The Great Speeches of Modern India

by Rudrangshu Mukherjee

  The heavy and dense smoke that hangs about now in the evenings in the streets of Calcutta is indication of how careless we are in our daily practices and how urgent is the necessity of intelligently tackling our common-day problems.

  Turning now from coal to water power. We hopefully observe that large-scale developments of our hydroelectric resources are on the eve of taking place. There have been significant developments of water power in South and West India, where in Bombay, Travancore, Cochin, Mysore and Madras increasing uses of our resources in water power are being made now. We hear of Bhakra-Nangal, Hirakud and the DVC undertakings, and we hear of Kosi and Teesta surveys being undertaken for the development of power.

  A large-scale development of hydroelectric power in our country has evidently much to recommend itself. Here as in all other countries we have to remember that once the costly undertakings, barrages and installations are over, we utilize resources that nature annually gives us free and our supplies in dams being annually replenished by precipitation are perennial sources of power, which would not mean any progressive and quick impoverishment in natural resources as would happen if we relied on the burning of coal or oil reserves. Other countries have begun to think of their coal resources, and have been seriously exploring alternative means of generation of power, which may ultimately replace the gradual exhaustion of their resources. Even in countries which have no plentiful water power such as Canada or Scandinavia, people have turned their serious attention to the quick and efficient development of water power. Indian engineers however seem to be more cautious, and even where there is waterflow and hydraulic head, the problem of transport of heavy machinery seems to them to be occasionally a very deterrent factor for ultimate utilization.

  It is clear, however, that once we have fixed our plans, no difficulty need deter us. In other countries such difficulties of transport and comparative inaccessibility have been tackled in various ways.

  We may for example think of building our units in situ, instead of having the full-fledged units transport over long distances. In all such matters the old adage that ‘if there is will there is a way’ still remains valid to a great extent.

  During the recent war, we heard of tremendous happenings during which heavy war implements were transported by animal power over inaccessible mountain-barriers and such events had happened near the eastern borders of India. If one can achieve success by concentrated effort during war-time, what hinders us from thinking that such intense efforts will be lacking during peace-time when by such endeavours we will be making our country’s future secure for once and for good? I feel that more stress should be laid on water power development and all-out effort is needed to develop the resources to the fullest extent possible in our country.

  It is clear that all large-scale development in any one direction means very often a simultaneous development to a high grade efficiency in other fields. For example, our industry should be ready to furnish the raw materials that may be needed and home industries should be equal to the task of furnishing all steel, cement, and other metals that may be needed. Our resources in other fields make us hope that they can be tackled, once our mind is made up about the matter.

  The next five-year plan of future development is now on the anvil. Let us hope that an adequate and careful consideration will be given to the problem of adequate development of water power in India.

  During my recent visit to Europe as a delegate to the International Conference on Crystallography, I had the good fortune to be able to study how France has been tackling its problem of development of electric power. After the war, electricity in France has been nationalized. Large-scale hydroelectric developments have taken place after the war, and different centres of hydroelectric projects in the Central Massif, Pyrenees, Alps and in the Rhone Valley, have been developed to such an extent that France is now producing approximately 50 percent of its total power output from its hydroelectric installations.

  When we remember the area of France, which is approximately 1/6th of India, its comparatively fewer rivers and its moderate precipitation, we have an objective demonstration of how much can be achieved by intelligent planning. We have also to remember that the annual power production of France stands at 40,000 million kilowatt hours, which is approximately ten times our present output, and 50 percent of the output gives a figure which will exceed many times the projected output in our country by the hydroelectric schemes during the next five years.

  The industries of France are able to consume fully the power that is thus developed. Her water power is, however, not able to tackle all the industrial problems and a simultaneous large-scale development of thermal stations has also taken place. I mention this only as an example of how a developed country has tried to conserve its rather slender supply of coal and has gone on for large-scale development in water power.

  I have mentioned in the beginning how inefficiently we have been able to utilize the constant flow of solar energy. The tempo of modern developments has necessitated such large-scale expenditure of power that people have begun to think of discovering other ways of utilizing the solar energy which is now mostly scattered away. Whether solar energy can be trapped conveniently so that it would provide a cheap source of power is still a problem of the future. It is an enticing problem, and it may be interesting to note that the eminent Indian physicist in whose memory this lecture is being delivered had thought very early about the probable means of utilization, and perhaps that was one of the reasons which turned his attention from physics to biophysical problems. The role of chlorophyll always fascinated him and he had thought of utilizing in some way the entrapped energy other than the way the plant actually utilizes it. In his diary he writes:

  5th March, 1885. I have been long thinking whether the vast solar energy that is wasted in the tropical regions can in any way be utilized. Of course trees conserve the solar energy, but is there no other way of directly utilizing the radiant energy of the sun?

