Tagore on 'Swadeshi Samaj'

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is a legend who needs no introductions. Tagore was a proponent of the Indian Independence Movement and the only Indian Noble laureate in the field of Literature. His thoughts on Nation and Nationalism are ageless and are part of Research Curriculum globally. The item under question on this topic is Swadeshi Samaj, which an article is written by Tagore in the early twentieth century about why aggression must be avoided in an India that seeks to accept everyone inside the large assortment without loss or devastation. Tagore discussed the significance of avoiding force and violence to overpower contenders in one of his less-discussed publications, titled 'Swadeshi Samaj,' which he also delivered as a lecture on two occasions, as well as the adaptability of India's rich tradition, Hindu dharma, in one of his comparatively less-discussed articles, titled 'Swadeshi Samaj,' which he also conveyed as a speech on two separate occasions. He also explained why he believed that the "Hindu worldview" was the best way to reconcile disputes in Indian culture. "Each new struggle will enable us to extend ourselves," Tagore said in the first lecture. In India, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians will not fight and die; instead, they will discover a common ground. Tagore emphasizes the need of a 'Hindu worldview,' stating that the meeting place will not be non-Hindu, but very clearly Hindu.

‘Hindu society has coordinated many reciprocally contradictory essentials of variety’

Tagore states of the futility of attempting to control through force and violence, "To experience unity in diversity, to develop harmony amidst variety-this is the basic religion of India." India does not see diversity as a source of enmity, and she does not see the other as an enemy. That is why, despite sacrificing or destroying anything, she wishes to integrate everyone within the big system. That is why she accepts different approaches and recognizes the excellence of each in his or her own field." Tagore replaces national philosophy with Swadeshi Samaj philosophy. When the British suggested partitioning Bengal in 1904, an enraged Tagore presented a discourse called "Swadeshi Samaj" and presented an alternative solution: a self-help-based thorough reform of rural Bengal. Furthermore, he saw British dominance of India as a "political manifestation of our social cancer," and he claimed that social ties are not robotic and lifeless, but rather built on compassion and collaboration, as articulated by Kalyan Sengupta. He had always assumed that in the past, culture and politics in India moved in tandem without interfering with each other. According to Tagore, the nation reinforces the regime at the expense of the public, undermining the latter's fluency and vibrant and diverse experiential life while amping itself toward the realization of a single shared goal, such as dominance, maximization of collective wealth, racial superiority, or some such goal. When one realizes Tagore's position that India's oneness is a sociological truth rather than a political ambition, it becomes clear that for Tagore, global nationalism is an embracing pluralistic vision of a nation that goes beyond the idea of exclusive nationalism and instead sees the entire planet as a family. Tagore advocated for a "non-parochial inclusive nationalism" that was meaningful to humanity. This idea is hard to comprehend, just as it was difficult to grasp how a guy like Gandhi could bring freedom to a country with the assistance of salt and charkha, or how feudal spiritual authors could bring a cultural transformation with the use of analogies like chadar and chunri. "India has not ravaged the entire world's body and soul with her own armies and commodities," he said, "but has apprenticed humanity's admiration by peace-building, comfort, and religious institutions everywhere." Thus, her splendor has been earned through repentance, and it is higher than the grandeur of supremacy over other kingdoms."

'If we have this supernatural providence for India in mind, then we'll have a set aim, our doubt will be eliminated, and we will understand about that unkillable force in India,' Swadeshi Samaj asserted. It must be recalled that as students, one will not only get European learning, but the Devi Saraswati will make all divisions and disputes bloom like a hundred petal lotus, removing division. The Indian genius's mission is to bring about oneness. India is not someone to keep others at bay or to abandon others. India will one day show this acrimonious divided world how to welcome and embrace everybody, and how to unite all into one magnificent family.'

"If one is able to resuscitate that heart of our ancestors to lead this static Civilization of ours, only then shall we be strong," Tagore stated of the significance of recovering the historical heritage as a road ahead for Indian society. If our whole society becomes alive and active rejuvenated by the noble moments and greatness of the ancient times, if it makes self-strong and mobile with the life force of centuries crossing through its organs then foreign rule and all other kinds of misery will become small and insignificant matters.”

 

------

 

References

Chakravarty, A (1961), A Tagore Reader, Beacon Press, ISBN 0-8070-5971-4.
Tagore, Rabindranath. “Swadeshi Samaj” translated by Anasuya Guha, Dey’s Publishing, 2006,
Dutta, K; Robinson, A (1995), Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man, St. Martin's Press,
Dutta, K (editor); Robinson, A (editor) (1997), Rabindranath Tagore: An Anthology, St. Martin's Press,
Choudhuri, Indra Nath. “Tagore and Gandhi: Their Intellectual Conflict and Companionship.” Indian Literature, vol. 59, no. 2 (286), Sahitya Akademi, 2015, pp. 146–57, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44478532.

Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India's Modernity: A Book Review

The Indian economy during the provincial period was regularly seen as being static and constant. Creation, numerous spectators guaranteed, continued along all around worn depressions; similar items were delivered, regularly with the equivalent obsolete and out of date systems. Dormant to the advantages of embracing better than ever innovation, Indians seemed substance to attempt creation forms that were described by remarkably low degrees of efficiency and yielded pretty much nothing. All development, advancement and change were at any rate in an economy that additionally highlighted incredibly constrained specialization and division of work. Without a doubt, most creation and utilization exercises were embraced inside the independent town network, and scarcely any changes, it was guaranteed, penetrated or influenced this world unto itself. 

 

This account of balance filled in as perfect grist for the plants of Royal defenders. To these supporters of colonization and domain, it clarified why India stayed buried in destitution in spite of the Majestic touch. Indians were poor since they were disinclined to change and advancement; they were happy with little and wanted nothing more. Amusingly, Indian patriots embraced an indistinguishable perspective on the pioneer economy. For them, be that as it may, the absence of progress was not something to be deplored but rather celebrated. The independent town economy with its insularity and its simple creation systems was held up as a good and otherworldly perfect. Immaculate by the rushing about of present day mechanical life it was an unadulterated country idyll with a bad situation for current apparatus of any sort.

In “Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India's Modernity” David Arnold illustrates the pioneer economy that remains in sharp and reviving differentiation to the view portrayed previously. The Indian economy in the late nineteenth and the principal half of the twentieth hundreds of years was described by extensive financial change, a ton of it a consequence of the selection and utilization of machines epitomizing as good as ever innovation. Both in urban and, to a lesser degree, in rustic India, the life of the normal Indian was being slammed by the appearance of various novel and present day products from everywhere throughout the world. Merchandise like the sewing machine, just as bikes, typewriters, gramophones and the rice plant were progressively adjusting the ordinary connections that Indians shaped with each other. They delivered, afterward, changes in the manner in which Indians invested their relaxation energy and in the manner they worked, while additionally growing the range and the nature of the products and ventures they could create and devour. 

 

Breaking with the customary spotlight on "huge" advances and "enormous" machines and products like trenches, railways and the transmit, Arnold paints a nitty-gritty and educational image of the dispersion and selection of four "little" advances exemplified in the sewing machine, the bike, the typewriter and the rice plant. Given the littler size and extent of these products, and the utilizations that they were put to, the creator's story doesn't stay buried in the clean universe of officialdom. Rather, he is ceaselessly driven, by the very idea of the job that needs to be done, into the homes, workplaces and lanes of pioneer India; into the life and universe of the normal man. This emphasis on the inferior world, far away from the focuses of intensity, and the writer's mind blowing interpretation of it in clear exposition, is one of the features of the book.

Through the course of the book Arnold draws the whole life history of these four little innovations in pilgrim India. He gives a very much examined record of their development into the nation and into the different people and firms from everywhere throughout the world that were engaged with this procedure (p. 40-68). He breaks down and gives proof to the continuous increment in their significance for regular daily existence, referring to rising imports of these products into India, and notes the positive effect that they had on winning expectations for everyday comforts. The sewing machine, we are told, added to critical changes in the methods of dress. Male workers in the more prosperous areas, for instance, "started to wear shirts and cotton coats made around" (p. 37), while the approach of rice processing prompted rice done being the project of the well off. Rather, "it was more economically accessible than any other time in recent memory" and step by step advanced into the eating regimens of "plant hands, manor laborers … and low station gatherings" (p. 118). 

 

In fact, one of the most significant exercises to be gotten from the creator's record of the dispersion of innovation into provincial India is the means by which every one of these merchandise started by contacting the lives of just a minority, normally Europeans and the more extravagant Indians, and afterward gradually began penetrating and entering the lives of the man and the lady in the city. Especially convincing, in this specific situation, is Arnold's record of how the sewing machine was promoted and dispersed. At first idea of as a solid match just for the utilization of Europeans, it was left to an Indian, N.M. Patel, to upset the manner in which it was promoted (p. 70-76). Patel, in a case of splendid business enterprise, started to showcase it to Indians also, significantly extending the machine's compass and its deals. 

 

Alongside the financial effect of these little machines, Arnold additionally gives a record of their effect on Indian culture and culture. Of specific note is his portrayal of the social tumult that the section of these and different machines caused, particularly among Indian patriots who trusted in the objective of Swadeshi venture, and among the individuals who likened all hardware with social colonialism and mastery exuding from the created world (p. 95-120). While himself thoughtful to the objective of financial independence and autarky that this patriot notion eventually brought about, Arnold gives a reasonable and adjusted record of the discussion encompassing the expenses and advantages of the passage of machines into the Colonial India.

 

In whole, The Book “Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India's Modernity” is an intriguing and instructive work that all understudies of Indian monetary history can peruse with both benefit and joy. Despite the peruser's political influence and of his perspectives in regards to India's tests after freedom first with focal arranging and now with advancement and market changes, Arnold's book will undoubtedly give an illuminating look into the lives of the normal man and his relationship with innovation during the later long stretches of English guideline in India. 

