Webinar Summary – India is Broken: A People Betrayed, Independence to Today
On Tuesday, February 27, the Boston University Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center) hosted Ashoka Mody, Boston University alum and Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor in International Economic Policy at Princeton University, for the first event of the Spring 2024 Global Economic Governance Book Talk series. In discussion with Neva Goodwin, GDP Center Alumni Advisory Board Member and Distinguished Fellow of the Boston University Economics in Context Initiative, Mody gave an overview of his 2023 book, “India is Broken: A People Betrayed, Independence to Today.” The book explores the economic history of India through the lens of public goods and social accountability, shedding light on what he sees as a breakdown of norms as well as highlighting shifts that will be necessary for India to change course towards a more sustainable and equitable governance system.
When India gained its independence in 1947, it began with secular democratic values and a sense of national unity. However, growth and development were elusive from the start. In particular, underemployment—the inability to find enough work—was a serious problem, and it remains so today, except that the numbers have grown manifold. The erosion of democracy has also meant that politicians, while talking often of more and better jobs, have yet to address this central developmental objective.
Mody explained that there are three interconnected themes that provide the framing for his book. First, over its 75 years of independence, India has struggled to employ its large young population. He explains that the idea of demographic dividend, where a young population will power a growth process, will only work if they are able to secure dignified jobs, with fair compensation, job security and a path to upward mobility. Mody explained further that India has been unable to provide this kind of meaningful employment to its large young population, and he is of the view that achieving that prospect is unlikely in the near future without systemic change.
The second theme is the lack of public goods, such as education, health, functioning cities, gender equality, a justice system and a clean environment, to name a few. He noted that from the time of the Industrial Revolution to today, no nation has seen sustained development without mass education and gender equality, and that India is yet to achieve this across the country.
Third, he drew a connection between the failure of public goods, especially environmental breakdown, and a lack of social norms and public accountability. He characterized this as a case of moral failure and explained that there needs to be a sense of social and ethical value in contributing to the common good; without this, he argued, institutions functioning for the common good, like the justice system, cannot deliver their intended benefits. Mody explained that in India, this breakdown became evident in the mid- to late 1960s and continued with market liberalization. The lack of public goods or a sense of public purpose led to excessive individualism rather than broad development and social improvements.
While the macroeconomic and social conditions that Mody described suggest a dire situation, he and Goodwin explored opportunities to shift the tides. Citing insights from E. F. Schumacher’s book “Small is Beautiful,” Goodwin asked whether there is hope in rebuilding in small pockets, and whether, instead of a focusing on scaling up solutions, there can be efforts to replicate success. Mody explained that he draws inspiration from the United States’ ability to foster communities as the primary school vehicle for civic engagement. He explained that the goal should be to create citizens that have a common purpose – and once this mindset is established, the norms will follow. He acknowledged that, while he does not prescribe polices to solve the issues that he has laid out, the book aims to convey how the creation and implementation of any policy depends on the communities’ ethical values and priorities, like mass education, gender equality or environmental protections.
To illustrate this challenge for India, Mody used the case of the country’s extensive river system. While the country has strong environmental laws, their implementation has been weak, leading to dumping of household and industrial waste in rivers, illegal sand mining and development on riverfronts. In pursuit of mega construction projects, the country’s rivers have suffered biodiversity loss, shrinking flood planes and some riverbeds drying up all together. He explained that moral breakdown has allowed these projects to continue despite the negative impacts they will have on future generations.
Mody was asked by an audience member what the impetus for change in a population would be, and how people could be motivated to adopt community-based priorities. Mody explained that while there is no perfect answer, there are examples of success to model from within India. He noted, for example, that the state of Kerala has had community-based self-government for the past few decades, and in this time has seen high achievements in education and health, as well improvements in gender equality compared to other states. He hoped that seeing examples of successes within the country will provide a foundation for replicating these kinds of models in other communities.
Another audience member asked Mody whether the rapid development across India, in the form of major highways, malls and other massive infrastructure projects, will mean continued degradation of social norms or an inflection point towards a more sustainable system. In responding, Mody emphasized that while the development India is experiencing is not a bad thing, from a public policy standpoint, it has minimized the importance of mass education, functioning cities and public health. He added that while malls and highways suggest a sense of glamor, they do not reflect the reality for large swathes of the population. He illustrated this by citing the agricultural sector, which has increased by 70 million people over the past five years, employing around 45 percent of the workforce today when the development process is supposed to take people out of agriculture and into industrial and urban jobs. By contrast, only 5 million people out of a workforce of 600 million are employed in the information technology sector.
Finally, Mody was asked which economic theories and frameworks could be leveraged to help policymakers better understand and promote the role of public goods, especially considering that other developing countries are also facing issues with insufficient public goods. Goodwin proposed that economist Paul Streeten’s work on basic needs could provide an economic framework for the discussion, and for his part, Mody added that the basic needs framework leads to moral questions concerning what should be included in the list, which he expands to include needs like nutrition and good neighborhoods. He explains that from purely an economic view, there isn’t a framework or policy that can capture the deeper issues that he has explored, but that there needs to be a broader social commitment to achieving social and development outcomes for the entire population.
*
Never miss an update: Subscribe to the Global Economic Governance Newsletter.