  Taking advantage of the heating effect, there have been attempts to construct solar engines, which is merely a heat engine. We may also get thermoelectric current by heating one of the junctions. But such thermoelectric batteries are practically of not much use. Great amount of energy is also lost by the wasteful conduction.

  Now, I have been thinking whether we could not directly convert the energy of light into that of electric current.

  However this problem still remains largely unsolved. Though recently news has come through of the achievement in America, where a significant progress in the development of photovoltaic cells has been reported. In the absence of more detailed information, I am unable to report on the actual achievement, though we are all eager to know the full details of the discovery.

  In the tropics where the sun shines for more than 200 days in a year, the problem of utilization of sunshine is always a fascinating one. We utilize energy not only for industrial purposes, but also for the enhancement of comforts and we at once remember the problems of air-conditioning and refrigeration, which are so important here, as in all tropical countries. It has been reported that by means of heliostat and paraboloid mirrors this problem of utilizing solar energy for refrigeration has been successfully tackled in Tashkent, in the Soviet Russia in 1916.

  A cement paraboloid of 80 metres (which can probably be turned to follow the daily motion of the sun) has been covered over by small mirrors of silvered glass, which thus concentrates the sun’s heat on a boiler which is connected with a refrigerator, which generates the cold by the ammonia cycle.

  This news is interesting to us situated in the tropics as we are; it opens out a prospect of so regulating our installations that we can comfortably endure our otherwise tiring summer seasons. The National Physical Laboratory of India has developed a few types of convenient solar cookers, water boilers, and it is hoped that further researches there will enable us to discover better ways of utilization of solar energy.

  In France itself by means of huge paraboloid
mirrors, which are skilfully made to turn by means of photoelectric control, the tremendous concentration of solar energy has been utilized in a rather novel fashion. Extremely high temperatures are reported to have been obtained in solar furnaces and extreme refractories like zirconium oxide and alumina have been reported to be conveniently melted. They have also been utilized for metallurgical purposes and high purity ingots of several metals have been obtained.

  Exciting news of photosynthetic biological activity of Chlorella have electrified the biological world. By its rapidity of growth and by its satisfying food-value, Chlorella promises to be a valuable aid in tackling the difficult food problem, and demonstrate at the same time possibly a more efficient use of solar energy.

  I conclude my present discourse by reporting on the prospect of utilization of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. We have heard that an electric power station has already been installed in Soviet Russia and that in England by 1970 there is a prospect of atomic power stations being installed, which would supply power and electricity at competitive rates. While much of the necessary technical developments still remain secret, enough has been ventilated to show that this development is bound to occur in the near future, in the first instance in the countries which possess a convenient Uranium supply.

  We have not as yet discovered any large source of high grade Uranium in our country, and we may safely presume that for the next twenty-five years, we would have to depend upon the old and conventional mode of generation of electricity, that is, steam and water-turbines for our power supply.

  This does not mean that the atomic research in our country should be discouraged or that there are no ways of peacefully using the moderate sources of atomic energy that we may develop in India in the near future.

  The recent conference at Delhi has examined the problem from all points of view, and it is satisfactory to report that we are now understanding better our limitations and our immediate problems.

  I have endeavoured in this brief survey to indicate the present-day trends in the search for sources of power. In India as elsewhere, people have become conscious of the necessity of such development which will improve the lot of the common man, give him valuable and cheap mechanical aid, so that it will be easy for the society to give to each individual member sufficient leisure for the development of those human qualities which make life worth living on earth. Cheap power, abundantly developed and delivered at the door of every human house-dweller, is the sine qua non for such a result. I am an optimist and believe such a day is not too distant to dawn in India.

  On the Five-Year Plans (Avadi, January 1955)

  JAWAHARLAL NEHRU (1889–1964)

  It was through this speech made at the 60th session of the Indian National Congress that Nehru committed his party, his government and the nation to ‘a socialistic pattern of society’ and to economic development through five-year plans. There was also another, if less edifying, aspect to this declaration. It was preceded by a prolonged effort on Nehru’s part to arrive at some sort of understanding with the Socialist Party. The effort not only failed but also created an irreparable breach between Nehru and Jayaprakash Narayan, the greater socialist leader, a close disciple of Gandhi and a former comrade of Nehru’s. The formal decision to build a socialist pattern of society made the Socialist Party irrelevant for Nehru and the Congress. The decision, together with the one on five-year plans, also created the ideology and the framework for India’s economic policy for the next three decades, after which it would be abandoned and criticized for holding back India’s economic growth.

  Yesterday I had the honour to present a resolution before you, which you passed. In it we stated that we wanted it to be clearly understood that we aim at a socialistic pattern of society. In the present resolution which deals with the economic policy, we have to give effect to that decision of yours, because ultimately it is the economic policy which is going to shape that picture of India which you call the ‘socialistic pattern’. This resolution is therefore of the highest importance.