 

The historiography of innovation move from the Western world to pilgrim India as a rule manages enormous scope fabricating industry and framework ventures. Ordinary Innovation, conversely, contemplates the utilization of new innovation by buyers, administration laborers and little scope industry. With four models, the book shows how modest machines 'fundamentally changed key regions of Indian life' (p. 11). Two models, sewing machine and bike, were purchaser durables or family devices. The third, typewriter, was an office machine that encouraged another expertise. The fourth, rice factory, has a place with a bigger class of agro-modern endeavors that rose, particularly in the interwar period, in humble communities doing a great deal of agrarian exchange. These investigations lead the creator to make various irregular and fascinating contentions about how innovation formed Indian advancement in a pioneer setting. Part One ('India's Mechanical Fanciful'), for instance, shows the assorted ways that innovation was remembered for thoughts of a superior life. The frontier state's vision of improving India incorporated a job for huge scope trench and railroad ventures. In the semi-official ethnographic studies delivered around 1900, Western innovation everything except vanished as an element of Indian advancement. The patriot standard created uncertain reactions to innovation. This is shown best in the complexity between Gandhi's Ruralism and Nehru's interest for Soviet-style Socialism. None of these points of view perceived how the white collar class and common laborers Indians ingested, utilized and altered Western devices and machines. The case of the tailors (darzi) utilizing the sewing machine to join new methods of dress is an especially well-suited one. Section Two ('Modernizing Merchandise') seeks after the point to show the size of the expansion in import and utilization of the machines, and how effectively they became portions of life in the town and the city, and 'set apart out a job for the creative … systems of pedal, treadle, console, and pivoting factory that were in this way applied to other mechanical gadgets' (p. 67). In Section Three ('Innovation, Race, and Sex'), the entrancing story of the incredible vendor of Vocalist sewing machine, N.M. Patel, is told. Patel was compelling in moving the objective of advertising from the exile and Indo-European populace towards the Indian tailor and white collar class Indian ladies. In doing as such, he confronted the disappointment of European managers who accepted the system would come up short and needed increasingly European staff to be utilized in India. Patel persevered with extraordinary achievement. Bikes and typewriters stayed male machines for quite a while. In any case, in the enormous urban areas, where ladies worked in workplaces in expanding numbers from the 1940s, numerous new composing schools obliged ladies. Section Four ('Swadeshi Machines') brings up that a portion of these machines, being of American or European inception, remained in an equivocal relationship with the development supporting blacklist of English items. Then again, Indian business people saw early the chance of making them at home, and there rose various local modern firms doing this. By at that point, retail exchange had just grown significantly to support them. Sen-Raleigh, Map book and Rear made bikes, Godrej made typewriters, Usha made sewing machines and nearby firms made rice plant parts. The indigenization of the typewriter was supported by the utilization of Indian contents in typewriters, particularly in the regal states. Section Five ('Innovation and Prosperity') manages a subject wherein different students of history have started to make a commitment, how promoting for new merchandise reflects standards of Indian life. The section shows that, interestingly with the more recognizable negative perspective on mechanical innovation as the image of undesirable urban areas, notices for contraptions some of the time anticipated them as a component of a solid and clean way of life. The last considerable part ('Ordinary Innovation and the Cutting edge State') offers an amendment to the natural postulation that Western innovation, to cite Daniel Headrick, spoke to 'devices' and 'arms' of Realm. Arnold proposes rather that 'the provincial state was in numerous regards excessively frail' (p. 172) to adequately utilize such instruments of rule, and regardless the regular advances worked such that had little to do with how the legislature functioned. Bike, sewing machine and typewriter were not effectively moderate machines even 30 years after freedom. This isn't on the grounds that India was as yet poor. Or maybe, shielded by a system that restricted remote exchange buyer contraptions, Indian firms making these products quit improving. During the 1970s, they made neither new assortment nor modest merchandise. The fact that Hind, Usha and Sen quickly bankrupted or turned to trading after India’s return to the world economy proves how badly they had served consumers during the long retreat from the world economy. The world of consumption that Arnold describes had a counterpart in the world of business, a cosmopolitan capitalism that did not face serious barriers to exchange of knowledge between Indian and foreigners, traders and manufacturers. Colonial or not, cosmopolitanism made possible the very diversity of experiences the book describes so well. The nationalistic business world of postcolonial India lost that resource.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnold, David. Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India's Modernity. University of Chicago Press, 2015.

 

Ratnam, Dhamini. “Lounge Loves: A Tome on the Typewriter in India.” Livemint,, www.livemint.com/Leisure/2uuoy3LK6GrZDLDPOlVe8M/Lounge-loves-A-tome-on-the-typewriter-in-India.html.

 

Desk, Impact News. “Midnight's Machines : A Political History Of Technology Of India” By Arun Mohan Sukumar.” Impact News India, Impact News India, 13 Nov. 2019, www.impactnews.in/midnights-machines-a-political-history-of-technology-of-india-by-arun-mohan-sukumar/.

