R. C.

Tripathi · Yoganand Sinha Editors

Psychology,
Development
and Social Policy
in India
Psychology, Development
and Social Policy in India
R. C. Tripathi · Yoganand Sinha
Editors

Psychology, Development
and Social Policy in India

13
Editors
R. C. Tripathi
Yoganand Sinha
Department of Psychology
University of Allahabad
Allahabad
Uttar Pradesh
India

ISBN 978-81-322-1002-3 ISBN 978-81-322-1003-0  (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-1003-0
Springer New Delhi Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013934021

© Springer India 2014

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or
information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts
in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of
being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright
Law of the Publisher's location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained
from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance
Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of
publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for
any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein.

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media ([Link])

Preface

Social policies generally reflect the commitment of the state to its people to build
a harmonious and free society with a view to ensuring a quality of life for all its
citizens that will be in consonance with their aspirations. Social policies are, there-
fore, necessarily driven by the vision people and leaders have of the kind of soci-
ety they want to build. It is another matter that such vision often falls victim to
political ideologies and political expediencies. There can be a worse scenario in
which there is not only an absence of a vision but the vision that gets accepted as
vision of the nation is a borrowed one or worse, imposed by global institutions or
some powerful nation.
The makers of modern India had envisioned India as a democracy and as an
egalitarian society in which cultural plurality would be at the core. Whether politi-
cal leaders today carry such a vision is a matter of serious debate. Some schol-
ars are of the view that soon after India gained its independence, Indian leaders
stopped having a vision. India may be moving forward today without having any
clear idea of where it wants to arrive. The major concern of political leaders as in
the case of most electoral democracies has been with winning elections anyhow
and not with nation building, notwithstanding the exceptions. It does not matter
whether what they espouse and practise goes against the foundational principles
of “secularism”, “socialism”, and “democracy”. There is no gainsaying the fact
that social policies in India have been largely symbolic and not translated on the
ground. India, according to recent surveys, is one of the highest ranked in terms
of malnutrition rates and also in terms of people living in conditions of extreme
poverty. Political leaders are unable to see any ideological discontinuity between
Gandhian ideas and invitation to multinationals to operate in various sectors.
While this is not the place to argue against the globalization of Indian economy,
social policies have not shown enough concern for the “local”.
The present social policy formulation framework in India takes into considera-
tion inputs mainly from the discipline of economics and rarely from other social
disciplines like anthropology, sociology and psychology. The understandings are,
therefore, seldom complete, especially, when they concern people and changing
mental and social structures. The National Economic Survey of 2011 acknowledges
the need for initiatives aimed at considering microprocesses in the development of
macroeconomic policies. Psychological research on microprocesses like fairness

v
vi Preface

and trustworthiness is considered important to ensure effective implementation of

all economic policies and delivery of benefits to the lowest levels. Hence, a need
for a psychological perspective in social policies is felt to fill those gaps which
existing domains of knowledge and expertise have not been able to fill. There is,
for example, an urgent need to work on bridging regional disparities and cultural
differences, to address internal conflicts that threaten the integrity of the nation,
besides problems relating to the social and economic exclusion of a large number
of people. The main focus of planners is on economic growth and integration of the
Indian economy with the world economy. Against such a backdrop in which pursuit
of wealth is sans “moral sentiments”, our push for a role of a science that focuses
on microlevel processes may appear out of place. We are, however, driven by the
belief that ideas have power and wait for the time to find fruition.
Our major purpose in putting together this book is to show that social policies
cannot possibly deliver their intended results if they do not consider microlevel
processes. One can create excellent structures, but the social values that underlie
them are critical. Such structures created by macro policies ultimately come into
place through microlevel social and psychological processes. Therefore, neither
the macro- nor the microlevel processes can be ignored. Macrolevel interventions
often fail because the choices that humans make are not necessarily driven by
rationality alone. Cognitive, motivational and social factors play a very important
role in how interventions are construed and choices are made. In this book, we dis-
cuss the interplay between micro- and macrolevel factors and indicate the possi-
bilities of exploring alternative development models. It is with this perspective that
the contributors of this volume focus on issues related to development, poverty,
education, health, social justice, environment, and communal harmony, and also
on individual level issues related to mental disorders, physical, and learning dis-
abilities. The contributors to this volume have engaged with issues related to social
policy based on what is available by way of knowledge generated by psychologi-
cal research, and also interventions that have been carried out in India and in other
countries.
The book is addressed as much to policy makers and implementers of policy as
it is to fellow psychologists and students of psychology. Various contributors have
pointed out gaps in psychological research that need to be filled so that appropriate
social policies may be formulated and implemented in more informed ways. Such
research, if undertaken in future, will also create new spaces where psychologists
and planners may come together.
The idea behind this book was conceived as early as 1986 when the
Department of Psychology at the University of Allahabad organized a seminar on
the topic of “Social Change and National Development”. The psychology depart-
ment at Allahabad was the first in the country to start engaging in such discus-
sions and introduced a unique course on the psychology of social change and
national development. This initiative was followed by the introduction of an inter-
national journal titled Psychology and Developing Societies. Over the years, the
Department of Psychology has continued to work on problems relating to social
change and development in India. This book may be seen as a culmination of
Preface vii

