The Bus Driver - Of Our The State

I was at the dilapidated State Transport bus station in Udipi, waiting for my bus to Karwar. There was just about enough time for a quick lunch, so I popped into the restaurant there for some idlis. Around me were a few employees of the State-owned bus company, including the driver of the bus I was about to board.  I decided to give them my frank opinion of their employer. It was heartening to find that they all agreed with me -  including the restaurant-owner and his staff.

In a nutshell, I told them that if their State-owned bus company was privatised, all buses would be run by private companies - for a profit. As employees of profit-making private companies, they would be much better off than they were today, working for a State-owned firm that makes chronic losses. Further, I added, if the State invested all its money in good roads, their lives as bus-drivers would be far easier. Given the terrible roads of today, I told them, their daily grinds must be pure torture. They all nodded in agreement - and my waiter even asked me to petition The State accordingly.

And then I boarded the bus - a rickety-rackety swadeshi rattletrap, dirty and grimy, fitted with the most uncomfortable seats imaginable. The driver clambered onto his seat and started the engine, which groaned and moaned like a stricken beast. From my seat, I hollered out at the driver: If buses were private, you would be driving a Volvo. He looked back at me - and smiled.

Our journey began - and the road, the Notional Highway #17, was the pits. I sat and reflected on the only bus trip I had taken in Europe - from London to Frankfurt - and how easy it was on bus drivers there, given the excellent roads. Easy on passengers, too.

A few hours later, the bus stopped at some small town - another dilapidated bus station - and I got off to enjoy a smoke. Chanced upon my driver and entered into conversation with him once again.

I suggested that people like him were not much different from  jawans in the Army or constables in the State Police - who slog it out for poor pay while their bosses and their political masters make hay. He looked down at his khaki uniform - and nodded sagely.

I noticed this phenomenon in Gujarat too, during my recent trip there. In Gujarat, there are no private buses - all are State-owned. The buses are terrible, the bus stations are terrible, and the roads are terrible as well. The Customer gets screwed. And the bottom rung of State employees who do all the dog-work think themselves privileged!

In my life, I have worked a brief while for The State, spent some time with a firm that made losses, and some more time with a firm that made profits. Of these, the last was the best. I always advise youngsters  to work for successful, profit-making firms, and to shun State employment.

I have also closely interacted with a few Class IV employees of our The State - and was always left with the feeling that if they had opted for entrepreneurship instead, they would have been much better off, not only materially, but also spiritually.

In the bad old days, State employment was preferred for its "job security" - and for its perks like free housing and lifelong pensions. Today, these must be seen as a hoax - because our The State practices inflationism. This is a way of cheating all workers - including State employees. Class IV employees of our The State are cheated the most - since their meagre savings get eroded.

Thus, privatisation and a drastic cutting down of the State Budget, accompanied by a massive retrenchment of its work-force is not only in the interest of the general public; it is equally in the interest of the numberless lower-rung employees of The State.

If Liberty prevails, entrepreneurship will flourish, and many good jobs will be created.

With free trade across land and sea, the Consumption of all will improve dramatically. With their wages, all workers will be possessed of world-class "wage goods."

If the Budget of The State is cut down and inflationism ended, the poorest workers will also be able to convert their savings into Capital.

Jawans, sipahis, peons, railway karamcharis, Air India hostesses - all should see their employer as a beast, and opt out. Their trade unions should come out strongly in favour of the reforms I have suggested above.

Yes, I am an Enemy of the State - by which I mean an enemy of the monsters on top. I am not an enemy of the small guys.

I shot the Sheriff - but I did not shoot the deputy.

A Religion Of Consent

Decades ago, I spent a week or two with a bunch of guys and girls on a beach and, during that time, through dialogue, we established a "religion" amongst ourselves, whose chief tenet went thus:

There must not be any must-to-do. There must also not be any must-not-to-do.

A "religion of consent."

Scene II: The village pub this morning, and I am on a feni-soda. Guy comes around asking for water. I tell him, "This is a booze joint, dude. Want water, go to Gandhi's shop."

Everybody laughed - but this is Goa, where alcohol prohibition is unthinkable.

Not so in Gandhi's Gujarat - where "consent" is not the religion, but "force" is. This is not "non-violence." Indeed, this is nothing but State Violence. The inmates of Sabarmati Ashram are using State Violence to bring about their peculiar and warped vision of a "perfect society."