Marxian Political Economy versus Neo-Classical Political Economy

INTRODUCTION

My paper mainly focusses on the contrast between Marxian Political Economy and Neo-Classical Political Economy. Each of these two theories, has a distinct pattern of understanding how economies work and how it interacts with polity and society.  These are two entirely distinct theories, about the economic part of the society. It is imperative to understand, that the base of both these theories, will usher in individuals, families, polity and society in an altogether different direction.

There are vast theoretical differences between the neoclassical school and the Marxian school of Political Economy. The Neoclassical School attaches, basic importance to three economic acts that are attributed to all individuals: owning, buying and selling. It assumes that all goods and services are privately owned by individuals, who seek to maximize their satisfaction from consuming the aforementioned goods and services. Neoclassical theory outrightly based on presumptive human nature, it celebrates the idea of the free market, which it thinks of as a self-regulating mechanism.

On the other hand, the Marxian School of Political Economy, stresses on class exploitation, and the struggle to counteract it. It elucidates “class” as a process whereby some people in society engage in active production of goods and services, for others but not being equally remunerated for the same, it is different from the neoclassical school, as the latter is about presumptive human nature, but in the Marxian School, it is about presumptions regarding social relationships, which defines and justifies human actions in a society. The analysis of social relationships corresponds with the interwoven patterns of individual behavior, either in society or in the market. The class difference and division of society into the exploiters and the exploited, the haves and the havenots, is not at all justified, as far as Marxism is concerned. It is opposed to the idea of the Neoclassical School, where the ideas of free markets and ownership of property by private individuals are celebrated, as it hides and preserves “class injustice”.

     

Marx’s critique of Political Economy: Analyzing “Grundrisse” as a centerpiece of understanding Marxian Political Economy

According to Marx, Capital can take a number of forms. It can be a social relation; or a self-increasing value. For the Neoclassicists, it is either capital goods for investment such as machines, the funding required for their purchase, or their ownership. The thinking of dialectical materialism means that capital have a variability of sense. One of the key features of capitalism is the widespread production of produces for sale. Under capitalism, commodities are sold at their exchange value but they wouldn’t have been sold if they lacked a use value, which is found in their intake. The labour theory of value is the sole basis of understanding the Marxian definition of Capitalism. Workers are paid a wage by the Capitalist, without access to the means of production, they are forced to sell their labour in order of a means of subsistence.

The value power is same as the exchange value of the concerned worker. The capitalist, who has acquired the labour power, will obtain the use value of the worker, which is labour, the skill of the worker to manufacture goods of value which is greater than the wage. Only labour yields surplus value. As capitalism progresses, the need for commodities seemingly increase. This can be clearly perceived during the history of consumption under capitalism.

Marxian Political Economy as an agency of Economic Freedom: Understanding Amariglio’s argument as opposed to Julie Matthaei’s concept of the Labour Theory of Value as ‘antithetic’

According to Julie Matthaei,  the Marxian labor theory of value is "antithetical" to the concept of "choice" and cannot theorize the freedom that economic agents have in the market place to choose consumption bundles and work activities. (Amariglio.1986)

Marxian Theory of Value is fully well-matched with choice in the market and with varied political and cultural identities, Matthaei, however, does not note the arrival of readings of Marx's theory of value that begins to develop a non- conformist discussion of diversities within the working class. Marxian theory of Value must not suppress the monetary character of the wage. Marxian theory of Value indeed strains this monetary character when it is suitable for it to do so, e.g. when deliberating the process of buildup - as, in general, it pressures the monetary character of all exchanges through the dissimilarity between use-value and exchange-value. According to Marx, "in a given country, at a given period, the average quantity of the means of subsistence necessary for the laborer is practically known" and that, therefore, the theoretical assumption of a given value of labor-power can be translated into an assumption about a given quantity of use values containing a given sum of exchange value. (Marx, 1967, p. 171) Thus, in Marxian theory of Value, the supposition of a given wage bundle is a matter of model building and not an affirmation about how the wage bundle is at any time, historically determined. Matthaei does not see that, for Marxian theory, the actual, historical, behavior of workers in the market place is not constrained by the procedures of model building. Having established that the value of labor-power is introduced in Marxian theory as the datum of a model and not as a historical constraint, In this context, it is important to recall that Marx was critical of the Classical Political Economists, whom he in other ways very much respected, for their assumptions that economic agents, individuals, were possessed of a worldwide economic rationality.  It was partly in opposition to this classical commencement of the bases of economic behavior that Marx developed a theory of value and a theory of the dynamics of capitalist society that formulated economic "laws" in terms of the class production and distribution of surplus-labor and that concentrated only on market relations through which production and distribution of surplus-labor and that concentrated only on market relations through which production and distribution of surplus-labor is directed in a capitalist society. Marx created all market relations as historically strong-minded. It is exactly for this motive that he did not diminish and could not constantly have reduced, all dealings that take place in and through the market as just expressions of a given, non-traditional, non-political, economic rationality. In Marxian discourse, the differences that exist among workers with respect to consumption bundles have to be explained in terms of the varied cultural, political, institutional, and historical forces that have impacted on different groups of workers.

