India was a poor country which could not afford luxuries and a [British] district officer had concentrated on essentials – public order, the swift administration of justice, the prompt payment of taxes moderately assessed, the maintenance of accurate land records which would prevent disputes. Those had been the four first things. After them came minor matters: salt, stamps, opium, excise, and all the District Board work – roads, bridges and schools. The rest were luxuries, excellent if you had any time or money to spare when the real work was done.
But by 1939, the emphasis had changed and rural development, co-operative banks and village committees were inclined to come first…. The district officer must add to his innumerable duties the maddening and infructuous business of answering parliamentary questions, the host of subjects included under the head of Rural Development…. It was not surprising that he did not always find it possible to check land records as he used to do, that cases were taking longer and longer to be settled.
That was why to some at least of the service it seemed that it was time to go. Rule of the old kind was running down; districts were being administered in a new way, which might be better, but was not the British way and it did not seem right that the British should go on taking responsibility for direction essentially not theirs.
A district officer might find, perhaps, when he had time to look, that a peasant had been brought into headquarters a dozen times before his case reached even the first formal hearing, or that someone had been forced to spend all he had to defend his holding against some fabricated claim, simply because the land records were not up to date.
As to Rural Development, most British officers would have agreed that a great deal of what was proposed was admirable if the villagers would do it themselves, but they were skeptical about trying to change habits from above – and much of the effort put into the attempt seemed to them wasteful and incompetent. Some suggestions however were not suitable to village life at all, and there was undoubtedly a sickening amount of pretence and self-glorification. It was not – every district officer would agree – that Rural Development was less than important. But it could not be a success without paid staff, properly trained; the training would take time and cost money; it should not be done inadequately and at the expense of justice and public order. And surely, if the tremendous expense of this experiment was to be undertaken, it should be clear where the responsibility lay.
Philip Mason was an ICS officer during this crucial period, serving as Deputy Commissioner of Garhwal in 1936, when Govind Ballabh Pant was his Premier. He records an interesting tale of that period, when a great deal of politicking occurred over – guess what? – the construction of a road.
But do note the word “experiment” Mason uses to describe the Congress’ fascination with “rural development.” This has been an experiment with government that has destroyed the lives of over a billion people: no land records, no justice, no public order, no responsible district administration, all the money being poured into village upliftment – all this, while every city and town has been destroyed.
Just read about Bombay – flooded again, after a highly predictable monsoon shower.
Yes, the Congress has been a huge mistake. And they never learn, do they? I can picture district officers of today throughout India neglecting the essentials – like land records and public order – while spending all their time on Chacha Manmohan's NREGA.
Frankly, I don’t think it will be possible to easily fix the huge mess that India is today. Chacha Manmohan and Sonia’s Congress have got the whole thing wrong. Since every theory of theirs is wrong, their practice is wrong as well.
And they want to teach!
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