State-Sponsored Alcoholism in Kerala

The “development” question has been approached from many perspectives in India. In contemporary times the focus has shifted to models of sustainable development, a reaction perhaps to the criticism of the extremes that neo-liberalism can bring. For the last two decades the Indian state has been ardently pursuing the neo-liberalist agenda for growth and development. In this environment which is being collaboratively created by the capitalist forces of globalisation and the state, the call for sustainable development is meant to qualify as an appeal for restraint. In such circumstances it becomes imperative to define and provide the scope of the term “sustainable development” lest it be misused by forces with vested interests. For instance, market forces and their sympathisers often categorise measures for sustainable development as an attempt to introduce communism surreptitiously. In its conventionally accepted sense the concept of sustainable development is meant to entail a sense of environmental protectionism. This is apparent from the fact that the best-known definition of sustainable development is the one contained in the Brundtland Report published by an intergovernmental commission of the United Nations (UN) under the chairpersonship of Gro Harlem Brundtland, an environmentalist. It says:

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Williams and Millington 2004).