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Jodhka does not deny the
influence of West-inspired post-modernist and post-structuralist
theoretical trends on our "social-scientific"
mindset. He however contends, "Another equally
significant factor which brought the questions of culture,
community and identity to the forefront of social scientific
enterprise in India was the change in the political arena. The
rise of ‘new’ social movements during the eighties and the
issues that they threw up could not be easily dealt with
through the conventional ‘economy-centred’ frameworks of
modernisation/development theories."
Carol Upadhya
observes that while conceptualisations of community within
mainstream Indian sociology have been largely of the
traditional "primordialist" or what she prefers to
call "substantivist" type, recent works by a number
of historians and anthropologists on Indian society has
produced a different "constructivist" understanding
of community. She goes on to say, "This literature
suggests that most of the communities and identities we see
today (religious groups, castes, tribes) are not anachronistic
survivals from pre-colonial times but have emerged in the
recent past, in particular during the period of colonial
rule." This constructivist argument appears to contradict
the substantivist theories of caste and community.
Ravinder Kaur
takes a brief look at some dimensions of the historical career
of the concept of community. She says, "Concepts such as
community, civil society and identity have become major
analytical tools in the discourse of much of modern social
science. These concepts, especially the first two, are
accompanied by enviable intellectual histories in philosophy
and in social science…they surface at regular intervals as
serious contenders in efforts to explain broad and narrow
currents in history as well as in explaining the ‘enigma of
culture’. Identity, though of more recent provenance…has
gained the status of a mediating concept in attempts to link
community, civil society and nation. The survival of
multi-ethnic nations and the beginnings of transnational
societies and cultures have resulted in the strengthening of
identity as an even more relevant conceptual category. This
may be due to the fact that identitarian politics appears to
provide readily available and understandable explanations for
many conflicts in the modern world."
Other
contributors to this stimulating volume are Sasheej Hegde,
Javeed Aslam, D. Parthasarathy, A.R. Vasavi, Sujata Patel,
Aparna Rayaprol, Satish Deshpande, Rowena Robinson and Anupama
Roy.
This book is
divided into four parts. The first part deals with conceptual
questions relating to community and identities; the second
part takes a look at caste, class and the politics of
community identities; the third part examines globalisation
and the spatial rearticulation of communities; and the last
part brings minorities, women and communities under sharp
academic focus.
This tome is
certainly indispensable for students of social sciences.
However, I should commend it for general reading too. The
debate is scholarly and yet easy to follow as well as thought
provoking. An invaluable addition to your bookshelf.
* * *
Inclusive
Economics: Gandhian Method and Contemporary Policy
by Narendar Pani.Sage
Publications, New Delhi. Pages 205. Rs
380.
Even after
more than half a century since his death Gandhi occupies
colossal amount of mind space – be it of intellectuals or
common folks. And rightly too. He was no ordinary politician
who managed to secure freedom for the nation, but an almost
divine entity that touches all aspects of our national as well
as personal lives. Consciously or unconsciously we do use some
of his moral/ethical benchmarks to evaluate our actions.
Dr Pani, a
senior journalist and a former Research Fellow at the Indian
Institute of Management at Bangalore, begins by setting out
certain premises of the Gandhian method in general followed by
its specific form in economics. He explores the primacy that
Gandhi gave to action and his "consequentialist and
inclusive approach to evaluating an action". The
development of this method involves addressing issues such as
the nature of truth and the role of subjectivity.
The author
points out in the Preface that this tome’s roots lie in the
environment of economics academia in India in the 1970s. Then
the main focus of our economists was on village studies for
they firmly believed that such studies were the only
meaningful way to understand the rural Indian economy. Their
disdain for secondary data based studies was palpable. With
such "roots" the book addresses today’s economic
riddles. Examining the Asian crisis of the late 1990s after
Thailand was forced to let the baht float, Pani exposes the
inadequacies of both the general equilibrium approach and the
pragmatism method in fashioning economic policy.
The
inadequacies of the two methods centred around their inability
to address two issues. First, they fail to ensure
comprehensiveness in the analysis of factors in a particular
situation. Different general equilibrium approaches
concentrate on different factors. Pragmatism has the
flexibility to switch from one set of factors to another. But
there is nothing in the factors themselves that specify that
all factors – major and minor, must be taken into account.
The method then can be reduced to choosing one set of factors
or another as the only ones that are important enough to be
considered. And this choice can easily be distorted by
expediency. Second, both methods fail to provide an adequate
response to the situational dimension of economics. For a
method to be valid for all situations it needs to cover all
factors that could be important in all conceivable situations.
An effective
alternate method must address the twin issues of
comprehensiveness and being sensitive to the situational
dimension. In meeting the conditions of inclusiveness the
method should not compromise on the strengths of earlier
approaches. Dr Pani analyses how inclusive economics responds
to the methodological issues that arise during the formulation
and implementation of a policy. Some of these relate to
demarcation, the role of economic models, and the use of
rhetoric.
The author,
to illustrate the departure from economic conventions that the
adoption of this method necessitates, goes on to present a
Gandhian alternative to the main policy statement that
triggered off the economic reforms in India in 1991. The book
argues that the Gandhian method is a viable alternative to the
mainstream approaches as it is inclusive enough to deal with
both the known and the unknown economic phenomena.
A well argued treatise. A
must for our policy-makers, research scholars and students of
social sciences.
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