The Problem of Poverty In the Modern World - 2

Decolonizing, Modernizing, Developing

The effects of capitalism and empire

• The production of deep socio-economic inequalities• The production of the very categories used to apprehend

these inequalities: progress/backwardness, development/underdevelopment, modernity/tradition – a binary framework of understanding

• One part of the world comes to be known as dynamic, outward-looking, modern; the rest understood in terms of ‘tradition’, static character, dependency.

• Genuine observations of social reality constantly get mixed up with sweeping ideological constructs about whole societies

‘Development’ metamorphoses: from colonialism to anti-colonialism

• Late 19th century onwards: the discourse of ‘development’ begins to widen and shift

• Anti-colonial thinkers, movements, leaders begin to re-purpose ‘development’ as the basis for a critique of colonialism

• Significant tension within this: categories born as a result of colonialism are retained by many of its critics, but also reversed

Anti-colonial thought and the question of development

• Dadabhai Naoroji: prominent Indian liberal nationalist in late 19th century. Major text: Poverty And Un-British Rule In India (1901). Recommends reform of colonial rule, demands measures to stimulate indigenous business, capitalism. Colonialism as force of underdevelopment.

• Gandhi: opposite track. Critique of ‘modernity’, ‘development’, industrial civilization; celebration of the conventional markers of ‘backwardness’.

• Frantz Fanon: Martinican anti-colonialist involved in Algerian struggle against French rule. Psychoanalytic critique of colonialism, polemic against European claims to ‘civilization’ and universality.

• Anti-Colonial Political Leaders: Nehru (India), Nkrumah (Ghana), Kenyatta (Kenya), Ho-Chi-Minh (Vietnam), etc – rework nationalism and decolonization as agenda for socio-economic reconstruction.

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917)

M.K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)

Decolonization: Contexts And Choices

• Decolonization, by mid-twentieth century, understood by its champions as the path to ridding colonized societies of pervasive poverty and backwardness.

• Cold War imperatives: to align or not to align?• ‘Models’ of development: state socialism and liberal

capitalism converge on certain points between 1940s and 1970s : esp. focus on investment, industrialization, technology as answers to social problems

Theories v. Experiences• Modernization Theory (Rostow, Lipset, etc) – application of abstract

model of ‘modernity’ to largely agrarian societies. Themes: capital investment, introduction of capitalist ‘mentality’ into ‘traditional’ social life, rapid transformation towards industrial modernity.

• Revolutionary transformation: eg. Maoist China and the emphasis on overnight transformation of economy; devastation and famine caused by ‘Great Leap Forward’

• By 1970s, ‘developmentalism’ of various sorts in crisis; more pessimistic theories emerge. Eg. dependency theory, theories of ‘neocolonialism’: ways in which an unequal division of labour and wealth structures the world, and how basically colonial relations get reproduced even after end of empire. (Metropole/periphery). Major theorists: Andre Gunder Frank, Immanuel Wallerstein.

Globalization/Neoliberalism: the 1980s and after

• Collapse of socialist model• Crisis of welfare-state capitalisms• Crisis of ‘Third World’ developmentalist models• In all three ‘worlds’, similar patterns seem to

emerge: economic liberalization, privatization of public services, scaling back of social protections, market reforms – all with mixed and ambiguous consequences

• One common feature: galloping inequality

Case Study: India after decolonization

• Unique experiment in combining democracy with capitalist economic transformation in a largely agrarian society

• 1950s, 1960s: Nehruvian model, ‘mixed economy’ with heavy emphasis on state-led investment and economic planning

• Import-substituting industrialization: theme of self-sufficiency. Some considerable achievements.

• Very little attention paid to health, education, social welfare: ‘development’ and ‘modernization’ supposed to take care of that through organic process

• 1990s: dramatic shift to economic liberalization

The Narmada Controversy• Multipurpose dam project: interlinked dams on the river Narmada (western

and central India): ostensibly for purposes of drought relief in western India• Long tradition of utopianism about big dams. Nehru: big dams as ‘temples

of modern India’.• Traumatic displacement : people lose homes, livelihoods, entire structure

of social life• Inadequate, often meaningless ‘compensation’• Narmada Bachao Andolan (‘Save The Narmada’ Movement): one of the

largest social movements in the world, led by Gandhian social activist Medha Patkar

• Perennial feature of large-scale development projects (highways, roads, urban beautification, etc): illustrates tensions between ‘development’ (as generally conceived) and human rights and dignity.

‘Temples of Modern India’: The Sardar Sarovar dam seen from above

Waiting for the flood: what the dam looks like ‘from below’

What home looked like before ‘development’: The Narmada valley

What ‘home’ looks like after ‘development’: resettlement

“Rehabilitation”?

Scenes from a movement

Scenes from a movement: women demonstrating for proper rehabilitation

Scenes from a movement: Narmada marchers in Delhi

Scenes from a movement: Medha Patkar on hunger strike, August 2017