many years of efforts by the department on this focused theme. A large number of
contributors to this volume are either members of the faculty or have been closely
associated with it.
A large number of people helped us put together this volume. Our contributors
come first. They acceded to our request to write for us and also cheerfully accom-
modated our requests relating to timelines and revisions. Several scholars who
must remain anonymous served as reviewers of chapters and need to be thanked.
We are grateful to the Department of Psychology, particularly to its Chairman,
Professor A. K. Dalal, who asked us to prepare this volume on the occasion of the
Department’s Golden Jubilee and also provided office facilities. Dr. Rohit Dwivedi
of the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong, has been of great help in more
ways than one. Rushda Naqvi and Paul Ghosh helped copyedit some of the chap-
ters. Special thanks to Ms. Shinjini Chatterjee of Springer for helping us through
the publication of this book.
We also need to acknowledge the permission granted to us by the following in
relation to the use of copyrighted material:
The Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad, for granting permis-
sion to include F. M. Moghaddam et al.’s paper, Psychology and national devel-
opment, from Psychology and Developing Societies, 11 ( 2), 1999, pp. 119–141.
© Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad. The paper has been repro-
duced with modifications as psychology and national development in this volume.
The Director, A. N. Sinha Institute of Social Science, Patna, for permission to
use a revised version of R. C. Tripathi’s paper, Education, development and happi-
ness in Indian villages, published in the Journal of Social and Economic Studies,
Journal of Social and Economic Studies, 21(1), 2011.© ANSISS. The paper has
been modified and reproduced here as Education: Path to development and happi-
ness in rural India?
Sunthar Vishualingam for granting permission to quote, in The Hindu–Muslim
divide: Building sustainable bridges, from the paper titled Between Mecca and
Benares, homepage at [Link].
Since this is the first book in India that considers how psychologists and psy-
chological research can inform the formulation of social policy, there are bound to
be some gaps. We hope that this book will be seen as an invitation to psychologists
to engage with this theme and also to become proactive in various ways on issues
related to Indian society. We look forward to feedback from scholars, profession-
als, and policy makers.

2 May 2013 R. C. Tripathi

Yoganand Sinha
Contents

1 Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India . . . 1

R. C. Tripathi and Yoganand Sinha

2 Social Research and Public Policy: Some Cautionary Notes . . . . . . . . 31

Rajnarain

3 Psychology and National Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Fathali M. Moghaddam, Cynthia Bianchi, Katherine Daniels,
Michael J. Apter and Rom Harre

4 Human Development: Concept and Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Jai B. P. Sinha

5 Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India?. . . . 81

R. C. Tripathi

6 Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education. . . 103

Minati Panda and Ajit Mohanty

7 Learning Disability: Issues and Concerns with Implications

for Social Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Bhoomika R. Kar

8 Social Policy and Mental Health: The Case of India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Komilla Thapa

9 Psychology and Physical Disability Policies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Namita Pande and Shruti Tewari

10 Salience of Indigenous Healing Practices for Health

Care Programmes in India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Ajit K. Dalal

ix
x Contents

11 Psychological Impact of Poverty and Sociocultural Disadvantage:

Some Problems of Policy and Intervention Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Durganand Sinha

12 Research on Distributive Justice: Implications for Social Policy. . . . . 223

Lilavati Krishnan

13 The Hindu-Muslim Divide: Building Sustainable Bridges. . . . . . . . . . 257

R. C. Tripathi, E. S. K. Ghosh and R. Kumar

14 Gender-Role Socialization, Stereotypes, Government Policies

and Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Daya Pant

15 The Environment–Behaviour Link: Challenges for Policy Makers. . . 297

Roomana N. Siddiqui
Abbreviations

ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder

AFSPA Armed Forces Special Powers Act
AHO Asian Health Organization
APA American Psychological Association

Āyurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy

ASHA Accredited Social Health Activist
AYUSH
CCIM Central Council of Indian Medicine
CCLD Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities
CDC Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
CEC Council for Exceptional Children
CHWs Community Health Workers
DNHO Developing Nations Health Organization
DSM Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
DSM-III-R Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
Third Edition, Revised
EEG/ERP Electroencephalography/Event Related Potentials
FAE Fundamental Attribution Error
FRD Fraternal Relative Deprivation
HDI Human Development Index
H-M Hindu-Muslim
HR Human Resources
IEDC Integrated Education for Disabled Children
ISMH Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy
LD Learning Disability
MBD Minimal Brain Dysfunction
MI Principles Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness
MLE Multilingual Education
MOST Management of Social Transformation
NCDDR National Centre for Dissemination of Disability Research
NCHS National Centre for Health Statistics
NHIS National Health Interview Survey
NHRC National Human Rights Commission
NIC National Integration Council

xi
xii Abbreviations

NIMH National Institute of Mental Health, USA

NIMHANS National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences
NJCLD National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities
NMHP National Mental Health Programme
NVT Norm Violation Theory
OBC Other Backward Caste
PASS Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive Processing
SC Scheduled Caste
SPSSI Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
ST Scheduled Tribe
WHO World Health Organization
Figures

Chapter 2 Figure 1 Policy Research Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Chapter 4 Figure 1 Human Development Indices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Figure 2 GDP, HDI, and HPI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 6 Figure 1 The vicious circle of language
disadvantage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Chapter 10 Figure 1 Domains of health: restoration,
maintenance, and growth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

xiii
Tables

Chapter 2 Table 1 Research Focus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 4 Table 1 Growth rate of per capita state domestic product
(SDP, percent per annum). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Table 2 HDI and IHDI estimates across Indian states. . . . . . . . 78
Chapter 5 Table 1
Unemployment status of population in 19–60
age group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Table 2 Caste-wise per capita income of sample
households . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Table 3 Survival, place of birth, and gender of
children born in 5 years in sample households. . . . . . . 92
Table 4 Relative economic deprivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Table 5 Relative social deprivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Table 6 Perceived political deprivation relative to
other caste groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Table 7 Work participation by women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Table 8 Existence of polyandry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Table 9 Participation in open meeting of gram panchayat
held in the past year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Table 10 Extent of the family’s happiness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

xv
Contributors

Michael J. Apter  is visiting research professor with the Department of Psychol-

ogy, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA, and is recognized for psycho-
logical reversal theory.
Cynthia Bianchi  is with the Department of Psychology, Georgetown University,
Washington D.C., USA.
Ajit K. Dalal  is Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology at the University
of Allahabad. He has published in the areas of information integration theory, causal
attribution, research methods, health beliefs, folk healing, disability attitudes, and
Indian psychology. His work has primarily focused on how cultural beliefs and at-
titudes have a role in shaping behaviour and recovery from the chronic diseases.
His present work focuses on traditional healing systems and their integration in the
health care programmes.
Katherine Daniels  is associated with the Department of Psychology, Georgetown
University, Washington D.C., USA.
E. S. K. Ghosh  is Retired Professor of Psychology, University of Allahabad. He was
a Nuffield Foundation Fellow at the University of Bristol and worked with Henri Ta-
jfel. He has worked extensively in the area of social identity and intergroup relations.
Rom Harre  is Adjunct Professor, Philosophy Department at Georgetown Universi-
ty, Washington D.C., USA. A prolific writer and profound thinker, he has published
extensively in diverse areas such as discursive psychology and cultural psychology
and is involved with issues relating to psychology and development.
Bhoomika R. Kar  is an Associate Professor with the Centre of Behavioural and
Cognitive Sciences at the University of Allahabad. Her main research interests are
in the area of developmental neuropsychology. She has developed and standardized
a neuropsychological test battery for children in the age range of 5–15 years.
Lilavati Krishnan  is a Professor of Psychology at the Department of Humanities and
Social Sciences in the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. Her areas of spe-
cialization are social psychology, personality, distributive justice; prosocial behaviour;
cross-cultural issues; indigenous concepts in psychology; socialization and parenting.

