From 50 Years Ago: Now an Established Order.

There are indications in plenty that India is fast becoming an established order, that the pattern of development – social, economic and political – has been set; variation there will be and is, but it is variation largely within a fixed pattern. Politically the fortunes of the Congress may wax or wane, if one goes by the results of bye-elections. There may be dissensions within the Congress Cabinets and occasional changes in ministries. The organisational wing of the party in some State may fall out with the parliamentary wing. But all these are fixed under the ‘gently guided democracy’, operated by the High Command from Delhi. At the top, Nehru’s towering personality reigns supreme; there is no dissension between the organisational and parliamentary wings here and none, on the surface, within the Cabinet nor can there be.

In the economic sphere, the pattern is getting set just as firmly. The administration has built up an industrial wing which runs the public sector of industries. It has acquired experience and gained the confidence to run the enterprises under its care in the way it finds most suited to it. The private sector operates within the framework set by a developing economy with such frictions and under such vexat ious rest r ict ions as are made inevitable, among other things, by shortage of foreign exchange and t he existence of a growing public sector in industry. However, the largest private industry in the country, which is agriculture, follows largely the traditional pattern and so do the cottage and household industries. Both receive benevolent attention from the Government, agriculture for such improvement in it s productivity as can be rendered by a skeleton extension service thinly spread over a wide area, and cottage industry, as a welfare measure and a substitute for social security which is beyond the resources of the Government to organise or operate. Neither has been integrated into the plans of economic development of which the third one is in the process of formulation, more or less on the lines of the second, which is now more than half way through.