March 1961
The purpose of this book is to examine and make plain the significance of the vast experience in which India is engaged - of bringing her giant economy into the main stream of modern life at a time when the world is divided by the capitalism of the West, and the communist ideology and State capitalism of Russia and China. Miss Ward’s chief concern is to point out that the significance is not an isolated, national business, but one which must fatally affect the balance between the free and communist worlds. She begins her study by a brilliant and lucid exposition of the ‘break-through’ to a modern economy - originating in Britain - from subsistence farming and an illiberal system of government, via the industrial revolution to a new economy which brought with it a sudden increase of prosperity and power, and eventually, to the sweeping reforms which have gradually distributed both money and opportunity. In contrast to this method, she describes the communist variants - the most extreme being China, who has achieved her economic ‘break-through,’ at a cost which even Mr. Khrushchev has described as rather high (State slaves show no sign of being endowed with their Cobdens, Brights or Shaftesburys).
The second half of the book is devoted to a brief account of India before and during the British occupation; the situation in which she was left when Pandit Nehru and Congress took over, a description of the gigantic problems facing her in her attempt to achieve the necessary ‘break-through’ and the funds available for developments - their sources and the terms on which they have been given or lent. Miss Ward gives much interesting information about the first and second Five-Year Plans, describing many of their achievements and difficulties: she remarks on the contrasts between the communist loans (£250 millions at 2 per cent - some of it for twelve years - much of it ‘soft’, plus technical assistance for development and training in communist countries) against, admittedly, many more millions from the West, but most of it at an ordinary commercial rate of interest and therefore with strings, which cannot be described as ideological, attached. She then compares aid to India from the West with the Marshall Plan for Europe after the last war. India needs £400 millions a year for the next five years, which as Miss Ward points out, is for developing an economy, not simply for repairing it, is for a country with twice the population of western Europe, and would still be less money than Europe received during the four years of the Marshall Plan.
On a national scale in western developments, it was not until ideas which originated neither from self-interest nor from charity were put into practice that anything like a stable economy was reached from which the majority benefited, and Miss Ward’s main plea is that we have now reached a time on this planet when we can no longer afford to think simply in national terms, and that if a country the size of India has made earnest her intention of acting significantly in the modern world, while conducting herself within the framework of a free society, we can and ought to help her practically on a scale which gives her some guarantee of success. If we don’t, others may, and this is not a matter of blackmail, but a practical answer for all those who are concerned with the menace of atomic warfare - the possible devastating effects of a cause and conflict which is already so built into contemporary history that we easily take it for granted or ignore it.
Miss Ward manages to deal with huge quantities - of ideas, situations and materials - in such perfectly plain and articulate language that her meaning is always clear (you do not have to be an economist to read this book): beside this, her reasons for writing it at all are communicated without hysteria, sentiment, or any of the boredom which so often accompany good and serious intentions - she has a formidable mind, but it is serving, rather than dominating, her purpose.
This review is necessarily a mere colander, whose holes can only be stopped by reading a book which I feel would turn out to be a vital and moving interest even to many who have never considered this kind of reading before. Take advantage of living in a free society and buy it, as it provides a unique opportunity for understanding something on which our futures may very well depend.