The Neoclassical-Keynesian Synthesis: Understanding Post-War Unemployment in the West

The "Neoclassical-Keynesian Synthesis" refers to the Keynesian Revolution as interpreted and formalized by British Economist John Hicks in the early post-war period. The centerpiece of the Neoclassical-Keynesian Synthesis, tended to yield the neoclassical result of "full employment". As a result, in order to generate an "unemployment equilibrium" as a solution to this system of equations, the Neoclassical School appealed to rigid money wages, interest-inelastic investment demand, income-inelastic money demand or some other imperfection to this system. Thus it is referred to as a "synthesis" of Neoclassical and Keynesian theory in that the conclusions of the model in the "long run" or in a "perfectly working" Neoclassical System, but in the "short-run" or "imperfectly working”.

The Neoclassical-Keynesian Synthesis was wildly fruitful and dominated macroeconomics in the post-war period. For a long time, the Neo-Keynesian system was identical with the "Keynesian Revolution" and was highly powerful in both theoretical, applied and policy work. Abba Lerner in 1944 was among the first to identify the insinuations of the Keynesian system for government macroeconomic policy: by appropriate fiscal and monetary policies, a government could "steer" the economy away from extremes and thus smooth out the business cycle. This policy-effectiveness was given an enormous boost by the new econometric model-building techniques and optimal policy design criteria developed by Jan Tinbergen (1952), James E. Meade (1951),

The Neo-Keynesian system came under continued attack in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1968, Leijonhufvud claimed that the Neo-Keynesians had totally disenchanted the meaning of J.M. Keynes's General Theory. Following Clower in 1965, Leijonhufvud proposed that as a substitute of trailing "unemployment equilibrium" in a flawed system, they should be analyzing "prolonged disequilibrium" in a system without inflexibilities.

Reactions to Keynesian Model and Criticism of Neoclassical Theory

“A sizable shift in the aggregate demand, will still cause an increase in real income and employment, but the size of the multiplier will be diminished, the more important the induced price rise becomes owing to the expansion of demand” (Wolff.119)

This gives us an understanding of how actually the Keynesian Model works. Although the rate of income and employment increases, the price of commodities will rise directly proportional to the increasing demand. There may be significant employment, but without State funding (Multiplier), it will not be affordable for the working gentry to purchase goods and services, i.e. their purchasing power rapidly decreases, the market as a self-regulating body will balance but the class parity still ensues.

The Neoclassical Theory as a whole is entirely unjust for the working class, the proletariat. It gives an inadequate explanation of large companies wielding an exorbitant amount of power in all the markets. The Neoclassical Theory omits from its explanation, the very “visible” hand of the state in so many aspects of our lives, the behavior of the agents of the state must be understood in all their complex effects if we are trying to specify the mechanism of supply and demand in the economy.   Neoclassical economics is also criticized for being extremely normative, in this view, it gives a utopic idea rather than to comparatively analyze varying economic trends. According to Hobsbawm, the Neoclassical Political Economy is all about "to demonstrate the social optimality if the real world were to resemble the model", not "to explain the real world as observed empirically".   The beginning of a "Keynesian" theory of income distribution after Roy Harrod's model of growth is then recollected together with the astounding resurrection of the neoclassical theory. The neoclassical theory of income distribution lacks logical consistency and has shaky foundations, as has been revealed by the severe critiques.

References

Amariglio, Jack, and Antonio Callari. “Marxian Economics and Freedom: A Comment.” Eastern Economic Journal, XII, no. 2, 1986, pp. 1–9.


Hoaas, David J., et al. “Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical.” Southern Economic Journal, vol. 55, no. 2, 1987, p. 95., doi:10.2307/1059131.


Gomes, Leonard. “Early Neoclassical Contributions.” Neoclassical International Economics, 1990, pp. 10–27., doi:10.1057/9780230371552_2.


Dumenil, Gerard, and Dominique Levy. “Marxian Political Economy: Legacy and Renewal.” World Review of Political Economy, vol. 1, no. 1, 2010, pp. 7–22.


Nowicki, Florian. “The Theory of Production from Grundrisse and Its Implications for Marxism.” Nowa Krytyka, vol. 40, 2018, pp. 93–116., doi:10.18276/nk.2018.40-04.


“What Is (Wrong with) Neoclassical Economics?” Real-World Economics Review Blog, 30 Jan. 2018, https://rwer.wordpress.com/2018/01/31/what-is-wrong-with-neoclassical-economics/.


Ussher, L. “The Neoclassical-Keynesian Synthesis.” NEOCLASSICAL-KEYNESIAN SYNTHESIS, https://cruel.org/econthought/schools/synthesis.html.

