India
Can Follow A Different Path
By Yash Pal
The Tribune, India
06 August, 2003
The
last few years have seen the emergence of a class of proclamations by
leaders in politics and science that I find somewhat disturbing. These
proclamations wish, predict and disclaim that in a decade and a half
our country would become a "developed" country. Some of them
suggest that we are already on our way to becoming an IT power, a biotech
power, an agricultural power or a science and technology base of the
world.
When we talk of
power we always refer to a dominance that would begin to give us the
status of a 'developed country'. It is also implied that we would begin
to live and behave like the most powerful amongst the developed countries
of the world. We would have as many gadgets as they do, as many rockets,
bombs and other weaponry, besides cars, telephonesand loneliness
in the middle of a crowd. It is implied that some large corporations,
preferably multinational, would supply our water, for drinking and for
agriculture, while some other corporations would improve our infrastructure
on a "build, own and operate" basis. When we are really developed,
only 3 per cent of our population, working for some other corporations,
would produce all the food we need and more, and never mind that hundreds
of millions of farmers would lose their livelihood because they would
be absorbed in the "service sector".
These or similar
proclamations worry me because they imply that we have stopped dreaming
of inventing a good life for ourselves independent of what obtains in
a few countries abroad. We tend to overlook the difference between our
"initial condition" and those of countries we would like to
emulate when we prescribe methodologies for a fast pace of economic
progress. In recent years, the only indigenous passions surfacing in
this land are connected with horrible disputes over old temples and
mosques, making religious conversion illegal, rewriting of history textbooks,
and introducing teaching of astrology and karmakand in colleges and
universities. I must confess that none of these borrowed images of development
excite me. Indeed, some of them would un-develop us beyond
redemption.
Education
Let me mention just
a couple of points regarding our education and research set-up. Our
strength lies in the fact that our people still have hidden capabilities
which they acquire on their own. Many examples of this can be given.
These are the same capabilities that made this country great in our
distant past. The capacity to cope, to self-learn, to innovate, to be
able to understand how things work and to master them still drives this
country. Our crafts, arts, including music and dance, bear testimony
to this. A National Innovation Foundation is a good idea, but the real
need is to make the indigenous innovators, which includes all children,
central to defining our education system. We should build on what people
have already learnt. We should not have mere vocationalisation. An emphasis
on Institutes of Management, IITs, and Institutes of Information Technology
will only help to create a copycat India. If we want to create a really
great India we need to build on what people begin to learn on their
own.
The separation and
distinction between universities and laboratories has to be reversed.
All new laboratories should be set up within universities, especially
those laboratories that do a lot of basic work. Indeed most present
laboratories should be converted into universities.
Information technology
There is a great
hype about our progress in information technology. This is good and
admirable, but we must change track very soon. The present activity
does earn us some money and recognition. But it earns many times more
for those who we work for, thus increasing disparities between them
and us. It is doing little for our own development. That would happen
when our emphasis shifts to saturating our country with pagdandis and
bylanes of information. Highways are needed but in our condition pathways
would be more appropriate and productive.
Networking
We need to network
India (information technology can help in this). This might be a way
of preserving our diversity and plurality. It might allow us to go our
own way together. It might release tremendous energies. It might allow
us the possibility that India will show the way to a new world. We must
keep asking: How to build an inclusive society? How to have an entirely
new type of globalisation? How not to be dominated by centralising influencesinternational
or national". Networking might save us from social explosions,
even from pathologies that breed terrorism.
Portrait of development
This should be an
enhancement of what we think is admirable now. It should be from our
own world and not a pale copy of what obtains outside. For example,
what would we like to add to the already desirable way of living established
in Kerala. Isn't Kerala better developed than most of the so-called
developed countries? There might be some lacunae. How do we remove those?
In summary, I am
afraid of our becoming a developed country like the one in front today.
Even with only one of them flexing its muscles one or two countries
are under threat of being bombed out every year. If we go that way we
will also not be saints. We might be even worse. The world will have
a hard time living through the 21st century. The whole world needs to
move away from the presently dominant model. We would arrive at the
real pinnacle of development if we begin showing a different path to
rest of the world. This was not possible in the last century. Now it
might be.
We need to develop
and deploy our techniques and technologies to make an inclusive India
a reality. God knows we need it badly. If we can do it then the whole
world can. Are we equal to a challenge this big? To show that we are
would fulfill my dream of a desirable and developed India. Becoming
a carbon copy of another country, no matter how "developed",
is unlikely. I am glad it is so. We should be more ambitious.
The writer is an
eminent scientist