I have read two of her socio/political books, The Algebra of Infinite Justice and The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire. Both are very well written as is expected from an author of her stature. Her tongue is sharp and the vivid picture she paints about the capability of our government for repression of its own people in the stories about the Narmada Bachao Andolan and the dirty world of big business behind it, the IMF, the World Bank and most depressing of all the Indian Supreme court's cavalier judgements in the matter leaves one with a lot of questions. Questions about our way of life and about the crazy comfort zone that we the privileged few live in. And most of all one is left with a sense of helplessness, of frustration and of anger. All this she gets right, spot on.
However, on reading both of the books one cannot but disagree with her views on globalization and private enterprise. It just feels that she does not get it at all. She is critical of the government in almost every paragraph of her writings. However in the same breathe she is also critical of globalization and privatization. I am not claiming that privatization is without its evils. However for me it is the lesser of the two evils where the second happens to be complete government control. I do not want to go into why private enterprise is better. It has been argued and documented by better people before. However just for quick examples look at the telecom industry in India, compare it with the times when about 7 years ago one used to wait for late night calls to ones home (and they still used to cost more than what a prime time call today costs) and you ll know. Her commentary assumes that private business and earning money is inherently vulgar and evil. It is hard for me to digest why she has such an irrational point of view. If one does not approve of private enterprise and also not approve of government enterprise, what is the alternative left, whom do you trust? Should we go back to being a hunter-gatherer society? I remember a certain IITB professor once saying that the industrial revolution has been the single biggest mistake in the history of mankind. Maybe Arundhati Roy will also support that view.
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But you make your petty little phone calls while standing on the corpses of those unfortunate millions that globalization/privatization leaves out. Privatization is for juveniles-- a quick, autoerotic fix for the privileged few. The hard work of social justice cannot even be perceived by the morally immature (e.g. capitalist pigs), as you have amply demonstrated.
Don't confuse your empowered immaturity with progress. And don't suggest that social justice has anything to do with a reversion to pre-neolithic technology. Face it. You simply fear a loss of personal privilege. Social justice might take your phone away. A fate worse than death caused by poverty, eh?
But aren't you also socialism with social justice? All the decades of socialistic policies in India only succeeded in keeping the poor poor. Oh! And the phone call, that is not petty. Think of the poor who can now afford to call home for a rupee a minute. Think of the same person 5 years back not being able to make the same call because the tariffs were 10 times what they are today. Think of the low income groups who can now use a phone as means for better communication and business. Phones are not just a luxury instrument, they are enablers for economic activity. Also I am not suggesting that social justice is a reversion to pre-neolithic times. The point in question is that if one does not trust a government to do the right thing, if one does not trust private enterprise to do the right thing then the only option that I can think of is "to each his own".. search your own food, fight for it on your own, etc etc.
so you like to have easy, secured results than to go deep inside the issues that haunt the country? that's not so easy neeraj. As Roy said in a recent interview, "We are living in times when to be ineffective is to support the status quo (which no doubt suits some of us). And being effective comes at a terrible price." read this interview too.In my opinion as a marxist-leninist, i think Roy is right by not suggesting a model other than private / public enteprises(how simplified it's for you!)as that's what is her limitation. a truely agonised mind of the happenings around can only come to that extent. morever, masses of the country evolve an alternative model only by their struggle and it can't be some X or Y's personal wish or idea.
i think it is not accurate to give merit to the new system on the basis of IT parks and better telecommunications. the new system brings a complete change in values about the role of a state. india was a welfare state that was supposed to care for its lesser privileged citizens. but now it is withdrawing from welfare activities like PDS shrugging any responsibility for its own people. moreover it is aggravating their condition by subsidising "free" enterprise using the money that was meant for them. Not to say that the status quo was good and fair. but replacing the present by a more horrible future is change for the worse. we should learn to look beyond the facade of shiny malls and surface well-being. we should ask questions like whom does this new system benefit and who are becoming more powerful in all these processes ultimately.
on its own, without any comparisons to "socialism" or "welfare state", do you think the new system is more democratic? do you think the US is truly democratic?
Anish: We are all aware of the stupendous success of the PDS, aren't we? :-) If one wants to argue for greater government control then it is one stellar example you might want to omit :-) The road to hell, it is said, is paved with nobel intentions and the PDS proves it.
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