Himalayan Times (1959)

April 12 1S£9

&STSB

appeal to the masses of our people; it will lead
to the use ef our resources ofien for purposes
that are not of primary importance. It will
mean the exploitation of the profit motive in
which the individual may he interested, but not
society as a whole.

The strongest urge in the world today is
that of sooial justice and equality. The oldfeudel
system was based on the possession of land by
a few and the others living on the verge of
existence. No one commends that system today.
So also many of the systems prevalent today
have lost their hold and are not compatible with
either people's thinking or scientific advance.

The Nature Of The Task

The nature of the task that we have to
face demands a carefully planned and sc;entific
approach so as to utilise our available resources'
in the best possible way and to direct the
nation's efforts towardB our goal.

We are in the middle of ow Second Five
Year Plan and the 'ihtrd Plan looms ahead of
us. We have arrived Rt a state when this Plan
must lay down definitely the physical goals to
be reached and the manner of achieving them.
By the end of the Third Plan we hope, as our
President pointed out in his address to Parlia-
ment, that 'a solid foundation will have been
laid ior future progress in regard to our basic
industries, agricultural production and rural deve-
lopment, thus leading to self-reliant and self-
generating economy.' W*- do not expect to solve
our problems by (the end of the Third Plan and
there will be many other Five-Year Plans suc-
ceeding it, but we do aim at breaking this bar-
rier of poverty so that our under-development
may not perpetuate itself. If we succeed in that,
an I tru-i we will, tht-n we shall advance at a
more rapid pace and will be less dependent on
others.

That will involve a heavy burden, but there
is no escape from it if we are serious and deter-
mined to advance rapidly towards our objectives.

In recent months, some decisions have been
taken in rogaid to land which have evoked some
criticism. We see here the class conflict which
is inevitable whtn any major sooial change takes
"place. I am sure that We shall resolve this
eonflictKaJso peacefully and oooperatively as we
have previously resolved other such conflicts.

There is, I am convinced, no other way
but that of cooperation for our rular population.
Multi-purpose cooperatives are essential for them
and these should lead . to cooperative farming. I

do not think that collective farming is suited to
India in present circumstances and I would not
like our farmers to become. indistinguished units
in a machine. The fact we should remember i"b
that there are too many people in this country
and relatively little land. The mere fact of
controversy over these issues indicates that pro-
gress is being made and we are getting out of
the economic rule of ages.

It is not by some mere theory however
good, that we shall enthuae the masses of our
cultivators. The essential approach must be to
make them understand and cooperate and to
develop self-reliance. Hence the importance of
giving powers to the village pane hay at and the
village cooperative. The argument that they might
misuse those powers, though it may have some
force, has no real validity. The risk has to be
taken, as only thus will the people learn through
trial and error. ,

The community development movement in
India started six and a half years ago and how
rovers over 300,000 villages. This is remarkable
advance and I think that it will -produce and
to some extent is producing revolutionary results
in the country. I know well its failings, but
its successes are even more obvious. Effective
results Vill depend on the measure of the peo-
ple's association with. it. Officials and trained
personnel have importance, but the real part
will have to be played by the average farmer.
I think that a new spirit is~ spreading in our
countryside as a result of this community deve-
lopment scheme.

Whether in land or. in industry, or in the
governmental apparatus, institutional changes be-
come necessary from time to time as . functions
change, and a new set of values will replace
thoBe that have governed the old acquisitive
society based on the profit motive. The full
change-over must take time for the. problem be-
fore us is ultimately £o change the thinking and
activities of hundreds of millions of people, and
to do this democratically by their consent. But
the pace of change need not be slow' and, in-
deed, circumstances will not allow of too much
gradualness.

Picture Of Hope And Anguish

India today presents a very mixed picture
of. hope and anguish, of remarkable advances
and at the some time of inertia of a new spirit
•arid also the dead hand of the past and of
privilege, of*.an overall and growing unity and
many disruptive tendencies. Withal there is a
great vitalifv arid a ferment in people's minds