The 22nd annual conference of the Indian Political Economy Association hosted by the department of economics, university of Jammu, as part of the varsity’s golden jubilee celebrations commenced here at Brigadier Rajinder Singh auditorium on Friday.
The keynote speaker of the conference, UtsaPatnaik, Professor Emerita in the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, drew parallels between what happened to India under colonial rule and under the current policies of globalisation and liberalisation.
She also drew the attention of the audience to the manner in which India was drained of her wealth by Britain, her colonial rulers, by way of taxes which then were used to pay for Britain’s imports from India.
“These imports in turn were largely exported to the rest of the world enriching Britain. However economic history textbooks written with a colonialist’s worldview were careful not to highlight this plunder and as a result, the extent of colonial plunder remains unknown to most Indians,” Prof Patnaik said.
She claimed that the same is being replicated by the richer countries this time through a set of policies that India has adopted after 1991 i.e. liberalisation and globalisation. The lowering of state investment has led to low demand and low domestic incomes while liberalisation and globalisation has made the farmers vulnerable to global instability, Prof Patnaik said. “The resulting farmers’ distress has led to the rise in farmers’ movements as well as Dalit movements, which are now being supported by the middle class,” she said.
This, according to Prof Patnaik, is a new and welcome development. Prof Patnaik called for a rollback of the policies that have come into place after 1991 and called for greater State intervention in the economy.
Prior to this, Prof VB Upadhyay of IIT Delhi and a functionary of the Indian Political Economy Association, explained to the audience about the aims, goals and orientation of the association.
The first day of the conference saw eight technical sessions with approximately 40 papers being read.
The areas covered included water management issues, climate change, foreign policy, public investment, relevance of Marxian analysis and thought etc.
The day concluded with a plenary session devoted to the discussion on “Political Economy of Emerging Political, Development and Ecological Challenges at the National and Global Levels”, the theme of the conference.