There can never be a "perfect society" if force and power are used to bring it about. These ideas lie at the root of all tyrannies - including religious tyrannies. Socialism, Communism, Central Planning - these are all based on conceptions of some "perfect society" or the other. All that such ideas have yielded is arbitrary power. Tyranny!

Liberty is something else - it is for each Individual to "pursue happiness" his own way. To find his own "perfect high." To find his "personal Utopia." Liberty is not the Utopia of One Mind. Rather, it is the utopianism of all.

The real problem with our country is that "consent" does not rule. Instead, we are ruled by arbitrary rules and diktats. By guns and bullets. By the danda.

The latest evidence on this comes from close by here - Jaitapur, further up the Konkan, where land is being forcibly "acquired" by our The State to build a massive nuclear power plant. This, while civil liability in case of an accident has been "limited" by Parliament in order to benefit foreign equipment suppliers. The news says:

Although the government has issued notices to acquire the 968 hectares of land needed for the project in five villages, most of the villagers have refused to accept the compensation and surrender their land. 

The news adds that the chief minister of Mahrashtra visited the area and blamed "foreign powers" for the trouble!

Methinks the real problem is our "domestic power" - The State - which violates Property. As long as this continues, there can never be a "religion of consent." There can never be any Liberty either. We in India must choose - and the time is now.

There is everything to fear in arbitrary power - which is never government, but always Tyranny.

On the other hand, there is nothing to fear in Liberty, for the religion of consent will prevail, and there will be order - the "natural order."

How do we spread the religion of consent?

Well, how else, but by consent. Each one convince another.

Religion - And Civil Government

While in a Gujarat ruled by Narendra Modi of the BJP, I published a post titled "Hindu Terror? Or Terror On Hindus" in which I wrote about The Independent Whig, a journal dating back to England in the 1720s, or about 30 years after John Locke's Treatises on Civil Government, and commented on its strong anti-clerical tone. And how the authors say "tyranny destroys religion." We all know how Hindu Brahmins perverted religion until the British came and established "civil government." Indeed, various luminaries then emerged to reform Hinduism - like Raja Ram Mohun Roy.

As the introduction puts it, the authors of The Independent Whig, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, display a "general dislike of clerical pretensions to any kind of civil power or any form of special privilege or position. They viewed churchmen as the most ordinary of people at best and as men who have often perverted their role in society. Churchmen should, therefore, in the thinking of Trenchard and Gordon, be watched carefully and checked in their every effort to exceed their proper and very limited functions."

The Independent Whig was therefore of the opinion that "civil governments are instituted by men, according to their powers and to serve their purposes. They did not owe their existence to 'the immediate revelation of God'." In other words, civil government is not theocratic. Religion is a matter of private conscience, so tolerance should prevail, and the worst tyranny is that in the name of God - as Europe had witnessed for a long, long time.

Below is a long quote from the issue of The Independent Whig of February 1720, titled "Of the Contempt of the Clergy." This was a few years before the birth of Adam Smith - who called himself a "staunch Whig." It is noteworthy that in our own times Friedrich Hayek preferred calling himself a Whig rather than a "conservative."

Note that the capitalisation is as in the original; this is how they wrote those days:

All other Societies of Men are contented with the Esteem and Honour, which result from the Usefulness of their Employments and Professions, and the Worth and Capacity of their Members, and yet none stand in such a Situation, and have so many Advantages to acquire Respect and Homage, as the Clergy.

Their Office is evidently adapted to promote the Welfare of Human Nature, and to propagate its Peace and Prosperity in this World, as well as its eternal Felicity in the next: so that it is in the Interest of all Men to honour it; and none but a Madman will condemn and ridicule what has a manifest Tendency to the Security and Happiness of all Mankind.

The Temporal Condition of the Clergy does likewise place them far above Contempt: They have great Revenues, Dignities, Titles, and Names of Reverence, to distinguish them from the rest of the World; and it is too well known that Wealth, Power, and Learning, carry to the Vulgar a kind of Mystery, a distant Grandeur, and command not only Admiration and Reverence, but often a superstitious Veneration.

