A mind without fear

How many times have we heard people say that poverty and corruption are so well entrenched in India that there is little individuals can do to fight them? Attitudes like this suggest that India has little chance of deliverance from chronic poverty and pessimism.

Against that background, Abraham M George's latest book India Untouched""The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty is a refreshing anti-thesis to this morose state of affairs. It is also, as Ralph Nader (who has written the foreword to this book) puts it succinctly, a "pretty remarkable story of what one man can accomplish with vision and determination".

India Untouched is the story of how a successful entrepreneur based in the US for the past 25 years returns to India and sets up an NGO called the George Foundation in a remote village in south India to help the thousands of rural poor whose lives have been untouched by the economic reforms introduced in 1991.

Though the focus of the book is on rural poverty, the policy prescriptions that the author advocates could well act as an antidote for poverty in general.

The book is divided into some 13 short chapters, covering wide and varied topics such as education, economic development, social justices, health care, environment, art, culture, free press and ethics.

The first three or four chapters tell the author's story: his journey to the US at a young age, his education, successful stint as an entrepreneur there and finally his return.

The George Foundation's first ambitious project was setting up an educational institution called Shanti Bhavan, which aimed to provide a handful of the poorest of the poor children a world-class education.

These initial chapters tell a compelling story of the struggles, threats, disappointments, betrayals and government interference that the author and Shanti Bhavan officials had to endure to make their plans work. It provides a vivid and horrifying description of how difficult and, indeed, dangerous it can be to offer the needy a helping hand in India.

In the next few chapters, the author not only challenges the traditional ways in which rural poverty has been addressed in India for the past 50 years but also provides some clear-cut and useful policy prescriptions.

For instance, in the chapter titled "Beyond Prosperity for the Few," the author correctly attributes India's poverty to the faulty socialist doctrine, the result of which was a mixed economy that concentrated control in the hands of corrupt bureaucrats.

To propel India to prosperity, the author prescribes the privatisation of public enterprises, relaxation of restrictions on domestic commerce and trade, removal of unnecessary licences, fiscal and monetary restraints, reduction of bureaucracy, and introduction of competition in an economy dominated by monopolies.

The author points to the fact that the world's wealthiest countries are also those that enjoy the most economic freedom. Or in other words, economic freedom and prosperity go hand in hand.

The author is also shrewd enough to point out that the rampant corruption that is widespread at all levels of society in India is not the cause of poverty""rather it is the effect of low economic freedom. Thus the author's point is that with economic freedom will come prosperity and less corruption.

In the chapter "Of Holy Cows, Untouchables and Non-Believers," the author points out that religious fundamentalism and terrorist activities that are a widespread feature of today's "civilised world" are the effect of a lack of political freedom and economic opportunity.

As he points out, the West Asian hatred of the developed world is a product of the lack of political freedom and economic opportunity in these countries, which prompts their governments and citizens to blame the West for their miseries.

The next chapter, "Unequal and Powerless," discusses the issues of gender inequality and child labour. One interesting point that the author raises is the detrimental effects that forced family planning can have on society.

The immediate effect is a decline in the female sex ratio. The indirect effect of this is that the shortage of marriageable young women in some communities has contributed to an increase in rape and other forms of violence against women.

That is why the author condemns such faulty thesis as the "population problem" hindering India's growth. On the contrary, the author stresses that policy emphasis should be on nurturing human capital. And with this economic prosperity, the author believes, gender inequality will go away, or at least lessen.

The concluding chapters stress the importance of the freedom of the press, freedom of arts, and ethical conduct that go behind the building of a civil society.

All in all, the book is a critical read for those who would like to understand the real problems that India faces and have the self-confidence in them to follow the sentiments set out in Tagore's poem: "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high ... Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake."

---

INDIA UNTOUCHED

Abraham M. George
East West Book (Madras) Pvt Ltd
Price: 295