  In a resolution of this kind, however long-drawn-out it might be, one cannot enter into the details of policies. There is a danger in such resolutions, and that is that you may use striking words and vague phrases, and imagine that you have given a great lead to the country. That does not help us, because we have to grapple with the problems of India. How to deal with those problems is itself a problem. The problems of unemployment and of raising the level of our people are not solved by broad decisions or slogans. I say this without any disrespect to those who wield striking words, because I myself have been a wielder of words all my life, drafting resolutions, getting them passed and so on. But a time comes when you have to forget words and deal with hard actualities. This applies more especially to Congressmen because they have much more responsibility than others in running the government and deciding the government’s policy. For us merely to write resolutions is not good enough. What, then, must we do? The only thing to be done is to sit down and draw up a plan, a detailed plan. That is the function of the Planning Commission and of the government, and of those whom they consult. Obviously, a Congress session cannot sit down and draw up a five-year plan. But in a resolution of this kind we have to indicate the type of thinking needed in drawing up that plan.

  This resolution contains a brief reference to the objective to be achieved. First of all, after expressing appreciation of what has been done, the resolution says that the time has now come for substantially increasing production, for raising the standards of living and for having progressively fuller employment so as to achieve full employment within a period of ten years. The first thing to note about this resolution is that it does not merely repeat what we have said before. It points out that the time has come for us to advance on the economic and social plane. In a sense we have been doing it, but we have not been doing it adequately. The time has come to put an end to unemployment in ten years. By ten years we mean two Five-Year Plan periods. I wish you to appreciate that we try not to word our resolution in what might be called bombastic language. We are an old and mature organization with a great deal of experience. It is not desirable, therefore, that we should use words which are vague or bombastic. On the whole we understate what we propose to do. If we really give effect to this resolution, it means bringing about a revolution in this country, an economic revolution bigger than any that has taken place in our times. Take the simple fact of putting an end to unemployment within ten years. Just try to think what it means in this country with its population growing year by year. It is a terrific job, the like of which has not been done in these circumstances in any other country.

  Yesterday, we had the President of Yugoslavia here. It was a great privilege to have had amidst us such a great revolutionary, soldier of freedom and builder. Whatever Yugoslavia’s troubles, unemployment has never been one of them. In fact, they are short of human beings to do their work. For us to compare ourselves with Yugoslavia in the matter of unemployment will not, therefore, lead us anywhere. Take the Soviet Union—a great big country, four or five times the size of India, with a population which is only about one-third of India’s. The problem is different for them—a vast area with a small population. Our problem is different—a big country, heavily populated, and underdeveloped. Similarly, we cannot compare our problems with those of America, England, and western Europe where they have had two hundred years of industrial growth. These comparisons may sometimes be helpful but they mislead. We have to understand our problem as it is in India, no doubt learning from what has been done in America, England, Yugoslavia, Russia, or China, but at the same time bearing in mind that the conditions in India are special and particular. Further, we have also to understand that our background is in many ways peculiar, particularly the Gandhian background.

  We talk about planning. As you all know, planning is essential, and without it there would be anarchy in our economic development. About five years ago, planning was not acceptable to many people in hi
gh places but today it has come to be recognized as essential even by the man in the street. Our first Five-Year Plan is now about three years old, and we are now thinking about our second Five-Year Plan. A phrase in this resolution says that the second Five-Year Plan must keep the national aims of a welfare state and a socialistic economy before it. These can only be achieved by a considerable increase in national income, and our economic policy must, therefore, aim at plenty and equitable distribution. The second Five-Year Plan must keep these objectives in view and should be based on the physical needs of the people. These are really the important and governing words of the resolution and ought to be the controlling factors in drawing up the second Five-Year Plan. Before going on to other aspects of the question, may I say that a welfare state and a socialistic pattern of economy are not synonymous expressions. It is true that a socialistic economy must provide for a welfare state but it does not necessarily follow that a welfare state must also be based on a socialistic pattern of society. Therefore the two, although they overlap, are yet somewhat different, and we say that we want both. We cannot have a welfare state in India with all the socialism or even communism in the world unless our national income goes up greatly. Socialism or communism might help you to divide your existing wealth, if you like, but in India, there is no existing wealth for you to divide; there is only poverty to divide. It is not a question of distributing the wealth of the few rich men here and there. That is not going to make any difference in our national income. We might adopt that course for the psychological good that might come out of it. But from the practical point of view, there is not much to divide in India because we are a poor country. We must produce wealth, and then divide it equitably. How can we have a welfare state without wealth? Wealth need not mean gold and silver but wealth in goods and services. Our economic policy must, therefore, aim at plenty. Until very recently economic policies have often been based on scarcity. But the economics of scarcity has no meaning in the world of today.