Added to this, they have the Possession and Direction of our Fears, and are admitted in Health and Sickness: Every Sunday they have the sole Opportunity to gain our Esteem by worthy and useful Instructions, and all the Week by their good Lives: They educate us while young, influence us in our middle Age, and govern us in our Dotage, and we neither live nor die without them.

A numerous body of Men, so constituted and endowed, so privileged and posted, are capable of being most useful and beneficent to Society, if their Actions are suitable to their Professions. All the World will acknowledge and pay a willing Homage to their Merit, and there will be no need of demanding, much less of extorting Respect, or of Complaints and Exclamations for want of it. The Danger lies on the other Side; for there are such Seeds of Superstition in human Nature, that all our Prudence and Caution will be little enough to prevent even Adoration of their Persons.

If Clergymen would avoid Contempt, let them not be starting and maintaining eternal Claims to worldly Power... Let them not be assuming to give Models of human Government... Let them not pretend to punish any Man for his Way of Worship...

Thus, The Independent Whig emphasises the fact that Tyranny destroys Religion. Rather, tyrants "establish and encourage a false religion." The BJPs Hindutva is one such false religion that seeks worldly power - and has obtained it in some parts of our country, with extremely disastrous consequences. Thus, between the utterly corrupt and brain-dead CONgress, the Communists and the BJP, and the other running-dogs of socialism, there is really nothing for the Indian voter to choose: they are all various shades of black.

The Independent Whig - as the very title suggests - stressed a distrust for the "regular party man." In the introduction to the volume, describing party politics in England then, it is stated:

As with parties in general, so it was with Whig and Tory in the 1720s. When in power, one party behaved much like he other, whatever its past declarations, and neither was to be trusted very much.

These precise words could be applied to the Republicans and Democrats of the USSA today.

The Independent Whig contrasted free government, the system of rule under which Liberty and the public prospered, with its opposite, Tyranny:

Civil Government is only a partial Restraint put by Laws of Agreement upon natural and absolute Liberty, which might otherwise grow licentious: And Tyranny is an unlimited Restraint put upon natural Liberty, by the Will of one or a few.

Thus, Tyranny can be "democratic" - for Legislation is nothing but the "will of a few." Of course, Tyranny can also be Theocratic. Tyranny can be militaristic, or it can be a "one party rule." Civil government is something else.

The book containing excerpts from The Independent Whig and another journal called Cato's Letters, also by Trenchard and Gordon, is The English Libertarian Heritage edited by David L. Jacobson, published by Fox & Wilkes of San Fransisco in 1965. I earnestly recommend this to all. These writings of Trenchard and Gordon, we are told, were extremely popular in America in the 1750s and thereafter, and had a profound influence on the libertarian bent of the original US Constitution.

These days, various nations of the Middle East are in revolt - and it is good to hear that the people are demanding Liberty and not Religion. I hope this post will be of use to them.

As for our own country, I am positive that wide reading of the above volume will surely produce the most beneficial effects.

Gujarat, Maharashtra, And Goa - Observed

I travelled by bus from the southern tip of Goa, via Bombay, to the Gujarat city of Baroda. Then, I travelled a fair bit within Gujarat, by road. Finally, I returned to Goa via Bombay, entirely by road. Below are some of my observations - and I'll bet these offer a better picture of these parts than statistics - mere numbers collected by government clerks - can ever do.

Gujarat is an urban as well as rural mess. In other words, the human habitat has been destroyed. Apart from Baroda, I saw Surat, Valsad, Ankleshwar and Rajpipla. They are all disasters. I saw poverty-stricken villages made up of rickety hutments, and I saw lots and lots of messed up small towns.

The taxi ride to Bombay took me through wide open spaces with low hills. Greenery. For hundreds of miles on end. Quite pretty. Totally "unowned." Of course, no land is really unowned in India. All such land is by default State Property. My point is that all this State Property is out of bounds for the citizens. It is thus sheer waste. We need to be free to "homestead" unowned lands like these.

I finally arrived in Virar, a far-flung suburb in northern Bombay - and it was a mess. I trained it to Bandra - and that was a mess too. I then took a taxi to Colaba - and on this ride I passed some well laid out areas, surely dating back to British times. I was driven through Marine Drive - built because then there were no environmentalists who preferred mangroves. In Colaba, I saw many splendid old buildings, now in disrepair, surely because of rent control. This legislation violates both Property as well as Free Contract - and destroys buildings because, with rents frozen, landlords can no longer maintain them. For the tenants, it is "legal plunder" - as with all such "socialist" legislation.

