another sacred cow

8/6/2019 Another Sacred Cow

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Another sacred cow

The Sanatani Hindus have their sacred cows. The capitalists too have created theirown to serve them for milking the society to their hearts content. In matters ofsocio-economic life in present day world such a sponsored sacred cow now isindustrialisation and commercialisation as a panacea for all the ills the system hascreated. Now they have added to the list such supportive tools as Foreign Tradeand Foreign Direct Investment and free access to market on a level fieldbetween unequals. The list charms many. In their quest for self-aggrandisementthis mode is designed as a most effective way to control society to the aim ofcapitalist growth with a charm of assurance. At present there is hardly anychallenge to the intentions of these modern day Hindus in the world.

To be specific, industry as the pivot of development and growth has failed todeliver, despite repeated claim for the last four centuries. There is hardly anyavailable industrialised country in the world that can claim freedom from want,hunger, unemployment and strife. No such nation is free from corruption,immorality and degradation of commons. Oppression of commoners through theinstrumentality of state is still the rule.

Let one not forget that industrialisation was made a holy cow in the hey-periodof colonial possessions by the ruling powers. There is no hard evidence to provethat these nations or their merchant classes had some extra-ordinary prowess orintelligence to conquer colonies, except deceit and treachery as their weapons.The industrialised nations that flourish and shine were the result of only acalibrated system of internal and external expropriation of both men and materialresources. There is no evidence to substantiate the claim for even growth underthis mode and solution to problems of mass hunger and unemployment eludingthese countries. This is the first truth that must be kept in mind when thequestion of a proper mode for development in modern times is discussed.

It may be mentioned that Industry and industrialisation are distinct entities as anobject of socio-economic life that needs to be distinguished while we scan thequestion for clarity; it is industrialisation of socio-economic life as a matter ofcampaign that is under scrutiny now. Unlike Gandhi, a space for machine/industryis not denied in the present day world. The denial is to the pivotal position or thedriving role for industry in social-economic dispensation of a country. But one hasto recognise that machine plays different roles for different set of situations inthe socio-economic activities. For one set, machine helps to lighten the burden ofphysical labour and to raise the level of production while it displaces man andbrings untold misery to humanity if the role is assigned to maximisation of profit

for the owners of capital. Hence, the need for a more prudent and cautiousapproach in selecting the mode is required than what have been hither to.

In this regard, let us unravel some of the blatant fallacies of the growth anddevelopment under industrial mode woven around to keep the faithful in mentalservitude.

Growth Pattern is not uni-linear

One fallacy generally created is about the pattern of growth that it is singularwhen there are three well-known generically different patterns of growth, namely(a) Natural, (b) Linear and (c) Exponential. One German lady, Margrit Kennedy hasexplained it graphically thus:

In this illustration Curve A represents a form of normalphysical growth pattern that takes shape as in nature,


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like our bodies follow, as well as those of plants and animals. It continues growthboth qualitatively and quantitatively.

Curve B represents a mechanical or linear growth pattern, e.g., more machinesproduce more goods as more coal produces more energy that comes to an endwhen the machines are stopped or coal gets stopped, which normally these do.

Curve C represents an exponential growth pattern that is exactly opposite to

curve A. Starting slowly in beginning, then rising vertically. Exponential growth inthe physical realm usually ends with the death of the host and the organism onwhich it thrives.

Industry, commerce and service industries, including speculative financetransactions, like share markets etc. belong to Curve B and Curve C type ofgrowth pattern respectively, while agriculture, animal husbandry and alliedactivities belong to Curve A pattern. The experience of industrial, commercial andspeculative activities worldwide confirms the narration. On comparative gain-lossstudy industry and commerce cannot provide the type of growth with stabilitythat society requires in its zest for advancement.

If one is not quite obdurate in approach, the next best pattern to choose for thesociety, more so for countries so populous as India and China, then leads one toagriculture as the next best and natural way of life with supportive industrialactivities under strict neighbourhood community supervision with command overits resources. The alternative mode in development with agriculture as its pivot,based on family-labour and later community-labour, have to be fashioned in tuneto the present requirements of society, but not for greed, duly buttressedcontinuously by scientific advancement.

One cannot accept the notion so assiduously hammered continuously by vestedinterests for long that agriculture is a barren pattern to answer the call of a

developing society or denudes it of scientific developments. The argument is notworth buying without scrutiny. The history of development in agriculture sinceearly period belies this notion. It is a coloured opinion without any solid ground.Agriculture does not denude man of his creativity. It is unscientific to accuse itwithout a proper test.

Secondly, the industrial mode creating over-production and shortagesimultaneously creates material conditions essentially for strife in society; itcannot provide stability either. Instability and strife are its inherentcharacteristics, notwithstanding the change of mode in ownership over its means.Let one remember, the industrial mode provides exponential growth in

production, where reversal is dangerous and forward move is disastrous. In such ascenario a fatal crash is inherent which society can hardly bear for its onwardmove.