New Public Administration & Management in Vietnam's Mining Sector

The public administration reform (PAR) platform in Vietnam was formally propelled in January 1995, concentrating on improvements of organizational establishments, of the government apparatus, and on the expansion and teaching of administrators. By 2003, it is familiar that total the transformation development has been sluggish and that envisioned results have not been accomplished. Nevertheless, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), a regionalized level of the Government of Vietnam, stands out as a ground-breaking and comparatively efficacious restructuring local authority. Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Vietnam is a determined platform that seeks to apply ‘rule by law’ within a consolidated, state controlling structure. It is a political policy by the key party and state representatives with the aim of institutionalizing and legitimizing the evolution to the ‘socialist market economy’ through making a reliable system of rule‐bound public administration. This platform has received wide-ranging donor backing. In the content and course of PAR, outer models and technical aid are powerful but the political skirmish over control of state capitals shapes the procedure. This is seen in the efforts to constitutionalize the commands of state structures and to differentiate them from the party; to distinct owner and manager characters and to substitute political with commercial criteria in the operation of state owned enterprises; to combat corruption in ‘street level’ decision making; to justify the machinery of government; to create a centrally managed, professional civil service; and to reform the system of public finances. In each of these areas, there is confrontation to reform proposals and evidence of application gaps. In these conditions, focus of donor support on the centrally managed PAR platform is a high risk approach. Continued support for local, ‘bottom‐up’ reform ingenuities could help sustain the demand for reform.
 

According to scholars, local administration is a contraption exercising state influence at provincial, district and commune levels; a local administration consists of a People’s Council and a People’s Committee. It is a complex system because of not only the intricacy of organizational-provincial structures but also its assorted procedures under different historic circumstances and within dissimilar possibilities of capability. The 2013 Constitution clearly states that the local administration has two types of responsibilities and authorities, namely establishing and guaranteeing application of the Constitution and laws in their neighborhoods and deciding on local issues. This expresses the underpinning view that policies and laws are to be issued by competent central bodies, while local administrations at all levels are responsible for organizing the implementation under the supervision by superior state bodies. In addition, tasks and powers of local administration are determined based on the division of competence between state bodies at central and local levels and among different levels of local administration. This determination is aimed at guaranteeing the initiative and self-responsibility of each level of administration as well as the effective control of power.

Public Administration in Vietnam with a close analysis of the Mining Sector

 Vietnam’s mining industry remains largely undeveloped with most operations being insufficient and causing harm to the environment. However, there remains great potential due to the diversity of untouched mineral resources. The discovery and mining of new minerals can be significantly facilitated with foreign direct investment (FDI). This provides the opportunity to use international, modern, efficient, sustainable, and secure technologies for the procedure. This would have a huge impact on the nation’s economic growth and would lead to a reduction in public debt. The PAR platform made its headway into the mining industry, very rapidly, as it was a socialist country and the sole organization of mining in Vietnam was VINACOMIN. Here, we have to note that Vietnam is a single-party state with a multi-level partisan and governmental system entailing of the national level at the top, and—with prominence to the case under argument in this article—the provincial, district, and joint levels below. Whereas lawmaking and policymaking powers are well separated, the Communist Party of Vietnam plays a conclusive role on all levels of administration and resolution. With respect to governing mineral extraction, establishments on the national and the regional level, i.e., the Ministry of Natural Resources (MONRE) and the Department of Natural Resources (DONRE), are the most pertinent decision-making bodies. However, there is a noteworthy gap amid ecological policy acceptance at the national level and its operation at the regional and local levels, especially when it alarms stakeholder participation and association.
 

There are three adversities to proper administration of the mining industry in Vietnam:


· Mining policies and issues: First, existing mining legislation could be revised and become more transparent, clearer, with investor-friendly rules created. Second, state co-ordination of law enforcement can be established to ensure a consistent and effective application of the relevant rules. Third, a fair tax system for government and investors likewise should be created.
 

· Work Productivity: The gap between the growth in economy and productivity has led to an increase in wages, faster than the productivity growth. From 2004 to 2015, the average wage increased by 6.67 percent, while labor productivity only grew by 4.96 percent. Historically, increase in minimum wages have led to an increase in average wages, reduced profits, and lower employment, especially for FDI and private firms. Labor-intensive sectors usually move towards automation, while capital-intensive sectors reduce investments in machinery. According to Vietnam’s General Statistics Office, the average monthly salary in 2017 was VND 6.6 million (US$290), up 9.3 percent compared to 2016. This was higher than the growth in the regional minimum wages in 2017, which was 7.3 percent.
 

· Lack of skilled labor: The government has taken steps to increase vocational and technical training in order to meet the requirements of the labor market. In March 2018, the government introduced Decree No. 49/2018/ND-CP that provides for the accreditation of vocational education. As of February 2018, there are more than 1,900 vocational training centers across Vietnam, including 395 colleges and 545 vocational schools, which offer programs in tourism, beauty services, IT, construction, fashion, garment and textiles, pharmaceuticals, precision mechanics and hotel management. The government aims to provide vocational training to 2.2 million people in 2018.

