'Contradictions of society impairing growth'

India’s economic growth, measured in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was recorded at about seven per cent in the last few years.

However, of the seven per cent growth, 3.47 per cent was contributed by 1.24 lakh people, while the remaining 3.23 per cent was the cumulative contribution of 1.2 billion people of the country, said Muzaffar Assadi, Professor of Political Science, University of Mysore, here on Sunday.

He was speaking on the contradictions of modern society, at a programme organised by Baduku Trust and Samajawadi Adhyayana Kendra at Maneyangala, Kalamandira.

Listing six major contradictions, he attributed the disparity in contribution to GDP, as a direct result of contradictions between ‘developmentalism’ and ‘social security’.

Elucidating further, he said, aspects of aggressive development had hurt the farming community badly, as 32 farmers die every hour in the country. Despite propaganda of growth and development, 70 per cent of people live below Rs 20 per day, of which 23 per cent survive with a meagre Rs 12 a day, he said.

He said, contrasts in the Indian society was different from those observed three to four decades ago. He listed secularism vs communalism, developmentalism vs social security, localisation vs globalisation, identity vs social existence, imperialism vs developing world and environmental concerns vs sustainability as the major contradictions of modern day society.

Commenting on opportunities of political representation provided to Dalits and women, he said, political representation has not improved their prospects. “Husbands of women elected representatives are ruling indirectly. Women and Dalits have not been given the power to rule. The conditions have a stark similarity with pre-colonial India,” he said. He noted the resistance towards globalisation seen among farming communities.

Thinker Kikkeri Narayana spoke on the adverse impacts of liberalisation and globalisation and noted that 30,000 species of animals and birds have gone extinct in the last 30 years. He added that globalisation also triggered global warming, which will be harmful for the future of the world.