Prosperity in the face of poverty

India’s disparity of wealth is plain to see, as the immensely rich flaunt their affluence without a thought for their excruciatingly impoverished countrymen

BY LP AYER

Some three months ago, two of the world’s wealthiest men visited India to meet up with corporate high-flyers there. Their mission was not to pile up on their billowing billions, but to ask their Indian counterparts to part with some of their riches for the good of the millions of downtrodden. These two noble souls from the materialistic Mecca, the USA, were Bill Gates who remains on top of the earning ladder for a decade, and his billionaire buddy Warren Buffet, the investor extraordinaire. Practising what they preach, they are giving away tens of millions for good causes in several parts of the globe. Are Indians, who claim to be the custodians of spiritual values, now turning so materialistic that they need American money moguls to preach the principles of philanthropy to them?

Gandhi’s philosophy

In fact, the very same message was given to wealthy Indians nearly a hundred years ago by another noble soul who, unlike the American veterans of wealth, didn’t even have a bank account or a home of his own. He did not have loads of principal, but a lot of principles that prompted millions to call him the ‘Mahatma’. Although everyone knows Gandhi’s core political credos – truth (satyam) and non-violence (ahimsa), not many of his own countrymen are aware of his economic philosophy. Gandhi’s freedom movement was not only to liberate the country from political slavery, but also bring economic freedom for the masses. He used to espouse what is known as trusteeship theory, that is, the rich are the custodians of wealth, as trustees of the rest of the community.

“We invite the capitalist to regard himself as a trustee for those on whom he depends for the making, the retention and the increase of his capital. Nor need the worker wait for his conversion” he wrote in his book, Trusteeship. “Economic equality is the master key to non-violent independence. Working for economic equality means abolishing the eternal conflict between capital and labour. It means the levelling down of the few rich in whose hands is concentrated the bulk of the nation’s wealth on the one hand, and the levelling up of the semi-starved naked millions on the other.” True to his belief, Gandhi wanted this process achieved through non-violent means. Both his theory and his suggested method of achieving it did not escape ridicule in many quarters. Unfazed he

Gandhi’s freedom movement was not only to liberate the country from political slavery, but also bring economic freedom for the masses averred: “The contrast between the palaces of New Delhi and the miserable hovels of the poor labouring class nearby cannot last one day in a free India ....”

Monsoon of Mercedes

As the nation is celebrating its 64th Independence Day, the contrast that Mahatma fondly hoped would not last one day has not only lasted, but sadly and starkly widened.

Last year even after the annual southwesterly monsoon that lashes the western coast of India ended, Marathwada, a backward region in Maharashtra, witnessed an unusual spectacle. It literally rained Mercedes Benzes there! In the month of October alone businessmen in Aurangabad bought 150 Mercedes Benz cars costing Rs 65 crores. Middle class India was moving ahead! The media called it a “sign of rural resurgence.” The Mercedes mania occurred in an agricultural heartland where farmers struggling to make a living are ending their lives in hundreds every year. The irony of it all is that the Benz buyers were bankrolled by the country’s top public sector bank, the State Bank of India that offered loans of Rs 40 crores at 7% interest. A top official bragged that the bank was “proud to be part of the deal and would continue to scout for similar deals.”

Compare this ‘proud deal’ with the plight of farmers. It took ten years and tens of thousands of suicides before growers of food became eligible in 2005 for loans at 7%. Like most legislations, that worked on paper; in reality they forked out 9 to 12% if at all they were lucky enough to get a bank’s blessing. The not so lucky who managed to get smaller amounts from micro-finance institutions (MFIs) shelled out 24 to 36%, and even more to moneylenders. Within a decade from 1991, farm debt doubled exacerbated by higher input costs and lower prices for crops forced upon farmers by big traders. To the banks, farmers were a risky business, but the middle class Mercedes buyers were a safe bet. Sounds universal. Here too, if you are self-employed or a small trader you go to the back of the borrowers queue in preference to someone on a decent dole.

The crisis deepens

Almost as a crude coincidence with the Mercedes monsoon came the cruel data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) that 17,368 farmers, burdened by debt, took their own lives in the year bandied by the bank as the “rural resurgence.” This was 7% more than the previous year and the tragic toll of farmers’ suicide since 1997 has totalled 216,500. According to NCRB, a wing of the Home Ministry that tracks farm suicides, Maharashtra had a disgraceful record with 2872 deaths in 2009. Incidentally, India’s President comes from a farming heartland of Maharashtra. That state is followed by Andhra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, accounting for two thirds of these tragedies. It will sadden anyone’s heart that 18 of the country’s 28 states are recording an increase in suicides, with Tamil Nadu doubling its loss to 1060 in 2009, the year with latest data.

Although a thin silver lining has appeared in this dark cloud with a small drop in numbers in states like West Bengal, Karnataka and Kerala, the last one is likely to suffer most in coming years since its cash crops like pepper, coffee, rubber and cardamom are heavily controlled by global corporations. India’s entry into Free Trade agreements as part of globalisation is expected to worsen the plight of Kerala. Economics Professor K. Nagaraj, author of the largest study on farm suicides, says: “The crisis has not relented... the policies driving it have not gone away.”

The Mahatma, who set his heart and vision on the resurgence of rural India, may be turning in his samadhi. Not to end the

It will sadden anyone’s heart that 18 of the country’s 28 states are recording an increase in suicides, with Tamil Nadu doubling its loss to 1060 in 2009, the year with latest data story on a sad note, I may add that a Tamil magazine reports that the Dalits’ darling Mayawati is the richest chief minister with Rs 85 crore, followed by Tamil Nadu’s trounced Karunanidhi with Rs 44 crore. A footnote states that this is only the known amount, and the unknown could be many times more. Even better news is that stashed wealth by Indians in Swiss vaults tallies to $2.5billion, according to a banking sector source. But a reliable Indian economist puts it at $15 to 20bn.

I have no heart to hurt Mahatma’s wounded soul any further.