North-East has all the potentialities to strive and achieve development. When the desire and dynamics of the youth of North east India is for development, it is necessary that the meaning of sustainable development is looked into. Development is required but it cannot be at the cost of peace and happiness and at the cost of family and community bonds. Today at what point the ‘developed’ countries are is also to be evaluated.
The general view of development is presently defined in terms of the Western world-view. The present western world-view on development is based on individualism. The entire history of the Europe since its religious and state institutions became dominating was one of confrontation between individuals and institutions. Over centuries individualism struggled against the might of the kings and archbishops and at a great cost asserted itself for the very survival of the human civilization in Europe. With the result, individualism and individual rights became virtually an obsession with the people.
Now the West has slipped deep into this domain of individualism by vesting rights even in children and depriving even parental control over them. The result is a collection of millions of individuals under the laws of the state and held together only by the rule of law. Thus rule of law and individualism without any role or legitimacy for any kind of human collectivity including the family are the foundations of the modern west and its sociology, politics and economics. The west is facing disastrous consequence because of this over-emphasis on individualism and individual liberty. The communities are broken long back, now families are getting destroyed. Violence, drug addiction, immorality are staring at the Western society. The Chairman of the USA Senate, Newt Gingrich commented in one of his emotional speeches in the Senate,” When 12 year-olds carry gun to schools,14 year-olds become pregnant,16 year-olds test HIV positive and 18 year-olds get degrees and diplomas that they cannot read, what kind of civilization are we rearing?”
While the social consequence is terrifying, the economic consequences are frightening. As the family institution has collapsed in the cultural sense of the term there is no social safety net for elders, infirm ones, the unemployed and generally those who cannot take care of themselves. With the result social security to provide for their care is now the responsibility of the state. The social security cost is over 30% of the GDP in US. In Europe the situation is worse. In some countries like Sweden where the institution of marriage has virtually collapsed with over 65% of the men and women live together without marriage, any one with any one for any length of time, the social security cost is as high as 65% of the GDP. In fact there is a deepening apprehension among economists and statesmen that publicly administered social security will ultimately result in the bankruptcy of the state itself. Commissions appointed to deal with this serious issue are recommending the privatization of this greatest public burden. Every commission says that it should be privatized, and concludes it cannot be, as without the time-tested institution of family it is not possible to privatize the care of the aged, infirm and unemployed and others who need care.
The undermining of families is a direct consequence of the undermining of communities. It is social conscience, social policing and social reputation, which makes and compels most families to behave. The social eye is the most valuable social control over wayward individuals. Once the social policing was eroded and moral control by society and moral obligations ensured by social control were substituted by institution of rule of law and state emerged as the arbiter of human beings, social capital eroded in the West. Today the thinkers in the West say that unless the social capital is there even present economy would get sluggish.
As thinkers like Francis Fukuyama said the state, by law, can only destroy societies and communities (and make individual out of them) but it cannot legislate to create societies or families. All human collectivities are evolutions over centuries with traditions, rituals, culture and religions binding them together, which act as the buffer between the individuals and the state and absorbs the distance between the state and the individuals and connects these two remote points.
So today, the west does not have a traditional social capital. Whatever social capital has been built up by the modern west in the sense of their collective working, which is also eroding because of high voltage individualism which is sweeping the West, have been purely commercially driven institutions, not capable of influencing the total life of the people.
George Soros, one of the best financial minds in the modern capitalist West, laments that ‘in our modern transactional society the reason for having any kind of morality has been brought into question. He describes the current position in the West thus: “Why bother about the truth when a proposition does not need to be true to be effective? Why be honest when it is success, not honesty or virtue that gains people’s respect? Although social values and moral precepts are in doubt there can be no doubt about the value of money. This is how money has come to usurp the role of intrinsic values”. The maxim ‘money at any cost’ is disintegrating the systems. That is why there are fervent appeals by many thinkers that the West must devise a system of normative moral order outside the secular state, which can control and regulate the conduct of individuals supplementing the work of the state. These thinkers are drawn from different disciplines including sociology, politics and economics.
What is relevant for our purpose is that at present the assessment of Western view of life based on obsessive centrality of individualism and individual rights with the state as the interconnecting mechanism between the individuals is being reappraised not just in politics, even in economics and developmental models.
The West needs an alternative to the obsessive individualism, which has become in a sense oppressive individualism. But fortunately in the East and particularly in India, we are not in search of an alternative. We have a functioning model of community-based life. It may be local communities, or castes, or other collectivity. And apart from that is the family. These institutions are dominant in the Indian public sphere. North Eastern India is also very rich in social capital.
As compared to the state their role is more comprehensive and more effective in harmonizing the people of India. The effect of these collectivities harmonizing the people most intimately and proximately is evident from the fact that in India the crime rates are the lowest in the world. The reported serious crimes in India are only 4 per population of 1,00,000, the comparative figure for the US is over 540 and for Europe around 250. Likewise the family takes care of the entire social security burden of taking care of the old aged, infirm and unemployed people in India and takes this stupendous burden off the shoulders of the state.
