D e v e l o pme n t : E q u a l i t i e s a n d s u s t a i n a b i l i t y Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2013/14 122 Approximately 80 to 90 per cent of India's mineral, forest and headwater wealth (south of the Himalaya) is located in Fifth Schedule areas that are constitutionally empowered to provide tribal people a protective shield to develop at their own pace. The Fifth Schedule has however long been disregarded, even discarded, without a murmur of protest or concern at this gross violation of the human and constitutional rights of the tribal people. There is increasingly in place a new framework of law and administrative safeguards, vigilant NGOs and an alert media to monitor compliance and ensure against excesses. The Supreme Court's Samatha judgement of 1997 in an Andhra mining case laid out a scheme of corporate social responsibility for leaseholders on tribal lands that has become a benchmark today. We must build on that. Conclusion Can high growth and more growth continue forever? As it is, the competition for natural resources is becoming unsustainable. Bhutan strives to maximise gross national happiness instead of gross national product. A blue ribband commission under Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz, set up by former President Sarkozy of France after the Wall Streetled global financial meltdown in 2009–10, also suggested abandoning GDP as the ultimate measure of success. Instead it urged adoption of a new human welfare index that included yardsticks like culture, leisure, health and a pollution-free atmosphere. Should India and China aspire to American living standards, the world would not be able to sustain the burden. Why then even try? The aim should be balanced growth with more public consumption than wasteful private consumption: public transport, public housing and so on. Pedestrianisation, higher vehicular taxes, congestion and time of day fees, and better public transport should be the aim if we are to reduce automobile pressure. This would call for new town and spatial planning models. Panchayati raj or decentralised local governance would enhance participation and accountability and smaller states and districts would be a logical corollary making for more effective co-operative federalism. India must move not merely with but ahead of the times to be contemporary with the present. With systemic and structural reform, it needs also to move more purposefully on a third front – building fraternity. Dr Ambedkar always said that without fraternity, liberty and equality would not be sustainable. Events have proven him right. Most of our current ills – caste and gender discrimination, communal stress, Maoism, language and identity differences – stem from derogation of fraternity, a larger idea than secularism that has usurped its place. Outdated social structures inhibit progress and change. National integration demands equal opportunity and cultural freedom and not a straitjacket framework based on any narrow political theology. India is in transition: beware the perils of nostalgia. B. G. Verghese is visiting professor at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, and chair of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) Executive Committee. Active in journalism since the 1940s, he was previously editor of the Hindustan Times (1969–75) and Indian Express (1982–86). He later served as information adviser to the Prime Minister (1966–68) and information consultant to the Minister of Defence (2002). He is a member of several official commissions and committees on water, security, the media and the north-east and has served on the boards of a number of institutions.
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