|
Open Page
Need for all-inclusive development model
ARVIND NARAYANAN
“India is a developing nation”, “Our nation is in the path of development”.... In the last decade or so we have heard these words a gazillion times from our politicians, industrialists, businessmen and common men alike. I have heard this D-word, “development”, so many times in different contexts and flavours that it makes me wonder what the real meaning of this word is in the context of a country.
Does it just mean more dispensable income in the hands of sizeable percentage of citizens? Does it mean better roads with a lot of snazzy cars zipping past? Does it mean access to quality life that encompasses material comforts, human health and environmental health equally? Does it mean progress of a few at the cost of the rest including our own earth? Too many questions on the D-word! But if India is any benchmark, answers to the last two questions are resounding NO and YES.
Wrong priorities
In trying to ape the West, India is getting its priorities totally wrong. The West developed sharply during the industrial era and at that time, our earth had bountiful supply of raw materials and natural resources and above all, earth was capable of sustaining the wrath of development.
In a span of a few decades, required raw materials were unearthed to provide for the West’s development. Such development is thoroughly invalid in today’s context. In the wake of global warming threats and rising temperatures, development cannot compromise environment. Environment has to be inclusive in our D-word and hence we cannot afford to make the mistakes that the West committed.
We Indians are sacrificing our environment and people for the sake of this development modelled on western countries. We drive away our indigenous people, tribes and cultures to build energy intensive IT parks and office spaces. We acquire people’s land, give them pittance as compensation, chop off trees and forests and build our IT parks, flyovers and airports in an architectural style that is least eco-friendly.
We develop by increasing the gap between the poor and the rich while that very act of development just caters to the rich few. We place more and more gas-guzzling cars on our narrow roads and pollute our own living spaces, mainly the air we breathe, with toxic chemicals and the sounds we hear with incessant honking.
We have moved on to use plastic the way the West does. The plastic we throw on our streets not only pollutes our environment but also acts as a health hazard to earth’s non-human beings. Today we use plastic as an elixir, just for all mundane things we do in our lives. We have forgotten our eco-friendly practices like buying groceries in a cotton bag or selling flowers in moisture-laden banana leaf.
Ironies
In addition to all above, we are getting entangled in never-ending ironies. We complain about inflation but keep destroying our arable lands to the extent that we depend on food imports to feed our populace. We whine about hotter summers but keep manufacturing and using energy inefficient air-conditioners that only compound our problems.
All said and done, India has to develop as we have lived for centuries without good amenities and infrastructure. It is India’s time now to break the shackles and provide its citizens a better chance at life. India has got the end-goal right — development which ensures improved quality of life for the citizens. The problem is not the end-goal but our path to that finishing line. While traversing that path we have to have our own development model — a model that will include all men, women and environment alike.
What we need is an all-inclusive development model supported by indigenous technologies that do not necessarily ape the West. An all-inclusive development path will eternally bear sweet fruits in the long run. We can learn from our own history — imbibe the positives, shun the mistakes and build on our strength. We must be happy that our nation is in the path of development but we must also understand the meaning of development before we end up crashing face-front inside a deep hole.
arvindn@gmail.com
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Open Page
|
