have been
shaped by the ideas that have developed around the concepts of environment, technology and development.
How do these concepts influence each other? How have they subverted established ideas and dogmas? How have
they developed over time and what are its varied meaning? This volume brings together writings across disciplines,
perspectives and ideologies that answer these questions, map the main conceptual lines and identify the points where
they converge and diverge.The articles have appeared over the past four decades in the Economic and Political Weekly.
The introduction provides a brief chronological overview of the theoretical underpinnings that led to the emergence
of the current notion of environmental development. The chapters are selected and arranged in a non-linear manner
that allows the reader to get a sense of the wide-ranging debates.

Authors:
T R Thankappan Achari • Manshi Asher • P A Azeez • Jayanta Bandyopadhyay • Charul Bharwada • Philippe Cullet
• Mahasveta Devi • Sumita Gupta Gangopadhyay • Hiren Gohain • Rahul Gupta • Barbara Harriss-White • L C Jain
• Annu Jalais • Ashwin Kumar • John Kurien • Vinay Mahajan • Arjun Makhijani • Dinesh Mohan • Dipti Mukherji • Chandrika Parmar • K Krishna Prasad
• P P Nikhil Raj • M V Ramana • C H Hanumantha Rao • Amulya Kumar N Reddy • Sunali Rohra • Vandana Shiva • Nigel Singh • Sudha Srivastava
• Geetam Tiwari • G Vijay • Gregor Meerganz von Medeazza • Shiv Visvanathan • Arundhuti Roy Choudhury.

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 COMMENTARY

The poor clinical diagnostic approaches
in a hospital setting holds up little hope
even when a child has reached a health
facility despite the barriers of access.
The health service system needs to gear
up to respond to these systemic failures.
A concerted action of i c d s and health
services, suitably backed by interven­
tions for the social determinants can
make some impact on the management
and prevalence of under-nutrition.
REFERENCES_______________________________
Alkire, S and M E Santos (2010): “ Acute Multi­
dimensional Poverty: A New Index for Devel­
oping Countries” , UNDP Human Development
Report, Research Paper 2010-11.
Kabeer, N and R Subrahmanian (1999): Institu­
tions, Relations and Outcomes, Kali for Women.
Menon, P, A Deolalikar and A Bhaskar (2009):
“India State Hunger Index: Comparison of
Hunger across States”Report IFPRI, WHH and
UCRiverside, Washington DC.
Ramalingaswami, V, U Jonsson and J Rohde
(2006): “ Commentary: The Asian Enigma”
The Progress of Nations 1996, UNICEF, viewed
on 11 May 2011; available at http://www.
unicef.org/pon96/nuenigma.htm.
Sundararaman, T and Vandana Prasad (2006):
Accelerating Child Survival, Book 3, Public
Health Resource Network, New Delhi.

Experiencing the preservation and maintenance of the

immeasurable documents that are being

Indian Archives churned out by them on daily basis. The

art of conserving, classifying and weed­
ing out of documents remains largely
unknown to us. The colonial state, indeed,
S H I L P I R A J P A L _____________________________________ had abetter sense of maintaining records
than the Indian republic. It would not be

I
Archives, where public records t was my doctoral research that
are preserved, are indispensable brought me face-to-face with the
reality of the Indian archives. By
for a healthy dialogue between
archives, I mean the repositories where
the “
past”and the “
present”
. But public records that are primary sources -
unfortunately, the Public Record viz, letters, reports, notes, memos, books
Act of 1993 is a piece of legislation and all sorts of data that are largely
historical in nature - are preserved. I am
without meaning because the
working on the history of madness; it
government neglects its role in meant a mad chase for all sorts of docu­
preserving records. Across the ments that concerned the everyday
country, government archives are working of lunatic asylums during the
British raj. My expedition started in the
in poor shape and few institutions
air-conditioned National Archives of
are taking an interest in India, New Delhi. The collection is rich
preserving records. This article, and the “ procure-ability”is compara­
based on personal experiences tively easy. But soon one came across the
problems that the National Archives
with the archives, appeals to the
faced regarding the arrangement, pres­
larger public and the academic ervation and availability of staff.
community to come together
Public Record Act of 1993
and save the documental legacy
First I need to briefly discuss here the
of India.
Public Record Act of 1993 which will
help to throw light on the existent state
of affairs related to the maintenance of
the public records in the government
sectors. The Public Record Act, passed in
1993, regulates the management, admini­
stration and preservation of public records
of the central government, union territory
administrations, public sector under­
takings, statutory bodies and corpora­
tions, commissions and committees con­
Shilpi Rajpal Gshilpi.rajpal@gmail.com) is a stituted by the central government. Unfor­
research scholar at the department of history, tunately, various governmental depart­
University of Delhi, Delhi.
ments have little clue regarding the
an exaggeration to say that the Indian
republic has no clue as far as the mainte­
nance of its public records is concerned.
When compared with the rest of the
world, the National Archives of India in
New Delhi is admittedly far behind in
terms of facilities and e-technology. It
is nevertheless comparatively better
organised than the other archives in the
country. Thus, leaving its confines and
making a visit to the National Medical
Library in Delhi gave a severe shock to
my historical sensibilities.
The National Medical Library, I found,
had an excellent collection related to
medical history, but the condition of the
records was (and continues to be) more
or less pathetic. The condition of the
books is so bad that often one has to use
surgical gloves and a mask in order to
protect oneself from various types of
allergies. The library authorities are
aware of the condition of the older books
but ignore it as in their understanding
historical records make no sense when
one is more concerned about the forward-
looking world of medicine and science.
My visits to other libraries and archives
in different states such as Patiala, Chan­
digarh, Amritsar, Lucknow and Agra also
gave me a serious jolt.
Every place has a story of its own. Un­
doubtedly, some of these state archives
exist only in name as the condition of
the archival material available is pitiable.
The Lucknow secretariat building has a
separate section for archival records.

Economic & Political weekly fiHICT Ap r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 19

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COMMENTARY
With enthusiasm and fervour to search
for something new and smell and feel
the old, I visited the secretariat building.
Soon I discovered that the building was
not open to a common researcher, al­
though no valid reason was offered for
this sort of prohibition. On persistence
enquiries and requests I was given entry
to the building. The librarian sounded
cynical as he claimed that it was eight
years since someone had last come to
work there. There was no light or place to
sit and work. The condition of the library
was horrendous because some years
ago, some “ forward-looking”people of
the secretariat library had decided to
dump the “ obsolete records” . They had
tied these old books and stuffed them in
a truck in order to dispose them off.
Luckily, the mishap was put to a stop
because the news spread and some offi­
cials intervened. The entry of scholars to
this section of the secretariat was closed
thereafter reportedly in order to cover up
the blunder. Nevertheless, intervention
did not mean preservation as the records
are still lying there in the same condi­
tion. In a similar manner, the jail records
of the United Provinces lying in the Amir
al-Dawlah Government Public Library of
Lucknow had been eaten up by termites.
The library is in a shameful state. It is in
a state of ruins and might come down
any time. It has plenty of old records and
is indeed a historian’ s treasure.
A visit to the Patiala State Archives
was equally shocking. The archives are
in a pitiable condition because of a
change in its location. The archives had
been shifted because the old building
had been transformed into a heritage
hotel by the Punjab government! One
can understand that in this age of com­
mercialisation heritage hotels are more
important than archives since the govern­
ment wants to make money from historic
objet d’art. The Chandigarh State Archives
was better-off and well-equipped, espe­
cially in comparison to some of the other
state archives. The Amritsar Govern­
ment Medical College is among one of
the oldest medical institutions in India.
It has a rich collection of books and other
documents related to medical history.
The college library has more than 5,000
books. But the collection is in a state of
20
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decay and the college authorities are more
than eager to destroy it. In fact, the staff,
on enquiry, actually stated that they are
in the process of getting a final order for
the destruction of these records.
Importance of Medical Records
My visit to other medical institutions in
the country brought me closer to the
harsh reality of the crisis that public
records are facing today. Visits to several
mental hospitals made me aware about
how much we seem to hate our past.
Senior members of the medical institu­
tions ridiculed the very idea of the preser­
vation of records. For them the “ past is
past”and has no relevance today. On be­
ing asked how in the absence of medical
records could one retrospectively analyse
the changing understanding and diagno­
sis of any particular disease over a period
of time, an uneasy silence prevailed. Some
doctors displayed their deep ignorance
regarding the significance of medical
records. In the medical profession, where
case histories play an imperative role in
understanding and conceptualising dis­
eases, this widespread ignorance cannot
be forgiven. This state of unawareness
reflects the ever-widening gap between
the sciences and the social sciences.
Making Mockery of the Law
Medical records are not the only ones
that are facing a crisis. The predicament
is all-pervasive as the condition of
records is pitiable in all the other sectors
of the government as well. Only a few
government sectors have their proper
archives - although the Public Record
Act of 1993 clearly states that every gov­
ernment body should maintain its record
(Public Records Act, 1993, Clause 2).
Further, the Act affirms that no public
record shall be destroyed or otherwise
disposed of except in such manner and
subject to such conditions as may be
prescribed. Whoever contravenes any of
the provisions shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which may
extend to five years or with a fine which
may extend to Rs 10,000 or with both
(Public Records Act, Clause 8). Indeed,
the Public Record Act was a module on
which the State Archives Acts were later
on enacted.
Ap r il 21, 2012
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Unfortunately, the Act has no meaning
because the government is playing a negli­
gible role in preserving records. Today, the
National Archives of India, the National
Mission for Manuscripts and the Nehru
Memorial Museum and Library are just a
handful of institutions that are playing a
significant role in the preservation of
public records. Other government depart­
ments and sectors are not even aware of
the Act. Nor has the government made
any attempt to spread awareness. In fact,
it would not be wrong to state here that
the Public Record Act of 1993 has itself
become an obsolete fact! Very few of us
are aware of this Act and it is used occa­
sionally. Till today the government has
not prosecuted any of its segments for
not maintaining its records properly.
Not only is the condition of most
archives in the country appalling, the
motivation of the archivists employed is
perhaps worse. Over the years, there has
been a constant downgrading in the
archivists’status and their salaries have
not increased as compared to that of their
counterparts working in the universities.
This sort of discrimination is affecting
the quality and the quantity of the people
interested in working in this sector. The
Government of India is aware of this
as in 1998, a committee was set up to
examine the pay structure of cultural
institutions and the university system.
The committee, which was set up under
the chairmanship of Ajai Shankar, had
concluded that there was an urgent need
to improve emoluments. But the Sixth
Pay Commission evaded the com m ittee’ s
suggestions and nothing has been done
so far to upgrade the pay structure. The
committee report has become an archive
that is only consulted by archivists in
order to put forward their demands re­
lated to increase in their salaries. These
demands though have not been heeded.
The striking aspect here is that one can,
therefore, get people unfit for the job. Take
the case of the woman who was in charge
of the records at one of the archives I
worked in. When asked to provide me
with the important files, she felt upset
with the sheer number of the files request­
ed. Her sensibilities were further offended
when I reminded her that in the National
Archives at Delhi scholars could request up
v o l x l v ii n o 16 13353 Economic & Political weekly

to 30 files in a day. On this she reprimand­
ed me and reminded me that she could put
a hold on my access to the archives.
There are a few government and private
sector institutions that have been main­
taining their records properly. For in­
stance, the Ministry of Defence is consci­
ously preserving its records in a number of
the repositories associated with the defence
establishments. The Marine Archives is a
recent creation. An “ Archives of Indian
Labour”was opened up in 1993 with the
help of the V V Giri National Labour Insti­
tute. Some of the universities such as the
Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Aligarh
Muslim University, the Jamia Millia Isla-
mia and the Panjab University, Chandi­
garh have their own archives. Recently
some of the private companies such as the
Tatas, the Birlas, and Godrej have opened
up their own archives. Newspapers too
generally maintain their records. Amongst
other organisations, maintaining their
Dalit Politics in Maharashtra
HARISH S WANKHEDE__________________
In their bid to maintain political
visibility, various factions of the
Republican Party of India have
struck up alliances with “
secular”
and “ non-secular”parties. They
have not adequately utilised the
progressive undercurrents of the
dalit consciousness to connect
with other deprived communities
to form a dynamic coalition.
Harish S Wankhede (enarish@gmail.com)
teaches at the Ram Lai Anand College
(Evening), Delhi University, New Delhi.
Economic & Political weekly QBQ A p r il 21, 2012
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own archives are the State Bank of India
and the Reserve Bank of India.
Conclusions
These are, however, the only few lauda­
ble examples which one can talk about.
The countless other departments have
no sense of record-keeping. For instance,
the records of municipalities, police rail­
ways, medical institutions, technical insti­
tutions, universities, colleges, and so on,
are in a dismal condition. We are gener­
ating innumerable records on a daily
basis but the question arises, are we
maintaining them? Do we have a sense
of record-keeping? If not, then what are
the reasons behind this sort of attitude?
Do we lack a sense of history? Is the
government responsible for the state of
records? Or are we, as responsible citizens,
to be blamed? Will posterity be able to
have access to these documents? It is
impossible to answer these questions.
he results of the recently conclud­
T ed municipal and zilla parishad
elections in Maharashtra have
been analysed in terms of “ gains and
losses” between the two dominant
political alliances, the Shiv Sena (ss)
and Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) on one
side and the Congress and Nationalist
Congress Party (ncp) on the other. How­
ever, these elections also saw one of the
factions of the Republican Party of India
(rpi) allied with the saffron combine
with the slogan “ Bhim Shakti-Shiv Shakti”.
The rpi led by Ramdas Athavale argued
that the persistent failure of the Con­
gress Party in accommodating the voice
of the dalits in its mainstream agenda
forced him to choose the bete noire of
dalit politics, the ss-bjp. Dalit poet and
activist Namdeo Dhasal echoed Athav­
ale when he said that this alliance would
free the dalits from the Congress Party
and help build a new politics in Mahar­
ashtra. A critical appraisal is in order
therefore to see what the results of these
v o l x l v ii n o 16
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COMMENTARY
But there is little doubt that our attitude
does reflect that we lack a sense of his­
tory. And we are responsible for this pro­
gressive decay of public records.
This article appeals to the larger public
and the academic community to come
together and save our documental legacy.
The past few decades have seen non­
governmental organisations like the
Indian National Trust for Art and Cul­
tural Heritage joining hands with the
government in order to preserve monu­
ments. The same sort of interest should
be generated in civil society in order to
preserve the old and conserve the new.
Scholars from various disciplines, and
historians in particular, should take
serious steps in order to spread awareness
regarding the importance of record­
keeping. Archives are indispensable for a
healthy dialogue between the “ past”and
the “present” . They are custodians of the
past and are the proofs of the present.
elections mean for the future of dalit
politics in the state.
The results show that the celebrated
political ideals of the dalit movement
are caught in a crisis and in the absence
of the dominant discursive theme of
dalit emancipation can no longer be
identified as the political ideology of the
oppressed. The various rpi factions are
reduced to insignificant locations with
token presence and the party's earlier
capacity to bargain for exclusive projects
for the welfare of dalits has also
dwindled considerably. The recourse to
“alliance-politics”overtly represents the
myopic vision of the dalit leadership
which is strategising mainly to remain
visible in the political scenario of Maha­
rashtra without bothering about the
principle ideals of the dalit movement.
RPFs Insipid Performance
Municipal elections in the 12 major cities
in the state took place on 16 February.
For the two conventional rival alliances
the Congress-Ncp and the s s -bjp the
results were a mixed bag. Cities like
Pune, Pimpri, Solapur and Amravati wit­
nessed the dominance of the Congress-
ncp combine whereas in Mumbai, Thane,
Nagpur, Ulhasnagar and Akola, the
21
COMMENTARY

s s -bjpemerged as the winner. The ss-
bjp successfully maintained their domi­
nance over the much coveted Brihan-
mumbai Municipal Corporation (bmc).
Interestingly, the Maharashtra Navnir-
man Sena (mns) performed exception­
ally well in most of the municipalities
and also became a decisive force in the
Nashik region (where it won 40 seats out
of 122). The Bahujan Samaj Party (bsp)
significantly improved its tally in the
local bodies as it won 25 seats in all
(Nagpur 12, Amravati six, Solapur three,
and two each in Thane and Ulhasnagar).
The Samajwadi Party also retained its
impressive space in Mumbai with nine
seats (it came second in 20 others). In
this context, the r p i’
s performance was
extremely disappointing.
The major factions of the rpi each went
with two rival groups in the municipal
elections. The rpi (Athavale) contested
all the municipal elections in alliance
with the s s -bjp combine. The other two
important groups (one headed by Prakash
Am bedkar’ s (Bahujan Mahasangh (bm),
and that by Sulekha Kumbhare and
Jogendra Kawade) contested in alliance
with the the Ncp-Congress. The ss -bjp
alliance offered the rpi -a a significant
number of seats in most of the regions,
though the results were dissatisfactory
on all accounts. In no municipal corpo­
ration did it win more than two wards
and only in Nashik is its performance
worth mentioning. There it won a re­
spectable number of six seats. The
results for the other factions of the rpi
were also poor. It is only in the Akola popular assumptions that the dalits had
municipal elections that the rpi (Ambed- about their secular commitments. In
kar) being an ally of the “ secular alli­ most of the wards, dalits form a signifi­
ance”showed a little might. It won seven cant vote bank and are influential in
seats and got the mayoral post. Apart tilting the results and as is well known
from Nashik and Akola, both the rpi even a small diversion of votes can have a
factions failed to make an impression. dramatic influence in the local elections.
Athavale has a considerable following
Dalit Voters among the dalits in Mumbai, Thane and
In the first decade following Independ­ Ulhasnagar. This shift of dalit voters
ence, Maharashtra remained a frontal site proved significant in electing many ss -bjp
of dalit activism under the leadership of candidates, especially in the bmc polls
Babasaheb Ambedkar. He visualised the (candidates from the saffron combine won
rpi as a liberal mass-based political organ­ elections from Dharavi and Sidharth
isation but his sudden demise in 1956 left Colony due to active support from the
the party unprepared to face obstacles. rpi in these areas). However, most of the
Since its inception (1956), it struggled rpi (Athavale) candidates lost the elec­
hard to make an impact over the electorate tions miserably. While the dalits voted
and was dubbed as a “ Neo-Buddhist party” . for the ss -bjp alliance the traditional
The Congress was the first to exploit the saffron voters did not return the favour.
situation. Influential leaders of the rpi The results also show that in these elec­
were co-opted and an alternative dalit tions the dalits voted for the non-secular
leadership was developed by the Con­ political outfits. This is seen from the seats
gress. In the later stages it formed a to­ won by the mns in Thane and Mumbai.
ken alliance with the rpi to influence It performed impressively well in the re­
and mobilise the dalit voters.1With the served constituencies and the wards
rise of parochial right-wing politics in dominated by the dalit population (all
the state, the rpi formed a secular alli­ seven wards in Dadar and a substantial
ance with the Congress to keep the s s - number of wards in Mahim, both with a
bjp combine out of power. However, strong dalit presence). In most of the
such alliances mostly treated the rpi as a wards, in which the mns stood second (i e,
means to impress the dalit voters rather in more than 80 seats) the mns received
than as a representative body of the dalit considerable support from the dalits and
constituency. Till recen tly dalit voters Muslims. This is also true of Nashik where
remained committed to secular politics the dalit population is considerable.
and rallied behind the Congress. On other fronts the dalits voted for the
The latest rpi (Athavale) alliance available alternatives that they considered
with the ss -bjp radically challenged the better than the r pi . For example, in the

E con om ic& P oliticalw E E K L Y

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Medicines for All: Unexceptionable Recommendations - 5 Srinivasan
Political Challenges to Universal Access to Healthcare - R Srivatsan, Veena Shatrugna
A Limiting Perspective on Universal Coverage - Rama V Baru
Human Resources in Health: Timely Recommendations, Some Lacunae and What about Implementation? - George Thomas
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 COMMENTARY

Vidarbha region (Nagpur and Amravati)
the bsp made up an impressive tally.
Nagpur which is considered the citadel
of the dalit movement showed no mercy
to the rpi and it drew a blank in this re­
gion. However, by winning 12 seats in
the Nagpur municipal election the bsp
demonstrated that a significant neo-
Buddhist voter section has started
adopting it as an alternative to the r pi .
The bsp also gained an impressive above
5% vote share in these elections. Due to
the presence of existing vibrant dalit
movements, this has proved to be a
fertile field for the bsp .
All the factions of the r p i , despite the
unsatisfactory municipal election results
for themselves, have claimed that their
alliance partners have won mainly be­
cause of the support of the dalit voters.
But in reality, the cumulative vote
percentage of all the r p i factions has
not crossed above 2% in any of the
municipal bodies.
Interpreting the Malady
The dalit political movement in Mahar­
ashtra under the leadership of the
various rpi factions seems to be receiv­
ing a short-term dose for a disease that
demands a sustained and total treat­
utilised the progressive undercurrents
of the dalit consciousness to connect
with other deprived communities to
form a dynamic “ umbrella coalition”
against the dominant social and politi­
cal elites. The leadership has remained
excluded from most of the concerns of
the oppressed masses and made the so­
cial and religious movements almost
like exclusive clubs, specifically related
to a certain community (mainly the Ma-
hars). The r p i has failed to provide lead­
ership, ideological orientation and polit­
ical principles to all groups struggling to
achieve a dignified representation in the
democratic relationships. In short, the
r p i is too weak to be the representative
voice of the dalits in Maharashtra.
In the absence of an impressive political
alternative to represent their interests
the dalits are looking towards parochial
parties like the mns and ss. The sus­
tained failure of secular outfits and the
r p i factions in providing concrete reme­
dies to overcome the social and econom­
ic maladies of the dalits has brought
these parties closer to the dalit voters.
Votaries of Bhim Shakti-Shiv Shakti ar­
gue that as a sustained alliance for the
future, this can be a creative strategy to
bring two contesting communities (dal­
by the Congress-Ncp. Thus the dalit
leadership can acquire a respectable po­
sition in the power structure of the state
and can rebuild its image as an impor­
tant player in the politics of Maharash­
tra. The possible merits of this political
alliance can significantly influence the
political culture of Maharashtra and can
open new avenues for other dalit groups
to rethink about associating with non­
secular political outfits. However, such a
game plan for limited political gains can
disturb the ethos of the dalit movement
in the state.
Conclusion
The results of local elections in Mahar­
ashtra demonstrate that the dalit voters
are in desperate search of alternatives
that can represent their interests in the
democratic sites. Their growing distance
from the rpi factions and the “ secular
parties” , has led sections of dalit voters
to choose lumpen-parochial options like
the s s and the m n s . Such trends spell
further damage for the robust and radi­
cal dalit sociocultural movement which
till recently has provided a strong frame­
work to dalit consciousness.
n o t e __________________________________________

ment. Athavale’ s political camaraderie
with the saffron combine or that of the
“secular alliance”of the rpi with the
Congress-Ncp fundamentally neglect the
need to build assertive socio-economic
struggles over the questions of social
emancipation and representative demo­
cracy under the independent leadership
of the socially marginalised communi­
ties. Further, such alliances prevent con­
scious engagement with other marginal­
ised sections, mainly Muslims, tribals
and the most backward classes ( m b cs) in
order to form a unified front against the
political establishment dominated by the
social elites. Such alliances only offer the
rpi factions a parasitic influence and
keep them as passive players in the pow­
er circles of Maharashtra. Their presence
thus has no impact on the growing politi­
cal problems of the dalits and other de­
prived sections in the state.
The current factions of the rpi are
indifferent to the ideas of democratic
struggles. They have not adequately
its and the non-Maratha upper castes) 1 The first alliance was formed between the Con­
gress and Dadasaheb Gaikwad led RPI in late
into an alliance to challenge the political 1960s which later on became the responsible
control of the Maratha elites represented factor for the splinters in the RPI.
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Economic & Political w e e k l y B D A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16 23

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 EPW Research Foundation (a u n i t o f s a m e e k s h a t r u s t )

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24 a p r i l 21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16 QB59 Economic & Political w eekly

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Delhi Metro Rail
Beyond Mass Transit
PRITPAL RANDHAWA
A decade has gone since the first
line of metro started in Delhi
in 2002. Despite its expansion
across the city in the past 10 years
neither pollution nor congestion
levels have gone down as claimed
by its advocates. An analysis of
the revenue generated by the
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation
through property development
and the rise of property prices
adjacent to metro routes and
stations suggests that the metro is
entangled with the larger process
of gentrification in the city. It is
restructuring urban space for
capital accumulation by a series
of dispossessions of the poor and
by giving priority to metro routes
for middle class colonies. Thus
the metro may fulfil the dreams
of the ruling class and their city
planners of transforming Delhi
into a “world class city” . But so far
it has failed to provide equitable
mass transit to the city.
Pritpal Randhawa (pritpalrandhawa@gmail
com) is a researcher based in Delhi associated
with the STEPS Centre, University of Sussex,
UK.
Economic & Political weekly QQQ a p r il
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he need for a mass transit in Delhi
T was first mentioned in 1969 in a
traffic and travel characteristics
study done by the Central Road Research
Institute ( c r r i) . Several studies were
since conducted by different government
agencies to explore the possible techno­
logy for such a mass transit (Shreedharan
2002). However, the metro rail was chosen
as an appropriate technology of mass
transit only in the 1990s on the basis of a
feasibility report prepared by the Rail
India Technical and Economic Services
( r i t e s ) (1995a). In 1995, with an equity
participation of the Government of
India ( g o i) and the Government of
National Capital Territory of Delhi
( g n c t d ) , the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation
( d m r c ) was established to carry out the
construction of the Delhi Metro Rail (dm r).
The construction of the d m r started in
October 1998 and by December 2011, two
phases of the d m r network were complet­
ed consisting of six lines with the length
of 190 km and 142 stations ( d m r c 2011).
Studying the Metro
The d m r project has attracted some aca­
demic interest in the past few years. The
Transport Research and Injury Prevention
Programme (t r i p p ) based at the Indian
Institute of Technology (iit ), Delhi, has
led the discourse on the project right
from its inception. One of the earlier
studies done by t r i p p illustrates that the
transport systems planning of India is a
case of overrunning costs and under utili­
sation of capacity. Further, the high
capacity systems do not necessarily gen­
erate high demand and that the estima­
tion of passenger demand for transit
services should consider complete jour­
ney of commuters including access time
(Advani and Tiwari 2005). Another study
by t r i p p argues,
...Metro systems were the obvious choice
when relatively inexpensive cars and
two-wheelers were not available. With the
21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16
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COMMENTARY
introduction of efficient buses, computer
and information technologies to manage
large fleets...bus rapid transit systems with
dedicated lanes seem to be the only choice
for providing affordable mass transport in
our cities (Mohan 2008:41).
Alongside t r i p p ’s techno-planning
analysis, there are also some other studies
on the metro project. From an urban
studies perspective it has been suggested
that d m r in the city has created an all­
round “ positive im age” , which, of course,
is not the true picture as the d m r also
has other physical and societal implica­
tions that do not necessarily satisfy the
public transportation need of the city
(Siemiatycki 2006). Roy (2007) argues
that “ metro is part of a larger agenda
driven by a group of select ‘ stakeholders’
to transform Delhi into a ‘ world class
city’ for facilitating and encouraging in­
flow of global capital” . Ethnography of
the metro proposes that it has created
three different types of spaces in the city
- a “ new cultural geography”in the
city’s landscape; spaces within the d m r
(its trains and stations) and “ spatial im-
aginaries”experienced by an individual
commuter (Sadana 2010). This article
contributes to such ongoing discussions
on the d m r by contesting the claims
made by its proponents during its incep­
tion and by situating it within the larger
context of urban politics. It argues that
the d m r is not essentially an energy effi­
cient mass transit technology as claimed,
rather it is an infrastructure project
linked to the process of gentrification in
the city, led by a neo-liberal imagination
of restructuring urban space to accumu­
late capital that is necessarily followed
by a series of dispossessions.
The article is structured in four parts.
The first part examines the claims that as
a mass transit technology the d m r would
reduce congestion and pollution in the
city by encouraging car and motorbike
users to shift to public transport. It also
discusses the issue of the d m r earning
carbon credits for being an “ energy effi­
cient”technology. The second part shows
how the d m r is intensifying gentrifica­
tion in the city through its involvement
in property development and speculation.
The third part discusses the implications
of the d m r for the marginalised sections
of the city. By examining displacement by
25
COMMENTARY i- ^i - - =
the metro project, connectivity of metro
routes in middle class localities and the
fare structure, it explains the links between
capital accumulation and dispossession.
The final part of the article concludes
that even though the d m r is projected as
a means of improving connectivity in
the city, it is actually fragmenting it by
creating inequitable public transport.
Pollution, Congestion
and Energy Efficiency
The idea of a rail-based mass transit
system in Delhi was largely driven by
the alarming growth of private vehicles,
as also an increasing demand of public
buses in the city. The government was
concerned that if timely measures were
not taken, the pollution and congestion
levels would further deteriorate in the
city. To improve both the quality and
availability of mass transport service, a
non-polluting rail-based mass transit
system was considered the way forward
(g n c t d 1996). Subsequently, the execu­
tion of rail-based mass transit plan was
accelerated and its construction began
in 1998. During the initial stages of the
construction of the d m r , the managing
director of d m r c , E Shreedharan rearti­
culated the governm ent’ s concern behind
the d m r project. He stated,
It [the d m r ] will be much more than a cheap
and safer means of transport. It will reduce
congestion on roads making movement
easier. It will also reduce atmospheric pollu­
tion to a great level making the environment
healthy...the metro will totally transform
our social culture giving us a sense of dis­
cipline, cleanliness and enhance multifold
development of this cosmopolitan city
(Sreedharan 2002:83).
The utility of the metro as a rapid
mode of mass transit technology is un­
questionable because in comparison to
other modes of public transport, it takes
less time for long distance travel. How­
ever, claims that the metro would also
contribute to reducing pollution and
congestion in the city seem to be exag­
gerated. Evidence suggests that despite
the expansion of the metro in Delhi,
both the pollution and congestion levels
are gradually rising, the metro expansion
having not been tied up with any policy
prescriptions on curbing the growth of
private vehicles.
26
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Delhi currently has more motorised
vehicles on its roads than those that ply
on the roads of Mumbai, Kolkata and
Chennai. Government data suggests that
the motorised vehicles in Delhi have
increased from 35.5 lakh in 2001 to about
64.5 lakh in 2010 (g n c t d 2010). The major
contributors to this growth are cars and
two-wheelers. The number of cars in­
creased from 9.7 lakh in 2001 to 20.1 lakh
in 2010, while the two-wheelers increased
from 22.6 lakh to 40.7 lakh over the same
period.1 One media report states that a
total of 1,317 new vehicles including cars,
two-wheelers and commercial vehicles are
being added to D elhi’ s vehicular popula­
tion every day. More than 60% of these
new vehicles are two-wheelers (Mathur
2011). A comparison of the compound
growth rate of motorised vehicles in Delhi
before and after the d m r also substanti­
ates this trend. The annual growth of
motor vehicles in Delhi was 6.7% bet­
ween 1991 and 2001, and 6.8% between
1998 and 2008 (g n c t d 2002 and 2009).
Regarding the issue of pollution, a
study done by the Centre for Science and
Environment (c s e ) on pollution levels in
Delhi illustrates that in 2001 the annual
average level of respiratory suspended
particulate matter (r s p m , or p m i o ) in
residential areas stood at 149 microgram
per cubic metre. After registering a drop in
2005, the level shot up to 209 microgram
per cubic metre in 2008. The concentra­
tion is thus around three times higher
than the safe levels. Eight-hourly maxi­
mum current level of carbon monoxide
(co) is touching 6,000 microgram per
cubic metre - way above the safe level
of 2,000 microgram per cubic metre -
though the annual levels have registered a
drop. Levels of nitrogen dioxide (n o 2),
though lower than the standard in most
areas, have also been increasing mar­
ginally (c s e 2008).
Overall, the figures above illustrate that
the d m r has not contributed to bringing
down pollution and congestion. And it is
unlikely that it will happen so in the
future, unless supplemented by disin­
centives on cars and motorcycles and
there is an improvement in other modes
of public transport. In the past few years,
the government has tended to actively
encourage car and motorcycle usage by
A p r il 21, 2012
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widening roads and constructing flyo­
vers.2 Alongside, it has dismantled the
public bus service by cancelling 120 bus
routes adjacent to the metro lines.3
The connection that was made between
the d m r and reduction of pollution and
congestion was recast in the later years
as “ energy efficiency” , popularised by
the discourses of climate change. Under
the umbrella of climate change mitiga­
tion strategies, the d m r was vastly publi­
cised as an energy efficient Clean Devel­
opment Mechanism (c d m ) project cater­
ing to an important aim of saving fossil
fuels. In 2011, the d m r became the first
railway project in the world to get carbon
credits from the United Nations (u n ). It
has since earned carbon credits worth
about Rs 47 crore annually for the next
seven years (t n n 2011). The certifica­
tion, as part of the c d m under the Kyoto
Protocol, says that the d m r c has helped
in reduction of harmful gases into the
city’ s atmosphere.
An unpublished report of a study by
Sarai of the Centre for the Study of
Developing Society in 2011 on climate
change and cities, however, questions
the energy efficiency claim of the d m r .
It points out that while the direct use of
fossil fuel based energy in a mode of
transport - electricity in the case of metro
rail - amounts to reduced fuel consump­
tion, its impact in terms of making people
stay farther away from their workplace
may translate into a larger consumption
of energy itself. Moreover, there needs
to be an assessment of how the infra­
structure of metro rail system itself con­
sumes huge amounts of resources -
when metals, electricity, etc, are put to
use to make the metro rail system func­
tional. It needs to be seen whether it
translates into extension of accumulated
energy consumption (Sharan et al 2011).
The standard solution offered to the
environmental problem in capitalist eco­
nomies is to shift technology in a more
benign direction: more energy-efficient
production (Foster 2000). d m r c can earn
carbon credits by projecting the d m r as
an energy efficient technology through
abstract calculations but in reality the
problems of pollution and congestion
still persist as it is linked to the larger
socio-economic processes in the city. In
v o l x lv ii n o 16 Q2Q Economic & Political w e e k l y

the words of Foster, “
it is not technology
that constitutes the problem but the
socio-economic system itself’(ibid).
Intensifying Gentrification
Gentrification is a state strategy whose
primary objective is to convert low rent
spaces into high rent spaces: to reorganise
urban space by displacing older, lower
value, historical, land uses for newer
capital-intensive development that absorb
surplus capital and fix it in physical
infrastructure and land (Smith 1996).
The process of gentrification in Delhi
started after the introduction of neo­
liberal policies in the early 1990s result­
ing in the clearance of land by closing/
relocating industries operating in the
non-conforming zones4 and demolition
of slums inhabited by the urban poor.
Two controversial orders of the Supreme
Court in 1996 and 2000 resulted in the
closure of hundreds of industries, leav­
ing thousands of workers unemployed
(Navlakha 2000). Alongside, under the
slum clearance schemes, between 1990
and 2007, around 90,000 houses were
demolished (Bahn 2009). The land for­
merly considered as public and owned
by the Delhi Development Authority (d d a )
was released to private developers for
different purposes. On several occasions,
land-use plan assigned in D elhi’ s Master
Plan (d m p ) was interfered with, in order
to provide legal cover for various com­
mercial projects across the city (Roy
2004). This resulted in a huge spurt
in the construction of business and
commercial centres, hotels and restau­
rants, malls, amusement parks, multi­
plex cinema halls, etc.
On its part, the d m r has contributed
significantly to the gentrification process
by actively remaking urban space through
creating and promoting capital-intensive
real estate development and speculation.
In 1996, while sanctioning Phase-i of the
d m r , the union cabinet mandated that
approximately 7% of the initial project
cost should be generated through prop­
erty development on land transferred to
d m r c for the project. Most of the land was
made available to d m r c on a 99-year
lease at nominal rent at interdepartmen­
tal transfer rates. The d m r c set up a Prop­
erty Development Wing in 1999 for the
Economic & Political weekly tSRICT a p r il
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implementation of this scheme. Planning
of property development work was taken
up under different types of arrangements
including six to 12 year licence for spaces
within station buildings for commuter-
related vendors, a 30 years’concession
for commercial developments on vacant
land pockets adjacent to metro stations,
long-term lease (50-90 years) on land
pockets, and in depots, etc, not immedi­
ately needed for operational structures
and advertisement through agencies
( d m r c 2011).
One of the first major projects under­
taken by the d m r c for property develop­
ment was the Information Technology
(it) Hub at Shastri Park. This project was
approved by the Government of India as
a sector specific special economic zone
(sez). The total plot area was 12 hectares.
One block of the 30,000 square metre
floor area was completed in 2005 and
another one of similar size has been
completed in 2011. These are being rented
out to information technology enabled
services (ites) operators. There is also a
proposal to construct such kinds of
additional buildings on this 12-hectare
plot of land in the future and operate it
as an iT-specific s e z ( d m r c 2011). There
are also other examples of property
development by the d m r c on the land
available on both sides of the metro lines.
A media report in 2006 published details
of the areas in the city where the d m r c
was planning to develop residential and
commercial property on different routes
of Phase-i of the d m r. This included resi­
dential property in six different loca­
tions on 2,12,026 sqm of land and com­
mercial property in nine different loca­
tions on 66,464 sqm of land5 (Sinha
2006). The information available on
d m rc’ s website suggests that substantial
development work has been completed
on the same on Phase 1routes. The d m r c
website also indicates similar plans for
the routes of Phase 11 ( d m r c 2011).
It should be noted here that the Delhi
Master Plan 2021, which was notified in
2007, but drafted in the early 2000s,
specifically discusses the role of the
metro in densifying the city, leading to
the formation of high-density and high-
rise commercial development. It thus
provided different building by-laws and
21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16
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=-=■'== ■ COMMENTARY
land use norms for all segments of land
within 500 metres of any metro line,
specifically increasing the Floor Area
Ratio (f a r ) and allowing denser and
higher buildings to be constructed (d d a
2007). This demonstrates the manner in
which the metro has been envisaged as
a strategic infrastructure project for
rebuilding Delhi into a more capital-
intensive and commercially oriented city.
Thus, while the land given to the d m r c
for the metro was meant to be for the
public good of the city’ s residents, it is
currently being sold off or leased out to
private developers for speculative pur­
poses, and virtually none of the land
acquired by the d m r c that is not occu­
pied by the metro rail is being used for
public purposes. The d d a has persistendy
argued that there is a shortage of land in
the city to house the poor; on this basis
the d d a has increasingly been displacing
the urban poor to the city’ s peripheries.
If there is no land available in the city
then how is the d d a managing to pro­
vide the d m r c with such a huge land
area for property development?
The accounts of the d m r c given in its
annual reports suggest that the genera­
tion of revenue through property devel­
opment has been growing steadily. The
major sources of its income are from
traffic operation, consultancy, real estate
and others. The figures show that between
2002 and 2005 there was no significant
growth in the income of d m r c under
various heads but one can witness a
sudden shift in the figures of income
generation between 2006 and 2009. The
income from traffic operations increased
from Rs 2.4 crore in 2003 to Rs 113.2 crore
in 2006 and to Rs 392.8 crore in 2009,
while the income under real estate has
increased from Rs 1.7 crore in 2003 to
Rs 296.2 crore in 2006 and Rs 244.1
crore in 2009. It has to be noted that real
estate comprises 65.9% of the total in­
come generated by d m r c in 2005-06
(d m r c 2003 to 2009).
Alongside the process of property
development, the d m r is also contribut­
ing to the rise of real estate prices in
the city. A study done by the Centre for
Environment, Planning and Technology
(c e p t ) in Ahmedabad highlights that a
metro station in the locality pushes up
2 7
COMMENTARY
prices by at least 22%. The impact of the
d m r on real estate can be seen in three
phases including the pre-construction
phase (1990-96), the under-construction
phase (1996-2000) and the post-con­
struction phase (2001-06). It is found
that property rates jumped significantly
after the d m r began operations, although
there was only a slight increase in the
value in the two previous phases. The
study further suggests that the property
prices around stations that are at the
peripheries of the city have considerably
closed the gap with those at the city
centres. Prices along the Dwarka and
Rithala routes have risen significantly
and the prices are highest within 500 m
of the d m r routes. As one moves farther,
the impact on prices begins to decrease.
Proximity to the metro has also proved
beneficial for commercial properties. In
commercial areas, the land value within
500 m increased by 18.1%. In residential
areas, land value within 500 m of the d m r
line increased by 11.3% averagely. The
threshold value for residential properties
is approximately up to 500 m from the
metro line, whereas the limit increases
to approximately 800 m for commercial
properties (Swamy 2009).
In addition to sale prices, the rental
values for office spaces and residential
flats in Delhi have also increased. For
instance, the houses that were available on
rent in the range of Rs 3,500-5,000 per
month along the blue and red lines, such
as residential colonies of Dwarka, Janak
Puri, Kirti Nagar, Karol Bagh, Rajender
Nagar, Shastri Park, Kanhaiya Nagar,
Keshav Puram, Kohat Enclave, Pitam
Pura, Rohini, etc, shot up to Rs 5,000-
Rs 8,000 a month for two-bedroom
accommodation immediately after the
arrival of the d m r (r p Forum 2005).
Thus, it can be argued that the d m r c
is playing a significant role in the process
of capital accumulation through develop­
ing property. It is generating revenue as a
landowning agency - a surrogate landlord
under the guise of a public body operating
for the common good - and a part of the
surplus generated by land development
is being further employed to acquire land
to earn yet more surplus, much of which
benefits the private sector at the expense
of diminishing public land.
28
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Accumulation by Dispossession
David Harvey argues that capitalist
accumulation is always in concurrence
with dispossession, termed as “ accumu­
lation by dispossession” , a concept that
draws upon the notion of “ primitive ac­
cumulation” explicated by Marx. The
concept of accumulation by disposses­
sion reveals a wide range of processes
including commodification and privati­
sation of land and forceful expulsion of
local and squatter; conversion of various
forms of property rights-commons into
exclusive private property rights, dis­
missal of rights to the commons, and so
on. Further, the state, with its monopoly
of the means of violence and the power
to define legality, plays a crucial role in
both backing and promoting these proc­
esses (Harvey 2004). The d m r has accel­
erated the processes of dispossession in
the city through: (1) displacement of
slums for its construction; (2) designing
metro routes in favour of middle classes;
and (3) keeping high fares.
According to the Environment Impact
Assessment (e i a ) of Phase-i of the d m r ,
2,502 slum clusters were supposed to be
displaced due to its project (r i t e s 1995b).
The construction of Phase 1was completed
in 2005, but no credible and verifiable data
is available on how many people were
displaced during that time. As per the data
acquired through the Right to Information
Act in 2005 from the Municipal Corpora­
tion of Delhi (m c d ), 699 slum squatter
families (approximately 3,500 people)
inhabiting the land-owned by the m c d
were displaced (g n c t d 2005). There is
also no data available in public domain
regarding the displacement of people from
the land owned by the d d a , railways or
any other agencies. Since the e i a report
of 1995was applicable to only some of the
sections of the Phase 1of the project, and
there have been adhoc extensions into
other areas, there is a possibility that
many more families would have been dis­
placed. Furthermore, the e i a does not
mention anything aboutthe demolition
and displacement that unfolded in the
process of property development along
the d m r corridors.
The d m r has undermined the rights of
the poor by giving priority in designing
routes for middle class localities. The
Ap r il 21, 2012
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d m r project has been modified several
times since it was first proposed. The first
modification took place in 1995 when
r i t e s prepared the e i a for Phase 1of the
d m r . In this, Phase 1 was divided into
eight operational sections including
Vishwavidyalaya - i s b t , i s b t - Connaught
Place, Connaught Place - Central Secre­
tariat, Shahdara - i s b t , i s b t - Shakur
Basti, Shakur Basti - Nangloi, Subzi
Mandi - Siraspur, and Siraspur - Holam-
bikalan (r i t e s 1995b).
There was further remodification after
the actual construction started, such that
the necessary eight operational sections
originally proposed were reduced to three:
Shahdara-Tri Nagar-Rithala, Vishwavidya-
laya-Central Secretariat, Indraprastha-
Barakhamba Road-Dwarka sub city
(d m r c 2011), thus comprising only the
first four sections of the modified Phase
1, along with additional lines to Rithala
and Dwarka. The other four sections
were simply cancelled during the actual
implementation of the plan. It should be
noted that the sections that were can­
celled were mainly connected to the ar­
eas largely inhabited by the poor popula­
tion of the city. The new sections added in
the Phase 1and sections of the Phase 11,
which are now fully operational, clearly
indicate the utility of the d m r for the
middle class population of the city.6
A careful reading of the localities cov­
ered in these two phases illustrates that
these routes were systematically design­
ed to integrate middle class colonies with
business and shopping centres both
within the National Capital Territory
(n c t ) and National Capital Region (n c r ).
This view could be contested by high­
lighting that that the metro lines are also
connected to the poor localities such as
Sahadra, Jahangirpuri, Nangloi, etc. But
then, one may also question: why are
there only a few such names of colonies
in the present and proposed routes of
metro, whereas it is estimated that ap­
proximately 50% of D elhi’ s population
lives in such localities across the city?
The fare slabs of the d m r are also a
case of concern. At present, in comparison
to the public bus fare of a minimum of Rs 5
and a maximum of Rs 15, the d m r has a
fare structure with a minimum ticket
price of Rs 8 and a maximum of Rs 30
vol XLVII NO 16 HaVi Economic & Political weekly

