Rescuing India from the condescension of the business-lounge class
Pankaj Mishra
June 14, 2006 09:41 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/pankaj_mishra/2006/06/india_and_china_neoliberal_myt.html
I am pleased to see the well-informed and civil Salil Tripathi offer
his views (
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/salil_tripathi/2006/06/escaping_the_hindu_rate_of_gro.html
) on my recent article (
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1794500,00.html ),
although I fear that he has misinterpreted my position and drawn
conclusions from it that I never intended. I am no admirer of the old
bureaucratic-socialist state in either India or China, and have
criticised it repeatedly. I agree with Tripathi when he claims that
economic reforms have brought down poverty rates in the previous decade
(even if we disagree about the World Bank's measure of poverty in
places like India and China). Contrary to what Tripathi implies; I
neither express nor harbour the absurd wish that India return to a 3.5%
growth rate in order to reduce growing inequality.
My intention was to challenge certain western myths, both old and new,
that form the basis of the presently dominant view of India and China:
namely, that western-style capitalism has worked miracles for India and
China and will now bring their populations closer to American and
European lifestyles. The first part of this admittedly brisk attempt
(which is what I would deal with here) involved examining the first
three decades of independent India, which are seen, in the neo-liberal
mythology, as the "wasted years".
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