I then took the bus to Goa. The bus left at 5:30 pm - and it was quite dark by the time we were finally out of the city! All along, the city stretched on and on, endlessly - and all through everything seemed an almighty mess. Old, dilapidated houses, shops, shops, and more shops, dirt and filth, a uniform greyness, crowds bustling around. Commerce, yes; but civilisation, no.

Finally, when we were out of city limits, I saw a sign saying Panjim, the capital of Goa, was 560 km away. I was awake right through the night, much of the time in the cabin upfront, alongside the driver, smoking and looking out. One observation: There wasn't a single urban settlement of any size or quality the entire 560 km distance between Bombay and Goa. Except for Sawantwadi, which we reached at dawn. But Sawantwadi is not an "Indian city"; rather, it is another of those Princely States that Sardar Patel and Lord Mountbatten took over for IAS administrators. Sawantwadi borders Goa from the north.

Goa stretches 150 km from north to south - and there are three big cities: Mapusa, Panjim and Margao. These are all Portuguese-built, but today all face overcrowding and over-building. Then, there are lots and lots of little towns. Of course, they too are quite unkempt today.

All visual observations, however, strongly suggest that life in Goa is much, much better than anywhere in Maharshtra or Gujarat - including Bombay. The chief reasons for this are: far greater urbanisation and also a far greater degree of economic freedom.

There are bars in Goa everywhere, including in the villages, and even for the poor - and I mean the very poor. There are casinos. Gambling on numbers is an open business - for poorer people. The economy is also diversified, especially because of tourism. But this tourism occurred after the Portuguese had been chucked out in 1962 - and then the hippies came. Tourism ought to have urbanised the coast, but this has not transpired under IAS administrators who love panchayati raj. The beaches may be great, yet the settlements on the beaches are but overgrown, overcrowded villages. The Coastal Zone Regulations legislated by Nude Elly are only worsening things for human beings. Long live the mangroves, eh!

It is in the area of housing that Goa really stands out as compared to both Gujarat and Maharashtra. Here, everyone owns a small cottage, quite pretty. Tiled roof. Property is secure. Titles, at least to newer properties, are clear. But then, urban overcrowding is leading to a Bombay-like situation - and ugly apartment blocks have mushroomed. With so much free land around, and with better roads, Goa could urbanise in a far better fashion, spreading itself out. There could be little cottages everywhere. Towns everywhere.

Maharashtra and Gujarat - and, I daresay, the rest of India - have a lot to learn from tiny Goa. What I discovered, to my delight, is that you also get GOOD ganja here.

Boom Shankar!

The Pursuit Of Happiness

The other night, I was at a fancy bar in downtown Bombay, drinking draught beer, when I was forced to step out in order to enjoy a cigarette - the curse of Legislation at work, once again. Outside, I happened to enter into conversation with two young fellows, one of whom remarked that people like me who visit such establishments are all "pleasure seekers" - and he meant this in a derogatory way. In order to demolish this stupid killjoy, I replied as follows:

All the hard work we all perform every day is nothing but pain. After the work is over, the pleasure begins - when we receive our wages or profits, which is what we are all working for. But these wages and profits are just money - hence real pleasure only comes our way when we spend that money on consumption. The work is just the "means"; consumption is the "end."

Now, while we all know that independent India has never really been a consumer's paradise, it is also an added fact that in all our cities of joy, there is very little recreation - like pubs everywhere, in which ordinary people can relax and enjoy a fresh draught beer or two or three. What is wrong with seeking such a small pleasure?

I added that the socialists who have been running our affairs since 1947 have always claimed that their policies will render India a better place for workers. They hate capitalists; they claim to love workers. But the truth is that workers obtain very little satisfaction from their wages. Import barriers hurt consumers - and, as far as pleasure is concerned, there is none. Poor people in our nation consume the worst booze, the worst tobacco (bidis) and the worst ganja-charas. There is almost no live music or dance. No casinos. No nightlife. This is precisely what happens when public opinion curses pleasure seekers.

