I am now living in a remote village on the banks of the Narmada in Gujarat. Opposite are fields. Bullock-carts ply on the road. There is one tea shop, and one pushcart selling (excellent) samosas and pakoras. My host runs a healthcare NGO, offering free medical care to the villagers.
Gujarat is very different from other parts of India because here the British did not rule directly. Rather, local princes ruled. My nearest town is Rajpipla - which was a 13-gun salute State ruled by a Rajput Maharaja up to 1947. My history book says the State of Rajpipla used to measure 1518 square miles - so this village must have fallen within its realm. After Sardar Patel threw out the princes, the IAS took over - and Gandhian panchayati raj.
I am pointing this out because I have stayed long in French Pondicherry, in Portuguese Goa, and in may parts of India that were under direct British rule. This place is very different. Further, this is Gujarat - that is, Gandhi's own Gujarat. This is a Gujarati village, under panchayati raj.
The other day, I borrowed a motorcycle and checked out the place. Turns out that this is quite a well-populated village - but very poor. The village stretches over a few kilometres, and there are a few, extremely narrow side roads leading this way and that. I checked them all out. Lots of houses, about 200 or so, many just mud huts. All piled higgledy-piggledy. No real shops. Perhaps half-a-dozen tiny stalls. No local economy at all. What was noteworthy is that there has been no "development" of riverside property, keeping in mind the fabulous view. Indeed, on the motorcycle, I could not even find an approach to the river!
Having lived so long in Goa, where the Portuguese established municipalities in such places - and where tourism has yielded rich dividends - I could muster up an alternative vision. In my mind, this "village" ought to be run by a local municipal board, providing basic services like roads and streets, footpaths and drainage, and garbage removal as well as street-lights. A small central market area could be established, and tourism could be actively promoted - along with the development of real estate on the riverside. If retirees from Baroda and Rajpila moved here, if tourists came to enjoy water sports, the views and suchlike, if a promenade was built along the riverbank like the Strand in Calcutta or Pondicherry's Beach Road - and if there was Liberty! - this place would become a flourishing small town. The economy would diversify to a great extent. Life would be much better for everyone here.
Yes, there is agriculture: bananas, papaya, sugarcane and other crops. Lots and lots of cattle - the principal wealth of most people. There is a school - from which I could hear the sounds of patriotic songs of the "freedom struggle" as I walked past. There is even a college. There must be NREGA ditch-digging going on. There must be other kinds of "welfare." But these don't really make an economy - that is, a local economy capable of sustaining a small town. Panchayats never think of how a town can be built. Or what an urban, diversified economy is all about.
Thus, it appears quite plain to me, top-down central planning has failed - and the bottom-up panchayati raj has failed too. What we really need are local institutions that use local knowledge to diversify local economies so that their full potential can be attained - and these potentialities include real estate and tourism.
I was sitting last evening in the local desi sharaab "pub" - a large hut in a large hutment, poverty everywhere, and my thoughts turned to Goa. I told the old crone who was running the show about life there - about Liberty, and about tourism. I told her that riverside property could be worth a fortune if Liberty prevailed and tourists were attracted. They were all watching Bollywood song-and-dance routines on a large colour TV. I told her about live music and dance. And then I trekked it back to my abode - darkness everywhere, not a single street-light, bright stars, a thin crescent moon. Only one word to describe the lives of poor people here: Misery.
I thought of the colour TV in the hut - and the Janis Joplin song came to mind. If Liberty prevailed, if a local municipality got things right - perhaps this old crone would ride a Mercedes-Benz too, I thought. And smiled to myself.
Tomorrow, I plan to check out Rajpipla in the daytime and write about it in the evening. Stay tuned.
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