It was the German sociologist Max Weber (1856-1920) who first argued that capitalism would prosper only in those countries where the Christian protestant values dominate. His thoughts continued to influence the thought process of many of the scholars for a long time, though he had failed to take into account the historical developments even within the West.
Later in 1955,
when the noted economist E F Schumacher travelled to Burma as consultant he
coined the term “ Buddhist economics”, based on the distinct features of
Buddhism. Arguing for a Buddhist economic system he wrote: “No one seems to
think that a Buddhist way of life would call for a Buddhist economics, just as
the modern materialist way of life has brought forth modern economics”
When we study the economic system of India since the
ancient periods, we realize that there are unique features that dominate the
Indian economy. These features are the products of the Hindu way of life,
belief systems, approaches and thought processes developed and nurtured over
several centuries. What is important is that they continue to support and
nurture the Indian lives and their economic functioning even today.
India is an ancient civilization. Gandhian economist
Kumarappa notes that the Indian civilization has survived so long because it is
based on the values of permanence. Business historian Agarwala notes that there
were prominent commercial cities more than 4500 years ago, with India engaging
in exports with many countries. It is known that the first book on economics,
namely Arthashastra, was written here
2300 years back.
Now we have the documented account of the economic
performance of different countries in the world for the last two thousand years.
The monumental work by Angus Maddission clearly shows that India was the most
prosperous nation in the world with a share of 32.9 per cent in global GDP, during
0 CE.
The position of India as the premier economy continued
uninterrupted for several centuries during the past two millennia. Figures show
that India remained as the most sustainable economic power in the world. It was
due to the wrong policies of the British that the Indian economy had to fall,
beginning from the eighteenth century. This shows that Indian economy, by
nature, is fundamentally strong with her original systems based on the Hindu
orientations.
India was a poor and underdeveloped economy at the
time of Independence. Now seven decades later, we are the most potential economy
in the world with very high growth rates. Almost all the multilateral organizations,
research bodies and rating agencies unanimously agree that India is fast
emerging as the most powerful nation. A few years back, London Business School
estimated that India had 85 millions entrepreneurs functioning at different
levels. Now the situation is such that no major economic discourse at the
global level can take place without the presence of India.
How did we come to this position? How is that a country
that was very poor is considered as the most potential nation in a period of
just seven decades? A study of the economic history during the past decades
shows that no other country in the world has made such a U turn in a period of
seventy years. How was it possible?
When we analyse the policies of the past decades, we
come to know that there were confusions and contradictions in policy making
during most of the period. Well before Independence, Mahatma Gandhi wanted to
have a larger debate on the economic
policies to be adopted after independence. But Nehru scuttled it repeatedly. Post
1947, the Nehruvian establishment went in for an alien ideology and adopted the
socialistic approach, without much discussions. It was only when the socialism
failed in the then USSR by the late 1980s, our ruling classes realized their
foolishness. But by then we had already wasted four important decades, very
crucial for the development of a country of India’s backgrounds.
After communism failed at the global level, the Indian
policy makers wanted to go for an alternative. By the time the country did not
even have the foreign reserves to pay for our imports and we were made to
pledge our gold outside. Then again for the second time without wider
discussions, the policy makers opted for another western ideology in the form
of a globalization from the early 1990s. As a result, the critical sectors,
especially agriculture and the small and medium enterprises had to face serious
difficulties.
But in spite of such a situation prevailing at the
policy making levels, the Indian economy has been growing, though not up to its
full capacity. Even during the initial decades of Nehruvian growth, our growth
rates were either comparable or better than that of the western countries. Later
the growth rates picked up over the years, leaving the other advanced countries
way behind. It makes one to wonder as to what could be the reason?
Field studies conducted in different parts of the
country for the last twenty years and more reveal that the economic progress of
India during the past seven decades has been largely due to our inherent
strengths. Most of them are unique and play the critical role in the shaping
and functioning of our economic systems. Family base, High savings,
Self-employment base, Higher levels of entrepreneurship, the dominance of the
non-corporate sector, community orientation
with higher social capital, society-driven and not state-dependent
approaches and the presence of higher value systems are the important among
them.
It is the above features that support and sustain the
economy to move forward continuously, in spite of the many hurdles that the
nation has been facing over the years. It is because of them that the nation
was able to overcome the negative effects of the alien approaches. Even during
the 2008 global economic crisis, India was able to escape it only due to the
native economic systems.
How is it that India has such a list of unique
characteristics? Studies reveal it is the great Hindu culture and traditions of
this ancient land that are responsible for these features. It may be relevant
in this connection to quote John Kenneth Galbraith, a former Ambassador of the
US to India in the 1960s who himself was an economist, when he visited our
country again during 2001. He said: “ I was urging an obvious point that the
progress of India did not depend on the government, as important as it might
be, but was enormously dependent on the initiative, individual and group of the
Indian people. …. We’ve seen many years of Indian progress, and that is
attributable to the energy and genius of the Indian people and the Indian
culture.”
Deendayal Upadhyay explained as to how the Bharatiya
culture looks upon life as an integrated whole, with economics playing a crucial
role. During the recent years, even the western economists accept the dominant
role of culture in the economic functioning of different countries. Based on
the studies available before us, we can confidently say that it is the Hindu
economics that is driving the Indian economic systems since the ancient times.
( Organiser,
New Delhi, Mar 4, 2018)
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