Professor A.T.M. Jahurul Huq, Professor of Economics at Dhaka Univesity, Bangladesh, talks about Shrii Sarkar's valuable contributions to modern economic theory.
Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar is known across the world as a great spiritual leader who dedicated his life to freeing mankind from vices, poverty and different worldly sufferings. In this effort he, on the one hand, played the role of a spiritual leader and on the other, manifested dynamic approaches towards arriving at the highest social welfare through the implementation of basic economic principles and ideals for the economic liberation of mankind. He was an economist who sacrificed his life for the emancipation of humanity from poverty and spiritual pauperism.
His contribution in the economic sphere have provided great enlightenment and understanding of the linkages between economic materialism and spirituality. His eagerness and expression of ideas was for ensuring the economic welfare of humanity, minimizing differences amongst individuals and devising a system of distribution of wealth and resources for establishing an egalitarian society. His Progrssive Utilization Theory (PROUT) embodies this concept and gives recommendations towars this end., as well as equilibrium in individual and collective life. I did not come across any other spiritualist as great as Shrii Sarkar. In his widely publicized discourse on economic issues, he highlighted his ideas, thoughts and perceptions, which are embodied in his Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT).
One of the important principles of PROUTIST economics is Minimum Requirements and Maximum Amenities, which aims at fulfilling the minimum requirements of all members of society and providing maximum possible benefits such that the gap between the rich and the poor is minimized. This principle runs parallel to the basic needs expressed by progressive social thinkers.
In economics, the basic need hypothesis aims at ensuring the access of the common people to food, clothing, housing, health and education. The less developed countries cannot amply provide these facilities to the common people. A large majority of people in the society do not have any access to the minimum daily requirement of food and clothing. Many do not have any housing facilities and a large number remain outside the health facilities provided by the state. To meet the basic needs of this multitude of deprived people, international organisations are putting their efforts in this regard and many developing countries are undertaking programmes towards achieving this end. This task of paramount importance of meeting the basic needs was well conceived of by Shrii Sarkar. Simultaneously, he pleaded for encouraging the skills of persons of high quality with a view to obtaining maximum service from them.
Shrii Sarkar visualized that unequal income distribution in society brings forth disastrous social consequences, and as such, the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor needs to be reduced although equal distribution of resources can not be achieved. He emphasised the need for maximum utilisation of resources and optimum distribution of products and resources such that wastage of resources is minimized and maximum social welfare can be guaranteed. The welfare aspects of an economy is, no doubt, dealt with in a different way, but the basic premise behind the welfare state is well spelled out in the Sarkarian principle of Minimum Requirements and Maximum Amenities.
It indicates that Shrii Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar was a great economic philosopher who had conceptualised the characteristics of a welfare state, for maximum social welfare and suggested the means to arrive at the optimum point of welfare economics.
A large number of macroeconomic issues, which are very seriously thought upon currently by the economists, were properly addressed by Shrii Sarkar long ago. Here special mention may be made of two macro-economic issues, namely the concept of development planning and his perception of decentralisation.
In many developing countries, central planning for development has been practised over the last few decades in consideration of their limited resources and -competing demand for these resources. The aggregative top-down planning in these countries failed to produce expected results in the planning exercise. Economists now strongly advocate bottom-up planning rather than top-down. In some cases participatory planning practice is being encouraged. Shrii Sarkar visualised the shortcomings of top-down planning practices and advocated block-level, decentralised planning. He stressed that effective economic planning should be based on four fundamental factors: the cost of production, productivity, purchasing capacity, and collective necessity. In his opinion, each socioeconomic unit should draw up its development plan for socio-economic self sufficiencey on the basis of the above factors. Grandiose planning inconsistent with local economic conditions should not be imposed from outside. This precept of local level planning is similar to the one which is known as bottom -up participatory planning process.
Mention may be made of another macro-economic issue, namely the decentralisation policy. In top-down planning practice, the allocation of resources is done centrally on the basis of the ideas and estimates of the people who are not well conversant with local condition, local demands and the priorities of the local people. As a result what sometimes is prioritised in such planning is inconsistent with the needs of the people for whom the plan is designed. Shrii Sarkar most pragmatically advocated a new and unique approach to decentralisation based on the formation of socio-economic units through-out the world. He suggested that socio-economic units should be formed on the basis of factors such as common economic needs, so that it will be completely free to chalk out its own economic plan and methods of implementation. Here lies the novelty of Sarkar’s ideas and pragmatism, of which the traditional top-down planning is devoid.