At a stage, industry essentially creates over-production in relation to its cost ofproduction even in a low cost economy if run to capacity, necessitating externalmarket with all evil consequences for tranquillity in trail for the common manwithin its own country as well as outside. The need for export-oriented economyarises out of such a dichotomy even in a state professing socialism as former USSRdid face eventually. The element of planning may help keep its edges in checkfor a while. But the inherent law of such development resulting in uneven course,also found expression in the history of Soviet Union with 74 years of strenuousefforts to the contrary, when industrial mode essentially involved commodityproduction and capital formation, may be invisibly, notwithstanding wishes to thecontrary!


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The industrial mode is also incapable to satisfy the requirements of a wholesociety considering its cost-supply cycle. Wants remain constantly unfulfilled forcommoners in spite of hard and honest physical labour, more so in a high costeconomy. The race for gainful employment turns nightmare for them. It is trueeven for European countries where density of population is much less.Industrialisation then is a sheer fantasy in solving problems of the masses in suchcountries as populous as China and India. In case of Soviet Union this tragedy was

averted for some time by resorting to reduction in working days and hourscontinuously, though pressure of population in relation to its resources was muchless. Still that did not make the society richer in content.

Here, one fact must be underlined that industrial mode is incapable to harnessenergies of masses to the full for its economic reasons. It essentially resorts tounproductive activities direct in proportion to its level of development in order tokeep the extra productive population engaged, without caring a bit for socialwastage and the debasing effect involved, by encouraging professions like tourismto prostitution. By terming these activities as services one can hide their odiousface and odour for social acceptance.

The capitalist class worldwide nonetheless is virulent in its campaign to putindustrialisation as a precondition for growth and progress employing every meansat its disposal, including manipulation of media and education. This serves itseconomic, political and social purpose best with a least price tag. It sets theindividual actuated by self-interest in rat race to catch the moon in ones lifespan, which is a ready made guarantee for it to keep masses split perpetually andat each others throat.

The full blown exercise by ruling minority to theorise the market forces as afulcrum of prosperity, progress and efficiency, in fact is a fine tuned strategy toprop up this rat race, while keeping the majority of masses under its sway by such

strife. It was a tragedy of sorts that proponents of a new society free fromexploitation, wants and strife too should have adopted the same mode ofdevelopment for a race they could not have won. The reasons were notcompelling either.

Much is made of one argument in favour of capitalism and its industrial mode thatthis will lead to the development of productive forces, including means ofproduction and liquidation of feudal relations. But, the whole argument stemsfrom a European understanding of history or as Europeans taught about it, thatindustry with capital at its base is superior to agriculture in development ofproductive forces. Here, there is also a skewed notion about what feudal relations

denote in history, more so in India. Apart, the question is, what succour suchdeveloped productive forces and means of production by industrial mode canprovide to ameliorate the condition of pauperised and disinherited people said tobe the aim of welfare state or inversely help these people in struggle to overthrowthis exploitative and debasing system?

Another question arises: how much these productive forces, so developed duringhalf a century in Independent India have gone beneficial to these half-fed, half-clad people or helped weakening the grip of capitalism-cum-feudalism over theirlives? Situation in fact is in reverse. How much these productive forces and meansof production so developed on the basis of rapid industrialisation during long 74years in erstwhile Socialist Soviet Union with a communist party in lead and withno private property rights to individuals, could provide relative abundance andstability to that society? The answer is a disgusting no. These charming productiveforces served more to strengthen and quicken the pace of expropriation ratherthan making lives of the masses qualitatively different, rational and purposeful.


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The people thus are again in a highly iniquitous and stratified world that is inperpetual strife for reasons not necessary to survive or advance. As aconsequence, the man who produces remains at the tail end of the spectrumdeprived even of two square meals a day while the idle one at the top wallows inwealth by sheer manipulating the system at will.

The whole state apparatus is a happy collaborator of the rich in this game ofdeceit whereas it initially was designed to provide physical security from evil-souls, invaders and plunderers with a nominal share in produce for the service.Though administrative and judicial structures promise equal treatment in law, inpractice however, these are increasingly shedding their neutral posture whenthe state is going openly in favour of the resourceful and musclemen. Thepowerful is at the neck of less powerful to gain bigger share in the pound of fleshin the market of butchers, extolling the virtues of competition while at times thedeprived ones are victims of both. If someone joins the ranks of butchersthemselves, the system is happy to welcome. The deprived man winks in awe andthanks his fate for mere survival by chance.

This situation has not come in a day. It is the outcome of a long journey. The

present phase of structural transformation of global economy is a naturalculmination of the path that began its journey with industrial revolution takingshape for historical reasons first in Britain, followed by other nations in Europe,with a common legacy of colonial expropriation. Mercantile capital had pushedthem to plunder other lands with all underhand means at their command that oneacquires from professions of ease, perhaps for want of strong communitysupervision in their social system. Indian situation had differed from European onein this respect that saved the day for it to some extant despite odds and thecountry did not embark on foreign jaunts for plunder as a path for advancement.

