The soil of communism and democracy

It has, for some odd reasons, become customary to compare India with China in every field of development although the vastly divergent politico-economic systems of the two countries set them far apart from each other. Nevertheless, the truth is that such comparisons can be quite revealing and, thus, can serve a useful purpose. The book under review bears this out superbly.

What is most striking is the contrast in the gross domestic product (GDP) growth and poverty reduction in the two populous Asian neighbours, which have followed distinctively dissimilar routes of economic and structural reforms. China's per capita GDP in purchasing power parity terms (at constant 2000 prices), which was reckoned in 1978 at $1,071, far lower than India's $1,255 and sub-Saharan Africa's $1,757, increased over four times to $4,726 by 2003 while that of India could rise only by a little over two times to $2,732.

Even more spectacular contrast is seen in rural poverty reduction in the two countries. In China, the number of the poor declined hugely, from 33 per cent in 1978 to a mere 3 per cent in 2001, according to official Chinese sources, or to around 11 per cent, according to World Bank estimates, based on the $1 a day yardstick for poverty measurement. In India, too, poverty has been declining "" and rather more rapidly in the post-reforms period "" but the drop is nowhere near that in China. It fell from 38.9 per cent in 1987-88 to 27 per cent in 1999-2000, the latest years for which the National Sample Survey data have been quoted in the book.

However, when reading through the course of reforms process in the two countries, brought out fairly lucidly in this volume, one finds the reasons for such sharp variation. While the reforms process in China began by changing institutional structures in agriculture, in India, it commenced from "" and remained focused for quite some time on "" structural adjustments in industrial and trade policies and the broad financial sector. This was, significantly, despite the fact that the country's green revolution had run out of steam by the mid-1980s, well before the initiation of economic liberalisation, and the farm sector badly needed a reforms push for its further growth.

Indeed, what also contributed to the dissimilar pace of economic development in India and China was the early headway made by the latter in reforming its agricultural research system to lend the much-needed R&D support for rapid modernisation of farming. China also rapidly expanded irrigation to enable the new technology, including seeds, display their true potential.

Although the book seeks to rub in the point that both India and China can learn several lessons from each other and the other developing countries can draw lessons from the successes and failures of both, the reality that filters out of the presentation is that India has more to learn from China than to offer to it.

But, at the same time, it also needs to be borne in mind that emulating each other may neither be easy nor always desirable for both the countries because of different patterns of governance. As indicated in the book as well, India is a debating society in which policy making is exposed to the pressures of various interest groups and involves prolonged deliberations and bureaucratic procedures. China, on the other hand, is a mobilising society in which decisions are taken faster and state power is backed by mass mobilisation. This makes the implementation of the decisions more effective in China. This, often, is not the case in India.

Indeed, this volume is essentially the outcome of two global conferences held in New Delhi and Beijing on this broad theme of agricultural and rural reforms and development in China and India. The well-researched papers presented in these meets by the carefully-chosen experts from both the countries and elsewhere lent both width and depth to the analyses of different issues. The commentary on the whole discussion by the editor-authors of this volume add to the value to the contents, besides pointing to the implications of the analyses for future policy planning. The volume is dotted with some graphs and charts as well.

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The Dragon & the Elephant
Agricultural and rural reforms in China and India

Edited by Ashok Gulati and Shenggen Fan
Oxford University Press
548 pages, Rs 745