New Public Management and its presence in the Mining Sector of Vietnam

New Public Management depends on two precursor theories:
 

· Public Choice Theory: Flow of the decision of command to the public
 

· Neo-Taylorism: An Offshoot of Taylor’s Scientific Management, According to Vasquez, refers to a number of practices in organizations aiming at the reduction of time and resources in productive processes through maximization of efficiency, the basic principles that constituted the starting point to develop Taylor's postulates”.

Features of New Public Management

· Business model of Market as the right model for Public Administration: According to Frederick Hayek and Milton Friedman, the Market has the final say to manage and control resources to every state.
 

· Economic Rationality: Efficient Public Management based on Economic rationality focused on economic generation, the more the government is earning profit, the more they have the ability to serve the people
 

· Managerial Autonomy: In an establishment, it is imperative that the managers or the middle level administrators should have autonomy to make their own decisions, which could benefit the establishment as a whole.


In Connection to this, to achieve the objectives of NPM, The Government/Administration should be reactive, Community-majority, mass-driven, mission oriented, and Market oriented, to understand the pulse of the polemics.
 

In Vietnam, there are many legal and constitutional hindrances to achieve a fully efficient and open industry of mining, as mentioned before, Vietnam governed by the Communist party, doesn’t facilitate openness of the economy. In my view, Vietnam is not following the tenets of NPM, as there is no Managerial Autonomy as the whole decision making is done by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MONRE) and the Department of Natural Resources (DONRE) which are both National Level Government Agencies of Vietnam. The state-owned mining corporation VIACOMIN, by compulsion is to follow the orders of the agencies, to the letter, which suggests the concepts of hierarchy and appellate authority under the government. As Vietnam hasn’t opened its economy fully to the World, it can be deduced that they are not following the Business Model of Market, thus another proof of Vietnam, not following NPM. In Vietnam there is no competition as the monopoly in Bauxite, Coal and Tungsten mining is held by VIACOMIN. As the tradition of hierarchy, span of control, appellate and supreme authority are followed in Vietnam, it is safe to say that Vietnam is following the Traditional Public Administration.




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References
 

Marston, Hunter. “Bauxite Mining in Vietnam's Central Highlands: An Arena for Expanding Civil Society.” Bauxite Mining in Vietnam's Central Highlands: An Arena for Expanding Civil Society?, JSTOR, 2012, www.jstor.org/stable/41756340.


Schiappacasse, Paulina, et al. “Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam.” Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam, 2 Aug. 2019, doi: 10.3390.
 

Vasquez, Jose Luis, and Garcia Maria Purificacion. “From Taylorism to Neo-Taylorism: A 100-Year Journey in Human Resource Management.” From Taylorism to Neo-Taylorism: A 100-Year Journey in Human Resource Management, University of Szeged.


United, Nations. “Strengthening the Impact of Public Administration Reform in Vietnam in Da Nang City.” UNDP in Vietnam, United Nations Development Programme, www.vn.undp.org/content/vietnam/en/home/operations/projects/democratic_governance/Strengthening-the-impact-of-Public-Administration-Reform.html.


Minogue, et al. “Public Administration Reform in Vietnam: Experiences from Ho Chi Minh City.” AgEcon Search, 1 Jan. 1970, ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/30679/?ln=en.


“Labor Market Trends in Vietnam.” Vietnam Briefing News, 18 July 2019, www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/labor-market-trends-vietnam.html/.


“Current Local Administration System in Vietnam.” Vietnam Law & Legal Forum Magazine Is Your Gateway to the Law of Vietnam, vietnamlawmagazine.vn/current-local-administration-system-in-vietnam-6058.html.

Franda on Electoral Politics in West Bengal

The author, Franda discusses at length about the growth of socialism in West Bengal. It has been described as "an aspect of the complicated political situation obtaining in this small, truncated state". He also discusses at length about the so called politicization of the Bengali Community since the inception of the British Rule, about the questions that forced deliberations of Politics in West Bengal prior to the elections held in 1967, which marked the growth of left politics in Bengal.

The Second split within INC from where most of the Bengali members seceded and formed the Bangla Congress in 1966. This Bangla Congress was party to the UDF Coalition, which occurred in the foreseeable future and will lead to the formation of the United Left in 1967. Similarly due to the ideological and broadly electoral differences, many hardline Marxists left the CPI and formed the CPI(M), which managed to outpoll its parent party by a huge margin in both the 1967 and 1969 elections.