Deceit, treachery, outright murders and armed invasions were the weapons of

these European invaders for the trade. This was done all with single-minded zeal.They continued to flourish at the cost of millions after millions from subject landsloosing their hearth and homes. These traders drew upon the tremendoussurpluses extracted heartlessly from colonised nations of the world with sheerforce of a brute and treachery. Neither this was necessary, nor inevitable in termsof time. Humanity could easily have survived and progressed without this darkchapter in its history. But it did not. Reasons were specific. If Indians and Chinesedid survive in history without this ruthlessness laced with treachery on othernations, the Europeans did not bring anything extra-ordinary to the richness ofhumanity either, except perpetual strife and debasement.

Europeans brought untold humiliation and misery to their own populations alongwith death to millions after millions in occupied lands. Claims apart, bloodshed orviolence as a method can never make one progressive and civilised, better thanothers. Still, they claimed both. It is true that European powers did succeed insubjugating the entire African, Australian, American and South Asian countries forlong periods by such deceit and repression. In North America and Australia thewhole indigenous populations were ruthlessly exterminated and foundation fornew white nations of European origin was laid on this score. African and Indianslaves were yoked to produce wealth for these new settlers. Natural resources ofthe subject nations were ploughed in to grind the wheels of its industries with acaptive market at hand in these lands of subjugation.

Industrial mode necessarily produces individualism

However, the worst that industrialisation heaps on a living society is the cult ofindividualism as a philosophy and way of life. This mode centring on industry and


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commerce generates necessarily an insidious philosophy with individualism as itscore that brings the very social fabric to ruin. Social man is sought to be turnedinto a selfish brute perpetually at the neck of his fellow beings the very nextmoment one feels powerful.

Studies substantiate that it was industrial revolution, which had provided thematerial ground to fashion individualism as a systematic philosophy withindividual, in contrast to his family and community as the focal point of interest.Industry needed an independent worker, free from all social, psychological/emotional affiliations and family encumbrances for a concentrated productionspiral to his or her best with least possible obligations in exchange. Its basic unitfor production was crafted as a free individual, though in a chain combination,still an individual to contribute.

With industrial mode, individualism is a necessary by-product. This society canhardly afford. Let us for a moment recollect here that mere stable property inprivate mode exercised collectively by family-labour earlier during pre-industrialphase could not give shape to individualism as a philosophy, different from theimportance of individual in a community setting it had earlier. It is though true

that individual interest had started taking shape much earlier in human historybut it could not give birth to individualism prior to the growth of industrial-commercial nexus as the driving force for its growth.

Neither this individualism withered away substantially in Soviet Union merely withthe abolition of private property, having industrial mode at the centre of socialproduction for long 74 years of experiment in socialist construction. Rather,individualism worked more perniciously even within the portals of communistparty there and almost in all other so-called socialist countries withoutexception. This is emphasised not to plead in any manner for private property butto clear chaff from the grain and pinpoint the real culprit for this evil of

individualism in society. Private property right had helped the trend to grow fastin this direction.

Individualism as an insidious philosophy, necessarily generated by industrial-commercial paradigm of development has wrought the very social fabric to ruin.The process of dehumanisation has brought the society to its knees. Alienation ofman has reached a stage of unbearable proportion to tolerate. It is nearlyimpossible for any one to justify the existence of these evil effects of the presentday capital-based productive system in the society. Neither it is possible to bypassthese evil effects in the long run, keeping the system intact. These effects canonly be effaced by replacing the base and then releasing a sustained cultural

counter move.With the passing of industrial capital in importance today into a highly atomisedform of financial transactions, mainly speculative in nature, to gather highestpossible returns at the earliest, individualism is bound to take a form of crashindividualism, as is the situation in western societies while in other countries,including India it is raising its menacing head. This emerging situation strikes atthe very root of social thinking and behaviour, playing havoc with social practice.Erstwhile socialist camp was found wanting in countering this new emerging trendsince its material base with industrialisation at its core was conducive enough tosuch a growth of individualistic mindset. Despite laws to the contrary, it gavefillip to grab social property and misuse of ones position in hierarchy for self.Administrative measures are hardly its cure.

In an atmosphere of intense insecurity as a result of scarcity-abundance duality,man normally turns hostile to his or her fellow beings for survival. It leaves the


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society in perpetual strife as its social roots. There is hardly anything left tosupport a system that demolishes the very foundation of a just society and strikesas its social roots. In the circumstance, it is nearly impossible for anyone to justifythe existence of these evil effects of the present capital-based productive system.Neither it is possible to bypass these effects in the long run, keeping the presentsystem intact.

With such parameters, the change in social relations based on a different set isthe first requirement of the day, despite what happened to the experiment inreshaping these relations by the former Soviet camp during a better part oftwentieth century or what Chinese and Vietnamese are doing in the name ofsocialism even today. This is the one lesson that can be ignored only at ourcommon peril.

another sacred cow

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