Crooked ventures

Labour pains

Despite the industrial development of the 1990s, why was there a negative relationship between output and employment growth in organised industry? In 8216;Economic Notes8217;, economist C.P. Chandrasekhar points out that the most rapid growth has been witnessed in the consumer durables sector and output growth has exhibited an increase in volatility. He also speaks of the expanding market for manufactured goods in urban India in the 8220;years of neo-liberal reform8221; through a boom in housing and consumer credit, when the growing importance of credit also meant a 8220;degree of dissaving8221; by households and individuals. While debt-financed manufacturing demand tends to be concentrated in a narrow range of commodities, Chandrasekhar says the expansion of the market through these means introduces a speculative element and when confidence is low for either borrowers or lenders there are recessionary conditions making volatility in the demand inevitable.

As for the dissonance between output and employment growth, the writer points out how technological progress in the form of new products and processes in developed countries is associated with labour productivity while producers in developing countries, in order to face competition, are forced to adopt such technologies. Hence labour productivity growth is higher than prior to trade liberalisation. Worrying, though, has been the fall in real wages for labour even in organised industry. Asking for policy intervention, Chandrasekhar says, 8220;Greater employment generation is not a necessary result of more growth in organised industry 8212; indeed it could even be associated with falling employment in future as well.8221;

Doctored history?

In writing about the 1857 revolt or the first war of independence and the role of 8216;rebel journalism8217;, Aligarh Muslim University historian Shireen Moosvi joins issue with William Dalrymple saying the translation of an appeal in the weekly Delhi Urdu Akhbar used in the Last Mughal suggested the weekly8217;s owner Maulvi Mohammad Baqar had addressed only Hindus. According to Moosvi, such an interpretation indicated the Hindus were less committed to the revolt than the Muslims, which was not true. Referring to the translation of Baqar8217;s appeal on pages 268 and 269 of Dalrymple8217;s book, Moosvi writes, 8220;The appeal was addressed to both Muslims and Hindus, and Dalrymple8217;s translation of the passage is deliberately doctored by omitting all references to Muslims.8221; In Baqar8217;s appeal reproduced in Last Mughal that refers to the 8220;strategy and devious cleverness of the English8221;, she highlights one passage that, she says, Dalrymple does use: 8220;those who are my Muslim brothers by faith, let them consider 8212; if they are anxious and concerned out of worldly considerations 8212; to look at their religious books, such as the Qur8217;an, the Tafsir and Hadis8230;8221;

She also refers to a letter, an English translation of the one written by Baqar, that he tried to persuade Bahadur Shah Zafar to make peace with the British but Hakim Ahsanullah Khan prevented it. Moosvi says while it cannot be established whether Baqar had actually sent such a letter, the British did not treat him as their informer. They hanged him while 8220;Hakim Ahsanullah flourished8221;, writes Moosvi.

Compiled by Ananda Majumdar