Whither Rural?

Earlier this week, I participated in a multilogue on the subject at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA). It was a diverse group of academicians, activists, anthropologists, economists, politicians, sociologists and practitioners (businesses, cooperatives & not-for-profits). Some of the discussions were also on education, as one part of the purpose of this consultation was to reinvent IRMA in the new context.

These are some random scribbles from my Note Book from those deliberations. I thought this would make an apt Independence Day Post…

• How do we define rural? Basis geography? Basis Census? Basis activity? Or is rural just metaphorical? Is there a “physical” rural, and a “mindset” rural? Or is it simply a rural – urban continuum?
• Agriculture is a defining part of rural, even though it is under 45% of rural GDP now. Is there an agrarian crisis? Financial viability of agriculture, impact of climate change, growth relative to other sectors given that 50% of workforce earns livelihood from agriculture… Is “marketisation” the reason for the decay of Indian agriculture?

• Is mass urbanisation the only route to development? Will “rural” exist, in due course? Is it good? Shall we remain silent spectators? Or shall we take a position and shape the course?
• Can India survive, let alone thrive, when one part “shines” and another part “burns”? Coining terms like “inclusive growth” doesn’t mean we found answers to the problem”…
• What’s rural people’s own perspective on “what’s good life”? Is “economics” big part of that definition? Or something else? How do we explain happiness of “poor” people? Does “economics” and “data” orientation miss the “reality”? How do we factor “aspirations” in?
• India being such a diverse country, which are the institutions that help harmonise multiple & conflicting perspectives? How do we build “people’s institutions”?
• By following a “global” model of economic and materialistic development, are we destroying the culture and languages of the tribals? Is this irreversible?
• Development process around the world displaced rural people from their resources. Government does create some opportunities for these people to “survive”. Should India follow the same model? How do we create significantly more value from the resources that people possess? State? Market? People’s Institutions? Or a Hybrid?

• Are cooperatives people’s institutions indeed in spirit, when they are dominated by a few “politically strong”? Is that the only way democracy works?
• In India, “politics” is largely rural and “economics” is largely urban oriented. Why is economics not rural oriented, if we are a democracy?
• Bargaining power of the poor & small is enhanced through cooperatives and other forms of collectives. Can’t the same power of scale, or even better outcomes, be achieved through “real” choices?

• Will technology not play a central role in rural transformation? ICT, BT, Soil & Water Quality… What are the ethics of pricing technology? How do we protect Intellectual Property, to be able to create more of it? What about the indigenous Intellectual Property?
• Is private capital (and market) the only option when State fails?
• Does market economy inevitably fail “commons”?
• What are the do’s and dont’s from various case studies of conflicts between farmers and the industry for land & water and how they were resolved? What are the creative solutions to build sustainable livelihoods of the displaced, instead of once-off pay-outs? Do Corporates tend to always acquire more land than they need, because it is a limited resource?

• Should “State” oppose every form of “collective” if the “demands” are beyond the current laws, even if they are “just”? Are we ignoring the role of “Sangharsh” from the Gandhian framework, even for the constructive outcomes? Doesn’t history tell us that every segment got into the mainstream of the society only through struggle? Do we therefore need new theories of democracy, violence?

• On average, Government spends Rs 500 Crores every year in each District for rural development. Isn’t this a wasted resource, without first building the management capacity of communities and Government officers? Are we “projectifying” the country in the process, instead of deploying a “principles based governance”?
• If “corruption” is a better way delivery Vs any management system, how do deal with it? Can we reduce corruption by decentralising discretion, and let the market forces deal with social forces at “personal” level (as opposed to the “impersonal” level when it is centralised)
• Management is not just raising factor productivity and efficiency; it is an attempt to raise the outcome of entire human endeavour…

• With 80% of all new seats created in professional higher education in Private Sector, is access to better education increasingly getting “reserved” for the privileged few? Can we let the State get away from this vital responsibility?
• What’s “progressive education”? That which enables equitable and sustainable society? That which transforms human beings into someone who won’t get sucked by the “system”? That which transfers passion to manage transformation? That which creates knowledge at the intersection of the traditional “disciplines”?
• What’s the role of meta-narratives and epistemology in building knowledge base about rural as well as in the process of transformation?
• Are today’s output from the “so called” leading educational institutions good simply because of the rigorous selection at the time of entry, rather than anything that’s actually done while the students are at the schools?
• Like many other elements of our society, should we blindly follow evaluation standards of Western Models? For example, why should our Academic Journals follow the hierarchy of Esoteric Problems & Exotic Models, then Exploratory Research, and finally inter-disciplinary solutions to everyday problems? Why not the other way round?
• Encouraging plurality of views is important in teaching / learning social sciences. Alternative discources, new vistas of reasoning!
• How do we create “values” among people, especially children & youth? Does it help if the awareness explicit about “what you are fighting for” and “what you are fighting against”?

• What are the rural livelihoods in the next couple of decades? How do we make them meaningful to the currently under-privileged? How do we reduce conflicting externalities (competition from resource-strong world)?
• What’s freedom? Is it quick & inexpensive access to justice and self respect for vulnerable segments of the society?