rica, manufacturing experience came through
a mix of migrant individuals, colonialism and
change is necessary but not sufficient to drive
economic growth. He writes: ‘The direction
of causation does run in both directions but
it is strong and positive only in countries
where there are virtuous circles of cumula-
tive causation that reflect success in devel-
opment’ (p 102). In his formulation on the
learning experience from colonialism for in-
dustrialization, he writes: ‘… colonialism
was also a source of manufacturing experi-
ence, from the British in India, Malaysia,
Egypt and China, from the Dutch in Indo-
nesia, or from the Japanese in Manchuria
(China), Korea and Taiwan. For South Af-
T he book under review opens with a con-
ceptual framework for understanding
local governance as it flows through the re-
gions of good governance, decentralization and
reforms in India. He has reiterated the fact
that there is a vital need to shift the focus
from ‘government’ to ‘governance’, there-by,
emphasizing decentralization rather than del-
egation.
The author talks about Mahatma Gandhi’s
dream of creating economically and politi-
cally self-reliant networks of villages to meet
the basic needs of the people. He stressed on
increasing the productivity of the local re-
PANCHAYATI RAJ
By Kuldeep Mathur
Oxford India Short Introductions, New Delhi,
2013, pp. 224, `195.00
sources to escalate export and reduce their
dependence on import. A very significant
issue of the dominance of the Centre and
the State Government, thereby, reducing
The Book Review / July 2014
eral paradigm, they are going much further
in questioning the whole edifice of orthodox
foreign firms.’ In the transformation of the
global capitalist economy, it is absolutely
right to see the dialectical and contradictory
role of colonialism than remain content with
mere condemnation of colonialism.
On the increasing role (catching up) of
the erstwhile developing economies in the
making of the global capitalist economy and
its future consequences, though Nayyar
makes an admirable critique of neo-liberal-
ism, he remains orthodox in his understand-
ing of the key role of ecology in the current
global context. His view of development re-
mains trapped in the orthodox notion of de-
velopment in terms of increasing industrial-
ization, rising GDP and per capita income.
The entry of ecology in the development lit-
erature has fundamentally questioned this
orthodox paradigm of development. Nayyar
makes a brief mention in one paragraph of
the environmental consequences of the de-
velopment experience of the developing
economies. If the threat of global climate
change and global warming has to be ad-
dressed, environment cannot be just one add
on chapter in alternative paths of develop-
ment. Ecology has to be made central to
the analytical structure. It is this absence
of ecology in Nayyar’s otherwise superb
book that leads to his failure to see the im-
portance of an alternative path of develop-
ment being pursued in some of the Latin
American countries such as Bolivia, Ecua-
dor, Nicaragua and Uruguay. These coun-
tries are not only questioning the neo-lib-
A Gigantic Framework
Pooja Paswan
their role as a secondary organization, is high-
lighted.
The author then traces the trajectory of
the evolution of the Panchayati Raj system
as we see today from community develop-
ment programme to the 73rd Amendment
via the recommendations of the Balwant Rai
Mehta committee and the formation of the
three tier structure of panchayats. It elabo-
rately discusses the different perspectives of
the Congress and the Janta Party on
democractic decentralization from 1957 to
1990.
The chapter on the institutional struc-
ture and election mechanism of panchayats
points out the significance of Gram Sabha
in the districts and how it has been used to
models of development that are bereft of ecol-
ogy. Many of them label their path of de-
velopment eco-socialism which is a critique
also of the old style socialism that mirrored
capitalism in its uncritical focus on indus-
trialization.
Nayyar’s justifiable praise of the role of
the enabling state in the march of the na-
tions towards industrialization can be fruit-
fully re-employed to the enabling role of the
state in ecologically oriented paths of devel-
opment. It is undeniable that the market
mechanism with focus on profit cannot be
successfully used in a systematic and com-
prehensive fashion to build an ecologically
compatible economy. This does not mean
that individual companies cannot pursue
ecologically oriented modes of economic ac-
tivities and where they do, such initiatives
need to be welcomed. However, a compre-
hensive move towards ecologically oriented
paths of development cannot be accommo-
dated in the capitalist mode of accumula-
tion. If works such as Nayyar’s encourage new
generations of economists to build upon such
contributions to develop models of eco-so-
cialist economies in the developing econo-
mies, then they can aim at going beyond
the goal of catching up with the old indus-
trialized countries.
Pritam Singh is Professor in the Department of
Accounting, Finance and Economics at the Oxford
Brookes University.
facilitate centrally sponsored schemes. It also
discusses the importance of mobilizing local
support through the panchayati raj elections
and the increases in the participation of dif-
ferent communities of SC/ST and OBC
through reservation of seats. This issue has
been explicitly dealt with in the book. It
endorses the reservation of seats for disad-
vantaged sections of society, particularly
women, to address the problem of gender
disparity in India by expanding the demo-
cratic base of women. It deals with the struc-
tural constraints of participation in decision
making by women, dalits and other tribal
groups. It explores the wide ambit of the
Panchayat Extension to Schedule Area
(PESA) which imparts the tribal groups with
31

legislations to protect their natural resources
and act as a stakeholders in their develop-
ment. The chapter illustrates the incidence
of the tussle between multinational corpo-
rations backed by the government and the
tribals’ attachment towards their natural re-
sources. It highlights the dilemma of the
tribals, who when left stranded by their own
government against the war with the MNCs,
took up arms in what has now come to be
known as the Naxalite Movement.
