Bibek Debroy: India and the Wizard of Oz

applies Oz imagery to the Indian reality.

This is Christmas time. Not very long ago, Christmas meant "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", the film more than the books. Contrary to what we sometimes think, Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) wrote 14 Oz books, beginning with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900 and ending with Glinda of Oz in 1920. The original characters evolve in some of the later books. Actually, there are many more Oz books, written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, John Neill, Jack Snow, Rachel Cosgrove and others. There are several film versions too. But Christmas generally used to mean the 1939 version, with Judy Garland. The original story runs along the following lines. Dorothy (Gale) lives on a Kansas farm with uncle Henry, aunt Emily and dog Toto. She is caught up in a cyclone and deposited in the land of the Munchkins, who were enslaved by the Wicked Witch of the East. However, the cyclone kills the Wicked Witch of the East. The Good Witch of the North gives Dorothy a pair of silver slippers (that used to belong to the Wicked Witch of the East) and explains that Dorothy will have to follow the Yellow Brick Road to the City of Emerald's and seek the Wizard of Oz's help if she wants to get back to Kansas.

En route, Dorothy meets and frees the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion. The Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin Woodman wants a heart and the Cowardly Lion wants courage. The Wizard promises to help if they kill the Wicked Witch of the West, who rules over Winkie Country. After several adventures, this is accomplished. But the Wizard turns out to be a fraud and can offer no more than placebo treatment. Eventually, with the Good Witch of the South's (named Glinda) help, Dorothy and Toto return to Kansas. The Scarecrow reigns over Emerald City, the Tin Woodman over Winkie Country and the Cowardly Lion rules over the forest. What does a children's story have to do with a business newspaper? Since a history teacher named Henry Littlefield wrote a paper in 1964, the Oz story has been interpreted as political, social and economic allegory. In 1990, Hugh Rockoff authored a paper in Journal of Political Economy, interpreting the story as a monetary allegory, Ranjit Dighe published an edited book in 2002 expanding on the theme and also in 2002, Bradley Hansen published a review paper in Journal of Economic Education, appropriately titled, "The Fable of the Allegory: The Wizard of Oz in Economics".

Stated simply, Dorothy is the average American citizen, Toto represents the prohibitionist party (teetotalers), the Scarecrow represents western farmers, the Tin Woodman represents industrial workers, the Cowardly Lion stands for William Bryan (the Democrat presidential candidate who supported free coinage of silver), the Munchkins were citizens of the east, the Wicked Witch of the East represents eastern business and financial interests, the Wicked Witch of the West is William McKinley (the Republican Presidential candidate who supported retention of the gold standard), the Wizard is Mark Hanna (the Chairman of the Republican party), Oz is abbreviation for an ounce of gold, the Yellow Brick Road is the gold standard, the cyclone is the free silver movement (alternatively political turmoil), Emerald City is Washington, Emerald Palace is the White House and the silver slippers are the silver component of a bi-metallic standard. Let's transpose these ideas to India and the present context and think of the Wizard of Oz for a moment. He never actually reveals himself to others, until he is eventually caught. To Dorothy, the Wizard is a giant head, the Scarecrow sees a beautiful woman, the Tin Woodman sees a ravenous beast and the Cowardly Lion sees a ball of fire.

When Toto accidentally tips over a screen, we discover that the Wizard is an old man, who came to Oz in a hot air balloon and was accepted by the residents as their ruler. He is a fraud, because he is no wizard and has no powers. Instead, he asks the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion to find what they are looking for within themselves, the placebo treatment. What better interpretation can there be of the Wizard than the government, since it has nothing to offer anyone? Think of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion as the three main sectors of the economy, agriculture, industry and services, Dorothy continuing to stand for the average Indian citizen. The citizen (Dorothy) sees a predatory giant head, agriculture (Scarecrow) seeks a beautiful woman in state intervention in the rural sector, industry (Tin Woodman) sees a ravenous beast in taxes and cesses and services (Cowardly Lion) sees a ball of fire that is attempting to consume service sector growth through increased controls. That the Wizard is an old man who is a fraud is also extremely appropriate.

The Tin Woodman was originally an ordinary man named Nick Chopper, who made a living by cutting down trees in the forest with his axe. The Wicked Witch of the East enchanted his axe so that he couldn't marry the girl (Nimmie Amee) he loved and the enchanted axe chopped of his limbs. Each time a limb was chopped off, it was replaced by a limb made of tin, so that finally Nick came to be made entirely of tin. Consequently, the Tin Woodman has no heart (how appropriate for Indian industry) and gets rusted (although tin doesn't actually rust) every time he is exposed to rain, tears and any form of moisture. In one of the later stories, the Tin Woodman meets Nimmie Amee, but discovers she is married to another man constructed from his own discarded limbs. Is Nimmie Amee the global market and is this other man Chinese competition? The Scarecrow is Indian agriculture. Although he is supposed to have no brains (and is looking for them), throughout the travels, the Scarecrow reveals himself to be the cleverest of the lot. Indeed, the Indian farmer exhibits far more entrepreneurship than the Indian industrialist ever does.

This leaves the Cowardly Lion of the services sector. As with the Scarecrow, although the Lion is looking for courage, throughout the travels, the Lion displays quite a bit of bravery. The Indian service sector growth has a global market component and an internal one. Who can deny that in the global segment, services have displayed enough courage? In some later books, the Cowardly Lion has a Hungry Tiger as a companion and friend, and this can be interpreted as a match between Indian software and Chinese hardware successes. By the way, the Hungry Tiger continues to be hungry, no matter how much he eats. Pity they don't show the Judy Garland film anymore. One can have quite a bit of fun with it. Is that why Elton John sung Goodbye Yellow Brick Road? The gold standard may be dead, but some images linger.