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Rediff.com » Business » India's coolie economy

India's coolie economy

October 30, 2015 08:14 IST

The government must undo the damage inflicted by the flawed policies of

globalisation, and India should be converted into a country where entrepreneurs

can thrive and the entire population can participate in the economy, says Arvind

Kumar.

Image: A scene from Amitabh Bachchan's iconic film, Coolie. The policies related to globalisation are not very

different from the British laws that invited the ire of Indian freedom-fighters and the term 'coolie' accurately

describes those who work today for Western entities, says the author.

ince 1991, India's economic policies have focused on creating opportunities for foreign

investors and helping foreign firms find cheap labour in the country. The effect of these

policies is not a matter of pride for India, as it has been reduced into a producer of coolies for

the Anglophone world in various sectors including journalism, politics, the so-called non-profit

sector, and computer software.

Yet, we find a number of people applauding India for precisely this aspect of economic change.

Such people also applaud China's so-called success in the manufacturing sector but that

success is merely a transformation of China into a massive sweatshop for the Western world

while its own people are mired in poverty. Even N R Narayana Murthy, one of the founders of

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Infosys, recently lamented that while India had allowed the software sector to thrive, it lagged

in the hardware sector and China had become the “factory of the world".

When the British ruled India, a common complaint of the freedom-fighters was that Indian

resources and labour were used for improving Britain while making India impoverished.

Economic opportunities were available only to a small segment of the population that

possessed a knowledge of English. Even these opportunities were in the form of jobs to aid the

British in some manner and those who worked for the British imperial masters were called

coolies. The policies related to globalisation are not very different from the British laws that

invited the ire of Indian freedom-fighters and the term 'coolie' accurately describes those who

work today for Western entities.

That the situation today in India is no different from the 19th century and allows only English-

speaking people to thrive should surprise nobody. In his speech in Parliament in July 1991,

then finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh invited the forces of globalisation into India and

the theme of 'international' and 'foreign' players gaining access to India dominated his speech.

India's policies were soon aligned with the agenda of mercantilist institutions of the West such

as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund. These policies were

focused towards increasing the shipment of goods to the West, providing labour to Western

countries, granting monopolies to Western corporations, and increasing their profits. There

were even cases of the government guaranteeing the profits of foreign firms. Every policy that

was put in place was geared towards bettering the lives of people in the West using Indian

labour and resources.

As a result, a large section of the Indian population aspires to become some type of coolie as a

career choice. Infosys, the firm Narayana Murthy founded, is a symptom of this problem in the

Indian economy. It is not a centre for innovation but just a successful herding of coolies.

Infosys is similar to the businesses operated by employment agents who send labourers to

Dubai and other places in Western Asian countries. The main difference between the brokers

who find jobs for poor people in Dubai and the founder of Infosys is that most brokers were

not fortunate enough to get educated at an Indian Institute of Technology. They do what they

can for a livelihood while also finding jobs for poor labourers.

hile Infosys can be classified as a business operation, setting up such a business cannot

really be considered entrepreneurship as a significant part of the revenues of such businesses

is based on merely managing the pay checks of the labour force in various countries along with

the logistics and paperwork related to their visa applications. Such businesses are heavily

dependent on government regulations preventing the free flow of labour across borders.

Entrepreneurship involves under-consumption and risk-taking on the part of the

entrepreneur. When the founder of Infosys embarked on this business of supplying cheap

labour to other countries, he was wealthy by Indian standards by virtue of being an NRI and

was also armed with a degree from an IIT which was highly subsidised. His business model

was also free of risks typically associated with new ventures.

For its part, by setting apart taxpayer money for venture capital as with the India Aspiration

Fund, the government too has demonstrated that it does not understand

entrepreneurship. Payment of such money is a combination of welfare for educated people and

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bureaucrats picking winners in the marketplace. Additionally, there is no risk on the part of the

businesses that receive capital from the government as they use other people's money. This is a

classic case of privatised profits and socialised losses. The government needs to stop handing

out money and must instead make changes to the system that will allow ordinary Indians to

thrive without depending on handouts.

Narayana Murthy has also called for greater autonomy for Indian Institutes of Management.

These calls must be ignored as the institutions built using the money of Indian citizens should

not be gifted away to wealthy people. Greater autonomy for IIMs would translate into the de

facto ownership of the IIMs resting with the Board of Governors even as they are funded using

taxpayers’ money.

Instead, the management of institutes of higher education must be made more inclusive by

involving people who represent the ethos of India. For example, IIM Bangalore now has the

founder of Biocon among its Board of Governors. Like Infosys, Biocon too was not the result of

entrepreneurship based on innovation and risk-taking but was set up as an Indian subsidiary

of an Irish brewery which was forced by laws of the time to work with an Indian partner. This

firm eventually produced generic drugs and took advantage of the economic climate during

which many foreign firms offshored their work to the Indian labour force. IIM Bangalore

should bring on board groups like the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha or the Swadeshi Jagran

Manch which have a sound understanding of topics like economics as well as the needs of

Indians.

Another important step that must be taken is the reorientation of the education system so that

graduates are equipped to contribute to the development of India. This must not be achieved

through coercion but by making opportunities available in lucrative fields to all people of

India. This means tertiary education in the most prestigious institutes must be available in

Indian languages. Students must be able to pursue education in Indian languages at the best

universities in the country and become doctors, engineers, chartered accountants, bank

officers and bureaucrats. Various branches of the government must conduct their business in

Indian languages.

The government must also replace its economic advisers as they represent Western interests

and advocate economic theories developed in the West. Their advocacy is a manifestation of

the coolie mindset and perpetuates the system developed by the British to transfer the wealth

of India to the West. The theories peddled today by those calling themselves experts on trade

were created to help the East India Company increase its profits. Economic theories developed

in the West have failed in every country that has tried them and the theories have not been

successful even on their home turfs in Europe and the US.

lobalisation has also created another tribe of coolies who harbour ill intentions towards

India. While doctors, engineers, management consultants and entrepreneurs who serve the

West are coolies who typically earn money for an honest day's work, this cannot be said about

the coolies of the academia, media and the so-called “non-profit” sector. Many of these Gunga

Dins* are paid by the so-called human rights organisations or get grants and prizes from

Western institutions to demonise Indians while articulating the political positions of their

Western masters whom they place on a pedestal.

It is important to correct the course and undo the damage inflicted by the flawed policies of

globalisation. India should be converted into a country where entrepreneurs can thrive and the

entire population can participate in the economy. This is not a difficult task but it is important

to act before it is too late.

*A poem (1892) by Rudyard Kipling. It is written in the language of an ordinary British

soldier praising a native who carries water for the British Army in India and dies taking

water to a wounded soldier during a battle. Many people know the last line of the poem:

You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

Arvind Kumar is an expert on technology and economic issues and can be


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Arvind Kumar

Related News: East India Company, IIM Bangalore, Narayana Murthy, British Army, Indian Institute ofTechnology

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India's Coolie Economy - Rediff