Industrialisation and Agriculture

I reside in West Bengal. While you all have been shouting about reservations, the greatest crisis here has been the civil war like situation in a village known as Nandigram. I am not sure if you have been following the events, so I will go into a brief history.

It seems to have started with the first experiment by the Left Front government on the Special Economic Zones policy in Singur. Despite a strong protest by the farmers, the State government handed over the plots to the Tata Group. Just within days after things quite settled down in Singur, news broke around that agricultural land in Nandigram were to be brought into private hands to bring up a chemical hub over there. Then we witnessed one of the stiffest resistances offered by the peasant fraternity in recent times (although it often appeared to be a conflict among the CPI(M) supporters, the Trinamool Congress activists and the police).

The government, at last, has yielded to the pressure, calling off the chemical hub project in Nandigram, and then in Haldia. Recently, they have announced a package for the landless peasants, promising them jobs in the Tata Motors factory coming up there and some compensation money.

The measures the government planned to encourage industrialisation in the State have received a big jolt. This has brought to the fore a host of potential problems for the whole country. These I shall put down in block letters:

1.INDIA IS AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY. BUT FOR THE ADVANCE OF OUR ECONOMY WE NEED INDUSTRIALISATION. WE MAY UNDERSTAND BETTER. WE ARE TODAY’S YOUTH. THE RISING DEGREES OF UNEMPLOYMENT CAN BE THRALLED ONLY BY INDUSTRIALISATION.

2.BUT, JUST LOOK AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN. THE SUPPLY OF CROPS IN THE MARKET IS FAR LESS THAN ENOUGH. THE PRODUCTIVITY OF CROPS IS TOO LESS FOR A COUNTRY LIKE INDIA. LAST SEASON, WE HAD TO IMPORT WHEAT FOR DOMESTIC PURPOSES. IN SUCH A SITUATION, WE CAN HARDLY AFFORD TO GIVE AWAY AGRO-PLOTS FOR INDUSTRY.

3.THE GOVERNMENT HAS ASSURED SECTIONS OF THE PEASANTS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE FACTORIES COMING UP. HERE TOO, THERE ARE TWO PROBLEMS. FIRSTLY, THE FACTORIES WILL BE UNDER PRIVATE CONTROL, AND THE INVESTORS ARE NOT LIABLE TO ANY SUCH CONDITIONS. SECONDLY, INDUSTRIAL LABOUR IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO PEASANTRY. EVEN IF THE PEASANTS UNDERGO TRAINING, THEY WILL NOT BE AS EFFICIENT AS THE PROFESSIONAL LABOURERS.

4.THIS CRISIS HAS REFLECTED THE NEED OF FURTHER PLANNING FOR DISTRIBUTION OF LAND. ANALYSIS OF LAND POSSESSIONS SAYS THAT, MORE THAN 70% OF PEASANTS ARE EITHER LANDLESS OR POSSESS LAND OF AREA LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO 2.5 ACRES. IN WEST BENGAL, THE FIGURE IS AROUND THE 75% MARK. AGAIN THE LANDLESS PEASANTS EITHER CULTIVATE LANDS ON LEASE OR ARE BONDED LABOURERS IN FIELDS. THIS MEANS THAT, TAKEOVER OF LAND TAKES PLACE FROM THE HOLDERS OF LARGE PIECES OF LAND, BUT ROBS A LARGE SECTION OF THE RURAL POPULATION FROM THE MEANS OF SURVIVAL.

These are the consequences of errors in the formative years of our nation. Now, the State is bent on imitating China, talking of Special Economic Zones; it would have been better had the predecessors thought about Special Agricultural Zones. We know that while a plot for industry is chosen, they always look for cheap transport routes for the raw material to reach there. Here I won’t comment on Nandigram, but would like to draw special mention on Singur. The land overtaken there was very, very fertile. It was quite an injustice, but I think it was the transport bit that influenced the Tatas. Now, had the pre-1990 governments been farsighted enough to plan special zones with cooperative farming, supplemented by a State controlled agro market, thus converting subsistence agriculture from a means of survival to a profession, we could have solved this problem, along with bonus benefits like increase in productivity and price control. Well, at this point of time, it seems a little too difficult to introduce such plans, because our economic and political system has got into a set pattern. But I warn you, if not dealt with, these problems will be dangerous for the nation.