(d m r c 2011). This means that the d m r is
out of reach of those who are earning
low wages. Unlike the d t c , which offers
concession to students, daily commuters,
senior citizens, etc, the metro does not
provide any concession to any category
of commuters. All it offers in the name of
concession is a 10% bonus travel on
“smart cards” , which require a minimum
purchase of Rs 100 and can be used for
multiple trips (d m r c 2011).
To sum up, as a public infrastructure
project, the d m r has had severe impacts on
the poor section of the public. In the name
of land acquisition for “ public interest” ,
the houses of the poor have been demol­
ished to pave way for the construction of
the d m r and property development, while
the d m r has not found any need to demol­
ish the houses in the elite localities, byway
of underground construction. To establish
this mass transit system, a huge amount of
public money has been invested, but it has
largely benefited the middle classes,
owing to their important role in the chang­
ing production and consumption relation­
ship in the city (Fernandes 2001).
Conclusions
This article argues that the d m r that
was brought into the city as a mass tran­
sit technology to overcome the crisis of
public transport is strongly implicated
within the changing urban politics in
Delhi. It challenges the claims made by
its advocates that the d m r would reduce
pollution and congestion by demonstrat­
ing that despite the expansion of metro
routes across the city, the pollution and
congestion levels have not gone down as
the d m r has failed to attract cars and
motorbike users. The paper further sug­
gests that the claims of the d m r as an
energy-efficient technology need to be
understood through an evaluation of the
overall energy consumed by the d m r
during its construction and operation.
Technological interventions cannot over­
come the crisis of pollution and congestion
unless they are linked with other socio­
economic factors in the city. It illustrates
how the d m r is accelerating the process of
gentrification by highlighting the growth
of revenues generated by the d m r c through
property development and noting the
rising prices of property adjacent to the
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metro stations and routes. Finally, the
article argues that the d m r has also con­
tributed to the processes of dispossession
by not only demolishing houses of the
poor for its construction, but also by
creating a fragmented and polarised
public transport system.
NOTES
1 According to the Statistical Abstract 2010 of
GNCTD, the percentage distribution o f cate­
gories of motor vehicles in Delhi shows that there
has been a rapid increase in the number of cars
and two wheelers during the decade, while
there has been a decline in the other categories
of vehicles. The data shows that in 2010 about
62.8% o f motor vehicles were two-wheelers
and 31.2% were cars. In comparison, buses that
comprised 1.2% of the vehicle population o f the
city in 2001 were reduced to 0.89% in 2010.
2 It is estimated that till 2011 approximately 80
flyovers were constructed in Delhi.
3 See report titled “The City and the Metro”on a
national level round table organised by Parisar,
Pune, 2010.
4 The area earmarked in Delhi Master Plan for
the planned development of industries in the
city.
5 The localities for residential purpose include
Khyber Pass, Rithala, Vishwavidyalaya, Dwarka,
Netaji Subash Nagar and Najafgarh. The loca­
lities for commercial purpose include Shahdara,
Inderlok, Inderlok Annexe, Pratap Nagar, Tis
Hazari, Seelampur, Welcome, Kashmiri Gate.
6 Some of the popular middle class localities in
Phase I and Phase II of the DMR are Rohini,
Dilshad Garden, Dwarka, Model Town, Vaishali,
Noida, Gurgaon.
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COMMENTARY
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carbon-credits-ghg-emission-cdm).
29
COMMENTARY
Memories o f a Good Man
M A Iqbal (1945-2012)
NANDINI SUNDAR
M A Iqbal left a comfortable
government job in Nagpur to
settle in Bastar becoming in
the course of time friend and
guide to the local people and
maintaining an open house
for visiting anthropologists,
environmentalists and journalists.
In the process he touched the
lives of countless people who
rated his friendship as a blessing.
This is an account from one such
admirer and friend.
Nandini Sundar (nandinisundar@ yahoo.com )
teaches s o c io lo g y at the U niversity o f Delhi.
30
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here was a time not so long ago,
T before hard-nosed journalists in
search of a story, smug security
experts and the victim-focused human
rights activists began descending on Bastar,
when the only visitors were anthro­
pologists and environmentalists. For them,
the first stop was always Asna village on
the northern bank of the Indrawati just
across from Jagdalpur. When you got off
the bus and asked for the house of the
patrakar (journalist), you were directed
to a low-lying compound, off the high­
way, in the midst of which was an old
fashioned white two-storeyed building.
Here, on the second floor lived Iqbal and
Kala, with their three small children,
Puniwati, Shabnam and Birsa, a small
fawn called Jhumki, a dove and a dog
called Bhalu Rani (later joined by a
friendly cat, some chickens and a whole
variety of unusual plants, which Iqbal
identified and tended with care).
There were always relatives and
friends visiting - for advice, for succour,
for a chat. Conversations were frequen­
tly interrupted by villagers who needed
help in filling out an official form, or
navigating some bureaucratic hurdle.
When I first visited in the summer of
1990, I found a young adivasi couple
from Narayanpur who had eloped and
were taking shelter there. Artists and
foresters would come by to discuss sub­
jects as varied as the Bastar maina, tech­
niques for making memorial stones, or
how the pata (saree) weave differs
among Bhatras and Dhurwas. When he
died, Iqbal was making plans with his
nephew Shad to make an illustrated
poster of poisonous snakes and distrib­
ute it in the villages of the Kanger forest.
Armed with an introduction from the
anthropologist Savyasaachi, who spent
years doing fieldwork on shifting culti­
vation in Abujhmarh, I was soon added
to Iqbal’ s extended family. In 1992, for
about six months doing archival work in
a p r il
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
the Jagdalpur record room, I lived in the
rooms on the ground floor, and ate up­
stairs with them. Later, when I shifted to
Kukanar some 70 kms away, I would
come “ home”every three weeks or so, to
phone my parents from Jagdalpur, pick
up mail, and discuss with Iqbal all the
new things I had learnt. A racing bike
left behind at Iqbal’ s house by Madhu,
another anthropologist, was loaned to
me. It was almost as if Iqbal and Kala
made up a clearing house for young an­
thropological souls. As long as Iqbal was
there, my parents felt safe letting me go
to what even in the early 1990s was con­
sidered a dangerous place, even if in
comparison to the present those seem
positively bucolic times. And even though
in recent years obsessed by the horrors of
Salwa Judum, I had not spent much time in
Asna, always going beyond to Dantewada
or Bijapur, I knew that wherever I
wandered and whatever happened to
me, he would rescue me. Theirs was a
home I could visit without prior intima­
tion, and even if it was 3 am, the door
would be opened by Iqbal or Kala and
after receiving a warm hug I would curl
into my usual place to sleep. In the
morning, he would complain about my
fleeting visits, and demand I spend some
proper time with them. The day he died,
I visited him in hospital. He was gasping
for breath, but smiled and said softly,
“ghumo, ghumo, ghumo (wander, wander,
wander)” . It felt like a benediction. As
Nagji, a lawyer and their closest family
friend said that night, “ a chapter in our
lives has closed” .The hard part of growing
old is not just watching people you love die,
but knowing there is now no backstop.
Life beyond Accounts
In 1978, a handsome six-feet tall young
man from Nagpur, from the audit and
accounts service, was posted to the Dan-
dakaranya Development Authority in
Jagdalpur. He had worked in Gujarat
and Goa earlier but here in Bastar, he
quickly found that there was much more
to life than accounts. Every weekend
he would be off with his camera to the
forests, capturing the life of birds and
trees, and people in the villages. Iqbal
was then a tenant in the house of the well-
known lawyer Arun Thakur, but his
21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 E3323 Economic & Political weekly

friends included people like the rick­
shaw puller Shankar, to whom he gave a
loan of Rs 500 to start a small trade in
onions and potatoes. Shankar disap­
peared with the money but that experi­
ence never stopped Iqbal from similar
experiments throughout his life.
During Dussehra, a Bhatra couple
from Kumargaon who were then living
in Asna would set up a tea shop near the
palace close to where Iqbal lived. They
had a beautiful young daughter Kalavati,
who helped out in the shop when she
was not working as a wage labourer filling
sand into trucks. Iqbal would visit the
family often in Asna and he and Kala fell
in love. In 1982, when Kala was heavily
pregnant, Iqbal went to Nagpur to inform
his parents and resign his job. Everyone
warned Kala that he would never come
back - like all the other officers who had
relationships with local women and then
left them. But she had faith and when he
came back, they started living together,
a relationship that lasted for 32 years,
resulting in three children, and two
grandchildren. In the meantime, Iqbal
and Kala also played in loco parentis to
all of Kala’s younger siblings.
Iqbal came from a large conservative
Muslim family in Nagpur. An adivasi
daughter-in-law, who refused to wear a
blouse or footwear, could not have been
easy to accept. But Iqbal worked it out in
his own way. One of his most moving
poems is about going to his mother's
funeral and being told to ask for the
customary relief from the debt of m other’ s
milk. How is this a debt that can ever be
written off, he asks? When she died in
1997 one link was broken, but others
remained, especially with some of his
young nieces and nephews, for whom he
was an inspiring role model, encouraging
them to live their own lives. His nephew
Shad, with whom he shared an interest
in wildlife and photography, never forgot
his own debt to his uncle, and was with
him till the end, trying his best financial­
ly and emotionally to keep Iqbal alive.
In his professional life too, in the late
1970s Iqbal was forming new and lasting
relationships. He met Arjun Singh Nag, a
quiet, reserved Halba accountant from
Jaitgiri, who drank neither tea nor mahua,
went straight home after work, and
Economic & Political w e e k l y DB29 A p r il
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refused to go out even during the lunch
break. Unlikely as it seemed, the two soon
became good friends, both instigating and
cautioning each other in their desire to
help salvage adivasi society before it dis­
appeared under the crush of exploita­
tion and consumerism. When Iqbal
decided to quit the Indian Administrative
Service after he was repatriated to
Nagpur in 1983, Nagji tried to persuade
him to stick it out for a few more years,
till he was eligible for a pension. But
Iqbal said “ In five or six years everything
will change, the forests will have gone,
the people will have changed. I w on’ t get
to know it.”When Nagji got news that he
had got a coveted posting in Delhi, Iqbal
told him that he would do well in Delhi
but would end up forgetting where he
was from. However, he refused to influ­
ence Nagji further for fear of destroying
his prospects. In the last few years of his
accounts service, Nagji had also studied
law coming from Malkangiri to Jagdalpur
every weekend to take classes. It was
mainly due to Iqbal’ s encouragement, he
says, that he worked up the courage to
turn down the Delhi job and become a
lawyer. The decision was right, at least
as far as Bastar was concerned - apart
from the wide circle of grateful clients,
his dedicated lawyering and environ­
mental work was recently recognised by
a Swiss organisation which gave him the
Paul K Feyerabend Foundation award.
Having quit the service in 1983, life
was financially very hard for Iqbal and
Kala. Writing for newspapers did not
provide enough to live on, and Iqbal was
choosy about the kind of projects he did.
There were days when there was nothing
to eat in the house, and even morning
tea was beyond their means. In the good
times Iqbal would go over to the tea shop
next door to chat and read the morning
papers. In fact, Iqbal knew at least a year
ago, after collapsing at a conference in
Lucknow that he had irreversible kidney
damage due to diabetes. But he chose
not to tell anyone, and discontinued the
medicine after a month - there was simply
no money. But all through, Iqbal and
Kala maintained an open house. There
was no conscious effort at declassing,
Iqbal simply related to people as human
beings. Whether it was Renu, a local
21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16
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COMMENTARY
Bhatra tailor and carpenter, Chendru
the Mahara Kotwar, Kachsaab who was
in government service, Nagji and his
family, Sharad Chandra Vermaji the re­
spected veteran journalist and environ­
mentalist, Narendra Jadhav the district
forest officer, or anyone else, they all got
the same attention. There were occa­
sional trips to visit friends like Belgur in
Narayanpur, who became a world trav­
elled adivasi sculptor in wood with Iqbal’ s
encouragement; picnics, and endless
evenings of mahua and laughter. Even if
Iqbal’s clothes became a little worn, he
tried to ensure that Kala got beautiful
traditional sarees to wear, classic designs
for which he sought out Panka weavers
from distant villages. Photography (in
those days reels and printing were
expensive) and fishing equipment were
the only luxuries he allowed himself.
The children somehow grew them­
selves up - more Bhatra than Muslim.
From a middle class point of view, their
mediocre performances at school and
early dropping out were perhaps one of
Iqbal’s greatest failures. He simply did
not have the time or desire to sit with
them and do homework. But he took
them with him into the forest, laughed
with them as equals, and painted with
them. He and Shabnam were once plan­
ning an exhibition of their art work. He
encouraged Punee to learn bell metal
from the well-known artist, Jaidev Baghel.
Later, conscious that they would need to
fend for themselves, he tried to involve
them in his own work - in setting up
self-help groups, in promoting tourism -
but with varying degrees of success. In
the last few years, Birsa, their youngest,
had become a cause for worry - aban­
doning his first wife and son, to take up
with another woman, and rarely coming
home. All this preyed on Iqbal’ s mind. A
couple of years ago following a major
accident on the highway in which the
driver died, he received injuries which
took long to heal because of his diabetes.
We all noticed that he was declining, but
refused to accept that he was mortal.
Counsellor and Guide
In 1984, Iqbal and Nagji set up the Adivasi
Harijan Kalyan Samiti (a h k s ), one o f
the first and only non-governmental
31
COMMENTARY
organsations (n g o s ) in Bastar at the
time. They could have expanded hugely,
but Iqbal insisted that they take no
funds, especially foreign funds, relying
instead on local contributions by mem­
bers or small National Bank for Agricul­
ture and Rural Development (n a b a r d )
grants. Nagji described laughingly how
Oxfam had once asked them to imple­
ment a project to conserve traditional
seeds. They fled to Jaitgiri to avoid meet­
ing them and when the donors chased
them to Jaitgiri, fled again. As a result
the organisation never really got off the
ground, remaining largely identified
with whatever activity Iqbal happened
to be doing at the time. Perhaps his ex­
perience as an auditor had left Iqbal
with a lasting dislike of large bureaucra­
cies and deadlines. Moreover, unlike
many n g o leaders who attempt to do
good work for a “ target population” ,
Iqbal lived with his “ beneficiaries”as
friends and enemies. He started by
organising his wife and her friends.
In 1987, the forest department decided
to fence off the village forests with barbed
wire to start plantations. Led by Mitkibai,
who sold vegetables in the Jagdalpur
haat (market) by day and held meetings
with the others at night, the women took
to direct action to reclaim access and
stopped the hired labour from digging
the trenches. Iqbal was their main coun­
sellor and guide. The women promised
to guard the forests themselves, and fi­
nally succeeded in convincing the local
authorities. For about nine months, they
spread the message of forest protection
energetically to neighbouring villages. A
group of 400-500 women from Asna
would walk up to 25-30 kms to be received
by similar numbers at the other end.
Iqbal’s next step was to form a coop­
erative of adivasi women under the De­
velopment of Women and Children in
Rural Area (d w c r a ) scheme to purchase
sal seeds and tendu leaves for the forest
department, get fishing rights in the vil­
lage ponds, and raise a nursery under
the forest departm ent’ s social forestry
schemes. The women’ s cooperative faced
political opposition from local Bharatiya
Janata Party (b j p ) politicians who were
keen to get these contracts for their own
supporters, mostly male and upper caste.
32
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While it lasted, it was the main source of
income for many of these women, in­
cluding Kala and Iqbal’ s own family.
Kala was later elected to the block-level
committee for minor forest produce,
and did considerable leg work getting
people to join as members and making
sure that bonuses were fairly distributed.
Both these experiments were relayed at
conferences, while two documentary
films were made on the 1987 forest
protection movement.
I sometimes worried that Kala was
Iqbal’s main “ project” . I need not have
bothered for Kala was an individual in her
own right. People sometimes wondered
what kept Iqbal and Kala together, given
their very different interests. As the three
of us discussed in January this year over
what turned out to be our last drink
together, they shared a deep companion­
ship that was both physical and emotion­
al. Kala cared for Iqbal the way few
others could or would have, especially in
the last month or so, when he lay ill in
the intensive care unit of an unfamiliar
Raipur hospital.
Uphill Struggle
Sometime in the mid-1990s, after the
cooperative had run its course, the a h k s
took on a Cooperative for Assistance and
Relief Everywhere (c a r e ) project to set up
self-help groups. Iqbal moved to Chind-
garh. The project finished on a sad note -
the office was set on fire, and a disgrunded
employee was suspected, a h k s incurred
considerable loss. From there, Iqbal went
to Chitrakote, where he was involved in
a project to promote eco-friendly tourism
with the participation of local villagers.
There too, Iqbal had an uphill struggle in
the face of local b j p and panchayat poli­
tics. I remember a meeting in 1998 to dis­
cuss forest rights with villagers in Chitra­
kote. It happened, quite coincidentally, to
be Christmas, and soon enough, some
lumpen elements from the nearby Vanvasi
Kalyan Ashram turned up accusing us of
proselytising. Chitrakote had been a long­
term dream - to live where Elwin lived,
and spend his time fishing in the rapids of
the Indrawati - but it was not to be. In the
last years of his life, Iqbal returned to
Asna. By this time, he had managed to
build a little house in the village.
A p r il 21, 2012
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
In between, Iqbal was involved in
numerous schemes - like encouraging
local artisans, and running a primary
school in Bhadri Mahu, a village deep
in the Kanger reserved forest, which
stopped when the local schoolteacher
died. I remember the joy with which he
thought of local elements to add to the
school curriculum. Apart from a h k s , his
most lasting involvement was with Bastar
Society for the Conservation of Nature
(b a s c o n ), a group of individuals in Jag­
dalpur who were concerned about
Bastar’ s environment. Meetings were
usually held in Vermaji’ s house. Iqbal
once described how he took Indira Gandhi
around in a helicopter to survey the area
that would be submerged by the Bodh-
ghat dam, and stunned by its beauty and
the value of the biodiversity she stopped
the project. How different from the cur­
rent Congress government whose main
concern seems to be to shift everyone
out of the forests and into city slums! In
recent years, b a s c o n had taken up the
diversion of the Indrawati to Orissa, and
its reduced flow in Bastar. Iqbal and the
others tried to enlist more members, but
b a s c o n is aging, and the need to pre­
serve the environment has few takers
these days when the main story is war
and mining. As Brecht said, “ What kind
of times are these when to talk about
trees seems almost a crim e?” .
By the River
When Iqbal died, there was a little dis­
cussion on whether he should be buried
according to Muslim rites, as his mother
had wanted, or by the sweet imli tree in
his yard, as he had wanted. His second
choice had been to be buried in the Bhatra
graveyard by the river. Since a grave in
the middle of an inhabited village might
come to haunt the residents, it was
decided to give him a full Bhatra burial.
A little plot of land was exchanged for
some token money, and now Iqbal is offi­
cially part of the soil of Asna village. But
in my mind, I will always see him sitting
on a shady river bank, doing what he loved
best but rarely had the time to do when
alive - fishing. And some evening we will
sit together, sprinkle a drop of mahua on
the earth, and say: Johar (a salutation of
welcome and togetherness).
v o l x l v ii n o 16 BBSS Economic & Political weekly
Moving Circles of Struggles
and Agitations in the North-East
BHASKAR BARUA
ifty years is a long time for any
F relationship. This is for how long
M S Prabhakara (m sp to his many
friends) has had a relationship with the
north-east. He started to live in the
north-east as a young teacher of English
at the Gauhati University in 1962. He
chose to spend two months in an Assam
village to learn Assamese properly, pro­
viding early indication of his thorough­
ness and keen desire to go deep into
what he wanted to grasp. He taught for
13 years in the Gauhati University. During
this period, he got plenty of opportuni­
ties to know the culture and ethos of the
north-east and to watch many political
developments taking place in the region.
He spent a few years away from the
region when he was with the Economic
& Political Weekly in Mumbai. But he
was back in the north-east and spent a
number of years there as a keen and
informed observer and reporter of events
in the area.
This relationship of the author with a
land and peoples that have come to
accept him as one of their own endures
till today. In his writings he combines
the detachment required of a journalist
in the true sense of the word and the
intellectual distance of an outsider tem­
pered with an intimate understanding of
and empathy for the people living in
this beautiful, but troubled region. This
unique blend of detached observation and
familiarity with the hopes, aspirations,
apprehensions of the north-easterners
informs and permeates the 38 stories
that had been filed mainly for e p w , The
Hindu and Frontline. This book which is
a compilation of these stories written in
the period between 1974 and 2010 is
extremely readable and is a useful col­
lection for those students who study
the issues of the north-east and for the
general reader too.
Economic & Political w e e k l y BBSS A p r i l 21, 2012
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1947, before India became independent.
Apart from Manipur, many conflicts and
skirmishes took place in various other
parts of the north-east as the British
expanded and consolidated their rule.
The memories of armed resistance to
the foreign power, although episodic in
character and minor in terms of the
B OO K REVIEW damage caused to the armed forces
Looking Back into the Future: Identity and
Insurgency in Northeast India by M S Prabhakara
(New Delhi: Routledge India), 2011; pp 312 (hardcover),
and the administration of the British,
perhaps remained embedded in the
social consciousness of the people. These
episodes, sometimes embellished with
Rs795.
details that might or might not have
been recorded, helped to gild the imag­
The headings of the sections into ined history of the various north-east
which the book has been divided and peoples about their distinctiveness and
those of the chapters bring out the com­ independence. Many articles in this
mon thread of analysis of the situation, collection bring this out very ably and
the historical background, the culture effectively.
and ethos of the people. Prabhakara is Before the advent of the British, the
dealing with this, as well as the inter­ tribes living in the hills surrounding the
play of various stakeholders. “ The Word valley lands mainly in Assam, Manipur
and the Idea” ,“ Ethnicity and Identity” , and Tripura, had regular interactions
“Issues of Culture and Belief’ - the first with the people in the plains. The Brit­
three sections - give a clear indication of ish, in expanding their territories, main­
the nature and depth of the issues the ly sought valley lands that could support
author is addressing. the growth and expansion of agriculture
for yielding revenues. After tea was
Under British Rule discovered in Assam, many tea planta­
Generally speaking, this region was tions were set up and the areas became
brought under the sway of the British more valuable. However, the hill areas
later than the occupation of what may be mainly inhabited by the tribes were not
called “ mainland India” . The British expected to yield adequate agricultural
came to Assam to free the land of the production to generate revenue and the
marauding Burmese and then stayed on expenses of administering these areas
and brought the six centuries-old Ahom were sought to be kept at the minimum.
kingdom under the British rule in 1826. Thus was born the concept of areas less
In the case of Manipur, it retained a administered than most of the country.
degree of independence till 1891 when The administrative structures in the
the Anglo-Manipur conflict took place. hill areas were kept very lean. Following
Highlighting aspects of Manipur history, this philosophy, provisions were includ­
the author points out why the people ed in the Government of India Act of
of that state feel short-changed by being 1935, for designating some hill areas
a part of India. It is important to note inhabited by tribes as “ excluded” or
that till 1891 the first written constitu­ “ partially excluded”areas. The essential
tion of Manipur, promulgated in the 11th elements of these provisions were adopted
century during the reign of King Loyim- in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Con­
ba, was in force. In comparison, the stitution with necessary modifications.
Magna Carta, considered by no less an These tribes were notified as scheduled
authority than Lord Denning as “ the tribes (Hills). There were, however, also
greatest constitutional document of all tribes living in the plains areas of Assam
times” , was issued in 1215. Manipur had who came to be known as plains tribes.
another written constitution in March The definition of tribals thus got linked to
v o l x lv ii n o 16 33
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BOOK REVIEW
the location, i e, whether they were living
in the hill areas or in the plains.
Politics of Scripts
One fallout of the search for identity is the
politics of scripts. Bodo is the language of
the largest number of tribal people living
in the plains of Assam according to the re­
port of the Census of 1971. In the absence
of a script for the language, writers in that
language had used the Assamese script.
However, the assertion of more strident
Bodo tribalism required that Bodos should
not use the Assamese script, to show their
distinct identity. There was a demand for
adoption of the Roman script for the Bodo
language. This was opposed mainly by
Assamese society and resulted in agita­
tions amongst the Bodos. Ultimately, after
much bloodshed, a compromise solution
was reached and the Devanagari script
was adopted for writing in Bodo.
In Manipur too the demand for resto­
ration of the ancient Meitei script ignited
the sense of grievance of the Meitei
people, which had been there on other
issues also. Thus, in the north-east, issues
of script and language have generally
provided a trigger for large-scale distur­
bances. The question of the mother tongue
and that of ethnicity, linked together,
have been used for demanding separate
political structures and dispensations.
As against the trend of Sanskritisation
described by sociologists as a character­
istic feature of development of Indian
societies, the feature of retribalisation has
been observed to gain strength in the
last few decades, particularly in Assam.
Communities which for a long time con­
sidered themselves and have been so
considered by others as parts of the larger
society now want to be identified as
tribes. Adding complexity to this are the
issues of the tea garden workers and
ex-tea workers who were brought from
many parts of then Bengal, Bihar and
Orissa by the British to work in the tea
plantations in Assam. Many of these
communities are recognised as tribes in
the places of their origin, but are not
accorded that status in Assam.
Identity Crisis and Ethnic Diversity
The factor of ethnic diversity of the region
and the need felt by many groups to
34
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establish their identities, along with the
desire for carving out a homeland for
themselves has been focused in many of
the articles to illustrate the problems
arising out of the issues of identity, and
in resolving these. A difficulty arises even
in conceptualising the possible measures
that may help in resolving the issue of
having territory coterminous with habi­
tations, or claimed habitations of specific
ethnic groups. Taking any concrete steps
may create problems larger than the
existing ones.
For instance, the complexity involved
in dealing with the ethnic aspirations of
the Nagas is a case in point. The Naga
National Council of the Phizo era and the
more recent National Socialist Council of
Nagalim (note the use of Nagalim), split
into two factions n s c n (i m ) and n s c n (k ),
are considered the spearhead of Naga
tribalism. The letters in parenthesis
indicate the names of their leaders, the
former having two. As the author wryly
observes, this is not much different from
the fragmented political formulations
found in the rest of India which the Naga
leadership professes to despise.
While the n s c n (i m ) declares that
there is no question of compromise in re­
spect of the core demand for sovereignty,
the demand, raised at the same time, for
Nagalim, might appear to be a softening
of the rigidity involved in the question of
sovereignty, allowing for a two-step pro­
cess in resolving the issues. Nagalim is a
territory comprising Nagaland and areas
contiguous to it claimed to be inhabited by
Naga people. However, even discussing
this demand, not to speak of agreeing to
it, would require considering diminution
of the neighbouring states of Manipur,
Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, some­
thing which the governments and the
people of these states have categorically
rejected. Even Myanmar would be affec­
ted, if Nagalim were to be considered.
‘
Us’
and the ‘
Others’
It is relevant to mention that one of the
sparks which led to the agitation in
Manipur was the extension of the cease­
fire declared in the armed action against
Naga insurgents to some areas in Ma­
nipur. The author provides elucidation
of this difficult issue in chapters such as
A P R IL 21, 2012
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
“ Territory First, Sovereignty Later” . The
recurring theme of “ us”and the “ others” ,
in many of the articles illustrates the
author’ s grasp of the reality obtaining in
these hills and dales.
As the author states, the struggles of
the various ethnic groups are based on a
view of a past, whether grounded in
reality or belonging to the realm of im­
agination, when these groups of people
and the areas they lay claim to were
sovereign and independent. It is claimed
that these people and their lands were
not a part of the India that came into
being as a result of colonial conquest
and thus were outside any construct of
present-day India as well. To that extent,
the claim is that they are only seeking
restoration of the lost sovereignty.
These beliefs and cherished memories
and the sense of denial of what is viewed
as their rightful claims to live in territories
which would be peopled only by “ us”and
not by “ others”has brewed discontent,
leading to communities seeking ways to
realise their demands. Armed struggle
has been seen as the preferred way to
achieve their aims by sections of these
societies and has led to the phenomenon
of revolt. Searching for permanent solu­
tions has characterised many movements,
regardless of the fact that, much water
has flowed down the Brahmaputra since
such demands were initially raised.
That the local versus outsiders issue
crops up in different parts of the country,
such as the assertion of “ Amchi Mumbai”
degenerating into assaults on north
Indians, is obviously no excuse for these
excesses anywhere in the country, which
belongs to all Indians. The arguments of­
ten put forward about lack of avenues for
employment, exploitation of natural re­
sources affecting the local environment
and sources of livelihood of indigenous
people, as factors, explaining away these
uncalled for assaults, fail to convince.
Chapters such as those entitled “ Talk­
ing about Talks”and “ Going around the
Mulberry Bush”expose the limitation of
talks in resolution of seemingly intractable
issues. However, the author brings out
the positives of such a process, the major
gain being that, while there has been no
successful conclusion of the talks, along
the way, the more extreme demands of
VOL x l v i i n o 16 DBS9 Economic & Political w e e k l y
 BOOK REVIEW

the various groups agreeing to talks
appear to have been moderated, and this
has reduced the level of violence, barring
some exceptions. Most extremist groups
such as the n s c n , of whichever faction,
and the United Liberation Front of Asom
(u l f a ) put forward sovereignty as the
core issue for talks. The government has
repeatedly expressed willingness to talk
about all issues barring that of sover­
eignty. Despite these seemingly intracta­
ble positions, talks about talks as well as
substantive talks have taken place indi­
cating that both sides consider that there
is room for flexibility. The assessment
that many of these extremist groups
have less public support as compared to
decades earlier has been brought out by
the author in the relevant articles.
Moving Ahead
Where does this lead us? There can be
no single categorical answer to such a
question. One may well conclude that
the cycle of agitations and struggles, of
talks about talks if not actual talks,
statements by the negotiating parties of­
ten contradicting one another, are going
on and on in circles. This would indicate
that there has been no movement, that
the train is stranded on the tracks. How­
ever, from the analysis presented in the
book, as also from the developments on
many other fronts, it seems that, the sit­
uation is not static. The attempts for es­
tablishment of peace in the region, even
if moving by fits and starts, do move for­
ward. The train inches forward, stalls,
stops and even slides back perhaps, but
is not derailed and a setback in the proc­
ess is not necessarily “ back to square
one” . It is also useful to look at some other
developments. Thousands of young peo­
ple from the region have gone outside
their homelands, some moving for edu­
cation and employment in the north­
east itself and many to various other
parts of the country, joining the services
industry in large numbers. Some have
moved abroad. There has been a dent in
the very large numbers of unemployed
young people from amongst whom the
ranks of the insurgents were mainly
recruited. There appears to be an attempt
among the youth to fulfil their aspirations
by picking themselves up by the boot­
straps, rather than remaining victims of
a“ victim”syndrome, of us versus them.
Perhaps matters are moving around in
circles, but the circles are themselves
moving. This is not to say problems have
gone away. However, it will be useful to
remember the successful resolution of
similar issues in Mizoram which is re­
ported to be the most peaceful state in the
north-east at present. The moving cir­
cles can become truly dynamic with well
thought out and purposeful action by
enlightened leaderships in the govern­
ments, civil society, political parties as
well as in the ethnic groups themselves.
Bhaskar Barua (bhaskar.barua2999@gmail.com)
is a retired civil servant interested in matters
relating to agriculture, rural livelihoods,
disaster management and the disability sector.

A Quality Collection self-development of humans is part of a

process of evolutionary change could

of Historical Themes now be linked to the development of so­

cial organisation, which could otherwise
only be attributed to some supernatural
force. In spite of the misuse of Darwinian
KANAKALATHA MUKUND theory of natural selection by propo­
nents of the superiority of European/

T
his book is a tribute to the versa­ The Varied Facets of History: Essays in Honour Nordic races, Darwin served to bring
tility and multifaceted interests of o f A n ir u d d h a R a y edited by Ishrat Alam and Syed Ejaz history out of the realm of creationism
the historian Aniruddha Ray. Hussain (D e lh i: P rim u s Books), 2 01 1; p p v ii + 3 0 5 , Rs 795 . to a more scientific understanding of
Ranjit Sen gives a brief outline of Ray’ s human development.
major areas of research - urban and social diverse that there is no cohesive theme
history from the 16th to the 19th centu­ on which a critical review can be About Bengal
ries. Ray’ s fluency in French enabled him centred. The one common underlying Six of the contributions in the book are
to use the French sources extensively in thread that is noticeable in most (but about Bengal, tracing various aspects of
his work. He also brought several fresh not all) of the papers is the use of texts the social history of the region from the
perspectives to the debate on the process and other documents as sources for re­ early medieval period to the 20th century.
of urbanisation and the decline of major constructing social history. The papers If the beginning of Muslim rule marks a
port cities in the Mughal period when he are arranged chronologically though it watershed in the history of medieval
challenged the accepted view that ports would have been more to the purpose if India, the three papers on medieval Ben­
like Surat fell into decay because of they had been grouped for Bengal, gal are based on the premise that the
Maratha incursions, and focused instead medieval and Mughal India, and others. social development of Bengal and the
on the role of internal factors and weak­ The book begins with a brief comment spread of Islam were uniquely shaped by
ening political authority. by Shireen Moosvi as to how Charles the distinctive culture and ethos of the
The 16 contributions to his felicitation Darwin’ s theory of evolution has also region. There is general agreement that
volume take up the themes close to changed the perception of human Bengal was a frontier or peripheral
Ray’ s heart. Unfortunately, the range social development in history. The region in the true sense of the word,
of topics covered in the articles is so notion that the physical and anatomical which had not been penetrated in full by

Economic & Political weekly 0559 Ap r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 35

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A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
the A ryan/brahm inical influence m uch
in eviden ce in the Indo-G angetic centre
o f north India. M any parts o f Bengal,
esp ecially to the south and the east w ere
still p e op led by tribal and oth er in di­
gen ou s com m u n ities w h ich had not
been in corporated into the brahm in ical
caste hierarchy w hile B uddhism had
taken ro ot in the reg io n and w as still an
im portant socia l and religiou s force.
Ratnabali Chatterjee’
s paper giv es an
account o f the a rch aeological excava­
tions undertaken in Gaur, the ancient
capital w hich established that there had
been no m arked discon tin uity in urban
d evelopm en t in B engal follow in g the
begin n in g o f M uslim rule in the 13th ce n ­
tury. Instead, she argues, a rich urban
heritage had d ev e lop e d as language,
literature, art and architecture drew
upon a “
region al p op u lar culture”
. w ere presented in Bengali, turning away
In one o f the longest and m ost com plex
papers in the volum e, Nupur D asgupta
h ighlights the distinctive features o f the
social h istory o f m edieval B engal draw ­
in g on three gen res o f literature: the
Buddhist caryapadas w ritten in the 11th
to 12th centuries; the rom antic w ork s o f
M uslim p oets under the sultans; and the
m angalkavyas o f the 16th century. The
m ain focu s here is on the grass-roots
com m u n ities o f Bengal, “
auton om ous
autoch thones” as D asgupta d escrib es
them - in laym an terms, these w ere the
tribals and m argin alised occu pation al
grou p s w h o w ere not in corporated into a
varna hierarchy. The everyday lives o f
these com m un ities are best captured in
the caryapadas, but even the m a n g­
alkavyas, in spite o f their upp er caste
orientation, still p rovide insights into
the lives o f the outcaste com m u n ities
and the in corp oration o f their deities
into m ainstream religion.
D asgupta a lso m akes the poin t that
the spread o f Islam did not result in so-
cial/religiou s bin aries o f Islam ic and
H indu identities. In fact, Islam in B engal
took on a stron g B engali flavour, and the
Muslim authors under the Sultans w rote
in Bengali. Even Islam ic religious tenets
from the traditional Arabic.
Both these papers suffer from the
sam e draw back; they d o n ot care to situ­
ate their analysis in the con text o f the
h istory o f B engal w h ich w ou ld have
b e e n o f im m en se help to non-Bengali
readers, m ost o f w h om w ou ld n ot be fa­
m iliar w ith this prior to the co m in g o f
the English East India Company. Das-
gu p ta’
s p ie ce is also self-defeating to
som e extent sin ce she tries to cover too
w id e a canvas that w ou ld require a full-
length m onograph, with the result the
reader loses sight o f the focal points the
writer w ishes to make.
M oham m ad Yusuf Siddiq’
s p aper on
the spread Islam in B engal in the 13th
cen tury also corroborates the poin ts
m ade by Dasgupta. Islam w as w id ely
a ccep ted by the m asses in Bengal, and
he observ es that
Much o f the con solidation o f Islam in the
region w as possib le beca u se the Islam ic
m essa ge w as conveyed in the popu lar lan­
gu a ge and often u sed in digen ou s religious
imagery...
Islam ic m ystics or Sufis also m igrated
in large num bers to B engal from the
13th century, and this m ysticism a p ­
p ea led strongly to the local people. Sufis,
in fact, w ere influential not m erely in
spiritual m atters but a lso in social and
p olitical life. Siddiq con clu d es w ith a
detailed analysis and rep rodu ction s o f
Islam ic in scriptions o f Bengal.
France Bhattacharya m oves us to the
social scen e o f p atron age and literature
in 18th cen tury Bengal, and com pa res
the Armada M angal o f Bharat Chandra
Ray w ith the fam ous Candi M angal o f
Mukundaram, written in the 15th century.