One of the specialities of PROUT's economic system is its precept of co-operative system for the production and distribution of commodities. Although the co-operative system has been working in many countries for a long time, the failure of this system is very conspicuous. One of the main reasons for the failure of the co-operative system is rampant immorality. According to PROUT, co-operatives run by moralists will safeguard people against various forms of exploitation, and the production of inferior goods by intermediaries will be ruled out. Success of such co-operatives will largely depend upon morality, strong administration and acceptance of the system by the common people. The failure of co-operatives in many countries has been taken cognizance of, but the reasons for this failuire could not be identified correctly. Shrii Sarkar’s contribution lies in highlighting correctly the reasons for the failure of co-operatives and stressing the need for co-operatives in local and regional economic development.
Shrii Sarkar, through PROUT, tried to present a model of trade and commerce free from exploitation and distortion. In the free market economy, exploitation of consumers by middlemen, profiteers and capitalist entrepreneurs is a common feature. Because of consumers' sovereignty, production and distribution are highly distorted in a market economy. This needs to be remedied in the greater interest of the society. In the PROUT model, Shrii Sarkar suggests that the distribution of essential commodities will have to be done entirely through consumer co-operatives. This system will save consumers from exploitation by profiteers. In the present market economy, distribution of all commodities goes hand in hand with distortion and exploitation of diversified magnitudes. If the distribution of essential commodities is ensured through cooperatives, then the vices of the market economy can be minimised. The conceptual superiority of PROIJT in this respect has enshrined Shrii Sarkar’s pragmatic comprehension in the sphere of economic progress.
As mentioned earlier, the formation of socio-economic units may serve the purpose of decentralised local level planning. On top of this, socio-economic units may work to enhance the all-round welfare of the people in their respective areas and unite humanity on a common ideological base. The common ideological base for unity is common interest and mutual benefit through co-operation and integration of society among the less developed countries of world. Shrii Sarkar’s idea of self-sufficient, socio-economic units is implicitly inherent in the formation of different regional welfare organisations.
Shrii Sarkar added a new dimension to the very concept of economy. His perceptions of people's economy deals with the people's subsistence problems and fulfilment, education and transportation. On top of this, people's economy is concerned with the promotion of private and co-operative industries and employment for all. It also aims at eradicating mass poverty, developing rural economy and transferring ownership of land to those who work physically and intellectually for production. The core policies through which the people's economy can flourish, according to Shrii Sarkar, are economic decentralisation, block level planning and introduction of the co-operative system run by moralists. His perception comprised not only fulfillment of the basic needs of people in industrial areas but also in the rural areas, which comprised the downtrodden vast majority of a country. Shrii Sarkar’s perception of people's economy thus points to a new dimension of economic thought hitherto only partially dealt with by economists.
While Shrii Sarkar’s people's economy is concerned with the provision of minimum requirements of human life, his psychoeconomy deals with the pabula of individual and collective mind through appropriate economic activity. He believes that human beings suffer not only for want of material goods; they also suffer because of psychic instability and psychic weaknesses. If this psychic condition can be strengthened, the exploitative and unjust economic practices, behavior and structures can be counteracted. The psycho-economy will resist all sorts of exploitation and make people aware of the exploitative character of the capitalists and the vision of such a psycho-economy and its importance. Shrii Sarkar visualized the importance of such an economy, which has hitherto been over looked by economists.
Apart from these key principles, plenty of contributions in one form or other can be attributed to Shrii Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar. In addition to those mentioned above. His principles of Balanced Economy and Dynamic Equilibrium are also worth mentioning. Guilherme Kreuger said:
"A major preoccupation present today is in respect to the generation of jobs and income. Every time more people are speaking of the advantages that work cooperatives can offer. Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar's Proutist Economics, which proposes the cooperative system as one leg of a tripod which a more just and equal economic system should support, represents a step forward in the popular consciousness raising about the advantages of cooperatives as the solution to jobs and income."
My purpose is not to exhaustively deal with all his contributions in the economic sphere, but to highlight his vision, sympathy for the suffering humanity and power to concretize difficult theories to promote the economic well-being of the people. Shrii Sarkar devoted his life to propagating his ideas for economic revolution and devised means to achieve complete success in the spiritual realm. I take this opportunity of adoring such a great personality, and economist of high stature and a great spiritual leader of the contemporary world.
Posted by proutist-universal on September 10, 2005 12:21 AM
