"That government is best which governs the least"- Thoreau
I have always felt that a more astute observation about governance has not been made. At a time when the national ego seems to have been bruised by the Maoist onslaught, the Indian identity challenged, it is important to question if justifying state violence to appease a collective consciousness is a sign of Indian mentality degenerating into rabid nationalism.
Very few public personalities in India have been lambasted more in recent memory than Arundhati Roy. She's been labelled an intellectual bitch, commie, and has been accused of romanticizing violence. But having read a lot of her work off late, I'm pretty convinced that she's the voice India needs to listen to right now, not the least because in this intellectually bracketed warfare (either you're a Maoist or State) and for this complex problem, of Corporates implicit in dispossessing the tribals and of caste politics, she's one of the few voices bringing out the aspect of the human suffering of tribals. Let's face it, what has been happening here is systematic oppression of the tribals for the mineral rich land and the are just striking back. The maoist just happen to be taking advantage of the mess.
The only place I differ with her are on her deep biases against free markets. What's happening here is not capitalism gone mad, but the merger of the State and the Corporate interests - the original definition of fascism. In free markets (ideally) the power to decide lies with the local communities as a result of private property. Unfortunately, because of poor land reform in India, people living for thousands of years in the land are being evicted for the sake of corporate interests.
For some years now, there have been dangerous trends emerging in the behavior of Indian state. The UID is one of them. Purportedly, to root out corruption and improve delivery of government schemes, every individual in India will be given a Unique Identification card, forcibly if required. At an estimated spend of $35 B, this program looks like a totalitarian's dream come true. Not only is it a gross violation of civil liberties that the state is poking around in your life too much, but its a potential tool for mass control (and transfer of wealth from people to the governments IT stooges). Oh no, don't you think this is paranoia; in UK public concern recently made government cancel such a program. In other countries, such a move would be met with mass protests, but we Indians trust our government a tad too much. This can happen only when technocrats like ManMohan Singh and Nandan Nilekani think that the solution to a social problem is rooted in technology, and not in social changes.
What is needed is more liberty, land reforms, lesser power to babus and decentralisation. I always thought that the Indian state was somewhere between active benevolence and passive malevolence. Not so sure about that anymore. But one thing I'm certain of; changing an age old way of life forcibly in the name of development is not progress, regardless of what GDP says.
P.S. I would direct anyone who is interested in knowing about how central planning is detrimental to personal liberty to read F.A.Hayek's seminal piece 'The Road to Serfdom'
Very few public personalities in India have been lambasted more in recent memory than Arundhati Roy. She's been labelled an intellectual bitch, commie, and has been accused of romanticizing violence. But having read a lot of her work off late, I'm pretty convinced that she's the voice India needs to listen to right now, not the least because in this intellectually bracketed warfare (either you're a Maoist or State) and for this complex problem, of Corporates implicit in dispossessing the tribals and of caste politics, she's one of the few voices bringing out the aspect of the human suffering of tribals. Let's face it, what has been happening here is systematic oppression of the tribals for the mineral rich land and the are just striking back. The maoist just happen to be taking advantage of the mess.
The only place I differ with her are on her deep biases against free markets. What's happening here is not capitalism gone mad, but the merger of the State and the Corporate interests - the original definition of fascism. In free markets (ideally) the power to decide lies with the local communities as a result of private property. Unfortunately, because of poor land reform in India, people living for thousands of years in the land are being evicted for the sake of corporate interests.
For some years now, there have been dangerous trends emerging in the behavior of Indian state. The UID is one of them. Purportedly, to root out corruption and improve delivery of government schemes, every individual in India will be given a Unique Identification card, forcibly if required. At an estimated spend of $35 B, this program looks like a totalitarian's dream come true. Not only is it a gross violation of civil liberties that the state is poking around in your life too much, but its a potential tool for mass control (and transfer of wealth from people to the governments IT stooges). Oh no, don't you think this is paranoia; in UK public concern recently made government cancel such a program. In other countries, such a move would be met with mass protests, but we Indians trust our government a tad too much. This can happen only when technocrats like ManMohan Singh and Nandan Nilekani think that the solution to a social problem is rooted in technology, and not in social changes.
What is needed is more liberty, land reforms, lesser power to babus and decentralisation. I always thought that the Indian state was somewhere between active benevolence and passive malevolence. Not so sure about that anymore. But one thing I'm certain of; changing an age old way of life forcibly in the name of development is not progress, regardless of what GDP says.
P.S. I would direct anyone who is interested in knowing about how central planning is detrimental to personal liberty to read F.A.Hayek's seminal piece 'The Road to Serfdom'