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Ray’ s work, she argues, subverts the
literary genre of the mangalkavyas
which were primarily works of devotion
dedicated to the goddess, even though a
royal patron would be mentioned briefly
and blessings invoked for his well-being.
Ray’ s work, on the other hand, was an
unabashed paean to his patron Raja
Krishna Chandra Ray of Nadia. This was
the forerunner for later works written to
please the upper class bhadralok, and
signified the coming of modernity in
Bengali literature. Susnata Das explores
the responses to the Mutiny (or Revolt)
of 1857. While the educated Bengali
upper classes were equivocal in the im­
mediate aftermath of the Mutiny, when
many were unapologetic loyalists for the
British empire, the mood certainly
changed towards the end of the 19th
century, when there was a strong swing
to nationalist sympathies. The section
on Bengal concludes with a piece by
Kanailal Chattopadhyay on the heroic
role played by Dwarakanath Ganguli
and the Brahmo Samaj in publicising the
deplorable conditions of indentured
labour contracted to work in the tea
plantations of Assam under English
owners which finally moved the govern­
ment to pass the Emigration Act of 1882
which offered some degree of protection
to indentured labour.
Medieval India
The first of the articles on medieval/
Mughal India is an urgent appeal by
Iqtidar Alam Khan for archaeology in
south Asia to reorient its focus to medi­
eval sites and monuments, moving away
from the preoccupation with ancient
and proto-history sites. This, he argues,
will also save many medieval monuments
from demolition or mindless reconstruc­
tion. Ishrat Alam covers nearly five cen­
turies in recounting the use of medieval
documents for reconstructing social his­
tory. Inscriptions dating back to the 13th
century (presumably in Sanskrit) give
valuable information on merchants and
occupational and social mobility among
the Hindu castes. Documents like mar­
riage and business contracts, as well as
passes issued by the Europeans to Indian
ships are useful for understanding social
relations and business practices during
Economic & Political weekly ES359 A p r il 21, 2012
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the 17th century. Irfan Habib’ s elegant
article traces the evolution of Hindi from
the various dialects spoken around Delhi
and Agra, with a good dose of influence
from Persian words. Najaf Haider ana­
lyses how, under the Mughals, especially
Akbar, there was a state-sponsored pro­
ject of translating various Sanskrit
classics into Persian, in a process of
intercultural communication and state
building. Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi (my
favourite paper in the whole volume)
disputes the widely prevalent assump­
tion that there was no middle class in
Mughal India, and presents a series of
paintings showing master craftsmen
and men of various professions who def­
initely constituted a middle class. He
even has drawings of the various kinds
of headgear or turbans worn by these
persons as depicted in the paintings.
Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui gives an account
of a book by Mulla Qata’ i Harevi under
Jahangir which gives biographical
sketches of 153 Persian poets.
Moving to the 18th century, Jeyaseela
Stephen has used the diary of Ananda
Ranga Pillai of Pondicherry to present
an account of the business practices and
activities of the famous merchant who
was the leader of Tamil society in
Pondicherry and was the dubash of Gov­
ernor Dupleix of the French East India
Company. Stephen has also published
the diaries kept by Ranga Pillai’ s nep­
hew, who succeeded him, and his grand
nephew, bringing these little known
sources into the public arena. Here he
also uses portions of the original diary
which were not included in the original
English translation which was published
nearly a 100 years ago. It is sad that
with all these credentials and his access
to unpublished material, his paper is
monochromatic and almost totally lack­
ing in analytical insights or depth.
Syed Ejaz Hussain has given an
account of the travel of Mirza Abu Talib
Isfahani to England and Europe bet­
ween 1799 and 1804 and his responses
to English society and, in particular, the
technological revolution which was
transforming manufacturing and in­
dustry in England. The listing of the
new mechanical devices and Abu Talib’ s form erly w ith the Centre for E con om ic and
comments is particularly unimaginative
v o l x l v ii n o 16
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BOOK REVIEW
in arrangement and presentation,
considering the historical value of this
contemporary report on England by an
Indian. Surprisingly, the paper does not
refer to Michael Fisher who has also
worked extensively on Mirza Abu Talib,
and whose work was published many
years ago. Lastly, Mariam Dossal’ s paper
on the Kutch reflects on the cultural
assimilation of people from various
parts of the world who migrated to this
region and also its syncretic culture from
the fusion of the three major religions,
Jainism, Hinduism and Islam. Arid and
deficient in rainfall, the region is home
to some of the most colourful craft pro­
duction in textiles and embroidery. It is
not clear why this resource-poor region
attracted so many migrant communi­
ties, especially a vibrant business class.
Surprisingly Dossal has also not referred
to the crucial triangular trade between
Kutch, east Africa and Persia which
thrived for many centuries.
Taken in all, the papers are more even
in quality than is found in most such
composite volumes, which is to the credit
of the editors. It is also a tribute to the
regard for Ray among younger (and older)
historians that they have covered so
many aspects of history reflecting Ray’ s
own eclectic interests. On the downside,
the book is replete with an unacceptable
number of misprints and errors. Words
are misspelt: “ huggers” for nuggets,
“rope”for rape (among many others); so
are names: Brhaddhramma for Brhadd-
harma (Dasgupta: 90),AnanadaPuravai
for Ananda Puravi (Stephen: 206). Most
inexcusable are factual errors. Dasgupta
refers to a female character as “he”(p 91);
Susnata Das says that Harish Chandra
Mukherjee (1824-61) was the leader of
the Indigo Peasant struggle in 1959-60
(p 233), and gives two dates for the
publication of the Bengali History of the
Sepoy War - 1879 and 1876 (p 235). If
more attention had been paid to such
details through professional editing,
many such errors and shortcomings
could have been eliminated.
Kanakalatha M ukund (jmukund2001@ya.hoo .
co. in) is an e co n om ic historian and author,
Social Studies, Hyderabad.
37
 T R IB U T E T O KALYAN SAN YA L
The Many Lives of Kalyan Sanyal
S U G A T A M A R J IT __________________________________
Kalyan Sanyal was trained
as a trade theorist in the
mid-1970s and initially made
many significant contributions in
the field. But he later abandoned
neoclassical economics to turn to
a study of the Marxian approach
to development. An appreciation
by a former younger colleague
who has an intellectual debt to
Sanyal’
s work in trade theory.
Sugata Marjit ('jnarjit@ gm ail.com ) is at the
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.
38
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I
t has been exactly 35 years since I
was inducted into the subject matter
of pure theory of international trade
as a student of Presidency College, Cal­
cutta though till date I am still at a loss to
ascertain the exact nature of such purity.
In some ways it meant a structure devoid
of nuances of arguments that cloud the
elegance of abstraction. It also meant an
apparent distance from the concept of
reality as we ordinarily understand it. Re­
constructing the real from its physically
visible form in terms of the bare essentials
of a falsifiable theory is never an easy
job. Yet, that is what trade theory does.
My experiment with trade theory sub­
stantially materialised during my years
as a PhD student at the University of
Rochester in the early 1980s. Someone
there who impressed me beyond bounds,
as a teacher and as a human being who
eventually became my guide, mentor
and co-author for many years was the
legendary trade maestro Ron Jones, one
of the early builders of general equili­
brium trade theory.
Jones just had a brilliant Bengali stu­
dent who after writing a remarkably
original thesis and ignoring a postdoc­
toral offer from University of Chicago
returned to Calcutta, back to his teach­
ing position at Calcutta University. I did
not meet him then, only knew of him
from another trade theorist, Abhirup
Sarkar, now a professor at the Indian
Statistical Institute, Calcutta and my
room-mate who shared his room earlier
with that brilliant graduate student of
Ron Jones - Kalyan Sanyal.
Sanyal a ‘
Marxist*
Kalyan, a blue-eyed student of my men­
tor, used to be referred to in the corri­
dors of the department of economics at
Rochester, a department more Hayekian
in its philosophy than Hayek himself
and more conservative in its approach
than the Chicago school, as a “Marxist” ,
a p r il 21, 2012
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a description that was not meant to be of
a great virtue. Yet, people knew that he
belonged to a class of students that made
the department, one of the top ranking
ones in the world, proud of their existence.
Kalyan’ s third chapter of his doctoral
thesis contained some work on Sraffa
and trade and got the full approval of
our guide who himself was and has al­
ways been a free market neoclassicist. It
was Kalyan’ s originality of mind that
made a huge impact on Jones and led to
the well-known joint paper with Kalyan
as the lead author in the American Eco­
nomic Review (1982) on the Theory of
Middle Products, cited and worked on
extensively in the literature.
On Trade in Intermediate Goods
Trade in intermediate goods more popu­
larly known now as trade in vertical sup­
ply chains or fragmentation, though
prevalent way back in the colonial period
in the trading relationship between a
colony and its owner, did not come up as
a topic of interest in formal trade theory
even in the 1970s. Kalyan’ s Economica
paper in 1983 somewhat pre-empted the
well-known work of Avinash Dixit and
Gene Grossman on trade and stages of
production. Kalyan (1983) did the
Ricardian version earlier in his thesis
and Dixit and Grossman (1982) did the
Heckscher-Ohlin analogue later. Those
two were the pioneering papers on how
to handle trade in goods in processes or
intermediates in terms of basic trade
models. Avinash Dixit, when I met him
as a graduate student at Rochester
immediately mentioned Kalyan’ s name
with reverence knowing that I was from
Calcutta. Similar was the reaction of
Gene Grossman, a contemporary of
Kalyan from m i t , when I met him later.
These were the creme de la creme of trade
theory and they could identify easily the
innovative content of Kalyan’ s work.
Needless to say as a junior researcher
with similar lineage of Presidency Col­
lege and Calcutta University, I felt elated.
My thesis, yet another on intermedi­
ate goods, drew its inspiration in full
from Kalyan’ s thesis and literally speak­
ing from the very look of it, crisp,
v o l x l v ii n o 16 13309 Economic & Political weekly
 TRIBUTE TO KALYAN SANYAL

precise, mathematically full of elegantly economics in general and trade theory that doing neoclassical economics can
explored ideas. While Abhirup Sarkar in particular. However, he remained one be fun and games of childhood, but it
(1985) transformed a similar kind of in­ of the most outstanding teachers of does not help growing up. This was not a
spiration into the Austrian Model of trade theory producing excellent stu­ very encouraging comment at that time
trade in intermediates involving Wick- dents, a few of whom I was privileged to for someone who had just returned from
sellian and Hicksian concepts of capital supervise later. Instead Kalyan chose to the bastions of neoclassical economics
and time, I kept pushing the more con­ do original work on rethinking the and who had all the affinity for that par­
ventional Ricardian and Heckscher-Ohlin Marxian process of development and adigm. Later I realised that it was his
frontiers in extending Kalyan’ s work, produced a commendable, now well- way of saying that one needed to do re­
that yielded my Economica piece in 1987. cited, book from Routledge that is being markably good work to make a real im­
The significance of Kalyan’ s work was to translated in other languages. Perhaps pact in the field. Eventually many years
suggest that countries could get worse the appetite of his original mind could later Kalyan became quite generous
off from technological progress trading not find solace in the mechanisms of showering compliments on my work
in intermediates as was believed to be neoclassical and mainstream econo­ even though he had no active interest in
the case with the final goods, due to ad­ mics. He could not trade his intentions the subject matter. In fact one of such
verse terms of trade effects. Subsequently as an intellectual with the lucrative ear­ comments communicated through one
others, such as my own work in 1987, ly offers in the west as he knew that by of our common friends could have raised
could argue that where within the vertical such a trade he could be easily sucked many eyebrows. One should note that
chain you specialised mattered. Needless into the bandwagon narratives of a para­ such generosity came in spite of the fact
to say, my early experiment with trade in digm that he inherently disliked. that, inherently I was never convinced of
intermediates, inspired by Kalyan’ s work, Full of wit and sharp humour Kalyan the intricacies of the Marxian paradigm
has travelled new routes and avenues was not very easy to satisfy and, in fact, and as time moved on became even
dealing with more complex issues related his defining personality put off many. more convinced that the strength of
to trade policy (Marjit and Beladi 1999), He was a discerning scholar who would neoclassical logic was far more difficult
fragmentation and development (Jones not hesitate to discard the run-of-the-mill to tarnish, exactly opposite to Kalyan’ s
and Marjit 2001, 2009) and very recently contributions according to his judgment philosophic orientation.
virtual trade (Marjit 2007; Kikuchi and of scholarship and hence a difficult man
Marjit 2011). Thus my intellectual in­ to be popular in conventional terms. As Sense o f Humour
debtedness to Kalyan lingers and lives a young scholar when I had approached Kalyan’ s sense of humour was fantastic.
on denied by any means. him to do some joint work he had said This is a story I have heard from my friend
Kalyan and Ron Jones’work on
middle products had a powerful idea.
The idea that nothing in the world can Economic&PoliticalwEEKLY
be a purely traded good as local non-
traded inputs must be used to bring
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ture. In fact any type of physical trade published from 2004 to 2008 and comes equipped with a powerful search, tools to help organise
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there is no explicit vertical chain. The are organised as in the print edition, with articles laid out in individual sections in each issue.
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Study o f Marxism Circulation Manager,

E con om ic an d Political W eekly
Kalyan returned home and after few vis­
320-321, A to Z Industrial Estate, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel,
iting stints in the west chose to refrain Mumbai 400 013, India
from further exploring neoclassical

E c o n o m ic & P o lit ic a lw E E K L Y 13932 A p r i l 21, 2012 v o l x l v i i n o 16 39

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TRIBUTE TO KALYAN SANYAL

Sanjay Banerjee, now of Nottingam
University, who got it from Kalyan and I
am repeating this roughly the way San­
jay had told me. The story was on the
state of research and poor infrastruc­
ture of the economics department at
Calcutta University sometime in the late
1990s or so.
Someone came to Kalyan to talk
about possible research cooperation
with the department and wanted to
know about the general research at­
mosphere, etc. Kalyan said that he did
not want to disappoint and dismiss him
early and tried to pretend that every­
thing was in order. He started by sug­
gesting that the department had a
great research portfolio. He had just
completed the first statement when
a gush of wind literally came from
nowhere and had a noisy impact on the
doors and windows. He had to get up and
close the doors and windows properly.
Next he said that the infrastructure Jones, R W and S Marjit (2001): “ The Role of
International Fragmentation in the Develop­
was all right. As soon as he completed ment Process” , American Economic Review,
the sentence, a small part in the corner 91(2), pp 363-66.
of the ceiling caved in and the trash - (2009): “ Competitive Trade Models and Real
World Features” , Economic Theory, 41(1),
fell on the floor. He still tried to look pp 163-74.
convincing and remarked that lately Kikuchi, T and S Marjit (2011): “ Growth with Time
Zone Differences” , Economic Modelling, 28(1-
the department had been engaging in a 2), pp 637-40.
lot of collaborative work. This was the Marjit, S (1987): “ Trade in Intermediate and the
Colonial Pattern o f Trade” , Economica, 54,
last nail in the coffin, as Kalyan put it.
173-84.
As if hearing this, the earthen water Marjit, S (2007): “ Trade Theory and the Role of
container in the corner of the room Time Zones” , International Review o f Economics
and Finance, 16(2), pp 153-60.
turned upside down on its own with Marjit, S and H Beladi (1999): “ Complementarity
water streaming and spilling every­ between Import Competition and Import Pro­
motion” , Journal of Economic Theory, 86(2),
where! Kalyan said that he could not
pp 280-85.
pretend anymore. He could not fight Sanyal, K K and R W Jones (1982): “ The Theory o f
against the wrath o f god! The guest Trade in Middle Products” , American Economic
Review, 72,16-31.
had to leave. Sanyal, K K (1983): “ Vertical Specialisation in a
Kalyan Sanyal will be missed dearly Ricardina Model with Continuum of Stages o f
Production” , Economica, 50,71-78.
by many.
- (2007): “ Rethinking Capitalist Development:
Primitive Accumulation, Govemmentality and
REFERENCES_________________________________ Post-Colonial Capitalism” , Routledge.
Dixit, A K and G M Grossman (1982): “ Trade and Sarkar, A (1985): “ A Model of Trade in Intermediate
Protection with Multistage Production” ,Review G oods” , Journal o f International Economics, 19,
of Economic Studies, 49(4), pp 583-94. 85-98.

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Capitalism, Exclusion, Transition
The Politics o f the Present
SATISH DESHPANDE
Kalyan Sanyal’
s magnum
opus, Rethinking Capitalist
Development, can be seen as a
contribution to the project of
reimagining political economy in
a way that would place “
unsolved
political problems”at its centre.
It could also be described as
a response to the opaqueness
of economic processes today
and their apparent resistance
to existing categories and
frameworks. Despite the irony
in the fact that it is unlikely to
be read by many economists,
this treatise is what every author
would want her book to be -
generous, fertile and good to
think with.
This review essay is based on a keynote
presentation at the session “Engaging with the
Work of Kalyan Sanyal”that was part of a
seminar at the Institute for Social and
Economic Change, Bangalore. I am grateful to
Supriya RoyChowdhury for the opportunity
to pay my respects to one of the most fertile
works of political economy in recent times.
Thanks also to the session chair,
R S Deshpande, my co-panelists, Rajesh
Bhattacharya and Snehashish Bhattacharya
as well as the other seminar participants for
their engagement.
Satish Deshpande (sdeshpande7@gmail.c0m)
teaches at the department of sociology,
Delhi University.
Economic & Political w e e k ly DBS!
Economics has gained the title of Queen
of the Social Sciences by choosing solved
political problems as its domain.
-Abba Lerner (1972:259)
A
bba Lemer’ s famous four-decade-
old provocation remains relevant
as a marker of the shift in the
terrain of debate. Today it is no longer
useful to talk of commonplaces like the
contiguity of disciplines, the arbitrari­
ness of borders, or the content and vol­
ume of intellectual trade across them.
The crisis of disciplinarity in the 21st
century is rather more fundamental -
“otherness”is now a matter of the heart­
land rather than the hinterland. How
should economics (for example) res­
pond, not so much to the known fact
that the political or the social are con­
stitutive (rather than merely contiguous
.or contributory) aspects of the econo­
my, but to the discovery that it is pre­
cisely the inherited modes of bracketing
this fact that are clouding disciplinary
vision and rendering the economy
illegible? Regardless of the discipline
involved, such a predicament rules out
both a return to “ business as usual”as
well as facile talk of inter-, trans- or
anti-disciplinarity. And while every
social science discipline today is con­
fronting its own version of this predica­
ment, economics is arguably among the
most afflicted.
The broadest characterisation of Kalyan
SanyaTs magnum opus, Rethinking Cap­
italist Development: Primitive Accumula­
tion, Governmentality and Post-Colonial
Capitalism (2007) is that it is a coura­
geous attempt to meet this predicament
head on. More concretely, the book can
be seen as a contribution to the project
of reimagining political economy in a
way that would place “ unsolved political
problems”at its centre. Rethinking Capi­
talist Development (henceforth rcd )
could also be described as a response to
the opaqueness of economic processes
a p r i l 21, 2012 v o l x l v i i n o 16
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TRIBUTE TO KALYAN SANYAL
today and their apparent resistance to
existing categories and frameworks.
SanyaTs attempt to reread the con­
temporary global economy begins by in­
voking the popular perception that “ the
triumph of capitalism seems unques­
tionable, self-evident and total”(r c d :i).
The book ends with a reference to the
protests against the World Trade Organ­
isation and the g - 8 summits in various
cities across the world, protests that in­
cluded representatives of both the dis­
possessed from the third world as well
as an embattled first world working
class facing job losses due to outsourcing.
It is SanyaTs contention that these pro­
tests symbolise the struggle of the “ need
economy” against the “ accumulation
economy” , and that “
it is on this rough and
uneasy terrain that one can catch a
glimpse of the politics of exclusion and
resistance for the postcolonial world
today”(r c d :262). The journey from the
common sense perception of the desirabil­
ity of capitalism as an already-established
universal truth to the emergence of pop­
ular resistance to it as a predatory sys­
tem is covered in 261 pages of text divided
into six chapters.
Central Theses
The basic argument of the book is easy
to summarise and rests on three key
propositions: First, the global capitalist
economy today consists of an interlinked
“complex”with two distinct spheres, one
defined by the circuits of capital proper
- the “ accumulation economy” , which
dominates the advanced capitalist coun­
tries; and the other - the “ need econo­
my”-which exists outside the circuits of
capital proper and is the dominant form in
the postcolonial economies of the erst­
while third world. While the accumula­
tion economy functions in the normal
capitalistic fashion in that it is accumu­
lation-driven, the need economy is
geared to the fulfilment of subsistence
requirements albeit through the market.
Second, the central feature of the
postcolonial economy is the continued
operation of a specific form of primitive
accumulation that also requires its own
(partial) reversal. Contrary to orthodox
Marxist theory, primitive accumulation
is a permanent rather than only an initial
41
TRIBUTE TO KALYAN SANYAL
feature of capitalism, which requires the
continual dispossession of those who in­
habit its “ outside” . However, the condi­
tions of ideological and political hege­
mony of capital include the electoral com­
pulsion to divert some of the surplus from
the accumulation economy towards “ de­
velopmental” interventions that enable
the survival of the dispossessed in the need
economy Thus, primitive accumulation in
the postcolonial context does not produce
wage labourers to be employed (and ex­
ploited) by capital; it leads instead to “
ex­
clusion” , or the incarceration of large
numbers in the “ informal sector” .
Third, when understood as the inter­
play between the accumulation and need
economies, the dynamics o f ' contem­
porary postcolonial capitalism breaks free
of narratives of “ transition”. It is not
necessary any more to adhere to a fixed
historicist understanding of the teleology
of development - of “ real”capitalism ar­
riving some day, or of socialism following
it later. All the convoluted explanations
for an inevitable yet eternally blocked
transition can now be dispensed with.
Postcolonial capitalism will continue in its
normal course to require the coexistence of
the accumulation and need economies;
this dualism is not a sign of deficiency,
weakness, incompleteness, immaturity
or aberration. We need not wait for the
transition because it has already hap­
pened - the future is here, and it is now.
Theoretical Location
To appreciate the main strengths of rcd
- its ambitious attempt to interface di­
vergent strands of social theory, and the
sheer panoramic sweep of the trajecto­
ries it maps - we must understand how
the book positions itself in relation to
the literatures it addresses.
While the Introduction runs quickly
(r cd : 8-26) through known positions on
the political economy of “ underdevelop­
ment”(dependency, world systems and
variants of the articulation of modes of
production thesis), it also identifies two
preferred interlocutors. These are the
feminist critique of the triumphalism of
capital offered by J K Gibson-Graham,
and an ensemble of neo-Gramscian per­
spectives centred on the idea of the
“passive revolution” . Sanyal appreciates
42
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Gibson-Graham’ s attack on the “capitalo-
centric”nature of economic discourse,1
as well as her2insistence on foreground­
ing non-capitalistic sites of production
within capitalism such as the household
and forms of self-employment (r cd :
4-5). But he disagrees on two points: He
believes that “ Gibson-Graham problem-
atises the economy by unsettling the ‘ he­
gemony of capital’ ; but in her analysis,
the concept of hegemony itself escapes
problematisation” (r cd : 6). Moreover,
where Gibson-Graham “ foregrounds eco­
nomic heterogeneity and strategically
deploys it to question the dominance of
capitalism” , Sanyal argues that it is “ eco­
nomic heterogeneity that constitutes
capitalism”and asks “ whether that het­
erogeneity itself can be seen as an expres­
sion of capital’s hegemony” ? (r cd : 7).
The concept of hegemony is the hinge
which allows Sanyal to move from the
Gibson-Graham critique to the neo-
Gramscian one. Once again, he is in
sympathy with much that is said here,
and is especially appreciative of how the
Gramscian approach foregrounds the
political problem of transition outside
the classical sites of western capitalism.
The “ passive revolution”provides a power­
ful generic framework for theorising the
blocked transition in postcolonial con­
texts: a weak bourgeoisie is unable to
hegemonise society in the name of an
exclusively capitalist agenda, and must
also accommodate the interests of other
classes and groups. The “ complex hege­
mony”required in these contexts forces
the State to cater not only to the modern
capitalist sector of the economy, but also
to the pre-capitalist sector that must be
placated because it contains the vast
majority of the population - which, given
universal suffrage, makes it the in­
escapable site of legitimation. The neo-
Gramscian term “ pre-capital”thus has
both a theoretical and a chronological
meaning; it becomes the reason for the
inevitability of a “ surrogate synthesis”
(rather than the genuine one of a full-
fledged bourgeois revolution).
While he recognises the genuine ad­
vances that neo-Gramscian perspectives
have made over older varieties of Marx­
ist theorisation (as seen in the mode of
production debate), Sanyal breaks with
APRIL 2i, 2012
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this position because of what he calls its
“historicism” . Even though the neo-
Gramscians recognise that transition (to
“full”capitalism) is permanently blocked,
the underlying reason for this remains
purely political, because the need for
legitimation prevents the use of the
massive coercion that would be needed
to destroy and subsume pre-capital.
Though transition is not practically fea­
sible, it still remains theoretically possi­
ble. By contrast, Sanyal wants to argue
that the survival of pre-capital is (also)
an integral and “ normal”economic fea­
ture of postcolonial capitalism.
In the Gramscian notion of passive revolu­
tion, pre-capital is exogenous to capital, a
remnant of the past that refuses to go away,
and capital must learn to live with it. But
if pre-capital is seen as arising out of... the
capitalist development process itself, then
both capital and pre-capital are freed from
the historical/chronological ordering, and
the prefix p re gives way to non. ...In other
words, commodity relations integrate capi­
tal and non-capital to form the post-colonial
eco n o m ic ( r c d : 39 ; emphases in original).
The most important consequence of
this shift of perspective is that it abol­
ishes the idea of transition:
[T]he characterisation of the post-colonial
economic as a complex of capital and non­
capital, with the latter emerging in a space
produced by the internal logic of the former,
totally dispenses with the notion of transi­
tion. If there is a possible transition in this
scenario, it is from pre-capitalism to the cap­
ital-non-capital complex. ... [This] a m o u n ts
to s a y in g th a t tra n sitio n in the h is to ricist
sen se h a s a lre a d y o c c u r r ed a n d w h a t w e have
is c a p ita lism w ith an in h eren t h eterog en eity
(r c d :4o; emphasis original).
Another point of difference with the
neo-Gramscian framework is its (explicit
as well as implicit) reliance on a mainly
national rather than global frame of refer­
ence. Sanyal’ s use of the term “
post-coloni­
al”is intended to signal a global focus even
as he seeks to distance himself from the
nation state in both its spado-juridical as
well as more broadly theoretical usages.
With its theoretical trajectory shaped
in the Introduction, the rest of the book
sketches in the details by laying out San-
yal’s position on three crucial issues: the
notion of primitive accumulation; the
two avatars of development discourse;
and the all important idea of the need
VOL XLVII NO 16 DBQ Economic & Political w e e k ly

economy. At an even 100 pages, Chapter 2
(“Ship of Fools” ) is by far the longest in
the book, and could have been tightened
somewhat. It seems to have two func­
tions, first to act as an extension of the
“ Introduction”by continuing with the
task of outlining the general argument,
and second to present the detailed posi­
tion on primitive accumulation.
Sanyal uses the image made famous
by Foucault - that of the medieval prac­
tice of banishing the insane, the dis­
eased and the unwanted into permanent
exile on sealed ships - to refer to the
“ castaways of development”who are up­
rooted from their lives by the depreda­
tions of the accumulation economy and
left to wander about in the need econo­
my. With respect to primitive accumula­
tion, Sanyal first points out the “ presen-
tist”nature of the term in the classical
literature. It was developed retrospec­
tively by Marx from the vantage point of
an already existing capitalism, and pre­
supposes the universality of capital,
something which the postcolonial econ­
omy refutes emphatically through the
creation of the sphere of non-capital.
Sanyal also delves at length into its
specifically economic features to under­
line the distinction between the primi­
tive accumulation of capital and capital­
ist accumulation as such. Unlike in the
classical context, relations between non­
capital and capital do not involve one­
sided transfers of surplus from the
former to the latter. However this part of
the argument, especially the claim that
economic relations between the sectors
involve conditions like those of “ bal­
anced trade” , remains obscure and un­
convincing (rcd:52).
Though outlined in Chapter 2, the ar­
gument on the discourse of development
is set out in Chapter 3 (“ Accumulation as
Development: The Arising of Capital” ) ence, but that it even requires it for its
and Chapter 4 (“ De-essentialising Devel­
opment: Capital and Governmentality” ).
Sanyal uses Foucault’ s notion of a dis­
cursive regime - as well as a wide variety
of authors from the development and
post-development literatures - to argue
that development discourse has played a
crucial role in legitimising capital and
establishing its hegemony. In the phase
of the “ arising”of capital, development
Economic & Political w e e k ly GBE9 A p r i l 21, 2012
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was positioned as a discourse of systemic
transition and it presented pre-capital as
its other, requiring its overthrow or at
least subordination. In India, for exam­
ple, this phase is that of the initial dec­
ades after Independence when the goal
of development is to usher in the transi­
tion to a fully capitalist (or developed)
society. In the second phase, after the
recognition that postcolonial capitalism
“naturally” produces non-capital and
that poverty is a permanent rather than
transitory phenomenon, development
discourse shifts to emphasise “ improve­
ment”in the condition of the poor and
the “ management”(rather than eradica­
tion) of poverty ( r cd : 88). A crucial fea­
ture of development discourse for San­
yal is its global rather than national
locus, especially in the light of the role
played by international development
institutions like the World Bank.
In Chapter 5 (“ Difference as Hegemo­
ny: Capital and the Need Economy” ) San­
yal reiterates and systematises what has
already been said about the need econo­
my in the earlier chapters. In its essence,
the need economy is an attempt to restore
(at least partially) the unity of labour and
the means of labour that characterised
the pre-capitalist economy, and thus to
reverse the effects of the “ accumulation
by dispossession”that is a permanent fea­
ture of capitalism. But this restoration
happens in rather changed circumstanc­
es: it is made possible through transfers of
surplus from the accumulation economy
via development programmes, and it is in­
tegrated with the discursive regimes that
legitimise capital globally. Sanyal makes
extensive forays into the literature on the
informal economy, development aid, and
initiatives like microcredit and self-help
groups to argue his case that contempo­
rary capitalism not only thrives on differ­
own legitimation.
Zones of Engagement
This serious, sprawling, uneven (some­
times elegant, sometimes ungainly) and
amazingly wide-ranging book offers innu­
merable points of purchase for productive
engagement. Let me briefly mention four
sites where a critical dialogue with rcd
may prove particularly fruitful.
v o l x l v i i n o 16
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TRIBUTE TO KALYAN SANYAL
(1) The Specific Structure o f the Need
Economy and Its Relationship to Capi­
tal: As r c d itself notes, and as Sanyal’ s
later work shows (for example, Sanyal and
Bhattacharya 2009), this is an area where
a lot more needs to be done. In brief, it is
not enough to simply say that the need
economy is “ outside capital but inside cap­
italism”- the nature of the relationship (or
a typology of possible relations) needs to
be worked out. This is particularly impor­
tant given the tendency of capital to de­
velop enclaves of informality within its
own sphere through ancillarisation, sub­
contracting, outsourcing and the like. The
need economy remains seriously under-
theorised in r c d and would richly repay
attempts at revision and refinement. The
main problem currendy is that - at least
from the point of view of the worker -
there seems to be little difference between
large sections of both sectors. If expanded
reproduction is allowed in the need econo­
my ( r c d : 213) and there are no stipula­
tions about products or technologies, then
it becomes difficult to see how the two can
be separated. After all, even the drive for
accumulation is experienced by individual
capitalists or managers in terms of person­
al goals and desires. Finally, while the
overall project of r c d is more than suc­
cessful in “ mainstreaming”political-social
processes within economic ones, the need
economy is a site where this is especially
important. The organisation of production
in this sector is likely to be crucially de­
pendent on social and political capital of
various kinds. Indeed the explicit nature of
this dependence and its centrality may
well make it a favoured candidate for dif­
ferentiating the two sectors.
(2) The Post-national rather than the
Postcolonial as Frame o f Reference:
Sanyal is of course very deliberate in his
reliance on the term postcolonial. He
believes (or hopes) that it will help free his
analysis from what he sees as the parochial
national ambit of the Gramscian notion of
passive revolution. But there is surely a
strong case to be made for the term post­
national3 which can perform at least as
well and probably much better. To begin
with, it is important not to be misled by
the name and think of the post-national
as “ not-global” . Indeed, every global
43
TRIBUTE TO KALYAN SANYAL
institution or influence is today mediated
through the post-nation, or the form of the
nation state following the end of the hege­
mony of the anti-colonial nationalisms.
The post-nation is particularly important
in a context where legitimation (or the
nurturing of non-capital) has to be bal­
anced with accumulation (or the ravaging
of non-capital). As a quick illustration,
consider the fact that the Indian state is
centrally implicated in both the war against
“Maoism” and the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act. By contrast, the term postcolonial has
lost its moorings in colonialism and has
become a free-floating term with a notori­
ously variable range of meaning.
(3) The Political-Ideological Uses o f
Transition Narratives: One of the minor
disappointments that readers of r c d may
face is the unidimensional treatment of
transition narratives as the products of an
almost pathological “ historicism” . While
SanyaPs antipathy towards them may be
amply justified, it is surprising that he ig­
nores the inspirational aspects of transi­
tion narratives, or more generally, utopi­
as. When considering their exhortative-
political role, questions about the empiri­
cal plausibility or theoretical soundness
of utopias are not the decisive ones. The
immense popular energies that they can
harness underlines, by contrast, the nega­
tive consequences of their absence. Al­
though the concluding sections of r c d do
seem to be implicitly aware of this, it is
important to think explicitly about the
ideological aspects of the move from the
“politics of transition”to the “ politics of
exclusion” . What sorts of futures can the
latter promise, and how best may these
promises be articulated?
(4) The Links between Urbanisation,
the Need Economy and Postcoionial
Capitalism: This is a theme that surfaces
often in r c d , and also seems to have been
part of SanyaPs concerns in his later work.4
It is surely well worth examining if there
are indeed reasons why the “ outside”of
capital is expected to become more urban,
thus leading to the “ urbanisation of pover­
ty” . Although initial indications seem to
point in a different direction,5 further
study may yield significant insights, and
44
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there is already an emerging literature
dealing with precisely this intersection.
Finally, some thoughts about the re­
ception of this work, thoughts made
more poignant by the untimely passing
of the author, r c d has already received
significant attention both in India and
abroad. Perhaps the best known instance
is the indirect debate on some of its argu­
ments initiated through Partha Chatter-
jee’ s account of the contradictory links
between democracy and economic trans­
formation in contemporary India (Chat-
terjee 2008).6 There is little doubt that
r c d will continue to attract attention as
well as engagement, both because of its
basic temperament and because of its
amazing intellectual span. It is note­
worthy that though he is sure of his ulti­
mate destination, Sanyal never tries to
be singular but always seeks company -
he is constantly in conversation with
others, even when they are headed in
directions different from his. It is no
mean feat for an author trained in the
habitually insular discipline of econom­
ics to produce a bibliography that begins
with Izaz Ahmad and ends with Slavoj
Zizek, and also manages to delve fruit­
fully into diverse theoretical enclaves.
In conclusion, let me return briefly to
the beginning. Abba Lemer’ s famous epi­
graph is less a criticism and more a state­
ment about the conditions of possibility
that disciplines must face. There are
strong reasons why disciplines are shaped
the way they are. These are also the rea­
sons why disciplines are daunted by the
“otherness”in their own heartland - they
are simply not equipped to deal with it
meaningfully, and opting out is the pru­
dent option. It takes immense effort - and
courage - to undertake the radical re­
schooling and re-tooling required to tackle
unfamiliar things. Although it is not
entirely successful, this is what r c d sets
out to do. Sanyal’ s key point of departure
is the realisation that “ the capitalist eco­
nomic remains insufficiently theorised in
the neo-Gramscian story”(r c d :s o , emph­
asis original). The core of his project is
the attempt to theorise accumulation-by-
dispossession as an economic process that
is fundamentally political, with the first
pair of descriptors carrying as much weight
as the second pair. But if its reception so
APRIL 21, 2012
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
far is any indication, r c d will generate
more interest outside economics than in­
side it. Nevertheless, despite the irony in
the fact that it is unlikely to be read by
many economists, Rethinking Capitalist
Development is what every author would
want her book to be - generous, fertile
and good to think with.
n o tes ________________________________________________
1 “When we say that most economic discourse is
‘capitalocentric’ , we mean that other forms of
economy (not to mention non-economic aspects
of social life) are often understood primarily with
reference to capitalism: as being fundamentally
the same as (or modelled upon) capitalism, or as
being deficient or substandard imitations; as be­
ing opposite to capitalism; as being the comple­
ment of capitalism; as existing in capitalism’ s
space or orbit”(Gibson-Graham 1996:6).
2 Sanyal refers to Gibson-Graham in the singular
even though this is the pen name of two femi­
nist economic geographers, Katherine Gibson
and Julie Graham (who died in 2010). Since
Sanyal surely knew this (Graham is actually
thanked in the Acknowledgements of RCD), he
must have had reasons for doing what he did,
and hence I also use the singular pronoun in
deference to his usage.
3 I use the term in the sense explained in De
Alwis et al 2009, which is the introduction to a
set of articles on this theme published in the
EPW o f 7 March 2009.
4 As suggested by Bhattacharya and Sanyal (2011).
5 Available data seems to suggest that both the
rate of growth o f urban population and the
contribution of rural-urban migration to this
growth have declined somewhat over the last
decade. Amitabh Kundu (2009) even suggests
that the exclusionary nature o f urban popula­
tion growth is more of a concern than exagger­
ated fears of its rapid acceleration.
6 See also the symposium featuring responses to
this article and Chatterjee’ s reply to them in
the EPW of 15 November 2008.
R E F E R E N C E S ________________________________________
Bhattacharya, Rajesh and Kalyan Sanyal (2011):
“Bypassing the Squalor: New Towns, Immate­
rial Labour and Exclusion in Post-Colonial
Urbanisation”in Economic & Political Weekly,
30 July, pp 41-48.
Chatterjee, Partha (2008): “ Democracy and Eco­
nomic Transformation in India”in Economic &
Political Weekly, 19 April, pp 53-62.
De Alwis, M, S Deshpande, P Jeganathan, M John,
N Menon, M S S Pandian, A Nigam and S A Zaidi
(2009): “ The Postnational Condition”in Eco­
nomic & Political Weekly, 7 March, p 35.
Gibson-Graham, J K (1996): The End o f Capitalism
(As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique o f Political
Economy (Oxford, UK and Cambridge, USA:
Blackwell).
Kundu, Amitabh (2009): “ Exclusionary Urbanisa­
tion in Asia: A Macro Overview”in Economic &
Political Weekly, 28 November, pp 48-58.
Lerner, Abba (1972): “ The Economics and Politics
of Consumer Sovereignty”in American Eco­
nomic Review, Vol 62, pp 258-66.
Sanyal, Kalyan (2007): Rethinking Capitalist Devel­
opment: Primitive Accumulation, Governmen-
tality and Post-colonial Capitalism (New Delhi:
Routledge).
Sanyal, Kalyan and Rajesh Bhattacharya (2009):
“Beyond the Factory: Globalisation, Informali­
sation of Production and the New Locations
of Labour” in Economic & Political Weekly,
30 May, pp 35-44 .
VOL XLVII NO 16 DDES Economic & Political WEEKLY
 R IV E R IN T E R L IN K IN G

Water Science in India The central objective of water systems

governance has changed from maximis­
ing the abstraction of water from the
H ydrological Obscurantism natural sources to ensuring that the eco­
logical status of water systems are not
degraded drastically by water abstrac­
JAYANTA BANDYOPADHYAY tions. This is to ensure the long-term
sustainability of water supplies while

T
The proposal for addressing the he world is passing through a accepting limited degradation of the
twin problems of floods and period of rapidly escalating demand natural ecosystems. In this perspective,
on water, whose availability is all negative externalities of water extrac­
water scarcity by interlinking
limited by the ecological processes of the tion projects are to be identified and val­
rivers is based on an outdated and global hydrological cycle. For centuries, ued to the extent possible, and compen­
dangerous idea of surplus river guided by the singular perception of sations made for loss of ecosystems’ func­
basins from which water can be gaining access to ever-greater volumes tioning, productivity and related liveli­
of water, humanity has created numer­ hoods. The water framework directive of
drawn at will. Global experience
ous supply-side solutions by obstructing the European Union is an important
shows how damaging such plans rivers and diverting their flows to areas example of such science-based updating
of large-scale water transfer are away from the rivers or use them in peri­ of the principles of water governance.
to the environment, economy and ods when demands are far larger than In India large-scale but reductionist
the natural availability. This was the engineering interventions have led to
livelihoods o f the people. Such
driving force behind the growth of tradi­ serious decline in the flows of rivers.
plans have also proved a failure tional water engineering. With the avail­ Ecological degradations in downstream
to either prevent floods or provide ability of reinforced cement concrete floodplains, estuaries and the coastal
water on a sustainable basis. It is ( r cc) technology and large pumps, the regions caused by lowering quantity as
degree of abstraction from natural well as quality of water have been record­
unfortunate that water policy in
sources became very large. Most of these ed extensively. The related ecosystem
India remains a prisoner to such engineering efforts were driven by the functions, services and productivity have
obsolete ideas. objective of expanding irrigation. got drastically damaged, causing loss of
livelihoods and underdevelopment for a
Water: Scarcities and Governance large population. While in modem water
India today has the largest irrigation science basins are considered as the suit­
network in the world. While safe drink­ able ecological unit for holistic water
ing water for all has been at the top of governance, the method for benefit-cost
the policy documents, about 300 million assessment of water projects has remained
Indians do not have access to safe drink­ traditional and partisan. Of particular
ing water. It is feared that by 2050 India’
s significance in this regard is the unpub­
water demand will surpass water avail­ lished note by Desai (1983) that had
ability. The River Interlinking Project already suggested fundamental changes
(rip) has been prescribed as the official in the methodology of appraisal of large
solution to this water scarcity by conne­ water projects to the Planning Commis­
cting flood-prone “ surplus”river basins sion. There seems to be little impact of
with the “ deficient”basins. that suggestion, in spite of its holism and
As interdisciplinary water science comprehensiveness.
advanced globally in addressing the
emerging challenges of water scarcity, Questionable Water Science
the recent decades have witnessed In India, with its wide spatial and tem­
fundamental changes in the perceptions poral variation in natural water availa­
of water governance. The traditional bility, demand for regional transfer of
supply-side solutions are rapidly being water was common. The Periyar-Vaigai
Jayanta Bandyopadhyay (jayanta@iimcalac.in) replaced by ecologically informed holistic system, Indira Gandhi Canal or the Telugu
teaches at the Centre for Development and approaches that recognise the many Ganga are examples of such water tran­
Environment Policy at the Indian Institute of diverse benefits of water systems beyond sfer projects. In spite of very high level
Management, Calcutta.
irrigation (Bjorklund et al 2009). of investment in dams and transfer

Economic & Political w e e k ly DDES a p r i l 21, 2012 v o l x l v i i n o 16 45