When socialists uphold "the rights of workers" what they really defend are the legal privileges and immunities of trade union bosses. The real right of the worker is not just to his wage; rather, it is on the goods and services he can consume with these wages. That means free trade and free markets - not socialism. It surely also means the right to pursue pleasure and happiness, especially after a hard day's work.

The philosophy of pleasure as an end of civilised living is very old, dating back to Epicurus in ancient Greece. In Clive Bell's wonderful essay Civilisation, the author cites Plato's Symposium as being the best example of civilised living in the Athens of those times. The word "symposium" means "drinking party," and the tale told is of one such party that Socrates attended, where copious quantities of wine were drunk, where the conversation sparkled so much that the flute-girls were told to go away and entertain the servants so that the deep discussions could continue undisturbed. Much of the discussion was on love. Towards the end of the party, guests pass out one by one. Only Socrates remains capable of walking. Incidentally, while this party was indoors, there was also much drunken revelry going on outside on the streets!

I have just toured Gujarat, where Gandhian prohibition rules, and written a post on its horrendous effects. Gandhi also championed swadeshi - which screwed up our consumption. He championed an insane kind of work for all to perform for themselves - spin yarn on an ancient charkha. This screwed up our budding textile industry. It was Gandhi who found pleasure seeking immoral. There is nothing "theoretically valid" in this philosophy. It ought to be dumped wholesale. In Gujarat, I often spoke to the people of the wonderful taste of wine, which every European peasant enjoys a few bottles of everyday. I spoke of how healthy a drink beer is - and how micro-breweries ought to be freely established in every village, supplying fresh draught beer to the poor. I convinced all I spoke with, and I hope they will soon be fighting for the Liberty to pursue pleasure.

Finally, it must also be noted that pleasure is "subjective." Every Individual finds pleasure and happiness in his own mind, in things that please him. None can presume to dictate the pleasures of anyone else. Thus, Liberty is essential, so that each can pursue happiness in his own way.  In Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, Ludwig von Mises writes of how classical British political economy was philosophically rooted in Epicureanism:

The historical role of the theory of the division of labor as elaborated by British political economy from Hume to Ricardo consisted in the complete demolition of all metaphysical doctrines concerning the origin and the operation of social cooperation. It consummated the spiritual, moral and intellectual emancipation of mankind inaugurated by the philosophy of Epicureanism. It substituted an autonomous rational morality for the heteronomous and intuitionist ethics of older days. Law and legality, the moral code and social institutions are no longer revered as unfathomable decrees of Heaven. They are of human origin, and the only yardstick that must be applied to them is that of expediency with regard to human welfare. He does not ask a man to renounce his well-being for the benefit of society. He advises him to recognize what his rightly understood interests are. In his eyes God’s magnificence does not manifest itself in busy interference with sundry affairs of princes and politicians, but in endowing his creatures with reason and the urge toward the pursuit of happiness.

As I saw and wrote about Gandhi's Gujarat these days, the policy of alcohol prohibition is not based on "reason." Nor are these policies designed to promote happiness. Ultimately, public opinion is to blame. And public instruction as well. All the wrong philosophies are being taught. This is why tyranny rules - and not happiness. Or, indeed, civilisation itself has been lost. When tyranny rules, ruffians rule. Barbarians.

Hindu Terror? Or Terror On Hindus?

Last night, I was reading about two libertarian journalists of England in the 1720s - "The Indepent Whig" was their brand - and was quite struck by the strong anti-clericalism. It was quite clear then that the church and churchmen had to be put in their place; that religion was a matter of private conscience; that churchmen must not be allowed civil powers; that tolerance should prevail; and - this is a point they emphasised that really hit: Tyrants destroy religion.

Early this morning, at the tea shop, I encountered two elderly sadhus. Quite naturally, we began discussing bholay ki booti. One of them managed to unearth a little bit. We smoked. And then we talked some more - about the historical fact that the use of this herb is a very ancient Hindu tradition. We spoke of tobacco and alcohol - how they are abundant, and widely used. They said they were bound for a nearby ashram - and it is rumoured here that this ashram has BJP money in it. This state is ruled by BJP poster-boy Narendra Modi. That too, for quite a long time. But is this Hinduism? Or is this tyranny calling itself Religion?

