CLEAR HOLD BUILD: HARD LESSONS OF BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA
Sudeep Chakravarti
Collins Business, 2014
275 pages; Rs 599
In a world where business goes head-to-head with human rights, Clear Hold Build offers a timely look at 21st century India's human rights flashpoints - Vedanta, Tata Steel, Posco, Kudankulam and more. Author Sudeep Chakravarti uses his formidable journalistic skills to collate and analyse testimonies of local stakeholders and senior executives, activists, and bureaucrats across conflict zones in India to paint a provocative and hard-hitting picture of market forces trumping the needs of communities that get in their way. Mr Chakravarti's insistence on highlighting the human face of corporate progress isn't just timely, it's overdue. Whether we think of Nandigram or Singur, Posco or Vedanta - the conflicts that corporate India often terms as obstacles to development are actually a sign of the growing discontent in the manner in which the Indian government and companies have treated local stakeholders. The book, however, provides more a list of don'ts rather than the must-do checklist for human rights that its inner cover promises.
The question that Mr Chakravarti raises at the outset is not new. Is it a mere coincidence that Maoist and other similar movements have arisen only in the most mineral-rich states of India - Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra? Is Maoism, as he aptly headlines it, a country cousin of "MOUism"? As he writes, quoting Joseph Conrad from the Heart of Darkness, "The conquest of earth ... is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much." He builds a compelling case against corporations such as Vedanta and its confrontation with tribals to mine bauxite on sacred land. Such cases have prompted the author to question whether there's much difference between Africa's blood diamonds and minerals mined in these areas.
He analyses case upon case (the opposition of Tamil villagers to the building of the Kundankulam nuclear power plant in their backyards being particularly poignant) across the country where not only have local communities not benefited from the development of the area they inhabit, but have actually suffered as a result. As the Kundankulam case brings out, the villagers around the nuclear plant (or mines, dams and other roads to development) report a variety of ailments, including cancer, allegedly from exposure to the radiation. Yet protests by local communities are repressed strongly, thanks to the collusion of the government. As he shows using the case of the Tata Steel plant in Kalinga Nagar, Odisha, even companies such as Tata, who have a strongly ethical image, have had opponents gagged and even victimised by the police.
These myriad case studies highlight avoidable battle lines and potential flashpoints in the evolution of businesses and the nation's economy. Although "human rights" remains a much maligned word amongst Indian corporates, Mr Chakravarti has sought to bring it to the forefront, start a national-level debate and eventually alter the ways in which corporates and governments interact with local communities. By looking minutely at the mistakes made in each case, he offers several interesting pointers for responsible business planning and policymaking. No wonder, then, that the book has already made it to the reference list at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad!
Clear Hold Build is a fascinating read, but it leaves some unanswered questions. Although the author is clearly on the side of community stakeholders - tribals, forest dwellers and agriculturalists - he is curiously silent about their role in the nation's development. Given that the Niyamgiri Hills, sacred to Odisha tribals, do have rich bauxite deposits, would it be fair to forget that the deposits exist, just because they are on tribal land? This prompts the reviewer to wonder if there should be a checklist for social and economic responsibility for local stakeholders, too. After the fairly brilliant early chapters in which he builds a persuasive argument that business development in India always occurred with the blessings of the government and not community stakeholders, Mr Chakravarti fails to take it to its logical end. The reader gets a fair sense of what not to do, but isn't much wiser about how to go about it.
Clear Hold Build concludes with examples from across the world of how international opinion has shaped corporate behaviour and government policy. After the fire in the Rana Plaza sweatshop in Bangladesh that killed over a thousand workers, world opinion has forced Bangladesh to apply international labour standards or suffer losses in its export sector. Mr Chakravarti writes that the Indian government and companies would be well advised to follow suit and take a good long look at the human face of development.
All in all, Clear Hold Build is a thought-provoking read that brings home the sobering fact that every dam, highway, mine and power station we have has been built over land that once belonged to someone, land where trees grew and animals roamed free. What price are the government, corporations and local stakeholders - and we as a society - willing to pay for this development? That is the question.