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A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
RIVER INTERLINKING
projects, however, open assessments of
their economic as well as hydrological
performance are difficult to come by in
the literature. The proposed r i p , de­
scribed as the largest civil engineering
project in the world, with all the gaps in
information on whether the project will
be economically viable and ecologically
sustainable, exemplifies how govern­
mental engineers in India have re­
mained tied to a very traditional percep­
tion of water governance.
It is no surprise that the r i p finds its
justification from the “ Arthur Cotton
Scheme”created as far back as in 1834
by the British engineer of that name.
The proposal for transferring water of
the Ganga to the Cauvery through a link
canal by Rao (1975) was a reiteration of
that idea. The science of water, and in
particular of rivers, has progressed
remarkably since the time of Cotton. Is it
not important that the r i p , involving
huge investments from the public, gets
assessed with the recent-most inter­
disciplinary scientific knowledge and
not that of the mid-i9th century?
Numerous scientific publications and
books written by independent water
experts have questioned the justifiability
of the r i p and its declared benefits (see for
example, Iyer 2003; Alagh et al 2006;
Bandyopadhyay 2007; Mirza et al 2008).
Not only that the scientific base of the r i p
needs to be updated, the assurance that
investments in water projects can generate
good and overall economic returns also
need to be established. For this open eco­
nomic review of large projects will be
essential. It is very important for correct
decision-making that the proponents of
the r i p professionally engaged with
these publications in open platforms.
Wishful Ideas
Due to the domination of the monsoon
on the climate of India, during the sum­
mer months of July-August-September
precipitation is quite high, while in the
rest of the year it is quite limited. Fur­
ther, the directions of the monsoon cur­
rents cause the high precipitation to be
in the eastern and north-eastern parts of
the country as well as the western aspect
of the Western Ghats. Thus, the Hima­
layan rivers and the west flowing rivers
46
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of the Western Ghats carry large flows
during these months. In the perception
of the proponents o f the r i p , there is an
apparent “ paradox”that some parts of
the country face “ floods”and have “ sur­
plus”water while the other parts are
“deficient” .
On the unscientific assumption that
water flows in rivers going out to the
seas are a waste, Prabhu (2003), who
headed the task force for interlinking of
rivers, claimed that “ the (interlinking)
project is all about rationalisation of wa­
ter that is lost to the sea”. Like in other
parts of the world, such traditional and
simplistic perceptions of water systems
governance are also accepted by the
unsuspecting professional community
without much scrutiny. For example,
Bery (2008) takes recourse to this
categorisation of rivers as “ surplus”and
“deficient” , though there is hardly any
basis in modern water science that can
divide rivers in these groups. Bery
(2008) has observed
...the interlinking of rivers programme is
aimed at linking different surplus rivers of
(the) country with the deficient rivers, so that
the excess water from the surplus region could
be diverted to (the) deficient region. This
would help in increasing irrigation intensity
in the country, increasing water availability for
drinking and industrial purposes.
The fixation for such supply-side
solutions in place of “ soft”demand-side
options has consequently led to several
plans for grand inter-regional water
transfers in many parts of the world
(Biswas 1979). In a country where politi­
cians of all colours are keen to extend
free water supply for irrigation, there
are very few to point out that this is a
subsidy to an irrigation system whose
efficiency is only 35%. With the recent
conceptualisation of environmental flows,
it is common knowledge that every drop
in the flow of a river is accepted as con­
tributors to ecosystem functioning and
creation of related services. Neverthe­
less, such a partisan unscientific app­
roach of “ surplus”or “ deficient”river
basins makes it easy for parties wanting
free access to greater supplies of water
by diverting natural flows without pay­
ing any compensation for the in-stream
uses of water and loss of productivity
that such diversion projects result in.
Ap r il 21, 2012
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Sustaining Water Supply
It is indeed necessary to divert part of
natural flows for supply of water for irri­
gation, domestic uses and industrial
demands. In a world where water avail­
ability is limited by the hydrological
cycle, how does a country plan its sup­
plies? The age of supply-side affluence
and inefficient use of water has obviously
ended. More than half of all accessible
global freshwater run-off is currently
withdrawn for various human uses.
While the case of the ecological disaster
from such transfers from the tributaries
of the Aral Sea is globally known, smaller
“Aral Seas”are already present in large
numbers in many parts of India, damag­
ing the various ecosystem functions and
services provided by the natural flows.
The Nile in Egypt, the Ganges in south
Asia, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya in
central Asia, the Huang He in China and
the Colorado river in North America are
among the major watercourses that have
been dammed and diverted - to the ex­
tent that for parts of the year, little or
none of their freshwater reaches the sea
(Postel 2001). In recent years China has
taken serious steps to revitalise the
mother river, Huang He. River science
now provides clear methods for the
identification and assessment of nega­
tive externalities of such transfers and
possible damages to the ecosystem func­
tions and services.
Studies indicate that at least four
important factors have contributed to
recent global changes in the professional
view of large investments in water trans­
fer projects, like the r i p . First, feasibility
of huge investments in engineering
interventions for “ controlling”monsoon
“floods”has not been established. In the
absence of open availability of hydro-
logical data on the Himalayan rivers, the
claim for flood control can only be a wish.
In an assessment of the r i p , Gourdji et al
(2005) of the University of Michigan
have cited the impacts of investments
for flood control in the Mississippi river
by pointing out that
a great deal of flood damage has occurred in
the Mississippi River basin despite the vast
sums of money that have been invested to
stop it. In fact, even with the huge federal
and private expenditures, floods and the
losses they cause continue. For example,
v o l x l v ii n o 16 IS3E3 Economic & Political weekly

current flood in g o f the M ississippi River at
St Louis tends to b e 2.7 m etres h igher than
h istoric floods. Furthermore, in St Louis over
the last six decad es a m ajor flood, w hich is
on e at least 3.7 m etres above flood stage, has
occu rred on average on ce every six years.
Second, for simple political reasons,
there was strong opposition to the trans­
fer from the basins from which water is
taken out. Third, the economic feasibility
of such large transfers was not estab­
lished in a convincing manner.
Fourth and the most important reason
was the cumulative environmental im­
pacts, that got little attention in the ini­
tial feasibility reports. The cumulative
damages in the ecosystemic productivity
started to increase with time. In short,
the decade of 1970s was also the time
when, “ New approaches to complex river
development were according greater rec­
ognition to its environmental limits and
consequences” (White 1977). In many
countries and regions, which are keen on
ensuring long-term sustainable availabi­
lity of water and not on immediate max­
imisation of its supplies to specific
regions, a fundamental change in policy
has taken place, in which ecosystem
functions and services of water systems
have received high priority. The case of
India is different, as is clearly seen from
the conceptual framework with which
the draft national water policy (2012) has
been written. Large number of indepen­
dent water professionals of India have
come out in scientific criticism of that
draft (see for example, Iyer 2012; Bandyo-
padhyay 2012, Times of India 2012).
As a result of the new vision for rivers,
in North America itself, implementation
of some large projects perceived on the
older framework has been abandoned or
modified. The original proposal for the
Texas Water System made in 1968, con­
sisting of a large diversion from the
water-rich Mississippi river into the drier
state of Texas, is a clear indication of this
new trend. The earlier plan for the Texas
Water System has been modified so
much that it now serves as a negative
example of inter-basin transfers. The
overwhelming attention was focused on
narrow aspects of engineering while
scant perfunctory attention was accorded
to the associated ecological-economic
aspects (Greer 1983).
Economic & Political weekly QQS 3 a p r il 21, 2012
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RIVER INTERLINKING
Fallacy of ‘
Surplus9 water, depriving millions of their liveli­
or ‘
Deficient9Basins hoods and right to life, cannot be a sus­
The single hydrological idea on which tainable plan for addressing the water
the r i p bases itself exclusively is the cat­ problems of the country.
egorisation of river basins as “ surplus” Hydrological obscurantism has to
and “ deficient”. There is, however, no make way for modern holistic water sci­
accepted mechanism for arriving at such ence which will give a new foundation
a qualification in modern water science. to water governance replacing the
An unpublished document (Mohile 1998) subjective and meaningless concepts of
has provided the conceptual basis for “ surplus”and “ deficient”basins. Only
the world’ s largest civil engineering through such a transformation can India
project, ignoring all other uses of river develop an assured and sustainable
waters and related economies, especial­ water future.
ly of the in-stream uses.
By contrast, in modern water science, r e f e r e n c e s _________________________________
the movement of all drops of water flow­ Alagh, Y K, G Pangare and B Gujja, ed. (2006):
Interlinking o f Rivers in India: Overview and Ken
ing in a river has important ecological
Betwa Link (New Delhi: Academic Foundation).
roles to play, albeit in small magnitudes. Bandyopadhyay, J (2007): Water; Ecosystems and
Diversions and extractions of water from Society: A Confluence of Disciplines (New Delhi:
Sage).
natural flows are surely needed but their - (2012): “ Search for Old Ideas” , The Telegraph,
social, economic and ecological down­ Kolkata, 21 February.
Bery, S K (2008): “ Foreword”to Economic Impact of
stream impacts need to be part of the Interlinking o f Rivers Programme (New Delhi:
project assessment. A lot of scientific NCAER).
literature is available on the ecological Biswas, M R (1979): Agriculture and Environment,
Technical Memoir No 3 (New Delhi: Inter­
integrity of rivers and ecosystem func­ national Commission on Irrigation and Drain­
age), pp 225-55.
tions and services cannot be set aside by
Bjorklund, G, A Bullock, M Hellmuth, W Rast,
partisan policy, overt or covert. D Vallee and J Winpenny (2009): “ Water’ s
Our water establishment needs to get Many Benefits” , Chapter 6, Water in a Changing
World, UNESCO, Paris, pp 80-95.
away from the traditional and unsub­ Desai, N (1983): Appraisal and Approval o f Irriga­
stantiated perceptions of unilaterally tion Projects, draft report for the Planning
Commission, unpublished.
declaring river basins as “ surplus”and Gourdji, S, C Knowlton and K Platt (2005): Indian
“deficient” . Inadequate knowledge of Interlinking o f Rivers: A Preliminary Evalua­
tion, dissertation in Natural Resources and
project proponents should not be the ba­ Environment, University o f Michigan, USA.
sis of depriving the negatively affected Greer, R (1983): “The Texas Water System: Implica­
tions for Environmental Assessment in Plan­
parts of the basin facilitating a de facto ning for Interbasin Water Transfers” in
act of water acquisition. Water is A K Biswas et al (ed.), (1983) Long-Distance
Water Transfer: A Chinese Case Study and Inter­
renewed at the highest microlevels and national Experiences (Tokyo: UNU and Tycooly).
the demand for nationalisation of rivers Iyer, R R (2003): “Linking Rivers...A Chimera of a
to facilitate regional transfers will be Project” , The Hindu Survey of the Environment,
Chennai.
counterproductive. - (2012): Comments on Draft National Water
Consideration of ecological and eco­ Policy, sent to the Ministry o f Water Resources,
New Delhi, 5 February.
nomic implications of the r i p would pro­ Mirza, M Q, A U Ahmed and Q K Ahmed (2008):
mote its full costing and will ensure that Interlinking Rivers in India: Issues and Concerns
(Abingdon: Taylor and Francis).
water is used efficiently. The real para­ Mohile, A D (1998): “India’ s Water and Its Plausible
dox in India is the coexistence of scarcity Balance in Distant Future”unpublished paper
as cited in Annon (1999), Integrated Water
and inefficient use of water. In extending Resource Development: A Plan for Action,
hydro-luxury to some, hydrological obscu­ MoWR, New Delhi, p 29.
rantism cannot rob some others of their Postel, S (2001): “Troubled Waters”in E 0 Wilson
and B Bilger (ed.). Best American Science and
resource bases and livelihoods. Water Nature Writing (Houghton Mifflin).
scarcity in drier parts of the country Prabhu, S (2003): Interview in Indian Express, New
Delhi, 2 March.
needs to be ameliorated. This has to base Rao, K L (1975): India’ s Water Wealth (New Delhi:
itself on a region-specific assessment of Orient Longman).
Times o f India (2012): “ Experts O ppose Draft
water availability and use and should con­ Water Policy” , TNN, Chandigarh, 26 February.
tribute overall economic benefits to the White, G (1977): “Comparative Analysis of Complex
River Development”in Gilbert F White (ed.),
country. Gains for some and loss for Environmental Effects of Complex River Develop­
others or the undemocratic transfer of ment (Boulder: Westview Press).
v o l x l v ii n o 16 47
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RIVER INTERLINKING
Resuscitating a Failed Idea
Notes from Bihar
DINESH KUMAR MISHRA_____________________
The idea of a national interlinking
of rivers needs to base itself on
the past six decades’
experience
of river and flood control
measures. A contribution from
Bihar shows that not only is the
state’
s“surplus water”tag a bit
incorrect, the very structures
- dams, canals and embankments
- which are proposed to
implement the river interlinking
project have been a big failure.
Then what explains the
enthusiasm for this failed idea?
Dinesh Kumar Mishra {dkmishraio8@gm.ail
com) is the convenor of the Barh Mukti Abhiyan
(movement for freedom from floods), Bihar.
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(g o b ) to discuss the implications of the r i p
on the water resources of Bihar, a so-
called surplus state, in Patna on 2 April
2003. Rashtriya Janata Dal (r j d ) presi­
dent Lalu Prasad Yadav said he would not
allow “ our water”to go elsewhere because
nobody would give water to the state when
it was needed. Brijendra Yadav, a Member
T
he Supreme Court judgment of of the Legislative Assembly (m l a ) from
27 February 2012 on the River the rival Janata Dal (United) - j d (u ) party
Interlinking Project (rip) starts raised a very pertinent point
with a quote from the petitioners paying The states located in these basins (Ganga
tribute to a great engineer Arthur Cotton and Brahmaputra) were the most undevel­
oped states of the country. If Bihar is not
who had done exemplary work in irriga­
able to utilise its water, it is construed to be a
tion in Cauvery and Godavari basins of surplus state. You think of a patient who has
south India. Unfortunately, all his exper­ lost his appetite and cannot take food. Does
it mean that he has surplus food with him?
tise and excellence was limited to south
India. He failed miserably as he moved to The problem was, he stated, in the
Orissa, Bihar and the North West Prov­ manner in which surplus was defined.
inces (present up). He was a navigation Lalu Prasad Yadav repeated his re­
enthusiast and that is where his r i p idea marks in his famous “ Lathi Ghumawan Tel
has its origin. He maintained that,1 Pilawan”rally in Patna, later that same
month stating that he would not allow
...what India wants is water carriage; that
the railways have completely failed; they Bihar’ s water to go elsewhere. The next
cannot carry at the price required; they can­ month he said “ this water is our petrol” .
not carry the quantities; and they cost the This had a different meaning altogether.
country three millions a year, and increasing,
Unless sold, petrol is as good as water.
to support them. That steamboat canals would
not have cost more than one eighth of the rail­ This implies that if somebody is prepared
ways; would carry any quantity at nominal to pay the price of Bihar’ s water, the state
prices and at any speed; would require no would not mind selling it, thus, agreeing
support from the treasury; and would be to river linking for a price that can rightly
combined with irrigation.
be claimed by other states/countries
Had the British administration taken upstream. However, he never pursued
him seriously, they would have ended up this idea later.
being an object of ridicule by ignoring According to the Report of the Second
railways in the mid-i8sos. No wonder Bihar State Irrigation Commission (1994)
George Campbell who became Member only 19% of water that passes through
of the British Parliament after retiring north Bihar is generated locally while
from Bengal, had once commented on 81% comes from other states or coun­
Arthur Cotton saying, "... there was tries. Further, it states that 70% of the
some truth in the saying regarding him, flow of the Ganga during the non-mon-
that he had water on his brain” .2 soon months is contributed by rivers
Excellence, sometimes, is geographical. coming from Nepal. If Bihar lays its
Similarly, Peter Salberg, an engineer claim over the water, the states of Uttar
from Assam, whose statement was read Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh,
in the famous flood conference at Patna West Bengal and now Jharkhand also
in 1937, described more aptly how man’ s will stake their claims, along with
interference started and developed, and Nepal, over that water.
how the situation grew progressively
worse owing to the power of government Not Concerned about Bihar
and skill of engineers.3 In July 2003, the r j d government
appointed an expert committee of senior
Voices from the Surplus Gallery engineers to study all the technical
Following a similar judgment given by the components of the National Water Deve­
Supreme Court in 2002 on r i p , a meeting lopment Agency (n w d a ) proposal so
was called by the Government of Bihar that the interests of the state could be
a p r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 Economic & Political weekly
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protected. The committee submitted its
report in December 2003 and felt that4
...Interlinking o f Rivers is the last b ig effort
by the Nation to harness W ater R esources o f
the cou ntry for equitable distribution. H ence
Bihar m ust not m iss the bus at this stage and
m ust ensure that the season al w ater requ ire­
m ents o f its various sub-zones are fulfilled
b efore transferring w ater to other parts o f
the country.
But, it also said that the general belief
that, “ there is huge quantity of water
available which can be transferred to
southern and western parts of the coun­
try”should be dispelled.5The committee
was concerned that6
m ost o f the transfer o f w ater is en visaged
from the storage, th ough transfer o f w ater
from run-of-the river du rin g m on soon is also
proposed. But such transfer o f w ater w ill not
have significant im pact on flood m oderation.
It recommended7
The n w d a sch em es d o not at all sh ow
con cern ov er the flood problem o f Bihar,
w hich m ust b e giv en full priority... Bihar
m ust b e a ssociated from the very b eg in n in g
w ith the planning, execu tion and op e ra ­
tion o f the reservoirs on the rivers flow in g
th rough Bihar.
Transferring Water to Bihar
The g o b appointed another committee of
technical experts in September 2004 to
look into the seven links that directly or
indirectly concern Bihar. The committee,
which submitted its report in April 2005,
while appreciating the objectives of the
n w d a , maintained that the present
mega project of r i p is going to be the
biggest and the final plan in water re­
source development, any mistake in its
planning and implementation will lead
to very adverse and serious consequenc­
es, which will have no remedial meas­
ures and will be almost impossible to
rectify in future.8
The committee came to the conclusion
that 76.2% of surface water yield in
(entire) Bihar can be attributed to the
catchment outside the state and only
23.8% of it is generated on its own
ground. Also, around 76% of this water
is generated during the monsoon months
and since the land of the state is virtually
flat, there is no chance of storing the
water through structural means as dams
cannot be built on flat lands.9 The com­
mittee also observed that Bihar is often
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misjudged as a flooded country but the
areas located south of the Ganga are
chronically drought affected.
The cultivable area of south Bihar is
37% of the entire state but the water
resources available is less than 14%.
Even within south Bihar, there are dis­
parities between different river basins.
The cultivable area of south Bihar, beyond
the Sone Basin, is 24.09% of the state
but water availability in that area is as
low as 6.4% of the state. Most of the
drought-prone areas of the state are
located in this region. The committee
therefore noted, “ This clearly brings out
the need for transfer of water to this sub-
region from other regions and basins” .10
It is worth noting that the available water
per person in many basins of south Bihar
is far less than the water available per
capita in the peninsular river basins of
the Krishna, Cauvery and Pennar and
the expert committee wants that water
should be imported to these basins from
outside to meet their demands.11
What If the Canals Breach?
The state of the roads, canals and the
embankments in Bihar continues to
remain fragile during the rainy season.
According to the annual report of the
Water Resources Department (w r d ) of
Bihar (2011-12) there have been 371
breaches in the embankments between
1987 and 2010.12 Breaches in canals are
many and not counted. Village roads,
state highways and even national high­
ways breach in large numbers every
year. We all know very well that all
these structures lose their meaning
beyond the breach point. Government
attributes most of these breaches to the
handiwork of “ anti-social elements”as a
routine to escape responsibility.
The repair process generally starts
after January next year when the fog
disappears. Also, dry earth is needed for
the repairs and that may not be easily
available till December in north Bihar.
The proposed link canals are going to be
much large in size and hence more vul­
nerable to the attacks of water flowing
through them. This means that when the
people of the Sabarmati or the Cauvery
basin would be waiting for the Ganga
water to reach them, the g o b would be
v o l x l v ii n o 16
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RIVER INTERLINKING
floating tenders for repairing the breaches
in its interlinked canals.
It is certain that these canals would
lead to severe waterlogging in the plains
of Bihar, as they would behave like
earthen dams obstructing rainwater and
natural drainage, leading to stagnation
of rainwater. It is unlikely that the canals
would not breach or be cut by irate mobs
of people facing waterlogging.
A journey along the eastern and west­
ern Kosi canals that run in the east-west
direction while the ground slopes are
from north to south is very educative.
The canals behave like an earthen dam
and breach at many places on their own
or are cut by people, who face submer­
gence due to waterlogging, to drain the
water out. The Kosi-Bagmati link or the
Kosi-Mechi link, a sizeable length of which
will run in the west to east direction in
Nepal will be a canal to be watched in
future, if built. Seepage through the canals
and the use of alluvial soil as the con­
struction material would further worsen
the situation. It must be mentioned that
8.36 lakh ha land of north Bihar, nearly
17% of its geographical area is already
waterlogged. People living there would
never like to add to their problems.
Next Round of Land Acquisitions
Displacement of the people because of
such constructions has always been a
contentious issue which never gets
resolved. The people of Bihar, as other
states, should prepare themselves for
another round of large-scale land acqui­
sition that would go into main bodies of
the canals, dams, residential colonies of
project staff, burrow pits and rehabilitat­
ing the oustees. In a state where land­
lessness is high, a large number of small
and marginal farmers would face pau­
perisation. This will inflate migration
figures and crowds on the footpaths of
major towns in the country. It must be re­
minded that the rehabilitation process of
the Kosi Project (1955) and the Bagmati
Project (1970) are yet not complete!
The expert committee had come out
with its own plans for linking 18 of Bihar’
s
rivers first. It states that any considera­
tion of national river interlinking and
surplus water sharing can only happen
after assessing the performance of these
49
RIVER INTERLINKING

links and the availability of water after opinion, its importance can be gauged It appears that the entire river inter­
the needs of Bihar have been met. The from the fact that within a few days of linking proposal is a cover-up to hide the
chief minister had promised that the his statement, union minister for envi­ failure of this hydrological bureaucracy
work on these links of south Bihar would ronment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, so that people, with carrots of river
start in April 2006. said in a press conference in Delhi on the interlinking dangled before them, do not
The annual report of Bihar’ s w r d for 6 October 2009 that,14 ask inconvenient questions which these
2010-11 says that the government has departments find hard to answer.
...interlinking o f rivers w ill b e a human-
given priority to solving the drought ecologica l-econ om ic disaster. It is easy to Much has been said about up-scaling
problem of south Bihar, the flood problem d o interlinking on paper. Interlinking o f riv­ water rates but not a word if the depart­
of north Bihar, to improving the water­ ers has lim ited basin value, but large-scale ment fails to provide the promised irriga­
logging conditions and ensuring irriga­ interlinking w ou ld b e a disaster. tion water. The farmer would be charged
tion water through canals. The report The Government of India had appoint­ water rate but how about the impact of
claims that this is central to the state ed a special task force to look into the waterlogging? Will it not be necessary
government’ s plan to achieve 250% crop problems of irrigation and floods in for the department which charges water
intensity, develop water resources with­ Bihar under the chairmanship of S C Jha. rates from the farmers and takes credit
in the state and initiate the intra-linking The report states,15 for it to compensate the farmers in case
of rivers programme. There has been a ...Water Resource Department o f the state is their fields get waterlogged? Further, the
budgetary provision made in 2012 for too big, unorganised, too much manpower, Himalayan component of the r i p de­
starting one of the links in north Bihar. lack o f professionals, and deficient in fund pends heavily on cooperation with Nepal
The Bihar government has approached availability. In the light o f its existing organi­ and Bangladesh. There has been no ap­
sational set up, m anagem ent and staffing
the n w d a for the preparation of detailed preciable progress about the dams pro­
pattern and staff calibre, it is incapable o f han­
project reports (d p r s ) for six links and it dling large projects with multilateral dim en­ posed there on the Kosi (first proposed in
has already started working to prepare sions. At best, it could take up the tasks o f o p ­ 1937), Nunthar on the Bagmati (1953)
the feasibility and pre-feasibility reports eration and maintenance o f built-up projects. and the Chisapani dam on the Kamala
of the other 12 links. Three such schemes The field level situation is still much worse. (1956). The Pancheshwar dam, despite a
have been prepared by n w d a and handed This special task force has asked for a treaty signed in 1996, remains a non­
over to Bihar. It is really intriguing that total overhauling of the water resources starter. How can one think of a time-
the g o b , that has always charged n w d a department and its working. bound schedule and for the project to be
with “ ignoring the interests of Bihar” , “ completed effectively and judiciously
entrusted the same organisation with Conclusions and without any default” , as the learned
the preparation of the d p r s for these sixIt will be unfair to assume that every­ judges of the Supreme Court have de­
interlinking projects. thing is wrong with a surplus source manded? Let the past performance of
state like Bihar. The story may be the India’ s hydrological bureaucracy be
Government’ s Dilemma same elsewhere too. Otherwise the flood evaluated first. Taking up r i p without
The union minister for water resources, affected area of the country would not such an evaluation and in the absence
Pawan Kumar Bansal, told the Rajya have doubled from 25 million hectares of any popular consensus will actually
Sabha on 28 June 2009 and on 9 July in 1952 to about 50 million hectares turn it into a “ final solution”to our
2009 that 30 schemes under r i p have today.16 This clearly indicates that the water problems.
been identified. Of these 30, feasibility present strategy of investment in flood
reports of 16 schemes have been pre­ control through dams and embankments n o t e s ________________________________________

pared but this is a state subject and the is doing more harm than good. The net 1 Arthur Cotton, as quoted in Romesh Dutt (1989),
The Economic History o f India, Vol 2, Publica­
centre cannot impose these over them. It irrigated area by canals all over the tions Division, Government of India, p 251.
can only help the states and act as a cata­ country was 17.79 million ha in 1991-92 2 Ibid: 254.
lyst in the judicious use of water. The but has been consistently falling since 3 Proceedings of the Patna Flood Conference,
Government of Bihar, Secretariat Press Patna,
debate, however, was seemingly termin­ then.17It is this incompetent and corrupt 1938, p 11.
ated when Rahul Gandhi, general secre­ water establishment which is expected
tary of the Congress Party expressed to implement the river interlinking
Permission for Reproduction of
caution on 10 September 2009 at Chen­ project. After all these failures of the Articles Published in EPW
nai arguing that we should not play with water establishment of the country, what
No article published in epw or part thereof
nature on such a massive scale. He had reason do people have to believe that should be reproduced in any form without
said, “.. .my personal opinion is that such this same establishment’ s pipe dream of prior permission of the author(s).
a move will be disastrous... Environ­ national river interlinking will solve all A soft/hard copy of the author(s)'s approval
mentally it is extremely dangerous... their water problems? Given the gargan­ should be sent to epw.
In cases where the email address of the
playing with the environment is not a tuan amounts of money involved, one
author has not been published along with
good idea.” 13Even though Rahul Gandhi wonders where does the people’ s money the articles, epw can be contacted for help.
clarified that this was his “ personal” go and who controls such decisions.
50 Ap r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 0353 Economic & Political weekly

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4 K N Lai (2003), Report of the Experts’Commit­
tee on Impact of Interlinking of Rivers on Bihar;
Water Resources Department, Government of
Bihar, Patna, Preface of the Report.
5 Ibid: 3.
6 Ibid, Chapter VI, p 1.
7 Ibid: 3.
8 Government of Bihar (2005), Report o f the
Expert Committee on Impact o f Interlinking of
Rivers on Bihar, April, Water Resources Depart­
ment, Patna, Chapter 1, p 10.
9 Ibid.
10 Government of Bihar (2006), Theme Paper,
Impact of Interlinking of Rivers on Bihar and the
Teesta, Tipaimukh
and River Linking
Danger to Bangladesh-India Relations
IMTIAZ AHMED
The Supreme Court’
s verdict
directing the Government of India
to implement the interlinking of
rivers seems to have overlooked
the regional and international
implications of what the Indian
Court strangely considers “
the
rivers of the country”
. Just
Bangladesh shares 54 rivers with
India. Any unilateral action by
India on any of its international
rivers will degrade its relations
with its neighbours while also
adversely affecting its ecology,
economy and society.
Imtiaz Ahmed (imtiazalter@gmailcom )
teaches International Relations at the
University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Economic & Political w e e k l y BBSS A p r il
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State Plans to Link the Rivers, Water Resource
Department, Patna, p 4.
11 Ibid: 7-
12 Government of Bihar, 2011-12.
13 UNI (2009), “ Rahul Gandhi Opposes Interlink­
ing of Rivers” , report from Chennai, 10 Septem­
ber, http://onl3nvaterwatch.blogspot.com/
2009/09/rahul-gandhi-opposes-interlinking-of.
html, accessed on 23 March 2012.
14 Indian Express (2009), “ Interlinking o f Rivers
Buried, Jairam Says Idea a Disaster” , 6 October,
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/interlink-
ing-of-rivers-buried-jairam-says-idea-a-disaster/
525654/ accessed on 23 March 2012.
E
ver since the current Awami
League regime came to power in
2009 and Bangladesh signed a
50-dause historic communique with India,
following Bangladesh Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina’ s visit to New Delhi in
January 2010, there has been great expec­
tation with regard to the development of
Bangladesh-India relations. Such expec­
tation, however, got slightly marred fol­
lowing the visit of India’ s Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh to Dhaka in Septem­
ber 2011, particularly when the water
sharing agreement over Teesta could not
be signed and it was cancelled at the
very last minute. Still, very few think
that Bangladesh-India relations can go
back to pre-2009 period of uncertainty,
if not “ distant neighbourliness” , as one
former Indian diplomat once opined.1
But is that the case? Can we seriously
speak of a qualitative change in Bangla­
desh-India relations? Let me limit myself
to issues of water between the two coun­
tries, particularly Teesta, Tipaimukh and
India’ s river linking project, and see
where the relationship is heading.
One could argue that Mamata Banerjee
had good reasons to stall the agreement
over Teesta with Bangladesh. From her
standpoint, given the paucity of water
and before deciding to share with Bangla­
desh, she wanted a guarantee from Delhi
as to how much water Sikkim, where the
21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
RIVER INTERLINKING
15 Special Task Force on Bihar (2009), Road Map
fo r Water Resource Development in Bihar; A
Report, Government o f India, New Delhi,
May, p 3.
16 Planning Commission (2012): Report o f the
Working Group on Flood Management and Region
Specific Issues for Xllth Plan, Government of
India, New Delhi, p 14.
17 Himanshu Thakkar (2010), “ India’
s Tryst with
the Big Irrigation Projects”
, South Asia Network
on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), http://
sandrp.in/irrigation/Failure_of_BigJrrigation_
Prqjects_and_Rainfed_Agriculture_0510.pdf,
May, p 3, accessed on 23 March 2012.
Teesta originates, would be willing to
share with West Bengal. This is a fair de­
mand. But then critics believe that Mamata
also took the opportunity to pressurise
Delhi for an economic package for her
state in exchange for her consent to the
Teesta agreement. Things have proved
difficult on both accounts. Bringing Sik­
kim into the fold, in addition to West
Bengal, for negotiating an international
agreement would dilute the power of the
federal government and that is something
Delhi is unwilling to allow. As for the eco­
nomic package from Delhi in exchange
for consenting to India’ s foreign policy
initiative vis-a-vis Bangladesh, indeed, a
federal matter, amounts to “ blackmail­
ing”the central government over and
above the embarrassment that Mamata
had caused to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh by dropping out from his travel en­
tourage to Dhaka at the last minute. Just
for this alone, Delhi probably is unwilling
to deliver the economic package to
Mamata so easily.
Teesta’
s Implications
But lack of progress on Teesta meant
three things. First, there is now pressure
on the ruling Awami League domes­
tically, with the criticism being mounted
by the opposition, as well as a sizeable
section of the non-partisan civil society,
that the ruling party “ gave in”to India’
s
demands while getting little in return.
And this with respect to the agreement
on the “ transit”, understood, however,
more in the sense of a movement of
goods from one side of India to another
through Bangladesh. Second, there is
now a slight strain in the Dhaka-Delhi
relationship, with the former privately
blaming the latter that the incident has
not only irked Hasina personally, but
51
RIVER INTERLINKING
also cost the ruling Awami League its
face. Now it has to salvage the situation
by taking a less flexible, if not an
apathetic, posture against Delhi. And
this became clear when Bangladesh,
interestingly along with Pakistan, failed
to attend a counterterrorism meeting of
the experts from the South Asian Asso­
ciation for Regional Cooperation coun­
tries hosted by Delhi in February 2012.2
Finally, there is now misgiving in
Bangladesh about Mamata Banerjee’ s began to oppose the project, as the fol­
motives. Questions are being asked
whether her opposition to Teesta and
the exchange of enclaves has more to do
with defending the interests of the non-
Bengali business community in West
Bengal, who supposedly are less than
keen on a newer Bangladesh-India rela­
tionship, including “ pan-Bengali fond­
ness” , as it would create space for
Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and make
them competitors, particularly in the
north-east states of India where these
non-Bengali businessmen hold a mono­
poly on economic activities.
But then Teesta is not the sole issue.
Sharing of waters on other rivers, partic­
ularly Feni as well as Manu, Muhuri,
Khowai, Gumti, Dharla and Dudhkumar,
all got stalled as a result of India’ s, or
rather Mamata’ s, faux pas over the
Teesta. A resolution of the issue before
India’ s next federal election seems un­
likely, but that could cost the ruling Awa­
mi League dearly at home since it too has
to face a national election in a year and
half from now! Delhi needs to reflect on
this seriously and act accordingly if it
wants to consolidate the progress in Ban-
gladesh-India relations made thus far.
Dammed
When it comes to water, the sharing of
rivers on an equitable basis is only one
aspect of the problem facing Bangladesh-
India relations. No less problematic is
India’ s passion to develop dams, and in
this respect the proposed Tipaimukh
Dam has already played some role in
marring Bangladesh-India relations. And
there are good reasons for this.
Critics, particularly environmentalists
and several technical experts, on both
sides of the border have questioned the
feasibility and safety of the proposed dam.
52
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The original consideration for the dam was
to contain the flood water in the Cachar
plains of Assam but later the emphasis of
the dam shifted to hydroelectric power
generation. The dam will have an in­
stalled capacity of 1,500 m w with only a
firm generation of 412 m w , that is, less
than 30% of the installed capacity.3Peo­
ple residing in the area soon reflected on
the impact the construction of the dam
would have on their livelihood and
lowing report indicates:
Anti-dam cam paigners continue to voice
against the construction o f Tipaimukh Dam in
the State [of Manipur]. United Com m unity D e­
velopm ent Platform, Moirang, People’ s Action
for Development-Tiddim, Social Action C om ­
mittee, Moirang-B Gram Panchayat and Bish-
nupur District Youth Council join ed organised
a cycle rally at M oirang today....Later, the ral-
lyists faxed a m em orandum to Prime Minister
Dr M anmohan Singh dem anding the revo­
cation o f m em orandum s o f understanding
(mous) signed am ong Manipur Government,
National Hydro Electric Power Corporation
and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (sjvnl)
on 28 April 2010 and 22 O ctober 2011 for the
construction o f Tipaimukh Dam at the conflu­
ence o f Tuivai and Barak rivers.
D em anding protection o f environment, na­
ture, indigenous life and tradition, the m em o­
randum also stressed on upholding indigenous
people’ s rights and spelling out clearly the pur­
p ose o f construction o f the dam. The m em o­
randum also dem anded for imm ediate halt o f
all the processes o f Tipaimukh Dam construc­
tion, taking consent from people in this regard
and construction o f small dam s instead o f
big dams. The representation also rem inded
the prim e minister that 7.8 m illion trees and
24,82,222 hectares o f forest w ill be subm erged
if Tipaimukh Dam is com m issioned.4
Similar is the opposition to the dam in
Bangladesh - with reasons ranging from
environmental degradation, hydrologi­
cal drought, and unpredictable outcome
from possible seismic changes, loss of
agricultural production to the massive
displacement of people. And it is this
alarm that got reflected in January 2010
joint communique and later in the
September 2011 joint statement issued
by Hasina and Manmohan, “ The Prime
Minister of India reiterated the assurance
that India would not take steps on the
Tipaimukh project that would adversely
impact Bangladesh” . But then, India’
s un­
willingness to halt the project is not only
creating mistrust but also bad feelings
inside Bangladesh vis-a-vis India, a factor
which the ruling Awami League could
Ap r il 21, 2012
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ill-afford given the risk it had taken to re­
solve some of the contentious issues that
had marred the relationship between the
two countries for over three decades.
Bolt from the Blue
On the top of this, almost like a bolt
from the blue, came the Indian Supreme
Court’ s verdict on 27 February 2012 in
favour of “ nationalisation and inter­
linking of rivers”of India, which, like
Teesta and Tipaimukh, has similar, if not
greater, potential of adversely affecting
Bangladesh-India relations. And there
are good reasons for this.
Bangladesh has 57 cross-boundary riv­
ers, of which 54 are shared with India
and the remaining three with Myanmar.
Any change in the flow of any of the 54
rivers shared by Bangladesh and India is
bound to have an adverse impact on
Bangladesh’ s economy, society, environ­
ment, and even polity. Bangladesh being
a riverine and a lower riparian country
remains sensitive to matters of water,
whether inland or maritime. But let us
examine the Indian Supreme Court ver­
dict and see to what extent Bangladesh
needs to be worried about. I will limit
myself to four areas.
First, the river systems. India has three
major river systems: the Indus rivers; the
Himalayan rivers; and the peninsular
rivers. Insofar as Indus and peninsular
river systems are concerned there is little
Bangladesh can do as changes in those
river systems do not affect Bangladesh
directly. Although much of the content of
the Supreme Court’ s verdict deals with
the peninsular river systems there is one
reference to the Himalayan rivers system
and that is where Bangladesh’ s worries
lie. As the judgment states:
Apart from diverting w ater from rivers
w hich are surplus, to deficit areas, the river
linking plan in its ultim ate stage o f d e v elop ­
m ent w ill also enable flood m oderation. It
w as com prised o f tw o com ponents: Penin­
sular Rivers D evelopm ent and Him alayan
Rivers Developm ent. The first involved
m ajor inter-linking o f the river system s and
the latter en visaged the construction o f stor­
age reservoirs on the principal tributaries
o f rivers Ganga and Brahmaputra in India,
Bhutan and Nepal. This w as to help transfer
surplus flow s o f the eastern tributaries o f the
Ganga to the west, apart from linking the
m ain Brahmaputra and its tributaries w ith
the G anga and M ahanadi rivers.
v o l x l v ii n o 16 QBS3 Economic & Political weekly
 RIVER INTERLINKING

Apart from the unanswered question
of why Bhutan and Nepal would be
interested in “ storage”of surplus water
and have them diverted to India, there is
also the problem of having such storage
adversely affecting Bangladesh, as its
rivers are linked to the Himalayan rivers
system, including the Brahmaputra and
the Ganga. The verdict seems to have
overlooked the regional and inter­
national implications of linking what the
Indian Court considers “ the rivers of the
country” . This indeed may be true with
respect to the peninsular rivers but cer­
tainly not for the Himalayan rivers.
Second, the apprehensions and the dis­
senters. Although the verdict of the Indian
Supreme Court acknowledges that
The Union o f India and som e states have
show n their concerns and their apprehensions
about these projects, including questioning
the reliability o f water supply from distant
sources, distribution o f water given the exist­
ing tribunal awards and the continued avail­
ability o f existing water surpluses...
still it goes on to claim that
these projects are in the national interest, as
and as such remains aware of the “ cost Ajaya Dixit and I had jointly adhered to
of resettlement of displaced people” and advocated some 15years back:
without however knowing or calculating Right o f the rivers must b e codified and guar­
what such a “ cost”would actually be. anteed by the state and the people. Such
“rights”have already b een codified for oceans
Arundhati Roy once tried to calculate the
and seas. Under the United Nations C onven­
cost of another development-induced tion on the Law o f the Sea, it is n ow the “
gen ­
displacement in India, the one resulting eral duty”o f all coastal states to protect and
preserve the resources and the riches o f the
from the construction of large dams, and
oceans and seas, not simply for the con su m p­
her finding remains pertinent to the river tion o f future generations but for the repro­
linking project as well: duction o f hum an life itself. River rights can
A ccording to a detailed study o f 54 Large be enacted w ith similar goals in m ind...
Rivers also have their rights, including the
Dams done by the Indian Institute o f Public
Administration, the average number o f people right to b e relatively pollution free, to be rela­
tively pollution free, to b e a safe habitat for
displaced by a Large Dam in India is 44,182.
Admittedly, 54 dam s out o f 3,300 is not a big riverine form s o f life and, w ithin limits, to
en ou gh sample. But since it’ s all w e have, flow freely....While interference w ith rivers
has contributed to modernisation, bringing
let’s try and d o som e rough arithmetic. A first
draft. To err on the side o f caution, let’s halve electricity and irrigation facilities to a w ider
section o f people, such diversion o f water
the num ber o f people. Or, let’ s err on the
side o f abundant caution and take an aver­ from its natural course has often led to disas­
age o f ju st 10,000 p e op le per Large Dam. ters, their m agnitude determ ined by the scale
It’
s an im probable low figure, I know, but... o f interference. For example, w hile large-scale
never mind. W hip out your calculators. surface irrigation has w orsened the problem s
3,300 x 10,000 = 33,000,000 o f w ater-logging and soil salinity, unregu­
That’ s w hat it w orks out to. 33 million p e o ­ lated withdrawal o f water by dam s located
ple. D isplaced by Big Dam s alone in the last upstream has dried up dow nstream b ed s o f
50 years.5 several rivers. In places, this has meant an at­
tack on the econ om ic and other life-support
Roy’ s calculation remains valid now system s o f the people, in turn leading to the
that India’s Supreme Court has initiated creation o f environm ental refugees.6

is the un an im ous v iew o f all experts, m ost
state govern m en ts and particularly, the cen ­
tral governm ent.
At the same time, the verdict mentions
that “ The Court is not equipped to take
such expert decisions and they essentially
should be left for the central government
and the concerned state” . And this is fol­
lowed by a similar statement: “ this Court
may not be very appropriate forum for
planning and implantation of such a pro­
gramme having wide national dimen­
sions and ramifications” . If that is the case
then why provide such a “ what is to be
another development-induced displace­
ment in the form of the river linking
project but failed to address the issue in a
meaningful way.
Potential for Conflicts
What is worrisome for Bangladesh, how­
ever, is not the internal displacement of
people within India but the displace­
ment of its own people as a result of the
ecological imbalance that is bound to re­
sult from the construction of storage res­
ervoirs and the linking of the Himalayan
rivers. In this context, India needs to be
The verdict otherwise is bereft of
imagination, which, however, is required
not only when it comes to managing the
environment for future generations but
also in channelising newer relationship
between India and its riverine neighbours.
Any extension of the river linking project
beyond the peninsular rivers is bound to
destroy whatever “ goodwill”India has
achieved so far. Neither India nor its
neighbours can afford such a watering of
conflicts. And there lies the hope!
n o t e s ________________________________________

done”kind of a verdict with respect to the
river linking project? And given the con­
cern expressed by both national and
international environmentalists to the
project, the Indian Supreme Court's claim
that the project constitutes “ the unani­
mous view of all experts”remains a sus­
pect. But more importandy, although the
Court acknowledges that “ some Indian
states”are opposed to the project, it fails
to go beyond the territoriality of India and
see notable dissenters beyond the border
and in the region.
Third, displacement. The Court verdict
did make references to “ displaced people”
and “ development induced displacement”
mindful of the fact that any displace­
ment of people within Bangladesh has
the potential of creating newer conflicts
between Bangladesh and India, as well
as that some of them could end up as en­
vironmental refugees across the border!
Apart from Bangladesh, India will also
have to consider the international impact
of this river linking project on Nepal,
Bhutan and Pakistan. As it is, India and
Pakistan have seen many points of con­
flict over the existing river sharing pacts.
Finally, rivers’
rights. If the verdict of the
Indian Court has ignored one thing com­
pletely and thoroughly, it is the right of the
rivers, something to which Ashis Nandy,
1 Deb Mukharji, “ Distant Neighbours: India and
Bangladesh” in Atish Sinha and Madhup
Mohta (ed.), Indian Foreign Policy: Challenges
and Opportunities (New Delhi: Academic
Foundation 2007), pp 557-68.
2 Pallab Bhattacharya, “ SAARC Experts Discuss
Anti-Terror Mechanism” , The Daily Star, 10
February 2012.
3 Mohiuddin Alamgir, “ India’s Tipaimukh Dam:
Another Farakka for Bangladesh in the Off­
ing?”NewAge Extra, 12-18 June 2009.
4 “Protest against Tipaimukh Dam Continues in
Manipur” , North-east Today, 23 February 2012.
Website: http://www.northeasttodayin/our-states/
manipur/protest-against-tipaimuldi-dam-con-
tinues-in-manipur/, accessed on 26 March 2012.
5 Arundhati Roy, The Greater Common Good
(Bombay: IndiaBook Distributors 1999), pp 9-10.
6 Imtiaz Ahmed, Ajaya Dixit and Ashis Nandy,
Water, Power and People: A South Asian Mani­
festo on the Politics and Knowledge o f Water (Co­
lombo: Regional Centre for Strategic Studies
1997), PP 9-io.

