The New Bihar
Author: NK Singh, Nicholas Stern (edited)
Publisher: Harper, Rs 699
In this collection of articles interspersed with exquisite Mithila paintings and edited by NK Singh and Nicholas Stern, well-known economists write about the transformation brought about in Bihar under the JD(U)-BJP Government. However, a series of incidents, particularly after the BJP’s exit from the alliance, doesn’t augur well for the State.
The “jungle raj” in Bihar was an inevitable outcome of the perpetual deterioration in administration and the overall social ambience since the late 1960s. With the exception of the first Chief Minister, Sri Krishna Sinha, and some of the later ones like Binodanand Jha, Karpoori Thakur, etc, Bihar never really had an honest and effective Chief Minister. Many ministers created their coterie of loyal and dishonest bureaucrats on the basis of caste and were indifferent as administrators. Worse, the honest and efficient officials were harassed and sidelined.
The iconic Bihar official Abhas Kumar Chatterjee had pointed out in 1981 how honest officials have become “meaningless blobs” in the system. While resigning from the IAS, he mentioned in 1992, “Of all the decadence and failures that characterise governmental activity in the country, we have unfortunately the worst in Bihar”. Amartya Sen accepts that while Bihar’s problems were monumental, “the breakdown of the previous model of stagnation and persistent deprivation must be seen as hugely encouraging signs”.
Kaushik Basu notes that Bihar’s inheritance of a public debt of 42 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (2005) is handicapped, and suggests more “innovative methods to finance and implement change”, and pleads for an “enabling atmosphere for business and enterprise”. Montek Singh Ahluwalia suggests that if Bihar “achieves nine per cent growth over 20 years, and its population decelerates to 1.7 per cent, it would cross the national average”, while Alakh N Sharma suggests that 50 per cent of Bihar’s population being under the age of 19 would help its growth. lord Meghnad Desai develops “a slightly formal relationship between governance, growth and equity”, and attempts to “distinguish between governance which cares about social equity but not growth and governance”. Arvind Panagariya dwells on migration as a key factor in the transition of an economy from “poverty to prosperity” while the outmigration from Bihar to other parts of India being highest, indicates unavailablity of jobs.
Shankar Acharya shows the damaging impact of Freight Price Equalisation policy (West Bengal’s complaint since Nehru-BC Roy’s days), a classic case of a ‘secular’ Union Government’s crass parochialism. Colonial tenurial relations were indeed “oppressive deadweight” but Acharya does not explain why they were not reformed.
Years back, HB Martin (ICS, Bihar) had observed, “Most of the inhabitants of Bihar with whom I had come in contact lived a life of simplicity beyond the imagination of anyone from the Western world who had not seen it for himself. life was hard, often squalid, but was met with a kind of dogged stoicism”. In much of rural Bihar, that is the reality even now. Bihar’s poverty/underdevelopment is also caused by a thoroughly unsatisfactory agrarian situation, necessitating an urgent land reform. To do well, Bihar’s politicians have to shed their obsession with caste and deceptive secularism, transfers/posting, before concentrating on agricultural production, fisheries, industries, tourism and education.
Deepak Parekh examines the shortage of electricity and suggests its augmentation fast, while Tarun Das calls for entrepreneurship. Pavan Varma sketches Bihar’s rich cultural past, although without mentioning Mandana Mishra (philosopher) and literary stalwarts like Vidyapati (Maithili), Saratchandra Chatterjee, Bibhuti Bhushan Mukhopadhaya, Bonophul (Bengali), etc.
Many authors, like George Yeo (Singapore), have mentioned Bihar’s rich cultural legacy, and suggested a revival of the ancient Nalanda University, destroyed by Turkish invader Bakhtiyar Khilji, pushing Bihar into the dark ages for centuries. Unfortunately at present, the Nalanda project faces a range of hurdles such as the unexplained role of the Ministry of External Affairs, hegemony of the NRIs and foreigners, absence of any scholar specialising in the Nalanda tradition, unauthorised appointments of candidates with doubtful credentials to academic/administrative post.
The reviewer is professor of history, University of Delhi