The author explores the issue of financial
mobilization of the Panchayati Raj system to
highlight the role of the machinery provided
by the constitutional framework such as the
State Finance Commission and the National
Finance Commission. He further discusses the
reluctance of the state to devolve financial
powers to the local government through the
District Planning Committees to make them
as autonomous as possible.
The penultimate chapter of the book
highlights the existence and importance of par-
allel organizations such as NGOs or civil so-
cieties in the process of democratic decentrali-
zation at the village level. It also acknowledges
the influence of caste panchayat which miti-
gates the purpose of the constitutional man-
date.
The book provides in conclusion an intro-
spective outlook to the gigantic framework of
the Panchayati Raj system. The author has
raised vital questions pointing out the lacunae
in the functioning of the executive and the leg-
islature. He has also provided meaningful in-
sights and suggestions to bridge the gap be-
tween the administration and the aspirations.
Pooja Paswan is Assistant Professor, Public Ad-
ministration, Department of Political Science, Jamia
Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
32
Parodying A Reality
Rumki Basu
T he back page write up on this book reads
thus: ‘A compendium in Prose and Verse
of Crimes perpetrated after office hours on
sundry aspects of economy and society by a
lapsed social scientist in the cause of expand-
ing the horizons and shaping the values of
young and unpromising scholars.’
A major part of this book was written over
the year 2000-01. Many of the ‘perpetrated
crimes’ (specifically parts or versions of Chap-
ters 1-6, 9-10, 12 & 22) appeared in The
Hindu Sunday Magazine. Economic Offences
a collection of 22 pieces is a satirical social
commentary on contemporary India (‘India
Shining’ or ‘India Rising’, as the case may
be) employing parody for ventilating numer-
ous ‘dissatisfactions’ with the world around,
but with just one end in view: that the young
recipient minds, may, with an unique com-
bination of intelligence and morality learn to
comprehend, cope, overcome and eventually
succeed in life. Amen!
The book is haunted by the ghosts of sev-
eral men—but most of all by P.G. Wodehouse
who is undoubtedly the author’s friend, phi-
losopher and guide. What is the conscious
design driving the production of these liter-
ary pieces? Are they the pompous outpour-
ings of the ‘post Midnight’s Children genera-
tion’ who are too old not to feel an almost
embittered frustration over the gradual disso-
ECONOMIC OFFENCES: A COMPENDIUM OF
CRIMES IN PROSE AND VERSE
By S. Subramanian
Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2013,
pp.159, `495.00
lution of their youthful dreams for India? Or
are they a depressed and ill tempered econo-
mist’s Wodehousian means (admittedly not
avantgarde) of coming to terms with India’s
postcolonial condition? The reader can de-
cide.
Many of the pieces in this book may ap-
pear dated today, some refer to specific events
such as constitutional review, unsavoury ar-
mament deals, match fixing in cricket etc.
which are now memories of things past. I per-
sonally am of the opinion that any time is a
relevant time for dealing with national afflic-
tions such as casteism, communalism, region-
alism and corruption.
In the last decade or so, certain sections
of India’s elite have come to consider it as a
matter of right for India to be recognized, in
quick succession, as a superpower, a perma-
nent member of the U.N. Security Council
and number one in the International Cricket
ratings. But are these truly the elements that
ought to go into the making of the Idea of
India? Economic Offences affords the reader an
opportunity to ponder on what is the most
patriotic ambition an Indian citizen can en-
tertain for the country in the 21st century.
Read on, and you will know.
The Fuzzy Thinker (the author) is incred-
ibly funny in introducing deadly serious is-
sues like globalization, human development,
social capital, taxation, inflation or the con-
cept of poverty. His sense of fun dances
through in both prose and verse time and
again to entertain the reader.
The rationale for writing this book has
been summed up in these uncannily percep-
tive lines: ‘These are fraught times to live
through, with so much pressure on you to
succeed, as you will recall from your hourly
experience of Mummy’s hysterical promise to
throttle, first, you, and, then, herself because
of her inability to live down the tragedy of
the news that one of your cousins has already
passed the SAT exam, a second has crammed
everything on offer from three separate tuto-
rial coaching centers, and a third one’s father
is fully prepared to bribe his son’s way through
engineering college.’
To all ‘abysmal, uncaring, shameless in-
considerate blots on the family’, the book is
value for money. The reviewer’s personal
favourite is chapter 17 for the humorous verses
and the unmatched rhyming couplets in ‘An
A to Z of the Lives and Times of Economists
in Jolly Rhymes’. Buy the compendium and
enjoy the verses.
Rumki Basu is a Professor in the Department of
Political Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
The Book Review / July 2014