Economic & Political w e e k ly IBBS1 A p r i l 21, 2012 v o l x l v i i n o 16 53

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RIVER INTERLINKING
Supreme C ourt’
s Judgment
A Statement and an Appeal
W
e, the signatories to this
statement, wish to record our
utmost concern at the Hon’ ble
Supreme Court’ s judgment of 27 Febru­
ary 2012 on the River Interlinking Pro­
ject ( r i p ) , on the following grounds:
(1) The judgment gives categorical
directions to the executive government
on a matter which is clearly in the exec­
utive domain, namely, the implementa­
tion of a particular project.
(2) It gives the direction to implement
the “ project” , i e, the grand design as a
whole, at a time when none of the 30
projects that constitute that grand
design has gone through the processes
of examination, evaluation and approv­
al and received final sanction.
(3) By declaring the project to be in the
national interest it not only anticipates
the result of the examination that is yet
to take place, but also makes it
extremely difficult for the various gov­
ernmental agencies and ministries to
undertake a rigorous and objective
exam ination.
(4) Its reference to “the unanimous view
of all experts”that the project is “ in the
national interest” is patently untrue,
because there is a substantial body of
expert opinion that is highly critical of
the project. Such a serious error would
not have occurred if there had been
consultations with scholars of various
disciplines who have given thought to
the matter.
(5) It fails to take note of, or treats light­
ly, the strong dissent on the part of sev­
eral state governments.
(6) The following is a succinct state­
ment of the case against the project:
(i) Instead of starting from the identifi­
cation of the needs of water-scarce are­
as and finding area-specific answers,
the project starts by looking at a map of
India, decides a priori that the rivers of
India can and should be linked, and
then proceeds to consider the modalities
54
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from elsewhere should be the last
recourse.
(ix) The project holds the potential of
generating new conflicts between basins.
(x) There are international dimensions to
this project. Both Nepal and Bangladesh
have expressed serious apprehensions
that need to be taken into account.
of doing so. This is a reckless and major Having regard to the points made
redesigning of the geography of the above, we, the undersigned, would ear­
country. nestly and respectfully urge the Hon’ ble
(ii) The related ideas of a “national wa­ Supreme Court to put the judgment on
ter grid”or the “ networking of rivers” hold and undertake a careful reconsid­
give evidence of profoundly wrong eration of the entire matter. We would
thinking about rivers. Rivers are not also respectfully suggest a study of the
pipelines. available literature on the subject, and
(iii) The grand design consisting of 30 consultations with several distinguished
projects involving upwards of 80 dams critics of the project.
is bound to have major environmental/
ecological consequences, which might Ramaswamy R Iyer, Prashant Bhushan,
even be disastrous in some cases. Each Manoj Mishra, Mahadevan Ramaswamy,
dam will also mean the displacement of Himanshu Thakkar, A Vaidyanathan,
people to varying extents, and may A Latha, Achyut Das, Ajit Mozoomdar,
cause injustice and hardship. Arun Kumar, Ashis Nandy, Ashok Jaitly,
(iv) The project is at variance with the Ashok Khosla, Bharat Jhunjhunwala,
growing recognition that it is necessary Biksham Gujja, Brij Gopal, Darryl
to move away from the long-standing D’ Monte, Dinesh Kumar Mishra, Dulal
engineering tradition of a supply-side Goswami, E A S Sarma, G N Kathpalia,
response to a projected or imagined Harsh Vardhan, Indira Khurana, Janak
demand, and towards restraining the Daftary, K C Sivaramakrishnan, K J Joy,
growth of competitive unsustainable Kalpana Sharma, Kanchan Chopra,
demand for water in all uses. Kuldip Nayar, Leo Saldanha, Ligia
(v) Assuming that some augmentation Noronha, M K Prasad, Madhu Bhaduri,
of supply is necessary, the project fails Mandar Sathe, Nitin Desai, Pandurang
to consider alternative possibilities, of Hegde, Parineeta Dandekar, Pranjal
which there are several very good Deekshit, Rajeswari Raina, Ranjan
examples. Panda, Ravi Singh, Rohini Nilekani,
(vi) The idea of transferring flood S G Vombatkere, S Janakarajan,
waters to arid or drought-prone areas S K Mishra, Sachin Warghade, Samar
is flawed because (a) there will be hardly Singh, Sanjoy Hazarika, Seema Kakde,
any flood moderation; and (b) this pro­ Shankar Sharma, Shripad
ject will be o f no use at all to the dry­ Dharmadhikary, Subodh Wagle,
lands and uplands of the country. Sudhirendar Sharma, Suhas Paranjape,
(vii) The idea of transferring water Sunil Goel, T Prasad, Tejas Pol,
from surplus to deficit basins is equally Umamaheshwari, Umendra Dutt,
flawed because the very notions of V Rajamani, Vandana Shiva,
“ surplus”and “ deficit”are highly prob­ Walter Fernandes.
lematic. The idea of a “ surplus”river
29 March 2012
ignores the multiple purposes that it
serves as it flows and joins the sea, and
S u bscription N um bers
that of a “ deficit”river is based on “de­
mands” on its waters derived from Subscribersare requested to notetheir Subscription
wasteful uses of water. Numbers mentioned on the wrappers and quote
(viii) Careful, economical, conflict-free these numbers when corresponding with the
and sustainable intra-basin management circulation department.
should come first, and bringing water
Ap r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 QBSI Economic & Political weekly
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 SPECIAL ARTICLE
Does India's Employment Guarantee Scheme
Guarantee Employment?
PUJA DUTTA, RINKU MURGAI, MARTIN RAVALUON, DOMINIQUE VAN DE WALLE
An analysis of the National Sample Survey data for
2009-10 confirms expectations that poorer states of
India have more demand for work under the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
However, we find considerable unmet demand for work
on the scheme in all states, and more so in the poorest
ones, where the scheme is needed most. Nonetheless,
the scheme is reaching the rural poor and backward
classes and is attracting poor wom en into the workforce.
W e w ou ld like to thank M aria M ini Jos for her very able research
assistance. T h ese are the view s o f the authors and d o not necessarily
represent th ose o f the W orld Bank or o f any o f its m em b er countries.
The authors are grateful to Em anuela Galasso, Pablo Gottret, G hazala
M ansuri and Giovanna Prennushi for com m ents. A fuller d iscu ssion o f a
num ber o f issu es raised in this paper can b e found in Dutta et al (2012a).
Puja Dutta (pdutta@ w orldbank.org ), Rinku M urgai (R m urgai@
worldbank.org), M artin R avallion (M ravallion@ worldbank.org) and
D om in ique van de W alle (dvandew alle@ w orldbank.org) are w ith the
W orld Bank.
Economic & Political weekly 13323 a p r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o
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1 Introduction
In 2006, India embarked on an ambitious attempt to fight
rural poverty. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
of 2005 created a justiciable “ right to work”for all households
in rural India through the National Rural Employment Guaran­
tee Scheme, renamed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme (m g n r e g s ) in 2009. This prom­
ises 100 days of work per year to all rural households whose
adults are willing to do unskilled manual labour at the statu­
tory minimum wage notified for the programme. Work is to be
made available to anyone who demands it within 15 days of
receiving an application to work, failing which the state gov­
ernment is liable to pay an unemployment allowance. Open
village meetings (gram sabhas) are supposed to identify suita­
ble projects and local government institutions (gram panchay-
ats) are given a central role in planning and implementation.
There are a number of distinct ways in which such a scheme
tries to reduce poverty. The most direct and obvious way is by
providing extra employment and income to the poorest in
rural areas. The long-standing incentive argument is that the
work requirements entail that the scheme will be “ self-target­
ing”in that the non-poor will not want to do such work, and
also prevents dependency as poor people will readily turn
away from the scheme when better opportunities arise.1
Furthermore, by linking the wage rate for such work to the
statutory minimum wage rate, and guaranteeing work at that
wage rate, such a scheme is essentially a means of enforcing
the minimum wage rate on all casual work, including that not
covered by the scheme. Indeed, the existence of such a pro­
gramme can radically alter the bargaining power of poor men
and women in the labour market, and also poor people living in
not-so-poor families, by increasing the reservation wage (the
fallback position if a bargain is not struck). They may then benefit
even if they do not in fact participate in the programme.
A scheme such as this can also provide valuable insurance
against the many risks faced by India’ s rural poor in their daily
lives. Even those who do not normally need such work can benefit
from knowing it is available. This can help underpin otherwise
risky investments. And the gains to the poor can also come
with efficiency gains given existing labour market distortions.2
The scheme also tries to address some of the causes of pov­
erty in rural India.3By its “ bottom-up” , demand-driven nature,
it aims to empower the rural poor to help them take actions in
various domains that help them escape poverty. It would be
naive to think that empowerment for demanding work will
16 55
SPECIAL ARTICLE
emerge overnight amongst poor people who have faced a his­
tory of exclusion from the processes of public action, and of
subjugation to the will of local elites. However, creating the
legal right is certainly a first, positive, step.
The idea of an “ employment guarantee”is clearly important
for realising the full benefits of such a scheme. The gains de­
pend heavily on the scheme’ s ability to accommodate the sup­
ply of work to the demand. That is not going to be easy, given
that it requires an open-ended public spending commitment;
similarly to an insurance company, the government must pay
up when shocks hit. This kind of uncertainty about disburse­
ments in risky environments would be a challenge for any gov­
ernment at any level of economic development.
If the maximum level of spending on the scheme by the cen­
tre is exogenously fixed for budget planning purposes then ra­
tioning may well be unavoidable at any socially acceptable
wage rate. Or, to put the point slightly differently, the implied
wage rate - given the supply of labour to the scheme and the
budget - may be too low to be socially acceptable, with ration­
ing deemed (implicitly) to be the preferred outcome.2 *4
Even if flexibility in spending is not an issue, accommodat­
ing supply to demand could still be a challenge, particularly in
poor areas. Here it should be noted that the provisions of the
Act do not imply that there will be zero cost to the local (state
or lower-level) governments when employing workers under
the m g n r e g s . The centre covers a large share of the cost.5
However, there are still (relatively skilled) labour requirements
at the local level in organising projects and workers.6 This
burden may well be higher in poor areas, making it harder to
afford and implement such a complex scheme.
This paper examines the performance thus far of the
m g n r e g s in meeting the demand for work across states. We
examine the evidence for India as a whole using the house­
hold-level data from the National Sample Survey (n s s ) for
2009-10. We also use these data to understand who gets
rationed and how this affects the scheme’ s ability to reach India’
s ently of the scheme. The data we use here comes from the 66th
rural poor and other identity-based groups, notably backward
castes, tribes and women. We also discuss the role played by
wage setting on the scheme, and how rationing might be influ­
encing labour market responses. Finally, we take a closer look
at women’ s participation and how this is influenced by the
rationing of work under the m g n r e g s .
2 Meeting the Demand for Work across States
The participation rate (p) in m g n r e g s can be defined as the
proportion o f rural households who obtain work on the
scheme. This can be thought of as the product of the “ de­
mand rate”(d ) - defined as the proportion of rural house­
holds who want work on the scheme - and one minus the
“ rationing rate”(r ) - defined as the proportion amongst
those who wanted work who did not get it. Thus for state
i we have the following identity:
Pi = ( 1- R 1)Di ...(1)
Notice that the share of households who are rationed is the
product of the rationing rate and the demand rate.
56
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In this paper we limit our definition of participation and
rationing to whether households got work or did not get work.
Unmet demand can also take the form of fewer days of work
than desired. Many households who participated were no
doubt rationed in that they would have liked more days of
work and still had fewer than the 100 days stipulated by the
Act. We have no choice but to ignore this aspect of the scheme’ s
performance since the n s s did not ask how many more days of
work the household wanted; all we know is whether the house­
hold wanted more work on the scheme.
As noted, if the m g n r e g s worked in practice the way it is
designed there would be no unmet demand for work. This is,
of course, an exacting standard. In practice there may be fric­
tions in implementation leading to some unmet demand, such
that those wanting work do not get it in a timely manner. The
rationing rate will depend in part on how effective the
scheme’ s implementation is at quickly responding to demand.
How can we measure the true demand for work and hence
the rationing rate? The administrative data indicate virtually
no unmet demand for work on the m g n r e g s . According to the
administrative data, 52.865 million households in India
demanded work in 2009-10, and 99.4% (52.53 million) were
provided work.7 However, this is deceptive. What is called
“demand for work”in the administrative data is unlikely to
reflect the true demand. Several studies have found that the
work application process and the system for recording demand
for work is not yet in place (see, for example, Khera 2011).
Further, state and local governments have an incentive not to
report unmet demand given that this implies they should pay
unemployment allowances. Also, some people will undoubt­
edly be deterred from formally obtaining job-cards, demand­
ing work from the officials, or do not even know that they have
the right to make such demands.8
A better measure of demand for work is obtained by asking
people directly in the privacy of their homes and independ­
Round of the n s s for 2009-10 which included questions on
participation and demand for work in the m g n r e g s that allow
us to estimate demand and rationing rates across states. The
survey was conducted between July 2009 and June 2010 in all
states. The Employment-Unemployment Survey (“ Schedule
10.0” ) included three questions on the programme: (i) whether
the household has a job-card; (ii) whether it got work on the
scheme during the last 365 days, for which responses were
coded under three options: got work, sought but did not get
work, and did not seek work in the m g n r e g s ; and (iii) if the
household got work, the number of days of work, and the
mode of payment. In addition, the daily status block in Sched­
ule 10 collected information on activities for all household
members during the week preceding the survey, including the
number of days worked and wages received, if the respondent
worked on m g n r e g s public works (p w ).
Table 1(p 57) gives the results by state for the participation rate,
the demand rate and the rationing rate. (It also gives the female
share of employment, to which we return later.) “ Demand”is
defined as either getting work on the scheme or seeking work
Ap r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 (3353 Economic & Political weekly
Table 1: Summary Statistics 2009-10 Table 2 gives summary Table 2: Programme Expenditures
Per Capita across States_________
State Headcount Participation Demand Rate Rationing Rate Female Share of statistics on spending per
Index Rate(Shareof (ShareofRural (ShareofRural Employment Expenditure Per Capita (Rs)
ofPoverty Rural Households Households Households Who onMGNREGS capita for 2009-10 and 2009-10 2010-11
(% Below Working on Who Want Work Wanted Work But (% of Total 2010-11. The correlation A n d h ra P rad esh 749 896
Poverty Line) MGNREGS) onMGNREGS) Did Not Get It) Person Days)
A n d h ra P radesh 2 0 .6 4 0 .3 5 4 0 .4 7 2 0 .2 4 9 58.1
between m g n r e g s spend­ A ssam 406 358

A ssam 4 2 .2 8 0 .1 8 2 0.4 1 3 0 .5 5 9 27.7 ing per capita and the B ihar 214 309
B ihar 5 6 .4 7 0 .0 9 9 0.4 61 0 .7 8 5 3 0 .0 poverty rate is -0.02 using C h h a ttis g a rh 7 2 3 8 84
C h h a ttis g a rh 5 6 .3 9 0 .4 7 9 0 .6 9 0 0 .3 0 6 4 9 .2 spending in 2009-10 and G u ja ra t 2 1 4 2 26
H a ry a n a 87 128
G u ja ra t 3 2 .5 4 0 .2 1 5 0 .3 8 2 0 .4 3 8 47.5 0.04 for 2010-11.
H a ry a n a 24.18 0.0 51 0.1 9 5 0 .7 3 8 3 5 .6 H im a c h a l P rad esh 936 837
However, when we look
H im a c h a l Prad esh 11.90 0 .3 3 4 0 .4 1 8 0.202 4 6 .0 J a m m u a n d K a sh m ir 221 445
at how the demand rate
J a m m u a n d K a sh m ir na 0 .0 9 7 0 .3 3 4 0 .7 0 9 7.0 J h a rk h a n d 586 539
J h a rk h a n d 4 3 .5 0 0.1 92 0 .5 1 7 0 .6 2 8 3 4 .3
varies, we see the expected 7 42
K a rn a ta k a 683
K a rn a ta k a 3 1 .3 4 0 .0 8 0 0 .2 2 8 0 .6 4 8 3 6 .8 positive correlation with Kerala 186 276
Kerala 11.74 0.112 0 .2 3 2 0 .5 1 7 88.2 the poverty rate (r=o.so) M a d h y a Prad esh 734 707
M a d h y a Prad esh 4 5 .8 5 0 .4 0 6 0 .6 4 6 0.371 4 4 .3 (Figure 2). Poorer states M a h a ra s h tra 54 60
M a h a ra s h tra 3 3 .9 0 0 .0 4 4 0 .2 7 7 0 .8 4 0 3 9 .8 tend to have a higher per­ O rissa 281 455
O rissa 4 9 .9 3 0.220 0 .5 0 7 0 .5 6 7 3 6 .3 centage of households who P u n ja b 89 98
P u n ja b 1 9 .4 4 0 .0 5 2 0 .3 1 2 0 .8 3 3 2 6 .0
want work on m g n r e g s , R a jasth an 1,133 647
R a jasth an 31.2 0 .6 1 8 0 .7 3 2 0.1 55 6 6 .9
as one would expect. The T am il N a d u 5 55 744
T am il N a d u 22.81 0 .3 3 5 0 .4 1 4 0 .1 9 0 8 2 .9
U tta r P rad esh 4 0 .7 5 0.1 6 2 0 .3 5 0 0 .5 3 6 21.7
reason this is not evident U tta r P rad esh 389 365
U tta ra k h a n d 406 539
U tta ra k h a n d na 0 .2 9 2 0 .4 0 6 0 .2 8 0 40.1 in Figure 1 is that the
W e s t B e ng al 3 35 399
W e s t B e n g al 3 5 .0 5 0 .4 3 2 0 .6 5 8 0 .3 4 4 3 3 .4 rationing rate also varies,
All In d ia 464 477
All In d ia 3 6 .4 3 0 .2 4 9 0 .4 4 7 0 .4 4 4 48.1 and is no lower in poorer Notes and sources: Cumulative expenditures
Notes and sources: Poverty rates are based on Tendulkar poverty lines updated from states; indeed, it is posi­ (including wage and non-wage spending) in
2004-05 to 2009-10 using state-specific consumer price indices for agricultural labourers current prices during the 2009-10 and 2010-11
(CPIAL) and per capita consumption expenditures in Schedule 1.0. Poverty rates for J&K tively correlated with the FY were obtained from the Ministry of Rural
and Uttarakhand not reported because data not available on state-level CPIAL. Female poverty rate, though only Development website (http:Wnrega.nic.in). To
share of person days from MGNREGS administrative data (http:Wnrega.nic.in). Remaining calculate expenditure per capita the authors used
columns from authors' calculations from unit record data of 2009-10 National Sample weakly so (r=o.i83). It is the population projections for 2009 and 2010
Survey Schedule 1 (for headcount rate) and Schedule 10. this interstate variation in done by Registrar General of India.
but not getting it. For India as a whole, 45% of rural households the rationing rate that ex­
wanted work on the scheme. Of these, 56% got work - a national plains the puzzle of why the participation rate is uncorrelated
rationing rate of 44%. The rationing rate varied from 15% in with the poverty rate across states.
Rajasthan to 84% in Punjab. Only three states have rationing rates Figure 2: Demand for MGNREGS Work Is Greater in Poorer States
under 20%. There is clearly a large excess demand for work.
A striking observation about the data in Table 1is that partici­
pation rates are only weakly correlated with rural poverty rates
across states, as can be seen in Figure 1. If m g n r e g s worked
the way the Act intended then this weak correlation would be
surprising, as one would expect the scheme to be more attrac­
tive to poor people, and hence have higher take up in poorer
states. The same point holds for public spending on m g n r e g s .

Figure 1: Participation Rates in MGNREGS and Incidence

of Poverty across States

Headcount index of rural poverty 2009-10 (%)

Poorer states have greater unmet demand for m g n r e g s , as can

be seen in Figure 3 (p 58), which plots the share of the rural
population that is rationed - i e, the rationing rate times the
demand rate - against the poverty rate. Yet there is variation even
among poorer states. Some of the poorest states (Bihar, Jharkhand
and Orissa) have low participation rates and high levels of unmet
demand. This is in contrast to other poor states like Chhattisgarh,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal that perform better
in providing employment under the scheme. For example, at a
similar poverty rate, Chhattisgarh has a participation rate almost

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Figure 3: Poorer States Have Greater Unmet Demand for Work on MGNREGS
five tim es that o f Bihar. Public sp en d in g is also low er in Bihar
at rou gh ly one-third o f the level in Chhattisgarh.
3 Explaining the Interstate Variation in Participation Rates
In un derstan din g w hy the m g n r e g s is nor m ore active in
p oo re r states, w e postulate that b e in g a p o o r state has tw o
o p p o sin g effects on participation. First, there is an in direct
effect o f greater p ov erty via a h igher d em an d for m g n r eg s
work. W e saw an indication o f this in Figure 2. The regression
coefficient o f dem and for m g n r eg s (based on the nss responses)
on the state p ov erty rate is 0.591 (st. error=o.i92), m ean in g
that a 10 p ercen tage poin t in crease in the p ov erty rate co m es
w ith about a 6 p ercen tage poin t in crease in the share o f rural
h ou seh olds d em a n d in g m g n r e g s work, on average.
The secon d (direct) effect is that p o o re r states tend to have
greater un m et dem an d for w ork on the schem e. This w ork s in
the o p p o site d irection to the in direct effect. W e su g g est three
reason s for this direct effect. First, p o o re r states w ill b e less
able to afford the share o f the costs that are b orn e by the state
and loca l governm ents. Second, p o o re r states w ill ten d to have
a w eak er capacity for a dm in isterin g such a schem e. Third, the
p o o r m ay w ell b e less e m p o w ered in p o o re r states. As w e w ill
see in the next section, both p o o r and n on-poor p e o p le have a
d em an d for w ork on the schem e, th ou gh the d em an d is greater
am on gst the poor. If p o o r p e o p le tend to have less p o w e r to
influence loca l decision -m ak in g (reflected in low er aw aren ess
o f their rights un d er the Act), then a h igh er p ov erty rate w ill
lead the state gov ern m en t to put less w eigh t on the n e ed to
a ccom m o d a te the d em an d for w ork on the schem e.9
Both the direct and in direct effects are in ev id en ce w h en w e
regress the state-level participation rate on b oth the dem an d
rate and the rural h ea dcou n t in dex o f poverty, as in Table 3.
T here are reason s to b e cautious about giv in g th ese regression s
a causal interpretation. The d em an d for m g n r eg s m ay w ell be
e n d ogen ou s to actual em p loym en t on the schem e. H igh levels
o f em ploym en t m ay stim ulate dem and, w h ile lo w levels m ay
create a “
discouraged w orker effect”
, w hereby potential workers
stop sh ow in g interest in the schem e. T here is also an e n d o g ­
en eity con cern arisin g from the fact that dem an d for m g n r eg s
autom atically in clu des actual em ploym ent; m easurem ent error
in the latter w ou ld thus create a spu rious correlation b etw een
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Table 3: Regressions for Participation Rate in MGNREGSacross States of India
Ordinary Least Squares Instrumental Variables Estimate
C o n s ta n t -0 .0 7 4 -0 .0 6 4
(-1 .6 3 9 ) (-1.19 7)
D e m a n d fo r w o r k 1.109 1.178
(1 3 .7 9 8 ) (9 .8 8 0 )
H e a d c o u n t in d e x o f rural p o v e rty -0 .5 0 1 -0 .6 1 9
(-4 .9 2 2 ) (-4 .5 8 1 )
R2 0 .9 0 2 0 .8 9 4
SEE 0 .0 5 6 0 .0 5 8
N 18 18
The dependent variable is the participation rate, defined as the share of the population of
rural households whodid any work on MGNREGS. Demand for work is the share of rural
households saying they want work on the scheme. Headcount index of rural poverty is the
percentage of population below the poverty line. The t-ratios in parentheses are based on
White standard errors. The IVs were log SDP per capita and its squared value.
Sources: Authors'estimates from NSS (2009-10). See Table 1.
dem an d and actual em ploym ent. O ne m igh t also qu estion
treating the p ov erty rate as ex og e n ou s to w ork on the schem e;
hopefully, the p ov erty rate w ill fall w ith h igher participation.
To address these concerns, Table 3 also gives an Instrumental
Variables (iv) estim ate treating both the dem an d for w ork and
the h eadcou n t in dex as en dogen ous. For this p u rp o se w e
assum e that the lo g o f state d om estic p rodu ct ( s d p ) per capita
and its squared value influence both the dem an d rate and the
p ov erty rate, but d o not influence the participation rate in d e ­
pen den tly o f these variables.10
W e see that both the effects d e scrib ed above o f a h igher
p ov erty rate are eviden t in the data, u sin g both estim ation
m ethods. The p articipation rate rises w ith dem an d at a given
p ov erty rate, but a higher p ov erty rate is associated w ith low er
participation at given dem and. O f course, a h igher p ov erty
rate a lso entails h igher dem an d for work. On factoring in the
effect o f d ifferen ces in the state p ov erty rate on dem an d for
w ork w e find that the p ov erty effect operatin g via dem an d for
w ork entails that a 10 p ercen ta ge p oin t in crease in the head-
cou n t in dex im plies a 6.6 p ercen tage poin t in crease in partici­
pation (using the o ls estimate),11 w h ile the effect operatin g
in dep en den tly o f d em an d entails a 5.0 p ercen ta ge poin t drop.
T he direct effect o f a h igh p ov erty rate w ork s in the o p p osite
direction to the indirect effect, via dem and - so m uch so that, on
balance, w e see on ly a sm all positive effect o f h igh er p ov erty
on participation rates across states (Figure 1).
To better un derstan d this stron g direct effect o f poverty, in
Dutta et al (2012b) w e study m ore clo se ly the p erform a n ce o f
the state w ith the h igh est p ov erty rate, Bihar. D raw in g on vari­
ou s (qualitative and quantitative) data sources, in clu din g our
o w n special-pu rpose surveys, w e argu e that both o f the factors
identified above - low er capacity in p o o re r states and low er
e m p ow erm en t o f p o o r p e o p le - are at w ork in Bihar. Further­
more, w e argu e that ch a n gin g on e alon e w ill n ot assure that
mgnregs w ill reach its p oten tial in In d ia ’
s p o o re st areas.
Effective action on b oth fronts w ill be necessary.
4 Is Rationing Undermining
the Self-Targeting Mechanism?
By insisting that participants do physically demanding manual
work at a low wage rate, workfare schemes such as mgnregs
aim to be self-targeted, in that non-poor people will not want
A p r il 21, 2 0 1 2 v o l x lv ii n o 16 GECS E c o n o m ic & P o lit ic a l w e e k ly
 SPECIAL ARTICLE

to participate. The substantial rationing that we have demon­ Note that although the rationing rate tends to rise with
strated above raises the question of how well this self-target­ consumption, this does not imply that more rationing would
ing mechanism works in practice. The fact that there is ration­ improve targeting. What the numbers in Table 4 reflect is the
ing does not mean that targeting will not be pro-poor. For one rationing process at a given level of participation. When the
thing, the manual work requirement at a low wage rate will participation rate rises through a reduction in rationing the
still discourage non-poor people from wanting to participate. self-targeting mechanism will start to play a bigger role. We
For another, the local authorities doing the rationing may well will see evidence of this when we compare targeting performance
favour the poor. The local officials who are deciding who gets across states with very different participation rates.
work could either enhance or diminish the scheme’ s targeting Also notice that, amongst participants, the days of work
performance. There has been no comprehensive national as­ received shows a slightly positive gradient with consumption
sessment of targeting performance. The quantitative studies per person. The pro-poor targeting is achieved through both
that have been done so far have been based on selected sam­ demand for work and the rationing of work, not by the amount
ples and the tests used have often been problematic.12 What of work actually received.
does the evidence from the n s s survey for 2009-10 suggest? It is of interest to compare targeting performance across states.
Table 4 gives the participation rate, demand rate and the ra­ There are many measures of “ targeting performance”in the
tioning rate by rural household quintiles defined on household literature that might be used for this purpose. Ravallion (2009)
consumption per person from the survey.13As expected, we see surveys the various measures and tests their performance in
that demand for work on the m g n r e g s declines with consump­ predicting the impacts on poverty of a large antipoverty pro­
tion per person. Richer households are less likely to want to do gramme in China, called the Di Bao programme. (This pro­
this work, although there is demand even amongst the richest vides cash transfers targeted to those with income below the
quintile in rural areas. Consistent with the incidence of expressed locally-determined Di Bao poverty lines.) Amongst all standard
demand, we also see that the proportion of households who have targeting measures, the one that performed the best (and by a
obtained job-cards declines with consumption per person. But wide margin) in predicting the programme’ s impact on pov­
notice that the demand rate is higher than the proportion with erty was the “ targeting differential”(t d ), originally proposed
job-cards; there are many households who express demand for by Ravallion (2000). In the present context, this can be defined as
work who have not obtained job-cards. the difference between the m g n r e g s participation rate for the
Table 4: C overage o f MGNREGS across Consum ption Quintiles o f th e poor and that for the non-poor. In obvious notation:
Rural Population o f India (2009-10)_________________________
•pj) _ ppoor _ pnon-poor
Quintiles Participation Demand Rationing Shareof Mean Person Mean Person
Rate Rate Rate with HHs Daysamongst Daysamong
aJob-card Participating all Rural Here Pl (i=poor, non-poor) is again the participation rate (as
HHs HHs
defined by equation (1)), but this time differentiated between
Q1 (poorest) 0.335 0.609 0.450 0.465 33.7 11.3
Q2 0.297 0.540 0.450 0.414 36.2 10.7
the poor and non-poor. To interpret the targeting differential,
Q3 0.273 0.507 0.462 0.385 38.3 10.4 note that when only poor people get help from the programme
Q4 0.226 0.434 0.479 0.329 40.0 9.0 Table 5: Targeting Perform ance o f MGNREGS across States_________________
State Participation Participation Targeting Rationing Rationing
Q5 (richest) 0.138 0.309 0.553 0.218 40.0 5.5
Ratefor Ratefor Differential Ratefor Ratefor
All 0.242 0.462 0.476 0.347 37.4 9.0 the Poor the Non-Poor the Poor the Non-Poor
The participation rate is the share o f rural households working on MGNREGS. The demand Andhra Pradesh 0.513 0.322 0.191 0.215 0.259
rate is the share o f rural households who w ant w ork on the programme. The rationing rate
is the share of those who wanted work w ho did not get it.
Assam 0.233 0.149 0.085 0.523 0.590
Source: Authors' estimates from NSS (2009-10). Bihar 0.127 0.075 0.052 0.756 0.816
Chhattisgarh 0.571 0.386 0.186 0.260 0.366
Strikingly, however, across India as a whole, the rationing
Gujarat 0.298 0.185 0.114 0.319 0.490
rate also tends to rise with consumption per person. The local-
Haryana 0.106 0.037 0.069 0.701 0.760
level processes of deciding who gets work amongst those who
Himachal Pradesh 0.510 0.318 0.192 0.173 0.206
want it entails that poorer households are less likely to be Jharkhand 0.237 0.163 0.075 0.613 0.641
rationed, although the difference is modest. Thus we find that Karnataka 0.126 0.065 0.061 0.503 0.703
the participation rate declines with consumption even more Kerala 0.116 0.112 0.005 0.535 0.516
steeply than the demand rate. Quintile averages lose a lot of Madhya Pradesh 0.534 0.319 0.215 0.297 0.438
detail. A finer representation of the data shows that the partici­ Maharashtra 0.096 0.025 0.071 0.738 0.898

pation rate declines rather slowly until one reaches about the Orissa 0.317 0.135 0.182 0.509 0.650
Punjab 0.145 0.035 0.110 0.729 0.872
50th percentile of the consumption distribution: households just
Rajasthan 0.728 0.579 0.149 0.166 0.150
below the official poverty line are no more likely to participate
Tamil Nadu 0.484 0.302 0.182 0.093 0.219
in m g n r e g s than those just above the line. The marked decline
Uttar Pradesh 0.242 0.120 0.122 0.483 0.582
in participation rates does not emerge until we get to the upper West Bengal 0.559 0.379 0.179 0.282 0.376
half of the rural consumption distribution. Although far fewer All India 0.325 0.210 0.115 0.428 0.463
“rich”rural households participate, there are still some. This Households classified into poor or non-poor based on poverty lines for Schedule 10that
would yield the same state-specific poverty rates as estimated from Schedule 1,and
could reflect recent shocks, or poor individuals within gener­ reported in Table 1. All-India figures reported in this table include only the states shown.
ally well-off households. Source: Authors' calculations from NSS (2009-10).

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and all of them are covered, TD = 1, which is the measure’ s up­ Figure 4: The Participation Rate of Poor Households in MGNREGS
(Poor, non-poor)
per bound; when only the non-poor get the programme and all
of them do, TD = -1, its lower bound. This measure is easy to
interpret, and it automatically reflects both leakage to the non­
poor and coverage of the poor.
Table 5 (p 59) gives the t d and participation rates for the poor
and non-poor.14 Participation rates among the poor vary enor­
mously across states, from a low of 0.10 in Maharashtra to a high
of 0.73 in Rajasthan. They also vary a lot among the non-poor. Al­
though participation rates are always higher for the poor, the
gap with that for the non-poor is not large. The targeting dif­
ferential for India as a whole is 0.12. (The t d for China’ s Di Bao
programme mentioned above was 0.27.) Madhya Pradesh has
the highest t d , at 0.22, while Kerala has the lowest, at 0.01.
Table 5 also gives the rationing rates for the poor and non­
poor. Consistent with the all-India results in Table 4, we see
that the non-poor are rationed more than the poor in almost Ravallion (1999) call “ early capture”by the non-poor, which they
all states (the only exceptions are Kerala and Rajasthan). showed to be a common feature of access to safety-nets and
The t d is determined by how the demand rates and the schooling in India.16 Lanjouw and Ravallion also show in a
rationing rates vary between the poor and non-poor. We can theoretical model of the political economy of targeted pro­
do use a simple decomposition method to show how much of grammes that for programmes with relatively large start-up costs,
the t d is due to each factor: early capture by the non-poor may be the only politically feasible
option (especially when the start-up costs must be financed do­
TDj = (1 - R) (Dfoor - Dlnon-poor) - D(RP°or - Rjlon-poor) + residual
(“Self-targeting effect” ) (“Rationing effect” ) ...(2) mestically). So this feature of mgnregs is possibly not surprising.
Targeting by social groups (castes and tribes) is another
Here the bars denote fixed reference values, while Dl and R1 dimension of interest. Qualitative studies have suggested that
are the demand rates and rationing rates for i=poor , non-poor, scheduled castes (scs), scheduled tribes ( s t s ) and women -
respectively, t d can thus be interpreted as the “ self-targeting groups that have traditionally been excluded - have benefited
effect”(greater demand for work amongst the poor) net of the disproportionately from the scheme.17We shall return to discuss
rationing effect (the extent to which the poor might be ra­ participation by women in Section 6. Here we focus on the
tioned more). (Since the decomposition is not exact - given the
Table 6: Participation Rates and Targeting by Caste
non-linearity in equation (1) - there is also a residual.) Scheduled Scheduled Other Weighted Others Targeting
Applying this decomposition, and using the all-India values Tribes Castes Backward Mean for ST, Differential for
Classes SCandOBC ST/ Backward
for the reference we find that 85.6% of the national t d is at­ Castes
tributed to the difference in demand between the poor and Andhra Pradesh 0.567 0.434 0.382 0.412 0.150 0.262
non-poor while 13.7% is due to the difference in rationing Assam 0.192 0.179 0.163 0.174 0.191 -0.017

rates. (The residual is negligible.) There are differences across Bihar (0.087) 0.185 0.089 0.116 0.016 0.100
Chhattisgarh 0.519 0.435 0.504 0.500 0.214 0.286
states, though we find that the demand effect dominates in 17
Gujarat 0.340 0.289 0.180 0.252 0.070 0.181
of the 20 states. So, despite the rationing, the bulk of the pro­
Haryana (0.000) 0.105 0.044 0.071 0.018 0.054
poor targeting is coming through the self-targeting mechanism. Himachal Pradesh 0.392 0.413 0.294 0.376 0.298 0.077
Targeting performance is better in states with higher overall Jammu and Kashmir (0.054) 0.134 0.109 0.114 0.090 0.024
participation rates. Figure 4 plots the two participation rates from Jharkhand 0.204 0.268 0.155 0.197 0.149 0.048
Table 5 against the overall participation rate (Table 1). We see that Karnataka 0.186 0.160 0.042 0.089 0.054 0.035

the t d - the gap between the two lines - rises with the overall Kerala (0.168) 0.238 0.098 0.123 0.088 0.035
Madhya Pradesh 0.567 0.442 0.334 0.433 0.211 0.222
participation rate, and the two are strongly correlated (r=o.748).
Maharashtra 0.063 0.017 0.074 0.058 0.015 0.044
Targeting performance also tends to be worse in the states
Orissa 0.323 0.220 0.224 0.253 0.100 0.153
with higher levels of rationing (the correlation between t d Punjab (0.000) 0.104 0.016 0.082 0.009 0.074
and rationing rate is -0.71). However, this arises because over­ Rajasthan 0.816 0.654 0.581 0.644 0.444 0.200
all participation rates are low in states with higher degrees of Tamil Nadu (0.286) 0.523 0.279 0.338 0.069 0.269
rationing. Indeed, once one controls for the participation rate, U ttar Pradesh (0.140) 0.325 0.118 0.191 0.044 0.146

there is no significant partial correlation between the t d and Uttarakhand 0.388 0.513 0.082 0.321 0.278 0.043
West Bengal 0.656 0.507 0.449 0.521 0.362 0.159
the rationing rate (the t-statistic is -0.611).15
All India 0.415 0.336 0.214 0.279 0.155 0.124
So we find that higher overall participation rates tend to TD for ST/backward classes is defined as the difference between the (weighted) mean
come with better targeting performance and lower rationing participation rate of ST, SC and OBCs and that for others. ST figures in parentheses had
less than 100 sampled ST households and so might be unreliable. All-India figures include
rates. The fact that targeting performance improves as the states not shown in the table.
programme expands makes this an example of what Lanjouw and Source: Authors'calculationsfrom NSS (2009-10).
60 A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 QBS3 Economic & Political weekly

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Figure 5: Participation Rates for STs, SCs and OBCs in MGNREGS Table 7: Average Wages on MGNREGSand in Casual Labour 2009-10
Average Wage Rate on Average Casual Wage Rate (Rs/day)
' Scheduled , ‘ ^ MGNREGS (Rs/day) Overall Male Female
caste
A n d h ra Prad esh 91 .9 9 8 .5 115.4 75 .7
> > A ssam 87.0 90.1 9 4 .4 74.9
--' ^ O th er
Backward B ihar 97.5 79 .4 8 1 .0 6 5 .8
Classes
C h h a ttis g a rh 8 2 .3 68.8 7 0 .8 6 5 .5
G u ja ra t 8 9.3 8 3 .3 87.3 71.0
'" ^ O th e r H a ry a n a 150 .9 139 .6 146.1 99.1
H im a c h a l P rad esh 109 .5 139 .6 141.4 110.2
a ST J a m m u a n d K a sh m ir 9 3.3 158 .3 157.5 na
♦ SC J h a rk h a n d 97.7 101.2 1 0 3 .6 8 2 .2
♦ OBC
♦ Other
K a rn ataka 86.0 8 4 .5 9 6 .9 6 2 .8
Kerala 120.6 2 0 6 .5 2 2 6 .6 119.3
M a d h y a P rad esh 8 3 .7 6 9 .0 74.5 58.1
M a h a ra s h tra 9 4 .3 75 .2 86.0 5 8 .2
~i--------- 1--------- 1
.7 .8 .9 Orissa 105 .9 7 5 .6 81 .0 59.1
Overall participation rate P u n jab 123 .5 130 .4 133 .5 9 1.8
R a jasth an 87.4 125 .7 132.3 9 4 .3
scheme’ s performance in reaching s t , s c and Other Backward T am il N a d u 71 .6 110.8 132.1 7 2 .6
Class ( o b c ) households. U tta r P radesh 9 9 .5 9 4 .3 97.0 6 9 .2
Table 6 (p 6o) gives the participation rates by these groupings. U tta ra k h a n d 9 9 .0 118.7 122.1 9 6 .7
Nationally, 42% and 34% of rural s t and sc households W e s t B eng al 9 0 .4 8 5 .3 87.8 6 5 .9
respectively participated. Participation was lower for o b c s at 21% All In d ia 9 0 .2 93.1 101.5 6 8 .9
MGNREGS wage rates estimated as total expenditure on wages (excluding skilled or
and lowest for all others, at 16%. But there is a wide range semi-skilled) divided by total number of person days of employment for FY 2009-10
across states. For s t s , the range is from 6% of households (April 2009 to March 2010). Casual wages for June 2009 to July 2010 period, based on NSS
66th round survey. "All India" includes smaller states not reported. Note that we do not
participating in Maharashtra to 82% in Rajasthan, while for sc
report the female wage rate for Jammu and Kashmir, as we found it was based on a sample
households it is from 2% to 65%, and for the same states. Figure 5 of only seven observations and was not reliable. (The sample estimate of 206.5 was also
implausibly high relative tothe male wage).
plots the participation rates against the overall participation
Sources: Casual wages from Key Indicators o f Employment and Unemployment in India,
rates across states. Similarly to targeting by poverty status, we 2009-10, NSSO, Government of India (June 2011). MGNREGS expenditure and employment
data are from the state-wise Monthly Progress Reports (www.nrega.nic.in).
see that the participation rates for s t s , s c s and o b c s rise faster
as the overall participation rates rise, suggesting that the targeting We see that it is not the case that the m g n r e g s wage rate is
of disadvantaged castes improves with programme expansion. everywhere well above the market wage rate. Indeed, for India
Table 6 also gives the targeting differential for s t s , s c s and as a whole the two wages are quite close. If rural India was one
o b c s together, defined as their (weighted) average participa­ labour market one might conjecture that the scheme has in­
tion rate less the participation rate for “ others” . This “ caste t d ” deed brought the two wage rates into parity. However, rural
varies from -0.02 in Assam to 0.29 in Chhattisgarh, with a national India is not one labour market, as mobility is clearly imperfect.
mean of 0.12, almost identical to the national “ poverty t d ” in When we look at the states we see that for half of them the
Table 5. Similarly to the poverty t d , the “ caste t d ” is positively m g n r e g s wage rate in 2009-10 is actually lower than the aver­

correlated with the overall participation rates (r=o.723).
5 Wages and Rationing on MGNREGS
There have been a number of concerns about the stipulated
wage rates for the programme. On the one hand, it is argued
age wage rate for casual labour.
Given the extent of rationing, it does not seem plausible that
the scheme would be having a large impact on wages for other
casual work, let alone resulting in a higher casual wage than for
m g n r e g s in half the states. For example, with only 17% of those

that setting scheme wages below the state-mandated rates under who wanted work on the scheme in Punjab getting that work, it
the Minimum Wages Act is a violation of the law and tanta­ is hard to believe that the casual (non-pw) wage rate is above the
mount to “ forced labour” , a stand that has been recently up­ m g n r e g s wage rate due to competition for workers.

held by the Supreme Court.18On the other hand, concerns have That said, we do find that the relative wage - defined as the
been raised that the wage rate on the m g n r e g s is being set too mean wage rate for casual (non-pw) labour divided by the
high, relative to actual casual labour market wages. The con­ m g n r e g s wage - tends to be lower in states with higher levels

cern here is that the scheme will attract workers from market
work and so bid up the market wage rate.19 (Of course to sup­
porters of the scheme this is counted as a benefit.)
What does the evidence suggest? Table 7 gives the average
wage rates from the administrative data. These are calculated
as total m g n r e g s spending on unskilled labour divided by to­
tal person days of employment provided.20Table 7 also reports
estimates for average wages in (private) casual labour from
the n s s for the same year.21
of unmet demand, as measured by the difference between the
demand rate and the participation rate. The correlation coeffi­
cient between the relative wage and unmet demand is -0.520,
which is significant at the 2% level. However, there are two
reasons to question whether this really reflects greater tighten­
ing of the casual labour market in states where there is less
unmet demand for work on the scheme. First, the implied relative
wage rate at zero rationing is too high to be believed. Regressing
the log of the relative wage rate (the log gives a slightly better

Economic & Political w e e k ly DDES A p r i l 21, 2012 v o l x l v i i n o 16 6l