But someone may say that is Ok, but is not individualism necessary for development? Thus, the question is whether the collectivities like community and family are an impediment to development or do they actually aid development. When an empirical study of the development of different communities in different parts of India was taken up, it was found that in the case of all communities the upward social and economic movement takes place as a community. Such development has not taken place by the community breaking into individuals. Community instead of being or becoming an impediment to development actually became the vehicle for development. It is intra-community or communitarian competition, that is, competition within a community, which triggers the development of a community. The community identity and community discipline also tempers the ill-effects of any unruly competition. There is intense competition within identical groups. These dynamics of competition for development within the community was studied. It was found that any individual who took to the education or economical activity, which developed him, spread like a wildfire within the community. The members of the communities do not go for that competition which will undermine the communities even though the law or market allows ‘free for all’ competition within communities.
Modernism takes the competent individual away from its community thus the possibility of development within the community by the trigger of one's success gets impaired. Modernism (here what is meant by modernism is the system by which a member of a community gets educated and goes in the search of job away from his community) atomizes the individual, so the process of whole community rising up with him is hampered.
Sri S Gurumurthy writes in his paper “Community driven development”, “A study of the new communities/castes, which have taken to business, indicates that they have taken to business almost as a community. There is competition as well as co-operation within the community in business, which has resulted in competitive pursuit of entrepreneurship in which risk taking and enterprise have become almost a movement. A study of the communities newly in business like the Ramgadias in Punjab, the Jatavs in Agra, the Patels in Gujarat, the Kammas in Andhra Pradesh, the Nadars, Goundars and Naidus of Tamilnadu shows that the communities have turned into major business communities because of competition and co-operation within it. There is a contagion effect within a community. Interestingly the World Development Report of the World Bank, for the year 2001, observes this phenomenon of caste in business in the context of the Goundar community, which has made phenomenal growth as businessmen in the last few decades. This is about the growth of knitwear export business in Tirupur. Says the World Bank:
Since 1985 Tirupur has become a hotbed of economic activity in the production of knitted garments. By the 1990s, with high growth rates of exports, Tirupur was a world leader in the knitted garment industry. The success of this industry is striking. This is particularly so as the production of knitted garments is capital-intensive, and the state banking monopoly had been ineffective at targeting capital funds to efficient entrepreneurs, especially at the levels necessary to sustain Tirupur’s high growth rates.
What is behind this story of development? The needed capital was raised within the Gounder community, a caste relegated to land-based activities, relying on community and family networks. Those with capital in the Gounder community transfer it to others in the community through long-established informal credit institutions and rotating savings and credit associations. These networks were viewed as more reliable in transmitting information and enforcing contracts than thSince 1985 Tirupur has become a hotbed of economic activity in the production of knitted garments. By the 1990s, with high growth rates of exports, Tirupur was a world leader in the knitted garment industry. The success of this industry is striking. This is particularly so as the production of knitted garments is capital-intensive, and the state banking monopoly had been ineffective at targeting capital funds to efficient entrepreneurs, especially at the levels necessary to sustain Tirupur’s high growth rates.
What is behind this story of development? The needed capital was raised within the Gounder community, a caste relegated to land-based activities, relying on community and family networks. Those with capital in the Gounder community transfer it to others in the community through long-established informal credit institutions and rotating savings and credit associations. These networks were viewed as more reliable in transmitting information and enforcing contracts than thSince 1985 Tirupur has become a hotbed of economic activity in the production of knitted garments. By the 1990s, with high growth rates of exports, Tirupur was a world leader in the knitted garment industry. The success of this industry is striking. This is particularly so as the production of knitted garments is capital-intensive, and the state banking monopoly had been ineffective at targeting capital funds to efficient entrepreneurs, especially at the levels necessary to sustain Tirupur’s high growth rates.
Broken banking and legal systems that offered weak protection of creditor rights. The intense competition in the garment industry ensured that good money would not follow bad and that firms would pay attention to the needs of customers.
Source: World development report year 2001, page175, published by the World Bank
This is a demonstrable case of how community connections result in competition to set up business as well as to cooperate with those setting up businesses. It is evident from the data available that the members of these communities, most of them from the backward classes, who have entered business, have entered not as unconnected individuals, but as the members of a community, with some community members supporting the new entrant and some others following suit in a spirit of competition. Others feel confident that since their community man has done it, they can also do it. They also feel compelled that since their community man has done it, they must do it. This spirit of competition turns the enterprise within the community virtually a mass entrepreneurial movement.
While many traditionally non-business communities have taken to businesses and turned into entrepreneurs massively by contagion competition within the community, the role of the educated is a direct contrast. In most business schools almost every student gets placement in the campus interviews. Even a small number of them do not become entrepreneurs. With the result, while education prepares students to become employees, the communitarian contagion competitive effect massifies entrepreneurs. So we have un-educated or under-educated businessmen and highly educated employees. Why the educated tend to become employees? Why do they not tend to set up business? It is not difficult to find answers. The students who go to colleges see themselves only as individuals. In contrast, the constituent of a community in business sees himself as the member of the community.
Our empirical study further showed the Tirupur model is not an isolated development. That seems to be the model elsewhere. Actually the Tirupur example hits the eye because of the fact that the Tirupur community has succeeded at the global level and has attracted the attention of global observers. That does not mean that it is just an anecdote.
There are other substantial illustrative and replicated models of community emerging as the model for development. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, four communities, the Goundars, Nadars, Naidus, and Rajus, have progressed economically and socially, besides culturally and educationally by turning their community into vehicle for development. The Goundars’ development followed the community led development which took place among the Naidus in Coimbatore. The Naidu and Goundar communities have spearheaded the development efforts of the north-western parts of Tamilnadu and as a result today, the districts populated by these two communities are the most economically prosperous districts of the state.
Communities principally in politics Vs communities principally in business:
