Open Magazine — February 14, 2018

20 12 february 2018

I

suspect most people will not have read a book
titled Reform and Progress in India. since the author
preferred not to reveal his/her name, it is credited to
‘An optimist’. the subtitle reads ‘A Few thoughts on
Administrative and other Questions connected with the
country and people’, and may give away the vintage. this
book was published in 1885. I mentioned this to illustrate
a simple point. there are many books, monographs,
academic papers and media articles on reforms, understand-
ably more since 1991. they assert, ‘the Government is
reforming’ or ‘the Government is not reforming’. Implicit
in that assertion is some kind of take on what constitutes
reforms, and by its very nature, that take is a subjective
value judgement. though one person’s ‘reform’ may not
necessarily be another person’s ‘deform’, a list of ‘reforms’
will vary from one person to another. think of the etymol-
ogy of the word ‘reform’. It is re + formare, with a sense of
bringing back to the original shape. We will therefore have
to take a view on which shape is right: the original one, the
present one, or some alternative. You will argue there is a
reasonable degree of consensus on what are reforms—agri-
culture, industry, services, infrastructure, labour, land, dis-
pute resolution, financial markets, taxation, public sector
enterprises, subsidies and so on.
At one level, you are right. But these are examples of ‘re-
form’. In texts that seek to describe the Brahman, the expres-
sion ‘neti’ is often used. Neti = na + iti. ‘Neti’ means ‘not this’,
while ‘iti’ means ‘this’. In foreign trade policy, before 1991,
the commerce ministry used to have positive lists and neg-
ative lists. (such lists still exist, but they have become far
less important.) A negative list is little more liberal, so to
speak, than a positive list. unless an act, including an act
of importing, is explicitly prohibited by a negative list, the
presumption is that it can be undertaken. With a positive
list, unless an act, including one of importing, is explicitly
permitted, the presumption is that it cannot be undertak-
en. ‘Neti’ is like a negative list, while ‘iti’ is like a positive list.

Imagine a situation where Open is nationalised. most peo-

ple will shake their heads and say ‘neti’. this is not reform.

However, cast your mind back to the late-1960s or early-

1970s. most people would have nodded their heads and said

‘iti’, this is reform.

let me give you a quote. ‘Hast thou appointed to high offic-

es ministers that are guileless and of well conduct for

generations and above the common run? ...Is any servant of

thine, who hath accomplished well a particular business by

the employment of special ability, disappointed in obtain-

ing from thee a little more regard, and an increase of food and

pay? I hope thou rewardest persons of learning and

humility, and skill in every kind of knowledge with gifts of

wealth and honour proportionate to their qualifications. ...o

lord of earth, art thou equal unto all men, and can every one

approach thee without fear, as if thou wert their mother and

father?... Do the accountants and clerks employed by thee in

looking after thy income and expenditure, always appraise

thee every day in the forenoon of thy income and expendi-

ture? Dismissest thou without fault servants accomplished

in business and popular and devoted to thy welfare? Are the

agriculturists in thy kingdom contented? Are large tanks and

lakes constructed all over thy kingdom at proper distanc-

es, without agriculture being in thy realm entirely depen-

dent on the showers of heaven? Are the agriculturists in thy

kingdom wanting in either seed or food? Grantest thou with

kindness loans (of seed-grains) unto the tillers, taking only

a fourth in excess of every measure by the hundred? o child,

are the four professions of agriculture, trade, cattle-rear-

ing, and lending at interest, carried on by honest men? Are

thieves and robbers that sack thy town pursued by thy police

over the even and uneven parts of thy kingdom? consolest

thou women and are they protected in thy realm?’

some of you may recognise this quote. It is from sabha

parva of the mahabharata. Just before the royal (rajasuya) sac-

rifice, the sage Narada arrives and asks Yudhishthira about

the welfare of the kingdom. I have deliberately not quoted

Form & reForm

In the Beginning is the Definition

Dutiful governance and the responsible citizen

By Bibek Debroy