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fit) on the unmet demand, the intercept is 0.397 (t=3.8oo), Figure 7: Share of Work Going to Women
implying that the non-pw wage will be almost 50% higher 1.0-1
0 Female share of non-WPW work
than the m g n r e g s wage rate in the absence of rationing.22The * • Female share o f MGNREGS
work is very similar, and there is no obvious reason why such a 0.8 -
Female share of
differential would exist in equilibrium. Possibly the unmet MGNREGS
demand is picking up some other factor correlated with it.
Poverty is a plausible candidate, and this suggests a second |
reason for questioning whether this negative correlation between I
relative wages and rationing reflects how the casual labour 1
market has responded. The correlation largely vanishes when Female share of
we control for the poverty rate. A higher poverty rate may be non-PW work

associated with greater landlessness and hence a larger supply

of casual labour, bringing down the wage rate. Regressing the
relative wage rate on unmet demand and the poverty rate, the 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
effect of unmet demand becomes insignificant (prob.=o.i6). Fleadcount index of rural poverty 2009-10 (%)

6 Rationing and the Participation o f Women state on demand for work is the same for men and women, the
Nationally, almost half (48%) of the employment as registered pattern in Figure 7 suggests that the rationing process is less
in the administrative data for 2009-10 goes to women.23 This favourable to women in poorer states.
is very high for a country where a minority of women partici­ Do women have equal access to the scheme, when they need
pates in the paid labour force; for example, women’ s participa­ it? Again, we cannot give a direct answer from the survey data,
tion rate in the m g n r e g s is about twice their share of other but the patterns in the interstate data are suggestive of greater
(non-pw) casual wage work.24 The variation across states is rationing of women. There is a negative correlation between the
striking; between the two extremes, only 7% of the work goes female share of work and the rationing rate (Figure 8, p 63). It
to women in Jammu and Kashmir as compared to 88% in might be conjectured that this correlation actually reflects differ­
Kerala (Table 1). The female share in m g n r e g s work is greater ences in the extent of poverty. Women may well be less aware of
than their share of the work in the casual wage labour market their rights and less empowered to demand work in poorer
in all states, but the gap tends to be larger in states where states. For example, when other work is scarce, they may get
women participate less in the casual labour market (Figure 6). crowded out by men. However, the negative correlation be­
Figure 6: Women in MGNREGSand Casual Wage Labour tween the female share of work and the rationing rate persists
when we control for the poverty rate, as can be seen in Table 8.
Table 8: Regressions for the Female Share of Employment in MGNREGS
Full Sample with Headcount Sample with Male and
Sample Index Available Female Wages Available
C o n s ta n t 0 .6 7 6 0 .8 2 9 0.193 0.131 0 .6 9 7
(8 .6 7 1 ) (5 .3 4 1 ) (0 .8 8 7 ) (0 .2 4 6 ) (3 .9 2 2 )
R a tio n in g -0 .5 0 5 -0 .4 1 9 -0 .3 0 7 -0 .4 5 6 -0 .4 6 9
(-3 .7 5 8 ) (-2 .8 9 8 ) (-2 .9 0 4 ) (-5 .1 0 8 ) (-5 .9 7 2 )
H e a d c o u n t in d e x o f rural p o v e rty na -0 .5 1 5 0.241 na na
(-1 .5 3 8 ) (1 .518)
F e m a le casual n o n -P W w a g e (lo g ) na na -0 .5 4 9 -0 .7 4 4 na
(-2 .0 5 6 ) (-3 .4 7 5 )
M a le casual n o n -P W w a g e (lo g ) na na 0 .6 7 5 0 .8 0 6 na
(5 .156) (3 .5 5 6 )
F e m a le w a g e re la tiv e to na na na na -0 .8 3 6
m a le w a g e (lo g ) (-3 .3 0 1 )
R2 0 .3 3 6 0 .4 6 7 0.811 0 .6 9 2 0 .6 8 7
Women are less likely to participate (relative to men) in SEE 0 .1 6 4 0.145 0 .0 9 3 0.111 0 .1 0 8
m g n r eg s in poorer states. Figure 7 plots the share of person N 20 18 18 19 19
days of employment going to women against the poverty rate. The dependent variable is the share of total person days of employment on MGNREGS
going to women. The rationing rate is the share of those who wanted work who did not get
We see a negative correlation (r— 0.47). By contrast, women’ s it. The headcount index is the per cent of population below the poverty line. The t-ratios in
share of casual (non-pw) wage work tends to be slightly higher parentheses are based on White standard errors.

on average in poorer states, though the difference is not statis­ Gender differences in the opportunities available in the casual
tically significant (r=o.09). So the scheme is clearly bringing labour market can also be expected to influence demand for
women into the paid workforce, but more so in less poor states. work. We find that the female market wage rate has a significant
Why do we see less of the available work going to women in negative effect on women’ s share of the work provided, while
poorer states? A plausible explanation is that there is greater the male wage rate has the opposite effect (Table 8).26The female
rationing of work in poorer states and that women are rationed wage relative to the male wage is the relevant variable. This
more than men.25Assuming that the effect of being a poorer suggests that there is an intra-household substitution effect; for
62 A p r i l 21, 2012 v o l x l v i i n o 16 QBS9 Economic & Political w e e k ly

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Figure 8: Rationing Rate Trends and Share of Women in the MGNREGS
100 - drops off sharply. This should not be interpreted as indicating
r=0.58
o that well-off families in rural India are turning to m g n r e g s .
Kerala
80- Tamil Nadu
0 1---r------ 1------1------ 1------ 1
------ ,------ r------ 1------ 1
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Rationing rate (share of those who wanted work who get it)
example, when casual labour market opportunities are good
for men but bad for women this makes it easier for women to
get the (limited) number of jobs available on the scheme.27
The wage effect is strong statistically, and greatly increases
the explanatory power.28 The negative effect of rationing on
women’ s access to the scheme also persists when we control
for differences in the wages received for private casual work.
7 Conclusions
There has been much public debate about India’ s mgnregs
since it was introduced. There have been many media reports
and some selective surveys, covering at most a few states and/
or selected districts. This paper used the n s s of 2009-10 to test
some of the claims that have been made in past debates using
data for all major states of India. We have focused on a distinc­
tive and important feature of m g n r e g s : the guarantee of
employment at the stipulated wage rates.
We confirm expectations that the demand for work on
m g n r e g s tends to be higher in poorer states. This appears to
reflect the scheme’ s built-in “
self-targeting”mechanism, whereby
non-poor people find work on the scheme less attractive than
do poor people.
However, actual participation rates in the scheme are not
(as a rule) any higher in poorer states where it is needed the
most. The reason for this paradox lies in the differences in the
extent to which the employment guarantee is honoured. The
answer to the question posed in our title is clearly “ no”. Rationing
is common, but far more so in some of the poorest states.
We do not find that the local-level processes determining
who gets work amongst those who want it are generally
skewed against the poor. There are sure to be places where
this is happening (and qualitative field reports have provided
examples). But it does not appear to stand up as a generalisa­
tion. We do find evidence that the poor fare somewhat less
well when it comes to the total number of days of work they
manage to get on the scheme. However, despite the pervasive
rationing we find, it is plain that the scheme is still reaching
poor people and also reaching the s t s and o b c s .
Participation rates on the scheme are higher for poor people
than others. This holds at the official poverty line, but the
scheme is also reaching many families just above the official line.
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It is only at relatively high consumption levels that participation
There may well be shocks that are not evident in the house­
hold consumption aggregates. And there may be individual
needs for help that are not evident in those aggregates.
Targeting performance varies across states. The overall
participation rate seems to be an important factor in accounting
for these interstate differences in targeting performance, with
the scheme being more pro-poor and reaching s t s and o b c s more
effectively in states with higher overall participation rates.
While the allocation of work through the local-level rationing
O
Jammu and Kashmir
process is not working against the poor, there are clearly many
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 poor people who are not getting help because the employment
guarantee is not in operation almost anywhere (Himachal
Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu could be counted as the
exceptions, where 80% or more of those who want work got it).
And other potential benefits of the scheme to poor people are
almost certainly undermined by the extensive rationing, notably
the empowerment gains and the insurance benefits. The first-
order problem for the m g n r e g s is the level of unmet demand.
While the scheme is clearly popular with women - who have
a participation rate that is double their participation rate in the
casual labour market - the rationing process is not favouring
them. We also find evidence of a strong effect of relative wages
on women’ s participation - both wages on the scheme relative
to the market wage and the male-female differential in market
wages. As one would expect, poor families often choose
whether it is the man or the woman who goes to the scheme
according to relative wages.
It has been claimed by some observers that the scheme is
driving up wages for other work, such as in agriculture; some
observers see this as a good thing, others not. For India as a
whole, we find that the scheme’ s average wage rate was
roughly in line with the casual labour market in 2009-10. This
might look like a competitive labour market equilibrium, but
that view is hard to reconcile with the extensive rationing we
find. Interestingly, we do find a significant negative correla­
tion between the extent of rationing and the wage rate in the
casual labour market relative to the wage rate on the scheme.
Although this is suggestive, on closer inspection we are more
inclined to think that other economic factors are at work.
Indeed, the correlation largely vanishes when we control for
the level of poverty. Poorer states tend to see both more
rationing of work on the scheme and lower casual wages -
possibly due to a greater supply of labour given the extent of
rural landlessness.
NOTES
1 On the incentive arguments for workfare schemes see Besley and Coate
(1992 ).
2 The distortions could be due to monopsony power in rural labour markets
(Basu et al 2 0 0 9 ) or labour-tying (Basu 2011). Nor does the distortion need to
be in the rural labour market; it could also be in the urban labour market,
generating excess migration to urban areas (Ravallion 1990 ).
3 The scheme also tried to reduce future poverty by creating useful assets.
This is not an issue we address here.
4 The policy choice between limited coverage at a socially acceptable (“ living”
)
wage and wide coverage is studied in Ravallion (1991).
v o l x l v ii n o 16 63
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SPECIAL ARTICLE
5 The central government bears 90% of all
variable costs. This includes wage costs and
three-quarters of the non-wage component
(working on an assumed 60:40 labour capital
ratio). The centre also provides an additional
6% o f programme costs to the states to defray
the costs o f administering the scheme. States
are responsible for paying unemployment al­
lowances from their own budget.
6 The scarcest manpower resource locally is the
junior engineer or panchayat technical assist­
ant who can prepare technical estimates and
draw up engineering plans for the works. And­
hra Pradesh (AP) has used information tech­
nology to reduce the need for such skilled local
staff, by developing standardised and compu­
terised templates for the engineering plans of
common types of works. AP is the exception
however. Most other states face shortages of
such skilled local staff.
7 Data is from the official Government o f India
website for MGNREGS (http:Wnrega.nic.in).
8 In Dutta et al (2012b) we provide supportive
evidence on this point for Bihar, based on our
surveys in 2009-10.
9 Note that this second reason for the direct ef­
fect of poverty is not consistent with a model
of public decision-making based on any stand­
ard form of utilitarian calculus. For then one
would expect the policy weight on accom m o­
dating the demand for work on the scheme
to be higher in states with a higher share of
poor people who need that work more than
the non-poor.
10 The first stage regressions had ample explana­
tory power, and there was no sign that SDP per
capita had an independent effect on MGNREGS
participation when added as an additional
regressor to the OLS estimate. We cannot test
our identifying assumption that SDP per capita
and its squared value only affect MGNREGS
participation via demand for work and the
poverty rate when both the latter are treated
as endogenous. However, over-identification
test passed when only the demand rate was
treated as endogenous. Neither SDP per capita
nor its squared value was significant when
added to the IV regression treating the de­
mand rate as endogenous.
11 Recall that the regression coefficient o f the
demand rate on the poverty rate (headcount
index) is 0.591. Then the poverty effect operat­
ing via the demand rate is 0.591x1.109=0.655.
12 Jha et al (2009) report evidence that house­
holds with larger landholdings were more
likely to participate in the scheme in AP,
though they find evidence of better targeting in
Rajasthan. They conclude that the scheme is
being “ captured”by the non-poor in AP. Note,
however, that their regressions control for
other variables that may well capture poverty,
including occupation and whether the house­
hold has a below poverty line (BPL) card. The
full regressions are not presented in their
paper, but it may well be that having a BPL
card (say) is already capturing the pro-poor
targeting o f MGNREGS, but that the BPL card
puts too high a weight on landlessness from
the point o f view o f explaining participation.
Then the amount o f land may appear to have
the wrong sign, even though the scheme is
targeting the poor. By contrast, the results of
Liu and Deininger (2010) suggest quite
pro-poor targeting of MGNREGS in AP. Shariff
(2009) reports participation regressions for
MGNREGS in selected backward districts o f
northern states (including som e districts in
Bihar). Some o f the regression coefficients
also suggest perverse targeting. Shariff is
careful in interpreting the results though the
same inferential concerns hold as for the study
by Jha et al.
64
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13 Household quintiles were drawn after correct­
ing per capita consumption for cost-of-living
differences across states using the price deflators
implicit in the Tendulkar poverty lines.
14 To divide the population into poor and non­
poor, we use poverty lines that deliver the
same poverty rates using the abridged con­
sumption module in the employment schedule,
as those that are obtained from the consum p­
tion schedule, and reported in Table 1.
15 The TD is also positively correlated with the
demand rate (r=0.671), but this too vanishes
when one controls for the participation rate
(the t-statistic for the partial correlation coeffi­
cient is 0.151).
16 Lanjouw and Ravallion (1999) study public
works programmes, the Integrated Rural Deve­
lopment Programme, the Public Distribution
System and school enrolments. They used data
for the 1990s.
17 See Dr&ze and Khera (2009).
18 The Supreme Court has refused to stay a recent
Karnataka High Court verdict that affirms that
the central government is liable to pay wages
in tandem with the state minimum w age rate.
19 Evidence for this effect is reported by Imbert
and Papp (2011) who compare districts that
started early on the scheme with those that
started later. However, they do not examine
the extent o f rationing.
20 Note that the scheme stipulates both piece
rates and daily rates. Under the piece rate,
whether a given worker can earn the mandated
wage rate depends on her work effort. If the
scheme attracts workers with lower than aver­
age physical ability then the realised average
wage rate by our calculations can fall short of
the mandated wage.
21 Note that the reference periods for MGNREGS
and casual market wages reported in the table
are slightly different (see notes to Table 7).
22 Note that 0.397 is the difference in logs at zero
rationing and that exp(o.397)=1.487, which is
the implied ratio o f the levels o f wages.
23 While the administrative data are clearly in­
adequate for measuring aggregate demand for
work, there is no obvious reason to question
their veracity for measuring the gender com po­
sition of the work provided.
24 We estimate that the share of women in the
total person days o f casual labour in 2009-10
was 23.3%, based on the 2009-10 NSS.
25 The NSS does not allow us to identify rationing
at the individual level (it is a household varia­
ble). However, we can gain some insights from
the interstate variations.
26 We tested an encompassing specification in
which the log of the male w age rate, log o f the
female wage rate and log o f the MGNREGS
w age rates entered separately. The hom ogene­
ity restriction that the sum of the coefficients
equals zero could not be rejected (F(i,i4)=o.4i;
prob.=o.53), but nor could we reject the null
that it was the log of the female wage relative
to the male w age that mattered, with the
MGNREGS wage having no affect (F=i .49;
prob.=o.26). Also, the MGNREGS wage rate on
its own was not significant. So we opted for a
specification in which it is the log o f the rela­
tive w age that is the regressor as in Table 8.
The table also gives a specification with male
and female w ages entering separately.
27 A similar result was found by Datt and Ravallion
(1994) in studying time allocation within
households in response to the availability of
work under Maharashtra’ s Employment Guar­
antee Scheme.
28 We also tested for an effect of the female share
o f other (non-public works) casual labour. This
A P R I L 2 1, 2 0 ;
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
is endogenous but it allows us to control for
local social norms that influence the propensity
for women to do any casual w age labour. The
new variable was not, however, significant and
the coefficients on the other variables were
affected little.
REFERENCES_________________________________
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ment Guarantee Schemes on Seasonal Labour
Markets: Optimum Compensation and Work­
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Basu, Arnab K, Nancy H Chau and Ravi Kanbur
(2009): “A Theory o f Employment Guarantees:
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Concerns” , Journal o f Public Economics, 93:
482-97.
Besley, Timothy and Stephen Coate (1992): “ Work-
fare vs Welfare: Incentive Arguments for Work
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Datt, Gaurav and Martin Ravallion (1994): “ Transfer
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Dreze, Jean and Reetika Khera (2009): “ The Batde for
Employment Guarantee” , Frontline, 26(1): 3-16.
Dutta, Puja, Rinku Murgai, Martin Ravallion and
Dominique van de Walle (2012a): “ Does India’ s
Employment Guarantee Scheme Guarantee
Employment” , Policy Research Working Paper
6003, World Bank, Washington DC, http://econ.
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Biggest Anti-Poverty Program in In dia’ s Poorest
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brium Distributional Impacts o f Government
Employment Programs: Evidence from India’ s
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o f Economics.
Jha, Raghbendra, Sambit Bhattacharyya, Raghav
Gaiha and Shylashri Shankar (2009): “ ‘
Capture’
of Anti-Poverty Programs: An Analysis o f the
National Rural Employment Guarantee Program
in India” , Journal o f Asian Economics 20(4):
456-64.
Khera, Reetika, ed. (2011): The Battle for Employment
Guarantee (New Delhi: Oxford University Press).
Lanjouw, Peter and Martin Ravallion (1999):
“Benefit Incidence and the Timing o f Program
Capture” , World Bank Economic Review, 13(2):
2 5 7 -7 4 .
Liu, Yanyan and Klaus Deininger (2010): “ Poverty
Impacts o f India’s National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme: Evidence from Andhra
Pradesh” , mimeo, World Bank.
Ravallion, Martin (1990): “Market Responses to Anti-
Hunger Policies: Wages, Prices, and Employ­
ment”in Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen (ed.),
The Political Economy of Hunger: Volume 2
(Oxford: Oxford University Press).
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ment Schemes for Poverty Alleviation” , Journal
o f Development Economics, 34:57-80.
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cess of the Antipoverty Program?” , World Bank
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v o l x l v ii n o 16 Q 3SS Economic & Political w e e k l y
 SPECIAL ARTICLE
India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement
Implications for Fisheries
B P SARATH CHANDRAN, P K SUDARSAN
Against the backdrop o f stalling multilateralism and
proliferating regional trade initiatives, India signed a
regional trade agreem ent with the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations in August 2009. But the
agreem ent has raised apprehensions on the possibility
o f large-scale import o f com m odities from the asean
countries, affecting the livelihood o f many stakeholders.
Fisheries is on e area o f concern since som e o f the asean
m em bers - Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia - are
leading exporters o f fisheries products. Using simple
revealed comparative advantage indices, this paper
looks at the likely impact o f the agreem ent on India's
fisheries trade by identifying the complementarity and
com peting product categories. The simulation results
show that tariff reduction will have a trade creation
effect, an improvement in welfare and limited tariff
revenue decline. The study also show s that the
India-ASEAN fta may not lead to large-scale import o f
marine products and affect the livelihood offisherfolk.
B P Sarath Chandran (bpschandran@ yahoo.com ) is w ith W M ’
s Shree
D am odar C olle ge o f C om m erce and Econom ics, M argao, G oa and
P K Sudarsan (.sudhapazhu@ yahoo.com ) is w ith the departm ent o f
econom ics, G oa University, Goa.
Economic & Political w e e k l y B 2Q A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o
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I
ndia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(a sea n ) signed a historic regional trade agreement (rta )
in August 2009 paving the way for increased economic and
trade cooperation between the two regions of Asia in an
increasingly regionalised world. This agreement is in line with
a number of r t a s that have come up in the world in the post-
1990s with multilateral trade liberalisation efforts under the
World Trade Organisation (w to). India, after an initial hesita­
tion, started regional trade engagements and signed bilateral
trade agreements with Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand and
South Korea. But the importance of southeast Asia, as a region,
in India’ s economic and strategic outlook and the prospect of
greater cooperation in regional integration efforts made India
place a special focus on the region through various policy ini­
tiatives such as "Look East Asia” . The sustained and intense
negotiations between India and the a s e a n countries led to the
signing of a framework agreement in October 2003 and the
final India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement ( fta ) on 13 August
2009, which came into effect on 1January 2010.
India-ASEAN f t a generated a heated debate on its likely
impact on various sectors/sections of the economy. Similar
agro-climatic conditions make India and a s e a n produce similar
products and compete with each other after the agreement.
There is a strong apprehension among a section of stakehold­
ers on the possibility of large-scale import of agricultural
products, plantation crops and fisheries products from a s e a n .
This can put pressure on domestic prices that could result in
large-scale displacement of people from their traditional
occupations, jeopardising their livelihoods. In this context,
this paper attempts to understand the trade structure in India
and a s e a n countries in the fisheries sector and explores
whether they are complementary or similar to each other.
The likely impact of India-ASEAN f t a on India’ s fishery sector
is examined through a partial equilibrium simulation method.
1 F ishery Trade P rofile o f ASEAN a n d India
In 2008, total fish production in the world, excluding aquatic
plants (capture and aquaculture) had reached 142.287 million
tonnes. Of this total production, 55.89% was from the marine
fishery areas, 36.93% from aquaculture and 7.18% from in­
land fishing. While the production from marine waters and
inland waters has reached long-term stability, the additional
supply is entirely from increases in aquaculture production.
Country-wise capture and production of fishery in 2008 shows
that China is way ahead (33.4%), with India a distant second
16 65
SPECIAL ARTICLE

(5-33%) and Peru third (5.2%). Other Table 2: C om position o f Indian Marine Exports
leading producers of fishery products Item 2009-10 2010-11 2009-10 2010-11 Per Cent Growth 2010-11
Quantity (T) Quantity (T) Value Value Quantity Price Share in Unit
in the world are Indonesia (4.67%), Million ($) Million ($) Quantity Value in $

the us (3.41%), Japan (3.5%), Chile Frozen shrimp 1,30,553.13 1,50,661.82 4,182.35 5,696.85 15.40 42.36 18.67 8.34
Frozen fish 2,60,986.06 3,09,772.33 2,032.47 2,602.22 18.46 34.28 38.31 1.87
(3.09%), Vietnam (3.18%), Thailand
Frozen cuttle fish 63,504.41 58,694.04 923.83 1,094.25 -7.57 23.85 7.27 4.13
(2.69%) and Philippines (2.32%).
Frozen squid 61,444.60 86,442.91 622.63 996.91 40.68 66.87 10.71 2.55
The world fishery exports reached
Dried item 47,053.03 79,051.53 981.11 953.72 68.00 1.55 9.79 2.68
$101.98 billion in 2008 which in­ Live items 5,492.26 5,187.17 139.14 141.58 -5.55 6.16 0.64 6.04
creased from the $93.57 billion in 2007. Chilled items 28,816.88 20,911.03 264.49 252.97 -27.44 0.09 2.59 2.67
During the corresponding period, glo­ Others 80,585.70 96,941.86 902.50 1,087.46 20.30 23.08 12.01 2.50
bal imports increased from $98.04 bil­ Total 6,78,436.07 8,07,062.69 10,048.53 12,825.96 18.96 33.17 100.00 3.52
lion to $107.13 billion. The largest ex­ Source: MPEDA, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
porter of fisheries products in the world is China ($10.11 bil­ economic zone (eez), including 0.530 million sq km of a conti­
lion) followed by Norway ($6.94 billion) and Thailand ($6.53 nental shelf (Planning Commission “ Report of the Working
billion). Other leading exporters are Denmark, Vietnam, the Group on Fisheries for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12)” ,
us and Chile. The top three importers of fisheries products in Government of India 2006). Fisheries play an important role
2008 were Japan ($14.95 billion), the us ($14.14 billion) and in the national economy, providing full-time or part-time
Spain ($7.10 billion). Shrimp, groundfish, tuna and salmon are employment to 14.66 million people. The contribution of
the important species traded internationally. fisheries to the gross domestic product (gdp) at current prices
Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Myanmar (2003-04) is 1.07%. It is also a major contributor to foreign
are the major producers of fishery products in a s e a n (Table 1). exchange earning, fetching $2.1 billion in 2009-10.
Indonesia is the largest producer in a s e a n (6.65 million As per the provisional export figures for 2010-11, the export
tonnes in 2008), followed by Vietnam (4.44 million tonnes), of marine products from India has reached an ever-time
Thailand (3.83 million tonnes), Philippines (3.3 million tonnes) record of $2.84 billion exporting 8,07,063 million tonnes (mt)
and Myanmar (3.17 million tonnes). But the leading exporters of seafood products.
from the region are Thailand and Vietnam, followed by Indo­ According to the provisional figures given by the Marine
nesia. Thailand (6.41%) and Vietnam (4.46%) were the third Products Export Development Authority (m peda), frozen
and fifth largest exporters of fishery products in the world in shrimp continues to be the major export item, recording an
2008. Per capita fish availability is high in Malaysia and increase of 15.40%, 36.21% and 42.36% in quantity, rupee
Singapore, and the average consumption is considerably value and dollar value, respectively (Table 2). Fish, the princi­
higher in the a s e a n countries compared with India. pal export item in quantity terms and the second largest ex­
India is endowed with vast fisheries resources in terms of a port item in value terms, accounts for a share of about 38.31%
coast line of 8,118 km and 2.02 million sq km of an exclusive in quantity and 20.38% in dollar earnings.
Table 1: Fishery Profile of India and ASEANCountries (Average 2005-07) European Union (eu) continues to be the largest export
Production Imports Exports FishSupply PerCapita market for India in 2010-11 with a share of 26.66% in dollar
(Tonnes) (Tonnes) (Tonnes) (Tonnes) Supply (Kg/Year)
terms followed by the us (15.40%), south-east Asia (16.42%),
India 69,91,903 14,995 6,11,408 60,06,975 5.2
Brunei 3,108 10,160 160 13,252 35.1 China (15.45%), Japan (13.14%), west Asia (5.17%) and others
(neg.) (0.39) (0.0) (7.79%). Fisheries trade with the southeast Asian countries has
Cambodia 4,80,300 5,499 54,337 4,31,462 30.6 registered a positive growth of 55.08% in quantity and 48.09%
(2.28) (0.21) (0.94)
in us dollar realisation.
Indonesia 61,17,401 62,747 9,36,839 52,00,008 23.4
(29.08) (2.39) (16.26)
2 Tariff E lim in ation o f M arine P rod u cts
Lao PDR 1,07,800 4,850 0 1,12,640 18.8
(0.51) (0.18) (0.0) Under the India-ASEAN ft a , commodities are grouped into five
Malaysia 14,72,870 5,00,929 3,37,406 13,98,691 53.6 categories for tariff reduction, namely, Normal Track-i (nt-i).
(7.00) (19.09) (5.86)
Normal Track-2 (nt-2), Sensitive and Highly Sensitive Track
Myanmar 25,46,497 2,537 4,09,726 13,66,557 28.0
(12.11) (0.10) (7.11) Table 3: No o f Tariff Lines under Tariff Elimination Category o f India-ASEAN FTA
Philippines 29,92,873 1,60,082 2,22,252 29,30,640 33.6 HS-4 Classification No of Tariff Lines NT-1 NT-2 ST EL
(14.23) (6.10) (3.86) Live fish 0301 7 7 - - -
Singapore 9,179 3,17,321 1,16,521 2,09,979 48.0
Fish, fresh or chilled 0302 29 15 - 06 08
(neg) (12.09) (2.02)
Fish frozen 0303 41 21 03 - 17
Thailand 40,27,702 14,62,456 23,55,905 21,83,395 32.9
(19.15) (55.73) (40.89) Fish fillets and other fish meat 0304 14 - - - 14
Vietnam 37,57,809 97,689 13,29,001 23,02,498 27.0 Fried fish, salted or in brine 0305 15 -18 - 03
(17.86) (3.72) (23.06) Crustaceans whether in shell or not 0306 05 -14 - 09
ASEAN 2,10,35,239 26,24,270 57,62,147 1,61,49,122 33.1 Molluscs, whether in shell or not 0307 19 19 - - -

World 13,79,53,425 3,66,22,139 3,85,65,397 11,07,80,734 16.8 Total 142 82 03 06 51

neg is negligible. (Figures in bracket indicate percentage share in ASEAN). (100.00) (57.75) (2.11) (4.23) (35.92)
Source: FAO Statistics. Source: Extracted from India-ASEAN FTA.

66 A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 IM I Economic & Political w e e k l y

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 SPECIAL ARTICLE

(st), Special Products (sp) and Exclusion List (el).1 Of the kept in the n t -i , the entire products under fish fillets and other
12,169 products with eight digit classification, 63.89% prod­ fish meat (0304) are under the e l .
ucts are in n t-i, 10.29% products are in nt-2, 14.83% in s t, Table 4 provides import and export share of India's trade
0.33% in s p and 10.66% in e l. Rule of Origin (r o o ) applicable with a s e a n region for 2008 and their categorisation in the
for the agreement is 35% value addition. The agreement also India-ASEAN f t a agreement. India’ s largest items of import are
provides safeguard measures for a country experiencing seri­ shrimps and prawns which are placed under the e l . The third
ous injury to domestic industries and under the provisions of and fifth important items of import are also kept in the e l
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (g a t t ) and w t o . while the fourth largest item is in the sensitive list (sl ). On India’
s
Marine products are classified into seven major categories top 10 items of marine imports, five are in e l and in s l . While
(hs-4 digits) and under that there are 142 tariff lines. India- 60.61% marine imports are placed in the e l category, the share
a s e a n f t a envisages tariff reduction for marine products goes to 69.9% when the s t list is added to it. This shows that
through three different modes, namely. Normal Track-i, the major items of India’ s import are adequately protected un­
Normal Track-2, Sensitive Track (st) and an Exclusion List (e l ) der the agreement. Similar care is taken on the export side
which is created to protect vulnerable products from tariff also. The top six items of India’ s export which alone accounted
liberalisation. Of the 142 products, 82 are in n t- i, three are in 76.18% of India’ s export are placed in the negative list. The total
nt-2, six are in the s t and 51 are kept in the e l (Table 3, p 66). export share in the e l is 77.60% and this increases to 81.87%
While all products in the category of live fish and molluscs are when s l is added to it.
Table 4: India's Trade Share and Product C ategories o f Marine Products under India-ASEAN FTA____________
Product Product Name Import Category Product Product Name Export Category 3 RCA I n d e x fo r India a n d ASEAN
Share under Share under C ou n tries in F ish eries P rod u cts
______________________________ (%of total) AIFTA_______________________________________________(%of total) AIFTA
030613 Shrimps and prawns 34.88 EL 030374 Mackerel (Scomber scombrus, Scomber) 17.58 EL This section provides the Revealed
030741 Live, fresh or chilled 26.22 NT-1 030379 Other 15.80 EL Comparative Advantage ( rca ) 2 of
030490 Other 19.42 EL 030624 Crabs 15.14 EL India and six major countries of
030269 Other 9.29 ST 030613 Shrimps and prawns 12.89 EL a s e a n , namely, Cambodia, Malaysia,
030379 Other 4.81 EL 030342 Yellowfin tunas (T hunnusalbacares) 7.78 EL Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
030322 Atlantic salmon 2.23 NT-1 030420 Frozen fillets 6.99 EL Vietnam in the marine products cate­
(S a lm o sa la r ) and D
gory. The r c a for the period 2002-07
030420 Frozen fillets 1.27 EL 030749 Other 4.35 NT-1
is calculated and the mean value is
030559 Other 0.57 NT-1 030269 Other 4.27 ST
030319 Other 0.56 NT-1 030741 Live, fresh or chilled 3.50 NT-1
taken for comparison. India’ s mean
030563 Anchovies 0.23 EL 030343 Skipjack or strip-bellied bonito 3.28 NT-1 r c a for HS-33 is 2.48 which demon­
_______ (Engraulisspp) strates that India has got comparative
030729 Other 0.21 NT-1 030739 Other 1.06 NT-1 advantage in this product category.
030110 Ornamental fish 0.15 NT-1 030371 Sardines (Sardina pilchardus, 0.83 EL But the decomposition of this cate­
Sardinops spp),sardinella (sardinella spp),
______ brisling or sprats (sprattus sprattus)
gory into h s-4 digits shows India has
030799 Other 0.10 NT-1 030110 Ornamental fish 0.79 NT-1 a definite comparative advantage in
030569 Other 0.06 NT-1 030232 Yellowfin tunas (T hu nnu salbacares) 0.59 EL select products (Table 5).
Total EL 60.61 Total EL 77.60 India’ s highest r c a is in crusta­
Total EL+ST (69.9) Total EL+ST (81.87) ceans whether in shell or not (7.21)
Source: Computed by authors.
followed by molluscs, whether in
Table 5: Mean RC and RCA for India and ASEAN in Marine Products shell or not (3.20) and frozen fish
HS-4Digit Index India Cambodia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam
(1.84). India has comparative disad­
03 RCA 2.48 0.0 0.63 1.30 0.26 3.36 13.83
vantage in live fish (0.17), fresh or
RC 4.63 -27.90 0.00 1.30 -0.55 0.50 2.87
0.17 2.09 1.60 3.83
chilled fish (0.26), fish fillets (0.25)
Live fish 0301 RCA 1.26 2.66 4.48
RC 6.56 3.72 0.98 2.74 0.50 3.33 2.85 and fried fish (0.31). India’ s import is
Fish, fresh or chilled 0302 RCA 0.26 0.15 0.18 0.27 0.04 0.49 1.52 very low, giving positive values for
RC 1.12 -1.89 -1.84 3.40 -2.94 0.05 2.19 comparative trade advantage. Re­
Fish frozen 0303 RCA 1.84 0.44 0.16 1.97 0.40 0.80 2.43 vealed competitiveness (r c )4 is calcu­
RC 6.17 0.28 -1.62 0.46 -0.22 -2.26 0.80 lated from relative export advantage
Fish fillets and other fish meat 0304 RCA 0.25 0.01 0.10 0.36 0.20 2.56 16.41 and relative import advantage and the
RC -1.43 2.45 -1.47 1.52 -0.07 2.34 3.41 positive values of r c shows revealed
Fried fish, salted or in brine 0305 RCA 0.31 0.10 0.09 0.80 0.35 1.41 4.93 competitiveness. Cambodia has got
RC 3.12 4.78 -1.45 3.51 -0.53 2.16 3.71
revealed comparative advantage in
Crustaceans whether in shell or not 0306 RCA 7.21 2.67 1.69 2.05 0.14 7.89 32.19
live fish (1.26) crustaceans whether
RC 5.68 0.03 0.81 4.27 -1.26 2.34 3.21
in shell or not (2.67) and revealed
Molluscs, whether in shell or not 0307 RCA 3.20 0.04 1.01 1.81 0.27 6.45 16.62
RC 5.15 3.09 1.42 1.52 -0.78 1.80 3.47 comparative disadvantage in other
Source: Computed by authors. categories in fresh or chilled fish

Economic & Political w b b k l y I APRIL 21, 2012 VOL XLVII NO l6 67

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Table 6: Comparison of RCAbetween India and ASEANCountries enjoying an advantage in specific product categories. India’ s
RCA-based Classification
comparative advantage lies in frozen fish, crustaceans and
India Cambodia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam
* * * *
molluscs. Malaysia has a comparative advantage in live fish
03
* * * * * * and crustaceans, while Singapore gets comparative advan­
Live fish 0301
Fish, fresh or
tage in only live fish. Thailand has got a comparative advan­
chilled 0302 * tage in all except fresh or chilled fish (0302) and frozen fish
Fish frozen * ** ** * ** ** * (0303), while Vietnam gets exceptionally high r c a across all
Fish fillets and other product categories.
fish meat 0304 * *
A comparison of r c a across a s e a n countries and India
Fried fish, salted or
inbrine 0305 * * (Table 6) on h s -4 digits shows that India enjoys a comparative
Crustaceans * * * * * * * * advantage in frozen fish, crustaceans and molluscs. For
Molluscs * ** ** * ** * * frozen fish, India has got trade complementarity ( t c ) with
* Indicates RCA>1 and the country has comparative advantage, ** represents India's Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, for crustaceans
possible export market.
Source: Based on authors' calculations.
with Singapore and for molluscs with Cambodia, Malaysia
and Singapore.
Table 7; Comparison of RCbetween India and ASEANCountries
The r c shows that India has got economic competitiveness in
India Cambodia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam
* * * * all h s -4 digit categories except fish fillets. But other major
03
* * * * * asean fish economies such as Thailand, Vietnam and Philip­
Live fish 0301 - *
Fish, fresh or pines also have got rc in all categories (Table 7). In order to get
Chilled 0302 * * * * the relative strength of the t c index, the r c is classified into
Fish frozen * * * * four categories, namely, o to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 6, and above six
Fish fillets and (Table 8). The relative strength of the r c shows India enjoys
Other fish meat 0304 * * * *
high r c a in five product categories. This includes frozen fish
Fried fish, salted or
in brine 0305 * * * * * where India has got high export share.
Crustaceans * * * * * *
Molluscs * * * * * * 4 SMART Simulation on Fish Products
* Indicates positive RC and the country got competitiveness in that product category. In order to understand the impact of India-ASEAN f t a on
Source: Based on authors' calculations.
marine products, s m a r t 5 simulation method of the World Inte­
(0.15), frozen fish (0.44), fish fillets and other fish meat (0.01) grated Trade Solution ( w i t s ) 6 is employed with different tariff
and molluscs (0.04). Malaysia’ s comparative advantage is in live
Table 8: Relative Strength of RCbetween India and ASEANCountries______
fish (2.66) and crustaceans whether in shell or not (1.69) and Revealed Competitiveness (RC) Values
has a disadvantage in other product categories. Philippines’ HS-4 Digit >6
comparative advantage is in live fish (4.48), frozen fish (1.97), 03 Cambodia j Malaysia Vietnam

crustaceans whether in shell or not (2.05) and molluscs (1.81). Singapore Philippines j
Thailand
Thailand is a leading fish exporter and it gets a high compara­
Live fish 0301 Malaysia Cam bodia
tive advantage of 3.36. The highest rcas for Thailand are in Singapore Philippines!
crustaceans whether in shell or not (7.89) and molluscs, Thailand j
whether in shell or not (6.45). Thailand also has got compara­ V ietnam |

tive advantage in fish fillets and other fish meat (2.56), fried Fish, fresh or Cambodia India Philippines
chilled 0302 Malaysia Thailand Vietnam
fish (1.41) and live fish (1.60). Thailand’ s comparative dis­ Singapore
.
advantages are in fresh or chilled fish (0.49) and frozen fish Fish frozen Malaysia Cam bodia
(0.80). The highest r c a for the whole a sea n region is for Philippines V ietnam

Vietnam and it has got very high r c a values in crustaceans, Singapore

Thailand
whether in shell or not (32.19), fish fillets and other fish meat
Fish fillets and India P hilippines
(16.41) and molluscs, whether in shell or not (16.62). Vietnam other fish Malaysia
got high rcas across all product groups and there is no com­ meat 0304 Singapore
parative disadvantage. Fried fish, salted Malaysia
or in brine 0305 Singapore
The mean r c a values for fish products in h s -2 and h s -4
digits classification for India and six a s e a n countries explain
the trade structure of marine products for India and a s e a n Crustaceans Singapore Cambodia
countries, r ca for h s -3 shows there is rca for India, Philippines, Malaysia
Molluscs Singapore Malaysia
Thailand and Vietnam and comparative disadvantage for
P hilippines
Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. The two a s e a n coun­ Thailand
tries, namely, Vietnam and Thailand enjoy very high r c a The shades indicate different degree of revealed competitiveness. Darker shade is for
high degree of revealed competitiveness and lighter shade is lower degree of revealed
indicating their strong advantage in this product category. competitiveness.
The decomposition of this into h s -4 digits shows countries Source: Based on authors' calculations.

68 A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 DDE3 Economic & Political w b b k l y

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 £££££££££££££:£.£ =£££££££: r£T£££EEE££SPECIAL ARTICLE

cuts, s m a r t is a partial equilibrium simulation model using for India are other categories in other fish, salted but not dried
infinite elasticity of substitution. Four alternate scenarios of or smoked and fish in brin (030559) and Bluefin (Thunnus
tariff reduction, namely, 16.66%, 33-3%, 66.6% and 100% cut thynnus) (030349). The highest drop in revenue is taking place
are employed in the simulation to get the requisite results. in sea bass (030377) and other molluscs (030729). The biggest
India’ s most favoured nation ( m fn ) tariff for the marine prod­ consumer surplus is recorded in Pacific salmon and Danube
ucts is 30% and this works out as 5%, 10%, 20% and all 30% salmon (030559) with an increase of $167,000.
reduction in tariff rates. Sensitive products whose tariff will
Table 9: SMARTSimulation Results for Marine Products under Various E x ports V iew
Tariff Cuts (in $'ooo)
The export view shows that Thailand and Singapore increase
TariffReduction Trade Trade Total Trade Trade Revenue Welfare
Creation Diversion Effect Value Effect Effect their exports to India in marine trade after the implementa­
16.66% cut 179.07 0 179.07 1,906.50 23.828 43.503 tion of India-ASEAN f t a (Table 11). Thailand’
s total exports are
33.3% cut 357.926 0 357.926 1,906.50 33.187 82.25 expected to grow from $86,262 to $867,173, an increase of
66.6% cut 715.852 0 715.852 1,906.50 8.515 141.75 $780,911. Almost the entire growth in exports is coming from
100% cut 1,074.85 0 1,074.85 1,906.50 --74.503 175.068 Mumbai duck, seer without head, sprats and others. Marine
Source: Computed based on WITS SMART simulation.
exports of Singapore are also expected to grow by $323,833
TablelO: Market View offTariff Reduction (in $ooo) from an initial export of $410,952 to $734,785 after the imple­
Tariff Line Imports Imports Tariff Tariff Tariff Consumer
Code Before Change Revenue New Change in Surplus mentation of India-ASEAN fta.
Revenue Revenue
Table 11: Export View of Marine Products under India-ASEANFTA(in $ 000 )
Total 1,906.50 1,074.85 450.632 376.129 -74.503 175.068 Exporter/HSTariffLineCode Name Exports Exports Export Change
Ornamental fish 46.193 5.427 7.754 0 -7.754 0.456 Before After inRevenue
Pacific salmon 306.656 0.111 91.224 90.869 -0.355 0.033 Total Thailand 86.262 867.173 780.911
Livers and roes 3.049 2.11 0.229 0 -0.229 0.079 Other (030559) 11.264 764.072 752.808
Halibut 2.749 0.131 0.206 0 -0.206 0.005 Other (030759) 38.836 52.668 13.832
Others (030349) 170.074 151.769 4.301 0 -4.301 1.919 Sea bass 17.063 24.265 7.202
Cod 11.453 17.627 1.48 0.761 -0.718 1.369 Ornamental Fish 19.096 26.162 7.066
Sea bass 237.427 12.504 23.246 1.881 -21.364 0.659 Other (030799) 0.003 0.006 0.003
Pacific salmon and Total Singapore 410.952 734.785 323.833
Danube salmon 262.525 0.175 78.009 77.666 -0.343 0.052 Other (030349) 57.344 213.309 155.965
Other (030549) 1.715 0.013 0.46 0.435 -0.025 0.003 Other (030559) 5.963 126.405 120.442
Other fish, salted but not Other (030729) 79.239 98.941 19.702
dried or smoked and Cod (Gadus morhua, Gadus ogac) 8.695 26.543 17.848
fish in brin (030559) 392.652 868.711 116.453 111.265 -5.188 167.136
Sea bass 030377 213.256 219.396 6.14
Other mussels (Mytilus
spp, Perna spp): Live, Liver and roes (030270) 3.049 5.159 2.11
fresh or chilled (030729) 189.225 8.545 48.447 29.649 -18.799 1.734 Other (030739) 2.126 3.751 1.625
Live, fresh or chilled Live, fresh or chilled (030731) 2.795 3.333 0.538
(030731) 2.795 0.538 0.545 0 -0.545 0.052 Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp), Atlantic salmon
Other (030739) 122.234 1.132 36.447 35.885 -0.562 0.333 (Salmo salar) and Danube salmon (Hucho hucho)
Other (030759) 81.27 6.055 23.993 9.881 -14.112 1.236 (030541) 3.328 3.815 0.487
Other (030799) 76.485 0.002 17.839 17.838 -0.001 0.001 Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp), Atlantic salmon
Source: See source of Table 9. (Salmo salar) and, Danube salmon (Hucho)
Atlantic: Farmed, Not farmed, Chinook (king),
not fall to zero and the el products are removed from the data­ Chum (dog), Pink (humpie), Sockeye (red).
Coho (silver) (030212) 3.436 3.871 0.435
base to get the India-ASEAN fta impact.
Halibut (030331) 2.749 2.88 0.131
The simulation results show trade creation from the rta
Other (030549) 0.241 0.278 0.037
increases as the tariff reduction increases (Table 9). When Source: See source of Table 9.
there is 100% tariff reduction, trade is created to the tune of Table 12: Simulation Results for Sensitive Products (in $ ooo)
$1.07 million. This together with the initial trade of $1,906 Tariff Reduction Trade Trade Total TradeValue Revenue Welfare
Creation Diversion Trade Effect Effect Effect
million takes the total trade to $2,981 million. The revenue
5% 0.487 0 0.487 122.412 -0.935 0.117
collection from tariff reductions increases in the initial stage,
Source: See source of Table 9.
but turn into negative as there is a 100% tariff cut. Keeping
similar trend with trade creation, consumer welfare also in­ S e n sitiv e P rod u cts
creases as there was deeper tariff reductions. The increase in Simulation results for sensitive products (tariff elimination up
consumer welfare from 100% tariff cut of marine products to 5%) show that marginal trade creation and welfare effect
turns out to be $175,068 million. are lower than the revenue loss (Table 12).