After our cup of tea, I set off to Rajpipla, the nearest town, on a motorcycle. It was great fun being on a bike after a long time, zipping along empty, winding country roads, amidst lush green fields. Rajpipla is where the Maharajah of this area lived - till 1947, after which the IAS took over. I checked out his palace - must have been quite grand once. The view from the rear was fantastic - fields, jungles and hills beyond. No human habitation. I saw the State High School that the Maharajah had established in 1920 - and it is still quite magnificent. Also the college and the hospital. Passed an equestrian statue of one of the maharajahs - but the area is not being well-maintained. The town itself is quite a shambles. I drove through the markets, lined with shops, shops, and more shops - but no cafes, restaurants and (most certainly not!) bars where one could grab a small beer. The Maharajah had built a grand European Guest House in his time. Must have been possessed of a great bar, I'm positive.

I saw quite a few very old buildings in ruin. I wonder why. Rent control? Property disputes? I did not see any pretty, well laid out residential area. There are many slums. The internal roads suck.

Passed the ancient clock tower the Maharajah had built - a "public good" at a time when few owned watches. Of course, the clock no longer works! 

Inquired of an auto-rickshaw driver whether I could acquire some ganja. He obtained a bit for me - and, as everywhere in urban India, the stuff turned out quite bad. Bhoonsa maal, as the people say.

Inside the Maharajah's palace, there is a small Hindu temple. I wonder whether ganja was prohibited here before 1947. I sincerely doubt it. I'm positive opium must have been openly sold too.

So let's forget about "Hindu terror," shall we? What is really happening is "State terror on Hindus" - like sadhus.

What is the BJP's Religion?

I found an answer in Tehelka yesterday - an article on the destruction of 56 Christian churches in Karnataka by Bajrang Dal types. (And how the judge inquiring into it has a pro-BJP bias.) 

Today, I will read more of "The Independent Whig" on tyranny and its effects on religion.I shall cull some good quotes and post them for my reader soon.

This Gujarat Village Ought To Be A Town

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.

The Horrendous Prohibition In Gujarat

I have spent a week or more in Gujarat, supposedly one of India's richest and best governed states. I am currently preparing a monograph-travelogue which I will place online when complete. In today's post I would like to focus on the tyranny of alcohol prohibition here. This is surely the result of Gandhian zeal and misplaced morality - but it continues under the BJP regime of Narendra Modi. My observations indicate that the effects of this policy are truly horrendous. 

I am living in a village on the banks of the Narmada. I asked around - and sure enough, I obtained a bottle of IMFL whisky for 400 rupees. I bought beer twice - cans of Kingfisher (strong) for 100 rupees each. I also tried a couple of shots of desi sharaab at 10 rupees a glass - and awoke at 3 am feeling a little sick. In my wanderings, I encountered drunks twice, both drunk on desi. So the plain fact remains: This prohibition is NOT working.

The newspaper carried a photo from Ahmedabad, of a road-roller destroying thousands of bottles of liquor seized by the State Police. To me, it looked like the destruction of wealth. If that liquor had got sold, businessmen who sold them would have been possessed of the means to demand all non-competing goods on the market (Say's Law). Thus, it is not just the booze business that has lost; all other businesses have lost too. Wanton destruction, after all, is bad for society.

Another implication follows from Say's Law: that is, if those who buy prohibited booze at literally prohibitive prices had been able to obtain their pleasures at free market rates, they would have saved money - and that money would have been spent on other goods. Once again, all other businessmen lost.

The public health consequences of this tyranny are equally obvious: since most people are drinking desi sharaab, their health must be suffering. When I say "most people" I do not include only "the poor": the taxi driver who brought me here from Baroda said he drinks 30 rupees worth of desi every evening. He added that the bottles have no label.

As the one who holds aloft the Ganja Leaf Flag, I made some inquiries about my favourite high too. I was told to trek it to an ashram a few kilometres away. There, I smoked two chillums with some sadhus - but the stuff was no good, and even the sadhus complained!

Most people here smoke bidis. Many more perhaps chew tobacco. I was shocked to see a boy of about 12 or 13 buying a packet of gutka and stuffing his mouth with it.

I met a top-notch criminal lawyer who supported the policy of prohibition, saying it had "cleared the atmosphere." Of course, he would think so - for the more legislation that is passed criminalising voluntary exchanges, the more criminal cases there are for lawyers like him.

In another age, Gujarat "fought for freedom" - the Dandi March, etc. Where has that Freedom gone?