There is a vast difference, where it concerns feudal-oriented Congress and Marxist-oriented United Left (CPI, CPIM, RSP, and FB). The INC has been a staunch supporter of foreign investment, free market and economic liberalization, whereas the left advocated, workers’ rights, Anti-FDI arguments, nationalization of Industries and Banks, redistribution of land. According to Franda, "While these parties don’t measure their success in the terms of vote numbers or the quantity of Seats in Assembly or Parliament, they have nevertheless been able to attain an important position in the electoral politics of the state"**. The umbrella tendency dates back from 1952 to 1957, where ULEC formed by CPI, RSP, PSP, FB and FB(M), this CPI-led ULEC won 80 seats in 1957, this created a pattern by 1962. This showed that CPI, RSP and FB could work in an alliance, and in the process squeeze out smaller left parties from the political pitch, and clearly the strategy worked. Soon after the split of the CPI in 1964, there sprang two fronts, PULF led by CPI and ULF led by CPIM. Bangla Congress showed solidarity towards CPIM and supported the ULF.

The 1967 elections was a benchmark in the electoral politics in India, a non-INC democratic socialist party secured the power in the state, and decided to ally with ULF, which made it possible for the Bangla Congress to come into power. INC West Bengal leader, Atulya Ghosh opined that the PM would’ve wanted to form a coalition with the communists. As a matter of fact the UDF (United Front) Government was formed in 1967 as a coalition of 14 parties including PULF, ULF, PSP and Gurkha League, unfortunately but quite consequentially the UDF Government lasted only for nine months, succeeded by President’s rule in the state. Again the UDF rose in the 1969 elections with a decisive victory.

Franda concludes by writing that if the United Front was truly united there could be a possibility of the two-party system followed in Britain and the US as all the smaller parties were squeezed out of the spectrum.

 

Poromesh Acharya on Panchayats and Left Politics in West Bengal

This article authored by Poromesh Acharya, is an insight on the then upcoming Panchayat Elections in the year 1993. According to Acharya, "Despite the apparent success of the Panchayati Raj in West Bengal under Left Front rule, the overall domination of the privileged classes over the rural power structure remains unchallenged" In this article, Acharya explains about the democratic decentralization through Panchayati means, which has been accepted as a state policy by the Left Front Government for its social upliftment and transforming nature. He also held the view of Promode Dasgupta, the then Chairman of the Left Front, who opined that decentralization will end the concentration of power and authority at the hands of Administrative officers and the Privileged classes.


Although the performances of the Panchayati Raj in West Bengal ushered in a new era of political administration and leadership in the region, the agro-laborers and the poor peasants were greatly under-represented and the rich and the middle-level peasants were actually part of the decision-making. In a mechanism of democratic centralism, it is the secretary of the Party District Committee who wields all the power and the "ultimate authority", CPIM only recruits/nominates people with a labour background into the ranks, having the idea that the person, would come to aid of the people who are economically or socially similar to him, therefore the question is of the class character of the District Committee.

With reference to the Land Grab Movement, the Context of the red flag emerged as a symbol of struggle against oppression from the privileged classes, which distincts itself from INC which "allegedly" represented the rural elites, but even after coming to power, the Left Front Government overlooked the interests of the rural labour community. Operation Borga, one of the flagship policy implementations brought out by the Left Front Government, but was carried out mainly by the Administration and top notch party leadership. The role of the concerned Borgadaars was limited so as their contributions, they were merely recipients of their rights which the Left Front Government promised them.

Acharya writes about the electoral-ideological dilemma of the Left Front and says that the Left Front has won elections at the cost of their ideology, which is true, observing the later events. The inherent populism within a socialist party trying to cling on to power. He finally concludes with mentioning the BJP and how it could be a strong adversary to the CPIM and the Left Front by stating its influence in rural Bengal, how communal politics could possibly take over and caste-class politics could disappear from the spectrum

Populism and Intrastructural Crisis

Populism in its broader sense creates a kind of crisis within the architecture along party lines; For instance, the Marxist Communist Party in India, since its inception in the early 20th Century, has adhered to a flexible code, The Party Line; necessarily meaning handling the regular affairs of the party by adhering to collective decision making, exercised by high rankers of the party, usually legitimised by the Party Constitution and Statutues, A wholly Marxist approach which may or may not match the psyche of the masses. The MCP talks about Redistribution of Land, Equal Earning Rights, Spirit of Indigenous Industries and rejects Foreign Investment, Abolition of the Concept of Private Property, Abolition of discriminatory practices on the basis of Caste, Creed, Gender, Race and Ethnicity, and believes in the idea of State as unified entity, having diversity in every corner. 

Populism, today is not all about what Churchill said during the Great Patriotic War, it has extended its domain over much of today’s life. Public opinion when amounts to political pressure, compelling politicians to serve their interests, for nothing but political mileage, can be termed as populism. The MCP terms this as mass line, which was anciently derived from the Chinese Communist Party, which was incidentally Mao’s flagship ideology, as public policy is influenced by interest groups, this can be broadly categorised as Mass line.

Now, on to the crisis situation, predominantly in the theoretical sense. Marx is of the opinion that party line, when followed to the letter, usually doesn’t coincide with the masses (mass line), later advocated by Mao Tse-Tung, telling that power concentrated in the hands of the few, makes the system more despotic than democratic.