M arket V iew C o n clu sio n s

The market view shows the trade creation, revenue change This study attempted to understand the trade complementa­
and consumer surplus at six digit product categories (Table 10). rity between India and a s e a n countries in the context of
The two product groups which show the highest trade creation India-ASEAN f t a . India is one of the w orld’
s significant fish

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SPECIAL ARTICLE

exporters, but the share of fish import in India’s total imports India has got competitiveness in all products except fish
is very small. India’ s huge national population makes the per fillets (0304). The relative strength of r c shows India enjoys
head availability of fish one of the lowest in the world. Under high r c values in five h s-4 categories indicating India’ s
the India-ASEAN f t a , 59.86% tariff lines in marine products competitiveness in that category, s m a r t simulation results
are kept under Normal Track (n t-i an nt-2) and 35.92% tariff show that tariff elimination leads to reasonable trade creation
lines are kept in e l. Marine products accounting to 60.61% of and marginal welfare increase with nominal tariff revenue
India’s imports and 77.6% of exports are under e l. India’ s decline. When we incorporate India’ s increased trade with
comparative advantage in marine exports is mainly in the a s e a n due to tariff reduction, the trade-off is not substantial.
crustaceans whether in shell or not (0306) and molluscs, The study reveals that India has taken adequate precaution to
whether in shell or not (0307) and here all the major a s e a n protect its marine sector from large-scale dumping. The
countries have got a trade similarity with India. The same apprehension that India-ASEAN f t a will lead to substantial
trend follows in other indices also. The r c index shows that import of marine products in to India is unfounded.

n o t e s _____________________________________
1 India-ASEAN agreement divides tariff lines
into four broad categories, namely, Normal
Track-i, Normal Track-2, Sensitive Track and
Excluded List. Normal Track (NT): Applied
most favoured nation (MFN) rates will be
gradually reduced and removed. There are
two categories in NT. For NT-i tariff elimina­
tion by 2018 and NT-2 tariff elimination by
2021. Sensitive Track (ST): Applied MFN rates
will be reduced to 5%. Sensitive Track (ST):
Tariff reduction at a gradual pace compared
than NT-i and NT-2. Excluded List (EL): No
tariff reduction commitment as of now.
2 Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) Index
shows how competitive is a product in coun­
tries’export compared to the products share in
the world trade. A product with high RCA is
competitive and can be exported to countries
with low RCA. The RCA index of country “ I”for
product “ j ”is often measured by the product’ s advantage (RCA) offered by Vollrath (1991). It is
share in the country’ s exports in relation to its
share in world trade:
RCA,j =
Where x~ and x . are the values o f country i’ s mit)/(mnj/mnt)
exports of product j and world exports of prod­
uct j and whereXit andX t refer to the country’ s
total exports and world total exports. When
the RCA exceeds unity, the country is said to
have a revealed comparative advantage in the
product.
3 “Harmonised Commodity Description and
C oding System”- Nomenclature developed
by the World Customs Organisation for cus­
toms tariffs and international trade statistics
to organise products through hierarchical
categories.
4 Revealed Competitiveness (RC) is one of the three
alternative specifications of revealed comparative
defined as the difference of log Relative Export
Advantage (RXA) and log Relative Import
Advantage (RMA).
RC = RXA-RMA
where, RXA = Balassa Index and RMA = (mij/
Vollrath, T L (1991): “A Theoretical Evaluation
of Alternative Trade Intensity Measures o f
Revealed Comparative Advantage” . Weltwirt-
schaftlichesArchiv, 130: 265-79.
5 Partial equilibrium model embedded in WITS
which allows users to estimate the impact of
tariff reductions on trade flows, tariff revenue,
and consumer surplus for a single market at a
time.
6 World Integrated Trade Solution database and
software package developed by UNCTAD and
World Bank to allow analysis o f market access
conditions and the impact of own and partner
country liberalisation.

EPWRF’
s Online Data Base Services
www.epwrfits.in
India Time Series
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(www.epwrfits.in) as a part of the project funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and executed
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(iii) Finances of State Governments; (iv) Combined Government Finances; (v) National Accounts Statistics;
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mail: epwrf@vsnl.com

70 A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16 BB9 Economic 8c Political w e e k l y

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 SPECIAL ARTICLE
How the Ban on the RSS Was Lifted
RAKESH ANKIT
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh faced its first ban
from February 1948 to July 1949 following the
assassination o f Gandhi. From Decem ber 1948 onwards
a series o f attempts were m ade by the Sangh's
well-wishers and m em bers to g et the ban lifted and
more importantly, to involve India's first Flome Minister
Sardar Patel in the process. The m eetings and
correspondence on this issue betw een the various actors
and the chief o f the Sangh, M S Golwalkar is a slice of
Indian history that is not very well known.
Rakesh Ankit (rakesh.ankit@gmail.com ) studied history at D elhi
and Oxford.
Economic & Political w e e k l y DDES A p r il 21, 2012
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T
he Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (rss) was banned,
for the first time, from February 1948 to July 1949 in
the aftermath of Gandhi’ s assassination. Its communal
and secretive character, military training, and involvement in
riots, especially the post-Partition riots in Punjab, were the
reasons why Nehru’ s government found it necessary to ban the
rss. The first attempt to engage with the government and get
it to lift the ban was made over August-November 1948 by the
head of the r s s (sarsanghchalak), M S Golwalkar. This story
has been well-narrated.1Even otherwise, the legal case against
Nathuram Godse and others, their prosecution and the subse­
quent suppression of the r ss has been well-represented in the
literature on the aftermath of Gandhi’ s assassination.2 How­
ever, not as well known are the attempts made behind the
scenes from December 1948 onwards to reach Sardar Patel on
behalf of the r s s for reconciliation. D P Mishra, Patel’ s protege
and home minister of the Central Province (cp) was the key
interlocutor in the subsequent Golwalkar-Patel exchanges, along
with other mediators like S L Karandikar (mla, Bombay),
D R Limaye (an office-bearer of the r ss from 1928-42), G V Ketkar
(editor, Kesari), T R Venkatarama Sastri (lawyer, Madras) and
H V R Iengar, ics (home secretary, Government of India). This
essay narrates this exchange focusing on the personalities of
Golwalkar, Mishra and Patel and the period December 1948 to
June 1949 when a second, and eventually successful set of
attempts were made to declare the r s s legal again.
E fforts t o In v olv e t h e G ov ern m en t
On 10 December 1948, a month after Golwalkar was arrested
and put in Nagpur jail, D P Mishra held a press conference in
Nagpur. A day earlier, on 9 December 1948, the rss had
launched a satyagraha. Terming the “ misdirected”Sangh as a
“source of great danger to public peace, tranquillity and
progress”, Mishra addressed its leadership in interesting
terms, alternatively friendly and threatening, capturing the
ambiguity which both he and his mentor Patel harboured
towards the outfit:
I w ou ld person ally like to appeal to som e o f the top leaders - m y
friends as a resident o f this province - and as m y love for H indu reli­
gion and culture is secon d to none that they have ch osen a unpatriotic
and suicidal path and w hile n o injustice w ou ld b e don e to them; they
should realise that their Satyagraha has n o public support, cp and
Berar is com pletely h ostile to them and their ill-advised agitation is
certain to lead to a loss o f inn ocen t lives and property. I w ou ld like to
frankly tell them that I w ou ld leave n othing un don e to fight a m ove
w hich is fraught w ith d a n ger to the peace o f the province as the cu sto­
dian o f m aintenance o f law and order. I h ope m y w ord s w ill not fall on
d ea f ears and Satyagraha w ill b e retracted.3
v o l x l v ii n o 16 71
SPECIAL ARTICLE
A fortnight later, the first attempt at mediation between
Golwalkar and the government was made by S L Karandikar who
was a member of the Bombay legislative assembly. Karandikar,
a self-styled well-wisher, wrote to Golwalkar on 24 December
and handed it to Mishra while requesting permission from the
home minister to meet Golwalkar. Conveying “ the feelings of
several well-wishers”in Nagpur and Poona as well as his own,
Karandikar called the Sangh’ s satyagraha “ desirable neither
for the Sangh nor the governm ent” , requested Golwalkar to
call it off and wished for his consequent release. Subsequent to
that, he reminded Golwalkar of “ the need to consider the
future of Sangh” ,“ to avoid stagnation by being under a ban
indefinitely” , and “to take any decision as to the desirability or
otherwise of the reorientation of the Sangh ideology, pro­
gramme and constitution” .4 Karandikar ended his letter by
hoping for leniency to be shown to the Sangh by that “ lover of
democratic m ethods” , Patel. Two days later, Mishra forwarded
this letter to Patel adding categorically that “ we should ruth­
lessly crush the movement and not give any opportunity to
these people to tell the world that they have negotiated an
agreement with the government. The interview should, in my
opinion, be refused” .5Having been unable to make up his mind
regarding the delivery of Karandikar’ s letter to Golwalkar,
Mishra sought Patel’ s advice.
C o n te n tio u s S a ty a gra h a
Patel replied prompdy and agreeably while reminding Mishra to be
careful in not giving the rss any opportunity to make propaganda:
W e can n ot negotiate w ith th ose w h o have created so m uch trouble
w hen w e w ere oth erw ise en ga ge d and there can ob v iou sly b e n o qu es­
tion o f settlem ent so lon g as the present agitation continues. Before
anything o f this kind is even considered, there m ust b e an u n con d i­
tional w ithdraw al o f the satyagraha dem onstrations.6
Ultimately, neither did Karandikar’ s letter reach Golwalkar
nor was he allowed to see the rss sarsanghchalak.
Less than a week later, in the new year of 1949, on 3 Janu­
ary, D R Limaye (an office-bearer of the rss from 1928 to 1942)
approached Patel directly. Reminding Patel of a letter that he
had written in Marathi on 18 December 1948 and citing his
long association with the rss and Golwalkar himself, Limaye
offered his services as an intermediary and requested an
opportunity to see Golwalkar. Explaining his approach,
Limaye wrote that “ in the present peculiarities through which
our country is passing, I am strongly of the opinion that there
should not be any satyagraha on the part of any of our coun­
trymen for any reason w hatsoever” .7 Believing it his duty to
support the government even if one felt that it was not being
just to Golwalkar and the rss , Limaye felt that the calling off
of the satyagraha was necessary in order to create the proper
atmosphere of dispassionate discussion and consideration of
the case. In view of his past relations with the rss , he felt con­
fident of persuading Golwalkar to issue a statement calling off
the satyagraha unconditionally and called on the government
to be sympathetic.
Before Patel could reply to Limaye, he was visited in Delhi
by G V Ketkar, grandson of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and then
72
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editor of the paper founded by his venerable grandfather, the
Kesari. Ketkar too wanted to interview Golwalkar. Patel
informed Ketkar of Limaye’ s proposal and told him to meet
R S Shukla, prime minister of the cp and Berar. Writing to
Shukla, Patel suggested that
if Ketkar is a greeable you can a llow h im to see G olw alkar subject to
the sam e con dition s as in the case o f Limaye, viz, that he w ou ld press
for u nconditional w ithdraw al and that n o publicity or propaganda w ill
b e m ade o f the attempt.8
Simultaneously, Patel sent Shukla a copy of Limaye’ s letter
and intimated his assent to Limaye. The decks were now clear
for Golwalkar to receive his first set of mediators.
Ketkar and Limaye met Golwalkar at Seoni (Golwalkar had
been shifted two days earlier to the remote Seoni jail in Chind-
wara district of the then Central Province and now Madhya
Pradesh from Nagpur) on 12 January 1949. Golwalkar did not
agree to voluntarily withdraw the satyagraha unconditionally.
On Ketkar’ s persuasion, he agreed to advise the organisers of
the Sangh to decide about calling off its activities. He also
agreed to suggest to the Sangh’ s followers that they abide by
their decision “ provided that Ketkar sends him a letter through
Sardar Patel to this effect”(emphasis added), with the obvious
object of indirectly making the government a party to the
move. Adamant to begin with, particularly with Limaye,
Golwalkar became more conciliatory towards the end of his
conversation with Ketkar and did not appear “ prepared to take
the lead himself in calling off the satyagraha unless he was
moved in the matter from outside particularly through Sardar
Patel” , perhaps “ to maintain his personal prestige (and) avoid
public criticism ” .9
Next day, Ketkar requested Patel to forward the accompanying
letter to Golwalkar, “ as a sequel to the understanding reached
between us” , after receiving which “ he has agreed to issue ad­
vice to his followers to discontinue the defiance of the ban” :
Ketkar to G olw alkar (forwarded through the deputy prim e m inister o f
India), 13 January 1949: D ear Shri Guruji, I h ereby confirm in w riting
the assurance given to you orally in ou r interview on the 12th instant
that if y ou advise your follow ers to discontinue defiance o f the ban I
w ill u se m y g o o d offices to the utm ost and induce other im portant
p e op le a lso to d o the sam e to enable you to op en n egotiations w ith
governm ent to ge t the ban lifted on the basis o f form ulating and pu b ­
lish ing a constitution o f the Sangh w hich w ill rem ove the dou bts o f the
governm ent w ith regard to the activities o f the Sangh.10
N o'C om p rom ise'
Before replying to Ketkar, Patel forwarded this letter to Mishra
and sought his views. M ishra’s advice was unambiguous:
this insistence on the letter b ein g sent through you appears to b e due
partly to pique and a desire to save his face and partly to m ake govern ­
m ent a part th ough indirectly, to the w ithdraw al o f the m ovement.
Personally, I w ou ld not advice that you should a gree to this con d i­
tion...I think w e should not ‘ com p rom ise’and no one close to you
should m ix h im self up in this business.11
Patel agreed and declined to be the channel of communica­
tion between Ketkar and Golwalkar “ as that would give the
impression, which probably Shri Golwalkar wants, that we are
a party to what is going on between you (Ketkar) and Shri
Golwalkar” .12Reminding Ketkar that “ the matter rests mostly
A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 B iM Economic & Political w e e k l y

with the Provincial Governments”Patel claimed to be quite
convinced that “ they will not accept anything short of uncon­
ditional abandonment of the satyagraha” . He, however, did
allow Ketkar to meet again with Golwalkar.
On 19 January 1949, Ketkar met Golwalkar for the second
and final time. Initiating the conversation, Ketkar informed
Golwalkar that many leading persons like Shivaji Patwardhan,
Baba Bhide, Senapati Bapat, Venkat Rao and the prominent
paper The Hindu had praised the movement and sent Gol­
walkar messages on similar lines. Golwalkar replied that he
did not receive any letters or newspapers and pointed out that
a letter sent by Ketkar on 18 November 1948 reached him only
on 6 January 1949. Ketkar informed Golwalkar that Mishra
had permitted this meeting; that the cp government might
move to Jabalpur, fearing goondaism, from Nagpur around
the first week of February 1949 and that Mishra had pointed
out the possibilities of some unruly elements of the rss likely
to resort to violence around 26 and 30 January. Golwalkar
replied that if the government really wanted to check the
goondaism, they could crush the unruly elements firmly.
Ketkar also pointed out that newspaper reports said that a
decision in the Godse trial might be delivered in the third
week of January thereby adding fuel to fire and that he had
spoken to Bhopatkar to move the government for a decision to
come after the first week of February. Ketkar then told Gol­
walkar that some rss members had been saying that since the
government had condemned them, they would show their
heroism and resist unlike the last time (in the aftermath of
Gandhi’ s assassination and the consequent ban on the outfit).
Upon this Golwalkar pointed out that he had instructed all
swayamsevaks to maintain peace at any cost. However, this
time he was in jail and hence not in touch with the situation.
Ketkar tried to convince Golwalkar that nothing had been
gained by any satyagraha movements and cited the Congress
examples of 1930, 1932, 1940 and even 1942. Calling the
achievement of freedom “ coincidental”despite the Congress
claims of the arrests of between 56,000 and 70,000 people,
Ketkar tried to impress upon Golwalkar that the rss had
reached that figure within a month and thus achieved a moral
victory with which Golwalkar should be perfectly satisfied. He
had consulted with Baba Bhide and others of the rss organisa­
tion and asked them how long they wished to continue the agi­
tation. Bhide had told him that he had no authority to discon­
tinue the movement without orders from Guruji, otherwise
they would have done so. He also pointed out the sufferings of
the rss members and said that the movement was waning in
the villages. Ketkar felt that it would be best to discontinue the
satyagraha, get the rss members registered on the voters’ list
and involve them in elections.
In the end, Ketkar informed Golwalkar that if the interview
proved to be fruitless he would not come again. He showed
him a rough draft letter and requested Golwalkar to either ap­
prove it or suggest something else. Golwalkar did not approve
of it and drafted another letter addressed to all swayamsevaks
advising them to discontinue the agitation and gave another
letter to Ketkar requesting its wide circulation. To the two
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police officers who were present throughout the interview and
wrote the report,
the general attitude o f G olw alkar did not appear adam ant at all but
w as conciliatory from the very beginning. No opposition w as offered
by him during his conversation w ith Shri Ketkar. It appeared that he
had m ade up his m ind already that the rss m ovem ent b e d iscon tin ­
ued. He w as noted calm and quiet through out the conversation.13
This was the letter that Golwalkar gave Ketkar:
To all m y brother Swayam sevaks: H aving b ee n apprised by Shri
G V Ketkar o f the general situation in the cou ntry and the attitude o f
the G overnm ent regardin g the present m ovem ent o f the rss , o f the
w id e sym pathy and g o o d w ill show n and expressed by a num ber o f
prom inent third-party citizens, I d e em that the tim e has com e for d is­
continuing the present m ovem ent in order to prom ote a con gen ial at­
m osph ere and a lso to brin g about an atm osph ere for the sym pathetic
efforts o f th ese third party friends for solvin g the present deadlock. I,
therefore, advise th ose o f m y Sw ayam sevak brothers, w h o are in
ch arge o f the m ovem ent to decid e to discontinu e the sam e and w idely
com m unicate their decision all ov er the country. I a lso requ est all
Sw ayam sevak brothers to im m ediately and im plicitly abide b y the
d ecision reached b y the organisers o f the m ovem ent (M S Golwalkar,
19 January 1949).
Anti-RSS A tm o sp h e r e in N a gpu r
This letter was allowed to be published by Mishra, after con­
sultation with Patel over phone on 20 January, after which
Mahabir formally withdrew the agitation. Not fully convinced
of the need or necessity of the second meeting between Ketkar
and Golwalkar, Mishra wrote a long letter to Patel, painting a
difficult picture of the political climate of Nagpur:
...situation in this city had considerably w orsen ed against the r ss .
A lm ost daily anti-RSS processions and public m eetin gs w ere b ein g held
and slogans such as ‘
H ang G olw alkar’
shouted in the public streets. Al­
though these dem onstrations w ere b ein g orga n ised by the Congress,
they had an over w h elm in g non-Brahmin preponderance. Hindu Sab-
haites and other sym pathisers o f the rss g o t nervous in v iew o f the
incidents o f February last [1948]. A num ber o f them saw m e and
requested m e to stop th ese demonstrations. I told them that w hile the
provincial governm ent w as determ ined to m aintain law and order, it
w ou ld b e unfair to th ose w h o d isa greed w ith the rss not to allow them
expression o f their legitim ate views. Besides, com plete suppression o f
their sentim ents m ight lead to sudden outbursts o f violence.
There is n ow a g o o d deal o f specu lation about the next move. People
are w on d erin g w hether there w ou ld b e a ja il delivery, w heth er d is­
m issed G overnm ent servants w ou ld b e reinstated and rusticated stu­
dents readm itted to sch ools and colleges. There can b e n o question, I
think, o f liftin g o f the ban or w h olesa le ja il delivery at this stage,
th ou gh Individuals here and there m igh t b e let off, as usual, on the
grou n d o f ill-health or on giv in g an undertaking. The first m ov e lies
w ith Golwalkar. He should first draft and publish an u nobjectionable
progra m m e giv in g u p com m un al politics and follow in g the w ays o f
dem ocracy. The Sangh should a lso a ck n ow led ge fealty to the Indian
C onstitution and the National Flag. If he m akes a request, he m ay b e
given facilities to m eet a few prom inent Sangh leaders in the ja il for
this purpose.
It is on ly w hen the above m atter has b ee n satisfactorily settled that the
qu estion o f releases o f rss prisoners and detunes should arise. As re­
gards governm ent servants w h o participated in the m ovem ent, they
should, in m y opinion, n ot b e taken back, even if they a p ologise and
give an undertaking. G overnm ent is entitled to ex p e ct unflinching
loyalty from its em ploy ees and th ose w h o fail m ust ex p e ct n o leniency.
The qu estion o f students is a little different. I think w e should avoid
blasting y ou n g lives.14
v o l x lv ii n o 16 73
SPECIAL ARTICLE
A C on stitu tio n fo r t h e S a n gh
The month of February 1949 brought a new interlocutor.
T R Venkatarama Sastri (1874-1953) was a lawyer-politician
who had served as the advocate-general of Madras Presidency
from 1924 to 1928 where he had succeeded C P Ramaswami
Aiyar of Madras. Settled in Madras without any previous ac­
quaintance with Golwalkar or much knowledge about the rss
organisation, Sastri was motivated by an “ anxiety to bring
about an understanding and get the ban rem oved” .15Accompa­
nied by B G Kharparde of Amraoti, Sastri met Golwalkar on
13 February for a long, wide-ranging conversation covering
specific details about the rss constitution.16
Sastri began by pointing out to Golwalkar that the Sangh did
not have a constitution. He wanted to know if Golwalkar had
any objection to framing a constitution and publishing it. Gol­
walkar replied that he did not think of constitutions as partic­
ularly helpful and argued that there were many organisations
in India which did not have one. In any case, publishing a con­
stitution was one thing; following it quite another. Sastri fol­
lowed this by broaching the subject of the rss showing some
disregard for the national flag. Golwalkar replied that this im­
pression was wrong and that the rss had always honoured the
flag and would continue to do so. Sastri clarified with Golw­
alkar what the aims and objects of the Sangh were and Golw­
alkar agreed with him that it was “ to unify the diverse sections
of the Hindus” . Golwalkar then angrily denied the “ unfounded
and baseless suggestion”that the Sangh was in possession of
arms and ammunition. Sastri pointed out to him that in
Madras every association worth the name maintained its ac­
counts and published them for the information of its members
and enquired if there was any objection to the Sangh doing the
same. Golwalkar hit back by arguing that the Congress was
bagging enormous funds under numerous heads but never
published the accounts. If the account was intended for the in­
formation of the rss members, Golwalkar said he was per­
fectly satisfied that there was no misuse of their funds and no
member of the Sangh had ever raised any objection to it.
Next, Sastri wondered why the government looked upon the
Sangh as a private army, what was the truth in this contention
and if Golwalkar wanted to give military training to volunteers
why not make them join the National Cadet Corps or the Home
Guards. Golwalkar denied that he ever intended to maintain a
private army. It was only for the sake of discipline that some
military drill was introduced but it was discontinued since the
ban of February 1948. Criticising the futility of the ban on mili­
tary drill, Golwalkar remarked that it was difficult to define it:
“If two persons walked on the road keeping their steps to­
gether it may amount to military m arching” . Golwalkar said
that once he had been to Bombay to address a meeting of the
Sangh when it was reported to the government that a camp of
a military nature was being held there. He felt that the govern­
ment was relying on exaggerated and false reports regarding
the activities of the rss . Sastri broadened the discussion and
asked Golwalkar for his views on violence. Golwalkar replied
that the aim of the Sangh was non-violent and again blamed
misleading impressions for the Sangh’ s violent reputation.
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Towards the end, Sastri bluntly asked Golwalkar whether
the Sangh was a “ communal organisation” . Arguing that in a
secular India, there was no need for a communal organisation
and pointing out the exclusion of Muslims from the Sangh Sas­
tri said that its existence was rendered useless by India's free­
dom. Golwalkar conceded that so long as the aim of the Sangh
was to unite Hindus together, Muslims could not become its
members but he added that more than the Hindu-Muslim com­
munal divide it was “ power politics”which had done greater
harm to the Sangh. He claimed that he had read a report made
to the Government of India by its intelligence agencies that the
Sangh might become more popular and powerful than the
Congress among the masses in course of time and it should be
crushed in time. Golwalkar believed that the assassination of
Mahatma Gandhi was therefore made a convenient handle to
crush the Sangh. Thus, the objective behind banning the
Sangh was purely political.
Despite ending on this defiant note, when Sastri got up to
leave Golwalkar assured him that he would not let him down
in bringing about a compromise with the government. Sum­
ming up the report of the meeting to K B L Seth (ics, chief
secretary - cp and Berar), sdo , Seoni, jail commented:
The sum and substance o f the interview w as that Shri G olw alkar gave
Shri B G Kharparde and Shri Venkatarama Sastri a blank chequ e to
m ake any d ecision they like and assured them that he w ou ld h onour
the d ecision they arrive at.17
Mishra sent the report to Patel on 15 February.
No Faith in E lection s
Utilising his “ blank cheque” , Sastri returned to meet Gol­
walkar with two-typed copies of the draft constitution for the
rss on 10 March 1949. Kharparde was refused permission by
Mishra this time. Sastri mentioned to Golwalkar that the draft
constitution was framed in consultation with nearly 20 impor­
tant leaders of the rss including Samarth and Ranade. He
asked Golwalkar to read it, suggest modifications, if any, and
then approve it. Golwalkar went through the draft and gave
his approval in writing, without making any amendments, “ for
the sake of expedition and convenience”and asked Sastri to
send it to Delhi on his behalf. Before that, though, Golwalkar
observed that the constitution was rather complicated and
lengthy. Sastri replied that the success of a constitution de­
pended on the workers and not on the draft or its provisions.
Criticising the Constitution of India, Golwalkar remarked that
a very simple constitution should have been framed so that a
common man could understand and follow it. Regarding the
clause on the election of managing bodies provided in the
Sangh’ s constitution, Golwalkar said that he had no faith in
elections and the adult franchise provided in the Indian Con­
stitution might land Sangh leaders in trouble. Sastri agreed
with this view and said that he had instead suggested election
by indirect voting of a selected few voters from each village or
town for rss managing bodies.
The draft constitution began with a preamble which gave
the history of the rss and defined its aims and objects as “ a
non-political body aiming at the cultural uplift and unity of
A P R IL 2 1 , 2 0 1 2 V O L X L V II n o 16 B S S I E c o n o m ic & P o lit ic a l w e e k ly
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the Hindus”It was followed by definitions of swayamsevaks Shri G olw alkar w ish es to m ake any approach to the G overnm ent on
and other office-bearers. Then it dealt with the election of b eh a lf o f the rss he should forw ard it to the goi through the cp G ov­

office-bearers of each branch in a village, town, province and ernment. In these circum stances, I have not con sidered it appropriate
to exam ine the draft constitution sent by you. You have also referred
all-India. Nearly all the office-bearers were to be elected by the
in you r letter to your expecta tion that the status qu o ante w ou ld be
swayamsevaks. Representatives or delegates from the town restored if the approach is successful. I d o not kn ow w hat exactly you
were to be elected for the provisional managing body and the imply, but if this means, for instance, that fines w ill b e refu nded or
provinces were to send their delegations to the “ Akhil Bharatiya confiscated p roperty restored o r that G overnm ent servants w h o have
Pratinidhi Sabha” . The karyawahak was the executive officer b een d ism issed w ou ld b e reinstated, then I m ay tell y ou at on ce that
that v iew is com pletely m istaken.20
responsible for maintaining records and finances at each level.
The Indian national flag was to be respected though the Sangh Patel also took Mishra to task for allowing Golwalkar’ s note
was to have its own “ bhagwa (saffron) flag”.18 to reach Sastri and demanded to know whether Mishra was
Four days later, on 14 March, Sastri sent the draft constitu­ aware of it. Sending Mishra his correspondence with Sastri,
tion and Golwalkar’ s note to Patel along with a letter of his Patel reminded him of the necessity of carefully observing jail
own in which he explained that he understood from his con­ rules and subjecting any communication from Golwalkar to
versation over phone with V Shankar (Patel’ s secretary) that censorship before it is allowed to go out.21“ Ashamed and apo­
Golwalkar himself was expected to send his note to Delhi but logetic”of the irregularity on the part of his officer, Mishra
as the E nglish and H indi cop ies o f the draft required som e correction s hastened to clarify that there were no instructions from him or
and retypin g and Mr G olw alkar w an ted it to b e sent straight to you in the chief secretary to allow Golwalkar to hand over in writing
order to avoid delay, I asked h im to w rite a n ote in his ow n hand stat­ his acceptance of the draft constitution direct to Sastri. Claim­
in g that he approved o f the draft and d esired m e to sen d it m y self on ing that his attention was drawn to the irregularity as soon as
his behalf.19
the report of the interview reached him, he wrote that he had
Observing that it was difficult to talk in greater detail with asked the chief secretary who “ was himself taken aback” .
jail officials present, Sastri told Patel that he did convey to Gol­ Mishra put the blame on the police officer who was sent from
walkar his view that “ for one who desired Hindu unity his at­ Nagpur to report the interview. He absolved the Seoni jail ad­
titude might have been more cooperative”and suggested that ministration “ as in order to ensure complete secrecy they were
“fuller conversation would be possible only after his release not permitted to be present at the time of the interview ” .
and when there is no outside com pany” . Recollecting that at the time of Ketkar’ s second interview
with Golwalkar, the communication of the latter to the former
An U n su ita b le P r o ce d u r e was handed over by the chief secretary only after he had read
Not expecting any objection to the draft either from the gov­ it out to Patel on phone and obtained his permission, Mishra
ernment or the r s s , Sastri expected an early lifting of the ban assured Patel that there would be no further cause for com­
and release of the r s s men and looked forward to further con­ plaint. As to the content of Patel’ s reply to Sastri, Mishra need
versations with Golwalkar. Citing the conversations he had not have added that he entirely agreed with Patel’ s“ firm and
with Golwalkar’ s trusted followers and “ his changed m ood” correct attitude” .22
Sastri felt confident “ to bring about a change in their past atti­ Tired and not a little chastened, Sastri wrote to Golwalkar a
tude of non-cooperation” . He also suggested that “ the influ­ week later in somewhat pitiful tones:
ence of the organisation (r s s ) could be cast against the anti­ I have seen you tw ice at Seoni. I am n ow asked to pay a third visit. My
social elements that seek to disrupt our society”(emphasis tired fram e craves rest and relief from another tiring trip. You w ill
added) hinting at the communists. However, Sastri badly mis­ therefore please spare m e the n eed for it. I am asking you therefore in
this letter to d o what I should have advised you to d o if I com e to Seoni.23
judged the rigours of Patel’ s organisational mind and its em­
phasis on correct procedure and, for his pains, received what Conveying to Golwalkar that Patel saw impropriety in the
must have been a deflating reply: procedure that he adopted which made him appear as a sort of
intermediary between Golwalkar and the government, an im­
I am afraid the p rocedu re su ggested by you is n ot suitable at all. We
m ade it quite clear to you that if any approach is to b e m ade to the
pression which was likely to produce misunderstanding in the
G overnm ent on b eh a lf o f the r s s it m ust com e directly from Shri G ol­ minds of the public, and that he recognised that “ there is some
w alkar himself. The facilities given to you and to you r tw o p red ece s­ room for that view ” , Sastri pleaded with Golwalkar not to mis­
sors, M essrs Ketkar and Limaye, w ere w ith a v iew to en abling you to understand the governm ent’ s action in this matter but to send
acquaint Shri G olw alkar w ith the situation created by and public reac­
the draft constitution himself, “ without harking back to old
tions to the m ovem en t launched in D ecem b er 1948 and to put b efore
him you r respective poin ts o f v iew in regard to the future o f the r s s .
scores or controversies” .
There w as no question at any tim e o f any o f y ou a ctin g as interm ediar­ He advised Golwalkar to send the draft communication first
ies b etw een G overnm ent and Shri Golwalkar. M essrs Ketkar and to Mishra who would then send it on to Patel. Sastri endeav­
Limaye did advise Shri G olw alkar to approach the G overnm ent direct­ oured to draft the covering letter for Golwalkar along the
ly for such further steps that he m ay desire to take.
following lines though he added that he “ was not tying you
The procedu re w hich you have adopted is likely to give rise to difficul­
ties and m isun derstan din gs b oth am on g the gen eral public and in the
(Golwalkar) down to my w ords” :
m ind o f Shri Golwalkar. I would, therefore, ask you to adhere to the Enclosed is the written constitution o f the r s s . The b od y will, hereafter,
p rocedu re con veyed to you, under m y instructions, b y m y ps that if function in a ccordance w ith its terms. They w ere substantially the

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SPECIAL ARTICLE
term s on w hich Sangh w ork w as carried on in the previous years. I
h op e the con stitu tion as n ow fram ed w ill b e fou n d unobjectionable. If
on exam in ation by the G overnm ent o f India, it is so found, I e x p e ct
that the G overnm ent o f India w ill b e g o o d en ou gh to pass early orders
liftin g the ban on the Sangh and en ablin g it to fu n ction as b efore su b ­
je c t to the con stitu tion n ow fram ed and subm itted and to b e duly pu b ­
lish ed as so o n as I am en abled to d o so. All con sequ en tial orders m ay
a lso b e p a ssed to facilitate the w ork o f the Sangh. I am aware that the
G overnm ent o f India have v iew ed m y w ord s and attitude in general
w ith suspicion but tim e w ill sh ow that m y work, o f w eld in g togeth er in
cultural b on d s ou r lo o sely knit and largely d ivided H indu popu lation
by a ssociatin g them in com m on pursuits and com m on disciplines, w ill
benefit the cou ntry as a w h ole and that m y attitude is on e o f coo p e ra ­
tion and g o o d w ill to all and not o f conflict w ith any group.24
G olw a lk a ra n d Patel
Sastri’s was the last shuttle between the government and Gol-
walkar. From then on, Golwalkar - reluctantly at first for he
confessed to Sastri that he would have liked him to come to
Seoni in person because of his ignorance of “ forms and for­
malities”and then he could have been at “ perfect ease”but
gradually gaining in spirit - entered into direct correspond­
ence with Patel via H V R Iengar. Over April-June 1949, they
exchanged six letters, comprehensive in their treatment of
each other’ s positions and personalities.
On 11 April 1949, Golwalkar set the ball rolling by sending,
to Mishra, two copies of the draft constitution of r s s and the
covering letter for which he borrowed almost in toto Sastri’ s w ere anything but peaceful and legitimate and w here the advancement
words. Writing separately to Sastri, Golwalkar informed him
that he had acted “ as per your directions and await the results”
and proceeded to thank him for his advice: “ Having had no oc­
casion to write letters to persons in their official capacity, I am
practically ignorant of the forms of address, etc. I have, there­
fore, thought it wise to stick to your words and not to fall a
prey to a false sense of originality” . Regretting that he had
been “ the helpless cause of giving you so much trouble” , Golw­
alkar was contrite: “ I am aware you have already been put to
much trouble and I had expressed it when you came here last
and my words are not just a fashionable way of saying things.
Indeed, I should, if I could, have been running to and fro to see
you and not put you to trouble - that would have been in the
proper order.” 25On 14 April 1949, Mishra forwarded the copies
to Patel while reminding him that “ very soon most of the r s s
detenus would be completing their six months’period of
detention”and hoped that “ the whole question will be recon­
sidered sometime next month” .26Mishra had read from a con­
cerned Sastri who had complained that it was “ difficult to see
what means a man can have to change the Governm ent’ s in connection with membership of an association was more in
views when he is detained behind bars. If there are any erro­
neous acts of followers outside jail, Golwalkar cannot even
issue any public direction to them to behave”and was anxious
to know what required to be done further before the govern­
ment would lift the ban and release all detenus:
I w as prepared for op p o sition to them from Bom bay and in a lesser
d e gre e from u p but from n o other province. Th ey have accepted the
National Flag. Their w ork w ill b e con fin ed to the cultural side o f
Hindu life. Their w ork is not to interfere in the politics o f the members.
The early suspicion that they w ere con cern ed in G andhiji’ s assassina­
tion is n o lon ger entertained, I think. They are not a ssociated in
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M ahasabha politics. G can, from jail, say n oth in g m ore than that he
w ill act strictly w ithin the term s o f the constitu tion w hich apparently
has n othing against it.27
Meanwhile, the home ministry was preparing its reply to
Golwalkar’ s letter and the draft constitution. On 3 May, Iengar
communicated the governm ent’ s views to Golwalkar. These,
Iengar reminded Golwalkar, were framed keeping in mind the
considerations that
the gravest o f the charges against the r ss w ere that it fu nctioned in
secrecy; that w hatever the profession s o f its organisers m ight have
been, it derived its m ain inspiration, in the m inds o f the p e op le from
the doctrin e o f com m unal hatred; that it exalted a com m unal party
above the state and that in practice its follow ers in dulged system ati­
cally in violence.28
The government, continued Iengar, felt that the constitution
as drafted did not fully safeguard the organisation against
these defects. He then elaborated upon certain specific criti­
cisms and wanted Golwalkar to appreciate them as “ construc­
tive and helpful rather than destructive and h ostile”
.
A S e cr e t S o c ie ty
First, Iengar pointed out to Golwalkar that
the history o f r s s activities in recent times show s that this profession (of
adhering to ‘ peaceful and legitimate means’ ) has in practice been sys­
tematically violated by your followers. Incidents have occurred in all
provinces and many states w here the m ethods adopted by the Sangh
o f the interests o f Hindu religion and culture took the form o f violence
against those w h o happened to profess som e faith other than Hinduism.
Second, Iengar emphasised a specific declaration of alle­
giances to the Constitution of India and the national flag; third,
a provision in the constitution of the Sangh stating that all rules
and instructions shall be written and published, all its activities
shall be open and annual audited accounts would be published
was deemed desirable. Then the government also noticed that
in the various committees of the r s s at all levels a substantial
number of persons was nominated from above and wanted the
r s s to unequivocally recognise and act upon the democratic
elective principle. In particular, the government was wary of the
functions of the head (sarsanghchalak) which had not been de­
fined with any degree of precision and wanted that all vestiges
of a dictatorial character should be removed. Further, Golwalkar
was reminded that in all positions of importance the r s s had
persons belonging to a particular community from a certain
area and was plainly asked to remove this preponderance. Fi­
nally, it was thought that the acceptance of a lifelong obligation
common with secret societies than with democratic groups
functioning in full public view and was thus retrograde.
The letter stung Golwalkar and he hit back emotionally and
at length. By referring to the charges against the r s s , the letter
was taking the debate back to the days of February 1948 which
appeared an “ unhappy retrogression”to him. Terming the
charges (of violence, secrecy, communal hatred) as “ baseless” ,
he challenged Patel to prove them:
It is over 16 m onths that the charges w ere levelled and over six m onths
that I asked for proof. But n o such p r o o f has b een forthcom ing. And
A p r il 21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16 BBSS Economic & Political w b e k ly
 SPECIAL ARTICLE

n ow it is to o late. The on e and legitim ate inference, therefore, is that it had done and now, he requested, the government should
the so-called inform ation is incapable o f b ein g prov ed and as such d e ­ allow the draft constitution to work and then to alter and im­
serves to b e rejected.29
prove it as circumstances demanded. Calling such an approach
Next he termed “ meaningless”the expression that the r s s “constructive and helpful” , Golwalkar feared that any other
was engaged in “ exalting a communal party over the state” . course would be dilatory on the part of the government.
Golwalkar then angrily refuted that communal, sub-commu­
nal or provincial considerations vitiate the work of the r s s or A crim on iou s C o r r e sp o n d e n c e
play any part in any person’ s occupying a position of impor­ Such a reply was never going to be conducive to cooperation
tance. He challenged the government to take a look at the r s s and Iengar’ s response almost froze the correspondence. Tak­
detenus and argued that “ even a cursory glance will suffice to ing issue with Golwalkar’ s style, Iengar regretted that “ you
show that this remark has been made without due consider­ should have used in your reply phrases like ‘ meaningless ex­
ation”. As regards “ appointments from above” , Golwalkar pression’and charged Government with indulging in unbe­
claimed that in the provinces and the centre, the bodies coming behaviour and ‘ lack of respect for truth, justice or due
laying down the policy, guiding and controlling the work processes of law ’ ”and termed it “ a complete disregard of the
were all composed of elected members and it was only the ordinary rules of courtesy and propriety” .31Turning to the sub­
day-to-day routine which was in charge of persons “ appointed stance Iengar regretted that “ your attitude in regard to the
from above” . activities and organisation of the r s s seems to have undergone
Taunting the government, he remarked: no change. Not only do you see nothing wrong in the ideo­
logies and the activities of the r s s in the past but you suggest
This ough t to satisfy the govern m en t’
s solicitu de for the dem ocratic
elective principle, see in g that the govern m en t th em selves are c o m ­ that the organisation would be guided by the same ideology
p o se d o f a sm all elected b o d y - the assembly, w hereas the great bulk and pursue the same methods in future” .32Taking a contemp­
o f person s carryin g on the govern m en t are all ‘
appoin ted from a bove’ tuous view of Golwalkar’ s “unrealistic”suggestion that an
- right from His E xcellen cy the Governor-General to the last peon. impartial tribunal should judge the charges made against the
And yet n o on e can say the G overnm ent o f India is undem ocratic.
r s s , the government sought to teach Golwalkar a lesson in

