THE DEVELOPMENT DEBATE: GROWTH AND EQUITY

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME III

Independent India chose state planning as the path to development and progress. Yet from the beginning, the planners were compelled to face the dilemma of growth or equity, and this within a democratic state. If growth was the economic compulsion, equity was the democratic necessity. READ MORE…
 

The Five-Year Plans made some effort to pursue growth with equity. But eventually electoral democracy served rather to consolidate a dominant-caste, upper-class ruling elite. This does not just undermine democracy as a way of resolving political problems, but eventually, it leads to populist governance that is both majoritarian and authoritarian. The presentations in this volume follow this trail of broken promises and betrayed hopes.

TO READ AND DOWNLOAD VOL III ( PDF format) CLICK THE TITLE BELOW

The Development Debate: Growth and Equity

LIST OF ARTICLES WITH ABSTRACTS IN VOLUME iii

1.    PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES OF DEVELOPMENT WORK AMONG TRIBALS:  PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION OF A VOLUNTARY AGENCY IN INDIA

Abstract:  This article explores the history, role, the purpose and the impact of the Mandal, a church-related agency operating in Nasik district.

2.    TRIBAL EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT

Abstract: If the developmental dilemma that confronts our tribute is to be successfully addressed, tribal integration will require their mobilisation not just to preserve their cultural autonomy, but to redress their minority status as well, so that they can participate in their own development. In this tribal education will have a necessary and crucial role to play.

3.  TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE  DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM FOR THE POOR

Abstract: We need an alternative development paradigm, with an emphasis on justice, sharing, non-patriarchal, etc.

4. DEVELOPMENT AS LIBERATION

Abstract:  This article takes a quick look at the trajectory of Christianity in India in order to understand the idea of development as it has emerged and evolved within the community and the religious tradition

5.  INTERROGATING INDIA: DEVELOPMENT AND MODERNITY AS IF PEOPLE MATTERED

Abstract: This paper draws on an introduction to an unpublished manuscript, Indra’s Cunning as a Metaphor for Modernity Challenging the Indic Experiment, by Raimon Panikkar.  The stark contrast between the microfinance of self-help groups and the macro-financial bailouts for massive mismanagement is a damning indictment of prevailing paradigms for development and modernity. We must draw on our Indic heritage to synthesise from our past and our present a new, liberating modernity for our future. 

6. DEMYTHOLOGISING DEVELOPMENT: COUNTER CULTURE AND TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGIES ALTERNATIVES

Abstract: Our concept of justice must include affirmative action for an inclusive justice for all, especially the least and last. Our ecological sensitivity must imply more than harmony and equilibrium with nature but responsibility to sustain and even regenerate it as well. Our quest for peace needs to include freedom and tolerance. Our affirmation of an inviolable human dignity must be universal, but more especially protective of the weak and vulnerable. Our desire for a respected cultural identity must not deny diversity and choice to others

7.  INCLUDING THE EXCLUDED: A CONSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract: This presentation explores what an inclusive, democratic and just society must look like, and how it can effectively include the vulnerable and the marginalised, reaching out to Gandhi’s least and last Indian. Here we will follow the narrative across critical initiatives in our democratic enterprise: reserved quotas and affirmative action for those oppressed by caste and patriarchy; minority rights for religious and linguistic communities. The first concerns social equality, the second cultural and religious diversity.

8. MODI’S ‘SABKA VIKAS, SABKE SAATH’ AND SANGH PARIVAR’S HINDU RASHTRA CANNOT CO-EXIST  

Abstract: An aggressive divisive politics will inevitably highjack the government’s proclaimed agenda of ‘sabka vikas, sabke sath’, development for all and with all? There is a contradiction between this agenda for a modern nation and an aggressive espousal of ‘Hindu rashtra’ by the Sangh Parivar. 

9.  ANOTHER INDIA IS POSSIBLE: CONTRADICTIONS AND DILEMMAS IN INDIA TODAY

 Abstract: We need to incisively critique fundamentalist extremes and inflexible dogmatisms of all hues, particularly in our religious traditions, and bracket our differences to open ourselves to finding common ground in our religious beliefs and commitments, and so to move together in a shared faith to the higher ground of a transformed religious commitment, with a renewed spirituality and even a transcending mysticism.