About the functions of the sarsanghchalak, whom he called elementary public administration. Iengar’ s reply simply stated
a“ general guide” , Golwalkar was unable to see what “ vestiges that the government “ are and must be the final judge of
of dictatorship”there were in the draft constitution. Asserting whether the activities of an organisation or individual are pre­
that the central elected body was the sole authority and had judicial or subversive of the state and they cannot share that
alone the responsibility of discharging all necessary functions judgment with any tribunal” . Calling Golw alkar’ s stance
regarding the work, he claimed that there were only two rights “ obstinate”and “ deliberately misunderstood” , Iengar made it
which the sarsanghchalak possessed: (1) of nominating his clear that unless and until the government was satisfied that
successor and (2) of calling and addressing a meeting of mem­ the r s s would not be in a position to repeat its activities, the
bers in any locality. ban would not be lifted.
Golwalkar maintained that the r s s had always functioned Golwalkar now turned his back from the writing on the
in the open and the charge of “ surreptitious functioning”was wall. Thanking the government for pointing out his “ unrealis­
untrue and borne of misunderstandings. In any case, he had tic appreciation of the very elements of public administration” ,
agreed to publish the constitution and agreed to ask his co­ he admitted his ignorance and, engaging in one-upmanship,
workers to consider the advisability of incorporating a claimed the “ honour of sharing (this ignorance) with no less a
provision for openness in it. Quite apart from such practical personality than Mahatma Gandhi” .Adopting a sarcastic tone,
considerations, on the larger thematic and ideological plane, Golwalkar told Patel that this exchange had brought him great
Golwalkar declaimed unambiguously the content and intent of satisfaction as it proved his reading of the mind of the person­
the r s s and challenged Patel: alities, vested with the power of the government, as correct.
The rss bases its w ork u pon Hindu culture. In Hindu culture, a pled ge Even as he offered a mock apology “ for having unwittingly of­
is always a life obligation and not a tem porary contract. If the life fended...by a direct expression of truth” , Golwalkar sought to
p led ge is the quality o f secret societies on ly and retrograde, then in the claim the high moral ground:
opin ion o f the governm ent, the w hole Hindu socie ty m ust b e akin to a
I am a plain man, brought up in an organisation w herein the sen se o f
secret society and Hindu culture retrograde in its nature. D o the go v ­
high and low d oe s not predom inate and wherein, therefore, there is n o
ernm ent think it w ill b e right or creditable to a ccept this conclusion,
occa sion to study and use ‘
a style o f lan guage suitable for a ddressin g
seein g that you, the H on’
ble H om e M inister (and through you the go v ­
rulers and m asters’
. Hence, I cou ld on ly use plain and straightforw ard
ernment) have decla red in on e o f you r recent sp eech es that you knew
expression for expressin g w hat I b elieve to b e right and true.33
and respected Hindu culture?30

“
Praying to the government to calmly and without prejudice
consider my answers”Golwalkar closed his letter by pointing
out that no constitution could be faultless and there was
always scope and capability. He felt it was not proper to expect
a newly framed constitution to be perfect like the word of God.
The government wanted the r s s to write a constitution which
Begging “ to be excused for not being able to persuade my­
self to confess to charges which I know to be untrue, even to
humour the government, in spite of my regard for the persons
now in charge of government”and since his “ direct and truthful
words seem to be unpalatable to the Governm ent” , Golwalkar
claimed that “ I am happy as I am”and thought it “best to desist

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SPECIAL ARTICLE = ■:: ~ =

from writing any further for the present” . Ten days later, Ien-
gar closed the increasingly unpleasant correspondence on be­
half of Patel. Remarking that Golwalkar was “ so much imbued
with your own ideas of truth and justice and the righteousness
of your conduct that you are not in a position to receive with
good grace any unpleasant truths or to appreciate any helpful
and reasonable approach to the difficulties created by your­
, Iengar wrote that the “
s e lf’ government does not consider
that any useful purpose would be served by continuing the
correspondence” . government had “
A Q uick T urn arou n d
How then was the ban on the r s s lifted within a month of this
unpleasant exchange? Three factors seem to be responsible for
this quick turnaround. One, the government had been inter­
cepting Golwalkar’ s correspondence with his confidantes. This
not only enabled it to secure evidence against Golwalkar but
also obtain an insight into the way his mind worked behind
the bitter, brave words he directed at Patel. He had been sending
instructions to his followers regarding the organisation and
the activities of the r s s and the government showed how he
had been abusing confidence, whether he was insincere or was
led by others in making his approaches to the government.
Patel, who had been kept privy to these exchanges by
Mishra, agreed with his protege that.
Strategically and tactically, these instructions should n ot be allow ed
to reach their destination. If they did, the w h ole th in g w ou ld acquire
the sanctity o f orders from the H igh Com m and, w hereas in the ab­
sence o f th ese orders the follow ers w ou ld b e left to break their ow n
heads over the problem and w e m ay b e able to secu re a divided rather
than a united organisation.34
Two, the indefatigable Sastri continued to defend Golwalkar
to Patel which was not surprising after all as the draft constitu­
tion was really his. Patel gave him a patient hearing even while
attempting to remove some of his “ mistaken impressions” .
Above all, as Patel remarked to Mishra in the same letter, the
succeeded in catching Golwalkar on the wrong
foot. Had we refused to lift the ban straight away, as was sug­
gested by the Prem ier’ s conference, we would have found it
very difficult to justify our policy or attitude to the public. Now,
in the light of Golwalkar’ s reply to me and with the evidence of
these intercepts, we can easily turn the tables on Golwalkar” .35
This became clearer when Golwalkar sought Pandit Mauli
Chandra Sharma (then general secretary of the Civil Liberties
Union and later president of the Jana Sangh) to convey to the
government his rethink on key matters of discord.
On 11July 1949, a communique was issued lifting the ban on
the r s s . It mentioned the exchanges with Golwalkar, the draft
constitution, the governm ent’ s suggestions and Golwalkar’ s
clarifications and recorded that Golwalkar had accepted the
suggestions made by the government. It was concluded that
the r s s should be given an opportunity to function as a demo­
cratic, cultural organisation eschewing violence and abjuring
secrecy and, above all, being loyal to the Indian Constitution.

n o t e s ________________________________________ 20 Patel to Sastri, 19 March 1949. 28 Iengar to Golwalkar; No 28/23/48-Fol, 3 May 1949.
1 See “ Basic Instinct: And the Sangh’s Survival 21 Patel to Mishra, 19 March 1949. 29 Golwalkar to Patel, 17 May 1949.
Strategy”by A G Noorani, Frontline (26 March 22 Mishra to Patel, 21 March 1949. 30 Ibid.
1993), Volume 10 (republished 2-15 January 23 Sastri to Golwalkar, 27 March 1949. 31 Iengar to Golwalkar, 24 May 1949.
2010; Volume 27). 24 Ibid. 32 Ibid.
2 See the writings of Christophe Jaffrelot, David 25 Golwalkar to Sastri, 11April 1949. 33 Golwalkar to Patel, 1June 1949.
Hardiman, A G Noorani, Claude Markovits and 26 Mishra to Patel, 14 April 1949. 34 Patel to Mishra, 3 June 1949.
Ashis Nandy. 27 Sastri to Mishra, 16 April 1949. 35 Ibid.
3 DP’ s press conference, 10 December 1948 (This
and the following references are from Subject
File Serial No 19, D P Mishra papers (I & II
Instalments), Nehru Memorial Museum and E con om ic& P oliticalw E E K L Y
Library, New Delhi).
4 Karandikar to Golwalkar, 24 December 1948. REVIEW OF WOMEN'S STUDIES
5 Mishra to Patel, 26 December 1948.
6 Patel to Mishra, 29 December 1948. October 22,2011
7 Limaye to Patel, 3 January 1949.
8 Patel to Shukla, 9 January 1949. Subverting Policy, Surviving Poverty: Women and the SGSY in Rural Tamil Nadu - K Kalpana
9 Interview of Ketkar and Limaye with Golwalkar,
12 January 1949, No TS/49 (Report by R S Ka­
Small Loans, Big Dreams: Women and Microcredit in a Globalising Economy - Kumud Sharma
poor, SDO, Seoni to ADM, Seoni). Women and Pro-Poor Policies in Rural Tamil Nadu:
10 Ketkar to Patel, 12 January 1949.
An Examination of Practices and Responses - J Jeyaranjan
11 Mishra to Patel, 13 January 1949.
12 Patel to Mishra, 14 January 1949; Patel to Informed by Gender? Public Policy in Kerala - Seema Bhaskaran
Ketkar, 16 January 1949.
Addressing Paid Domestic Work: A Public Policy Concern - Nimushakavi Vasanthi
13 Ketkar-Golwalkar meeting, 19 January 1949,
(Report by A R Nagle and R S Kapoor). Reproductive Rights and Exclusionary Wrongs:
14 Mishra to Patel, 25 January 1949. Maternity Benefits - Lakshmi Lingam, Vaidehi Yelamanchili
15 Mishra to Patel, 15 February 1949.
16 Report o f the interview o f Sastri and Kharp- Reinventing Reproduction, Re-conceiving Challenges:
arde with Golwalkar on 13 February 1949 by An Examination of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in India - Vrinda Marwah, Sarojini N
R S Kapoor and C L Verma.
17 SDO Seoni to Seth, No 62/ST/49,13February 1949. For copies write to: Circulation Manager,
18 Sastri-Golwalkar meeting in Seoni jail, 10 Economic and Political Weekly,
March 1949; report by C L Verma and A R Nagre 320-321, A to Z Industrial Estate, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400 013.
dated 11 March 1949.
19 Sastri to Patel, 14 March 1949.
email: circulation@epw.in

78 APRIL 21, 2012 v o l x lv ii n o 16 0B 9 Economic & Political w e e k ly

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 D ISCU SSIO N
Agriculture-Nutrition Pathways
R ecognising the O bstacles
SIMANTINI MUKHOPADHYAY_______________
Policies with a thrust on access to
food often fail to yield desirable
nutritional results since the
pathways between agriculture
and nutrition seem to be laden
with impediments, particularly
in the form of intricate
household preferences.
Sim antini M ukhopadhyay (sim antinihalder@
g m a ilc o m ) is a doctora l research fellow at the
Institute o f D evelopm en t Studies Kolkata.
Economic & Political w e e k l y Q H
T
he emphasis on the role of agri­
culture in alleviating undernutri-
tion burdens in India in the com­
mentary by Kadiyala et al (epw , 25 Feb­
ruary 2012) is well-placed and germane.
The implicit assumption underlying the
analysis is that there are certain specific
“pathways through which agriculture
affects nutrition” . Gillespie and Kadiyala
(2011) have documented the pathways
as operating through changes in access
to food, incomes, prices, and feminisa-
tion of the agricultural workforce. Agri­
cultural production, when used for self­
consumption by cultivator households,
ensures food security. Agriculture gen­
erates wage incomes for labourers and
profits from marketed surplus for pro­
ducers. One of the pathways operates
through the proportion of agricultural
income spent on nutrition-enhancing
activities such as investment in human
capital. Again, crop prices affect the
income of net sellers and the food secu­
rity of net buyers. Increasing feminisa-
tion of the labour force empowers women,
improves their bargaining power in
household decision-making and posi­
tively affects child health and wom en’ s stitute them for nutrition-relevant
own nutrition.
The commentary rightly asserts that
India has an immense potential in ex­
ploring these pathways by making agri­
culture “ pro-poor”and “ pro-nutrition”
and lays out a blueprint for reorienting
agriculture towards nutritional targets.
However, it also argues that to reap
nutritional benefits from agricultural
progress there is a need for “ catalysing
critical behaviour change”through “ com­
munity mobilisation” . We intend to sup­
plement their point by suggesting that
policies with a thrust on access to food
often fail to yield desirable nutritional
results since the pathways between agri­
culture and nutrition seem to be laden
a p r il 21, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16
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with impediments, particularly in the
form of intricate household preferences.
Looking at micro-level evidence, we
find that households facing no dearth of
food availability often show poor nutri­
tional outcomes, particularly to women
and children. Studies have shown the
coexistence of hunger and undernutri­
tion with being overweight and obese
(often undernourished children and over­
weight or obese adults) in a large pro­
portion of poorer households in develop­
ing countries (Pinstrup-Anderson 2006).
Household-level studies on the determi­
nants of children’ s nutritional status
have not been unanimous on the positive
significance of wealth and income.
While in India we do find that lower
levels of child undernutrition are associ­
ated with higher wealth classes, the pro­
portion of undernourished children in
wealthier households is remarkably high
in comparison with international stan­
dards. Tarozzi (2008) has shown that
privileges beyond household wealth
(defined in terms of urban residence,
high school degree for each parent,
piped water and flush toilet) also fail to
eradicate long-term undernutrition in
Indian children. This hints at certain
unobservable sociocultural and beha­
vioural practices playing a crucial role
in determining nutritional outcomes.
It might be the case that in the presence
of inequality, households derive greater
utility from “ status goods” and sub­
consumption even when incomes rise
(Marjit 2011).
Convoluted Links
Again, unleashing the “ gender dimen­
sions of agriculture-nutrition linkages”
does not seem to be easy. It has been
suggested that female empowerment
leads to greater well-being of children
and removes biases in intra-household
allocations of food, health and care.
However, these links are often convo­
luted. Recent evidence shows that mater­
nal income is as good as income derived
from other sources and makes no differ­
ential impact on children’ s nutrition
(Leon and Younger 2007).
79
DISCUSSION
Addressing the issue of the bias
against girls in household decision­
making, we need to recognise that such
biases are not limited to the provision of
food. Families are often willing to have
more children when they do not yet have
the desired number of sons. Thus, even
when girls are not discriminated against
in the intra-household allocation of
resources, their mean outcomes may be
worse since girls are more likely to live
in families with fewer resources avail­
able per head (Jensen 2002). Again par­
ents who are impartial in the provision
of food to children may invest more in
the healthcare of sons, such investment
giving greater returns in the social sys­
tem of patrilocal residence (Hazarika
2000). It would be naive to expect that
female empowerment through the proc­
ess of feminisation of agricultural work­
force will suffice to remove the multifac­
eted discriminations in the absence of
effective behaviour change initiatives.
Evidence shows that wom en’ s empower­
ment may even perversely work on such
biases. Thomas et al (2002) have shown
that sons of Javanese and Sumatran
mothers with greater empowerment
(proxied by the size of assets brought at
marriage) are likely to suffer from sig­
nificantly fewer episodes of morbidity
than their sisters.
Once we shift our focus from mater­
nal incomes and related empowerment
to maternal education, we find a mount­
ing body of evidence suggesting a signi­
ficant and positive effect of the latter on
children’ s nutrition. Studies have also
found a greater effect of m other’s school­
ing on long-term nutrition of girls than
that of boys (Sahn and Stifel 2002). The
pivotal role seems to be played by aware­
ness and access to information of women.
Indeed, almost the entire effect of
maternal education on child nutrition
can be explained by the m other’ s access
to information (Thomas et al 1991).
The commentary has brought in the
broad macro picture highlighting the
prospects of making agriculture “ pro­
poor”and “ pro-nutrition”, also mention­
ing that such prospects are conditional on
“effective social behaviour change com­
munication and mobilisation strategies
to change demand, behaviours and
80
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consumption patterns” . On a similar note,
Pinstrup-Anderson (2006) has observed
that “ the final nutrition effect of changes
in agricultural research and policy will
depend on a series of factors and rela­
tionships outside the control of agricul­
ture” , including access to safe water, sani­
tation, healthcare and household decision­
making. While the commentary has elab­
orately oudined the necessary steps to
align the systems of governance and
convergence across sectors so that the
pathways between agriculture and nutri­
tion may be explored, we re-emphasise
the point that such initiatives from the
supply-side would be scarcely sufficient if
the complexities of household prefer­
ences and decision-making are not taken
into account.
Aligning targets across sectors with
that end in focus would be the most chal­
lenging and perhaps the most rewarding
exercise. Integrating agricultural policies
with behaviour change initiatives such as
s Dular Strategy in Bihar and
u n ic e f ’
Jharkhand and the positive deviance pro­
gramme, “ Keno Parbo Na”in Purulia dis­
trict of West Bengal might bring about
desirable results.
REFERENCES_________________________________
Gillespie, S and S Kadiyala (2011): Exploring the
Agriculture-Nutrition Disconnect in India, 2020
Conference Brief 20, prepared for the IFPRI
E con om ic& P oliticalw E E K L Y
REVIEWOF RURAL AFFAIRS
January 28,2012
Agrarian Transition and Emerging Challenges
in Asian Agriculture: A Critical Assessment
Institutional and Policy Aspects of Punjab Agriculture:
A Smallholder Perspective
Khap Panchayats: A Socio-Historical Overview
Rural Water Access: Governance and Contestation
in a Semi-Arid Watershed in Udaipur, Rajasthan
Panchayat Finances and the Need for Devolutions
from the State Government
Temporary and Seasonal Migration:
Regional Pattern, Characteristics and Associated Factors
For copies write to: Circulation Manager,
Economic and Political Weekly,
320-321, A to Z Industrial Estate, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400 013.
email: circulation@epw.in
A P R IL 21, 2 0 1 2
A ll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
2020 International Conference, “ Leveraging
Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and
Health” , 10-12 February, New Delhi.
Hazarika, G (2000): “ Gender Differences in Chil­
dren’ s Nutrition and Access to Health Care in
Pakistan” , The Journal of Development Studies,
3 7 (1): 73-92-
Jensen, R (2002): “ Equal Treatment, Unequal Out­
comes? Generating Gender Inequality Through
Fertility Behaviour” , Working Paper, JFK School
of Government, viewed on 4 March 2012
(http://idfresearch.org/pdf/wp0303 p d f).
Kadiyala, S, P K Joshi, S Mahendra Dev, T Nanda
Kumar and V Vyas (2012): “ A Nutrition Secure
India: Role of Agriculture” , Economic & Politi­
cal Weekly, XLVII (8), 21-25.
Leon, M and S D Younger (2007): “ Transfer Pay­
ments, Mother’ s Income and Child Health in
Ecuador” , The Journal of Development Studies,
1126-43 .
4 3 (6 ):
Marjit, S (2011): “Conflicting Measures of Poverty
and Inadequate Saving by the Poor - The Role
o f Status Driven Utility Function” , Discussion
Papers Series 424, School of Economics, Uni­
versity of Queensland, Australia.
Pinstrup-Anderson, P (2006): “ Agricultural Re­
search and Policy to Achieve Nutrition Goals”
in A de Janvry and R Kanbur (ed.), Poverty, In­
equality and Development: Essays in Honour of
Erik Thorbecke (USA: Springer), 353-70.
Sahn, D E and D C Stifel (2002): “ Parental Prefer­
ences for Nutrition of Boys and Girls: Evidence
from Africa” , The Journal o f Development
Studies, 39(1): 21-45.
Tarozzi, A (2008): “ Growth Reference Charts and
the Status of Indian Children” , Economics and
Human Biology, 6(3), 455-68.
Thomas, D, J Strauss and M-H Henriques (1991):
“How Does Mother’ s Education Affect Child
Height” , The Journal of Human Resources,
26(2): 183-211.
Thomas, D, D Contreras and E Frankenberg (2002):
“Distribution of Power within the Household
and Child Health” viewed on 4 March 2012
(http://chd.ucla.edu/~IFLS/ppr/atmarr3.pdf).
- P K Viswanathan, Gopal B Thapa,
Jayant K Routray, Mokbul M Ahmad
- Sukhpal Singh
- Ajay Kumar
- N C Narayanan, Lalitha Kamath
- Anand Sahasranaman
- KunaI Keshri, R B Bhagat
V O L X L V II N O l 6 Economic & Political w e e k l y
 C U R R E N T ST A TISTICS EPW Research Foundation

India's current account deficit has worsened consistently from $15.8 billion in the first quarter to $19.4 billion in the third quarter of 2011-12, while the surplus in the capital account dwindled from $22.3 billion
to $8.0 billion. The cumulative deficit in the current account in the first three quarters of 2011-12 at $53.6 billion exceeded the full year deficit of $45.9 billion for 2010-11. While invisibles recorded a surplus of
$78.9 billion in April-December 2011-12, the deficit in the merchandise accounttouched a high of $132.5 billion.
Macroeconomic Indicators
Variation (%): Point-to-Point
Index Numbers o f W holesale Prices*
(BaseYear: 2004-05 = 100)a Weights February Over Over 12 Months Fiscal Year So Far Full Financial Year
2012 Month 2011 2010 2011-12 2010-11 2010-11 2009-10 2008-09 2006-07
2007-08
All Commodities 100.0 158.4 0.4 7.0 9.5 6.0 8.7 9.7 10.4 1.6 6.7 7.7
Primary Articles 20.1 201.5 0.9 6.3 15.9 7.1 14.3 13.4 22.2 5.4 12.8 9.6
Food Articles 14.3 192.3 0.5 6.1 11.0 7.4 10.8 9.4 20.6 8.0 13.2 5.6
Non-Food Articles 4.3 186.7 2.1 -2.6 34.4 -2.3 27.5 27.1 20.4 0.6 10.6 16.3
Minerals 1.5 329.6 1.6 25.3 17.7 23.6 13.6 15.2 37.9 -2.8 13.8 28.2
Fuel & Power 14.9 173.2 0.2 12.8 12.4 9.8 9.6 12.6 13.8 -3.4 1.1 7.4
Manufactured Products 65.0 141.7 0.4 5.7 6.3 4.4 6.2 7.5 5.3 1.7 6.3 7.1
Food Products 10.0 153.4 0.0 5.7 0.0 5.6 2.4 2.5 15.1 6.3 4.3 8.4
Food Index (computed) 24.3 176.3 0.3 5.9 6.8 6.8 7.7 6.8 18.5 7.3 9.6 6.7
All Commodities (Monthly averagebasis) 100.0 155.5 - 9.0 9.6 8.9 9.6 9.6 3.8 8.1 6.6 4.7
AThe date of first release of data based on 2004-05 series wef 14 September 2010.
* Consequent upon the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) held on 24January 2012, weekly release of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for the commodities/items under the Groups "Primary Articles" and
"Fuel and Power" isdiscontinued with immediate effect. WPI shall, henceforth, be released on a monthly basis only. The last Weekly WPI for the week ending 14January 2012.__________________________________
Variation (%): Point-to-Point
Cost o f Living Indices Latest Over Over 12 Months Fiscal Year So Far Full Fiscal Year
Month 2012 Month 2011 2010 2011-12 2010-11 2010-11 2009-10 2008-09 2007-08 2006-07 2005-06
Industrial Workers (IW) (2001=100) 1992 0.5 7.6 8.8 7.6 8.8 8.8 14.9 8.0 7.9 6.7 5.3
Agricultural Labourers (AL) (1986-87=100) 6212 0.5 6.3 8.6 6.2 9.0 9.1 15.8 9.5 7.9 9.5 5.3
Note: Superscript numeral denotes month to which figure relates,e g, superscript 2 stands for February.
Variation
M oney and Banking (Rs crore) 23 March Over Month Over Year Fiscal Year So Far Full Fiscal Year
2012 2011 2011-12 2010-11 2010-11 2009-10 2008-09
Money Supply (M3) 7347530 121260(1.7) 843980(13.0) 843410(13.0) 900840(16.1) 896790(16.0) 807920(16.8) 776930(19.3)
Currency with Public 1031310 15330(1.5) 112090(12.2) 119480(13.1) 151730(19.8) 146700(19.1) 102043(15.3) 97040(17.1)
Deposits Money with Banks 6314410 105190(1.7) 733580(13.1) 725790(13.0) 749430(15.5) 750230(15.5) 707606(17.2) 683375 (19.9)
of which: Demand Deposits 700210 32870(4.9) -17710(-2.5) -22640(-3.1) -50(-0.0) -310 (-0.0) 129281 (22.0) 10316(1.8)
Time Deposits 5614200 72320(1.3) 751290(15.4) 748430(15.4) 749480(18.2) 750540(18.2) 578325(16.4) 673059(23.5)
Net Bank Credit to Government 2348210 21610(0.9) 444520(23.4) 364320(18.4) 234500(14.0) 313580(18.8) 391853 (30.7) 377815 (42.0)
Bank Credit to Commercial Sector 4950280 223460(4.7) 714050(16.9) 713610(16.8) 744830(21.3) 744000(21.3) 476516(15.8) 435904(16.9)
Net Foreign Exchange Assets 1514260 52300(3.6) 126290(9.1) 120920(8.7) 106510(8.3) 111880(8.7) 367718 (-5.2) 57053 (4.4)
Banking Sector's Net Non-Monetary Liabilities 1479340 176510(13.5) 442390(42.7) 356810(31.8) 186310(21.9) 274130(32.2) -9050 (-1.1) 94672(12.4)
of which: RBI 591490 53920(10.0) 228570(63.0) 223140(60.6) 61280(20.3) 66710(22.1) -86316 (-22.3) 177709(84.5)
Reserve Money (30 March 2012) 1437110 -3890(-0.3) 59360(4.3) 60290(4.4) 221170(19.1) 221170(19.1) 167652 (17.0) 59696(6.4)
Net RBI Credit to Centre 541100 -2540(-) 145300(-) 147060(-) 182450(-) 182460 149819 176397
Scheduled Commercial Banks (23 March 2012)
Aggregate Deposits 5903660 88190(1.5) 695690(13.4) 695690(13.4) 715140(15.9) 715143(15.9) 658716(17.2) 637170(19.9)
Demand 622800 26360(4.4) -18900(-2.9) -18900(-2.9) -3900(-0.6) -3905 (-0.6) 122525 (23.4) -1224 (-0.2)
Time 5280860 61840(1.2) 714590(15.6) 714590(15.6) 719050(18.7) 719048(18.7) 536191 (16.2) 638395(23.9)
Investments (for SLRpurposes) 1736640 -8290(-0.5) 235020(15.7) 235020(15.7) 116870(8.4) 116867(8.4) 218342(18.7) 194694(20.0)
Bank Credit 4611630 204110(4.6) 669550(17.0) 669550(17.0) 697290(21.5) 697294(21.5) 469239(16.9) 413635 (17.5)
Non-Food Credit 4530330 206020(4.8) 652530(16.8) 652530(16.8) 681500(21.3) 681500(21.3) 466961 (17.1) 411825(17.8)
Commercial Investments 171520 -3760(-2.1) 23920(16.2) 23919(16.2) 29529(25.0) 28872 (24.5) 11654(11.0) 10911 (11.4)
Total Bank Assistance to Comml Sector 4701850 202260(4.5) 676450(16.8) 676449(16.8) 711029(21.5) 710372(21.4) 478615(16.9) 422736(17.5)
Note: Government Balances ason 31 March 2011 are after closure of accounts.
Index N um bers o f Industrial Production January* Fiscal Year So Far Full Fiscal Year Averages
(Base 2004-05=100) Weights 2012 2011-12 2010-11 2010-11 2009-10 2008-09 2007-08 2006-07
General Index 100.00 187.9(6.8) 169.0(4.0) 162.5(8.3) 165.4(8.2) 152.9(5.3) 145.2(2.5) 141.7(15.5) 122.6(12.9)
Mining 14.157 137.2-(2.7) 125.5-(2.6) 128.9(6.3) 131.0(5.2) 124.5(7.9) 115.4(2.6) 112.5(4.6) 107.6(5.2)
Manufacturing 75.527 202.4(8.5) 179.9(4.5) 172.3(8.9) 175.6(8.9) 161.3(4.8) 153.8(2.5) 150.1(18.4) 126.8(15.0)
Electricity 10.316 151.1(3.2) 148.8(8.8) 136.8(5.3) 138.0(5.6) 130.8(6.1) 123.3(2.8) 120.0(6.4) 112.8(7.3)
* Indices for the month are Quick Estimates.
Fiscal Year So Far 2010-11 End of Fiscal Year
Capital Market
4 April 2012 Month Ago Year Ago Trough Peak Trough Peak 2010-11 2009-10 2008-09
BSE Sensitive Index (1978-79=100) 17486(-11.2) 17363 19702(9.8) 15175 119702 16022 21005 19445(10.9) 17528(80.5) 9709(-37.9)
BSE-100 (1983-84=100) 9246(-9.7) 9145 10244(7.9) 7805 10262 8540 11141 10096(8.6) 9300(88.2) 4943(-40.0)
BSE-200 (1989-90=100) 2180(-9.9) 2149 2418(7.6) 1824 2427 2034 2753 2379(8.1) 2200(92.9) 1140(-41.0)
S&P CNX Nifty (3 Nov 1995=1000) 5323(-9.9) 5280 5908(10.1) 4544 5912 4807 6312 5834(11.1) 5249(73.8) 3021(-36.2)
Skindia GDR Index (2 Jan 1995=1000) 2405(-25.4) 2470 3223(11.2) 1875 3441 2477 3479 3151(9.3) 2883(134.2) 1153(-56.2)
Net Fll Investment in (US $ Mn Equities) - period end 110792(7.9) 109131 102720(32.2) - - - 101454(31.5) 77159(43.1) 51669(18.6)
February* Fiscal Year So Far Full Fiscal Year
Foreign Trade 2007-08 2006-07 2005-06 2004-05
2012 2011-12 2010-11 2010-11 2009-10 2008-09
Exports: Rscrore 121040 1274840(27.0) 1003785(33.2) 1118823(32.3) 845534(0.6) 840754(28.2) 655863(14.7) 571779(25.3) 456418(21.6) 375340(27.9)
US$mn 24618 267410(21.4) 220241(39.0) 245868(37.5) 178751(-3.5) 185295(13.6) 163132(29.0) 126361(22.6) 103091(23.4) 83536(30.8)
Imports: Rscrore 195595 2069643(35.3) 1529295(24.4) 1596869(17.1) 1363736(-0.8) 1374434(35.8) 1012312(20.4) 840506(27.3) 660409(31.8) 501065(39.5)
US$mn 39782 434160(29.4) 335502(29.7) 350695(21.6) 288373(-5.0) 303696(20.7) 251654(35.5) 185749(24.5) 149166(33.8) 111517(42.7)
Non-POL US$mn 27122 301599(24.9) 241491(33.9) 249006(23.7) 201237(-4.2) 210029(22.2) 171940(33.5) 128790(22.4) 105233(37.1) 76772(33.2)
Balance ofTrade: Rscrore -74555 -794803 525510 -478047 -518202 -533680 -356449 -268727 -203991 -125725
US$mn -15164 -166750 ■115261 -104827 -109621 -118401 -88522 -59388 -46075 -27981
* Provisional figures.
CamS EtffKenfiA ncwivca
mh CAviumge Dacatuac fovrhiH Variation Over
rofcijvi icauuuiiinn
iy
30 March 1April 31 Mar Fiscal Year So Far Full Fiscal Year
gold but including revaluation effects)
2012 2011 2011 Month Ago Year Ago 2011-12 2010-11 2010-11 2009-10 2008-09 2007-08 2006-07
Rscrore 1353370 1248304 1245284 50260 105070 108090 3020 73038 57826 33975 359500 189270
US$mn 264538 279575 278899 485 -15037 -14361 676 19208 18264 -57821 107324 46816
Figures in brackets are percentage variations over the specified or over the comparable period of the previous year. (-) not relevant.
[Comprehensive current economic statistics with regular weekly updates, asalsothe thematic notes and Special Statistics series, are available on our website: http://www.epwrf.in].

Economic & Political w e e k l y 1339 a p r il 2i, 2012 v o l x l v ii n o 16 8l

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 0
ro0

STATISTICS
India's Overall Balance o f Payments: Quarterly and Annual (US $ million)
2011-12 2009-10 2010-11
Item April-June(PR) July-September(PR) October-December(P) March-March ('R) March-March(P)
Credit Debit Net Credit Debit Net Credit Debit Net Credit Debt Net Credit Debt Net
A Current Account 125559 141360 -15801 128595 147003 -18408 128795 148214 -19419 345872 384052 -38180 448716 494661 -45945
1 Merchandise 74238 115638 -41400 76429 119810 -43381 71127 118848 -47721 182442 300644 -118202 250468 381061 -130593
2 Invisibles 51321 25722 25599 52166 27193 24973 57667 29366 28301 163430 83408 80022 198248 113600 84648
a Services 33291 18091 15200 32702 18693 14009 37026 21954 15072 96045 60029 36016 132880 84064 48816
al Travel 3697 3461 236 4235 3534 701 5068 3530 1538 11859 9343 2516 15275 11108 4167
a2 Transportation 4329 4002 327 4424 3624 800 4580 4444 136 11178 11933 -755 14271 13880 391
a3 Insurance 566 298 268 619 423 196 799 440 359 1591 1285 306 1948 1400 548
H a4Gnie 139 201 -62 147 179 -32 145 186 -41 441 525 -84 535 820 -285
a5 Miscellaneous 24561 10129 14432 23277 10933 12344 26434 13354 13080 70977 36944 34033 100851 56856 43995
of which: Software Services 14950 302 14648 13940 307 13633 16123 317 15806 49705 1468 48237 55460 2194 53266
Business Services 5356 6219 -863 5439 6352 -913 6018 6950 -932 11321 18049 -6728 24050 27765 -3715
Financial Services 1267 1764 -497 1577 2130 -553 1613 2104 -491 3693 4642 -949 6508 7483 -975
Communication Services 360 415 -55 390 309 81 456 328 128 1228 1355 -127 1562 1152 410
b Transfers 15537 831 14706 16376 774 15602 18360 614 17746 54363 2318 52045 56265 3125 53140
bl Official 46 146
>2 -100 136 152 -16 351 149 202 727 473 254 647 631 16
b2 Private 15491 685 14806 16240 622 15618 18009 465 17544 53636 1845 51791 55618 2494 53124
c Income 2493 6800 -4307 3088 7726 -4638 2281 6798 -4517 13022 21061 -8039 9102 26412 -17310
cl Investment income 1904 6400 -4496 2377 7259 -4882 1698 6247 -4549 12108 19355 -7247 7986 24384 -16398
c2 Compensation to employees 589 400 189 711 467 244 583 551 32 915 1705 -790 1116 2028 -912
B Capital Account 128183 105931 22252 113381 96166 17215 107602 99614 7988 345766 294132 51634 499355 437366 61989
1 Foreign Investment (a+b) 67002 56689 10313 52684 49909 2775 49300 42918 6382 198653 148291 50362 289416 249763 39653
- vo
:o a In India 66504 50416 16088 51860 46289 5571 48098 39763 8335 197643 132158 65485 286077 228722 57355
al Direct 17897 4559 13338 9091 2137 6954 8949 2559 6390 37746 4637 33109 32902 7018 25884
a2 Portfolio 48607 45857 2750 42769 44152 -1383 39149 37204 1945 159897 127521 32376 253175 221704 31471
b Abroad 498 6274 -5776 824 3620 -2796 1202 3154 -1952 1010 16133 -15123 3339 21042 -17703
2 Loans (a+b+c) 32180 25424 6756 37220 28789 8431 36951 34256 2695 74163 61716 12447 107726 79289 28437
a External Assistance 1237 855 382 1081 758 323 2209 824 1385 5897 3007 2890 7882 2941 4941
>TJ al By India 18 24 -6 18 24 -6 18 24 -6 51 422 -371 76 102 -26
a2 To India 1219 831 388 1063 734 329 2191 800 1391 5846 2585 3261 7806 2840 4966
b Commercial Borrowings (MTand LT) 6778 3473 3305 9734 4497 5237 9594 8153 1441 15002 13003 1999 24112 11606 12506
bl By India 339 319 20 1118 469 649 1405 901 504 973 1505 -532 1840 1513 327
o b2 To India 6439 3154 3285 8616 4028 4588 8189 7252 937 14029 11498 2531 22272 10094
NJ 12178
c Short term (to India) 24165 21096 3069 26405 23534 2871 25148 25279 -131 53264 45706 7558 75732 64742 10990
<
o 3 Banking Capital (a+b) 28767 16104 12663 20144 13465 6679 16146 21632 -5486 61499 59416 2083 92323 87361 4962
X
a Commercial Banks 28736 16077 12659 20144 13439 6705 16143 21505 -5362 60893 58966 1927 90621 86189 4432
ooo g al Assets 10858 4595 6263 2223 1006 1217 393 2770 -2377 17097 15259 1838 35369 38666 -3297
C z a2 Liabilities 17878 11482 6396 17921 12433 5488 15750 18735 -2985 43796 43707 89 55252 47523 7729
H o
n of which: Non-resident deposits 12488 11337 1151 15088 12302 2786 15698 12375 3323 41355 38433 2922 49252 46014 3238
b Others 31 27 4 0 26 -26 3 127 -124 606 449 157 1702 1172 530
4 Rupee Debt Service 0 31 -31 0 1 -1 0 0 0 0 97 -97 0 68 -68
5 Other Capital 234 7683 -7449 3333 4003 -670 5205 808 4397 11451 24613 -13162 9890 20885 -10994
C Errors and Omissions 1009 -1009 1469 1469 1381 -1381 0 12 -12 0 2993 -2993
D Overall Balance (A+B+C) 253742 248300 5442 243444 243169 275 236397 249209 -12812 691638 678197 13441 948071 935021 13051
3
R
E Monetary Movements (1+2) 0 5442 -5442 0 276 -276 12812 12812 0 13441 -13441 0 13050 -13050
1 1MF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 Foreign Exchange Reserves 0 5442 -5442 0 276 -276 12812 12812 0 13441 -13441 0 13050 -13050
Increase (-ve)/Decrease (+ve)
of which: SDR allocation 0 5160 -5160 0 0 0
% * Relates to acquisition of shares of Indian companies by non-residents under Section 5of FEMA1999. Data on such acquisition have been included as part of FDI since January 1996.
m
x # Represents the amount raised by Indian corporates through Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) and American Depository Receipts (ADRs).
5 Source: RBI:Monthly8i///ef/r), various issues.
 Rajiv Gandhi National Institute o f
Youth D ev elop m en t
Sriperumbudur

A d m ission Notification.
Master's D eg ree / Ph. D / C ertificate and Diploma P rogram m es
RGNIYD (Deemed to be University u/s 3 of the UGC Act, 1956) is a pioneering institute for Youth
Studies in India striving for holistic development of students. It is located in a sprawling campus
at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
D IS T IN C T IV E N E S S OF T H E PROG R A M M ES FA CIL ITIE S
★ Internship at Reputed Organisations & O v ersees Air-conditioned classroom s, Auditorium, Seminar Hall
Participation and Conference Room
★ Employment Cell & Merit Scholarships for PG Students Computer lab with Wi-Fi connectivity & Free Aakash Tablet
to PG Students
★ State of the Art Learning Environment & Career Community Radio Station (CRS)
Focused Training Separate Hostel facilities for boys and girls
★ C h oice B ased Credit System & Innovative Teaching
M ethodology

MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMMES (2012 - 14) Ph.D. D E G R E E P R O G R A M M E (Full T i m e & P a r t T im e)

M.A. Youth Empowerment M.A. Career Counselling M.A. Gender Studies Youth Empowerment Career Counselling | Gender Studies

M.A. Local G overnance M.A. Life Skills Education Local Governance! Life Skills Education

ELIGIBILITY: A bachelor's d egree with a minimum of 45 percent marks in
any d isciplin e from a recognised university. Candidates w hose final year
results awaited can also apply.
SELECTION PROCEDURE: The candidates will be selected on the basis of
marks secured in the qualifying exam and performance in the entrance test /
conducted in every state and interview at RGNIYD, Sriperumbudur.
ELIGIBILITY: Master's Degree in the above mentioned Areas / Social
S cien ces / Humanities with minimum of 55% marks or equivalent CGPA
(50% for SC/ST/Differently abled category). For the part time Ph.D require
not less than two years of work experience in the relevant field.
The candidates with M.Phil/JRF/NET/SLET are exempted from the
entrance examination but they have to appear for the interview.

RULES OF RESERVATION: Reservation of seats as per the Government RGNIYD FELLOWSHIP: RGNIYD Fellowship of Rs. 13000/- PM. plus
of India rules. contingency grant will be available for meritorious full time scholars.

Application form s with p ro sp e c tu s can b e obtained:
★ Directly from the Institute on payment of Rs.100/- in cash
★ Through written requisition along with demand draft for Rs.125/-
and a self-addressed stamped (Rs.25) envelope
★ Downloaded and filled in application should be sent along with a
DD for Rs.125/-
★ Separate applications for each programme (in c a se the candidate
wishes to apply for more programmes) should be submitted along
with separate Dds
★ Demand draft must be drawn on a nationalised bank in favour of
The Director, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth
Development, payable at Sriperumbudur.
★ Scholarship will be provided for 35 N SS students one from each
state
Last Date for s u b m issio n o f application : 21 May 2012
Date o f Entrance Test :16June2012
ADMISSION PROCEDURE: On the basis of Entrance Test and Personal
Interview conducted by the University. Reservation of seats and relaxation
of marks will be as per Government of India Rules.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE: The duly filled in application form with all the
requisite enclosures should be submitted along with the demand draft for
Rs.500/- towards application fees. Demand draft must be drawn on a
nationalised bank in favour of The Director, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute
of Youth Development, payable at Sriperumbudur.
Note: The candidate must en close the cop ies of the following documents
along with the duly filled in application form. Original documents should be
produced at the time of interview only.
* Proof of Date of Birth * Mark Statement of UG, PG and M.Phil d egrees
* Eligibility certificate of JRF/NET/SLET * Community Certificate
Last Date for su b m ission o f application : 21 May 2012
Date o f Entrance Examination and Interview : 16 June 2012

C E R T IF IC A T E AND D IPLOM A P R O G R A M M E S
(in collaboration with National Foundation of Communal Harmony (NFCH), Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt, of India, New Delhi)

1. CERTIFICATE IN SOCIAL HARMONY, NATIONAL INTEGRATION AND SUSTAINABLE PEACE

2. DIPLOMA IN SOCIAL HARMONY, NATIONAL INTEGRATION AND SUSTAINABLE PEACE
Eligibility: Plus Two or equivalent course from a recognised institution for Certificate Programme /
Degree or equivalent course from a recognised institution for Diploma Programme, Lateral entry for A p p lic atio n fo rm fo r a ll th e p ro g ra m m e s s h o u ld b e
persons p ossessin g certificate programme for Diploma Programme. a d d res s ed to
The Director
Tuition and hostel f e e s are exem p ted for all candidates. Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development
Duration: Certificate Programme - Three months / Diploma Programme - Six months (Deemed-to be-University)
Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Govt, of India
APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Sriperumbudur - 602 105, Tamil Nadu,
A Demand Draft for Rs.50/- is to b e sent along with the duly filled in application drawn on a Nationalised Ph: 044-27162622, Fax: 044-27163227,
Bank and the students need to pay admission fee of Rs.100/- and examination fee of Rs.400/- only Website:www.rgniyd.gov.in, Email: app@rgniyd.gov.in
with Refundable caution deposit of Rs.500/- to be paid by the students.
Application may be downloaded from www.rgniyd.gov.in
Last Date for s u b m is s io n o f application : 21 May 2012

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