xvii
xviii Contributors

Rashmi Kumar  is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Allahabad. Her

major work has been in the area of relative deprivation and intergroup relations. She
is presently engaged in studies of prejudice and protest behaviour.
Fathali M. Moghaddam  Professor, Department of Psychology Director, George-
town University, Washington D.C., USA, and Conflict Resolution Program, Depart-
ment of Government. He has published extensively in the areas of cultural diversity
and international psychology. He has been deeply involved with issues relating to
psychology and development.
Ajit K. Mohanty  is a National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science
Research. He was earlier Professor of Psychology and Chairperson in the Zakir
Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
He has publications in the areas of psycholinguistics, multilingualism and multilin-
gual education, and on poverty and disadvantage among linguistic minorities.
Minati Panda  is an Associate Professor at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational
Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her research interests include
culture, cognition, and mathematics (with focus on numeracy practices in tribal
communities in India and among the immigrant communities in UK), social theo-
ries of learning including cultural historical activity theory. She has published in the
area of multilingual education (MLE) for social justice, justice through multilingual
education, and social identities.
Namita Pande is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of
Allahabad. Her areas of research interests are indigenous psychology, cognitive psy-
chology, and health and rehabilitation. She has worked with the International Cen-
tre for the Advancement of Community Based Rehabilitation (ICACBR), Queens
University, Kingston, Canada. She has contributed to development of an evaluation
handbook of disability. She also set up a demonstration project on physical disabil-
ity and rehabilitation near Allahabad.
Daya Pant is Professor and Head, Department of Educational Psychology and
Foundation of Education at the National Council for Educational Research and
Training (NCERT), New Delhi, India. Her research interests are in the areas of
adolescent development and peace research.
Rajnarain  (Late), Psychology-Philosophy Department, Lucknow University,
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Roomana N. Siddiqui  is an Associate Professor of Psychology with Aligarh Mus-
lim University, Aligarh, India. Her research interests have focused on the relation-
ship between environment and behaviour and also on intergroup relations.
Durganand Sinha  (Late) was one of the foremost psychologists of the Indian con-
tinent and was internationally renowned for his contributions to the advancement of
cross-cultural psychology. He was a passionate advocate of indigenizing psycholo-
gy. His manifold contributions have been in the area of social psychology of change
and development; cognitive differentiation; poverty and human development to
Contributors xix

mention only a few. He was the Founding Chief Editor of the journal Psychology
and Developing Societies.
Jai B. P. Sinha is a Professor of Psychology and Management in ASSERT
Institute of Management, Patna. He has conducted research on the interface of
Indian culture and Western forms of work organizations ranging from small and
medium size enterprises to leading foreign multinationals in India. He has pub-
lished over 150 research articles in national and international journals, and has writ-
ten or co-authored over a dozen of books, the most recent of them are Culture and
Organizational Behaviour, Sage: New Delhi; Multinationals in India: Managing
the Interface of Cultures, Sage, New Delhi; and Managing Cultural Diversity for
Productivity: The Asian ways (Ed.), Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo.
Yoganand Sinha  is Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Allahabad,
India and has been involved in the development and teaching of programmes of
the psychology of social change and national development; and also of Human Re-
source Development and Management. He is an HR consultant and serves on the
boards of HR firms. An avid bird photographer, he has recently published a book on
birds at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Shruti Tewari  is Research Director in an Indo–British collaborative project on
identity and collective participation at the Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sci-
ences, Allahabad University. Her doctoral work was on coping with distress due to
physical disabilities. She has worked with NGOs in the area of community based
rehabilitation. She has published in the areas of disability, identity, and well being.
Komilla Thapa  is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Allahabad. She
has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the National Institute of Mental Health and
Neurosciences, Bangalore and got trained at the Maudsley and Bethlem Royal hos-
pitals, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London. Her research interests include
altered states of consciousness; quality of life in chronic mental patients; emotional
disorders; cultural explanations of mental illness; care-giver stress; childhood disor-
ders, and intimate relations. She is a practicing clinical psychologist.
R. C. Tripathi  is former Professor in Psychology, University of Allahabad, India
and former Director, G. B. Pant Social Science Institute, India. He has been on the
boards of many apex higher education bodies in India, including the University
Grants Commission and the Indian Council of Social Science Research. Among
his publications are Expanding horizons of mind science/s (with P. N. Tandon and
N. Srinivasan); Norm violation and intergroup relations (with R. DeRidder); and
Psychology in human and social development (with J. W. Berry and R. C. Mishra).
He is the Editor of Psychology and Developing Societies, an international journal
published by Sage.
Chapter 1
Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of
Social Policy in India

R. C. Tripathi and Yoganand Sinha

We the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute

India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic
and to secure to all its citizens
JUSTICE; social, economic and political,
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship.
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity and to promote among
all its citizens;
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the
unity and integrity of the nation.
In our Constituent Assembly this twenty-sixth day of November,
1949, do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this
Constitution.
Preamble to the Indian Constitution.

1 Introduction

In the classical Indian tradition, it is held “that which liberates is education”

(savidyaya vimuktaye). It follows that an education that does not free is false edu-
cation. This may be particularly true of psychology whose very nature requires it
to generate knowledge that will contribute to enhancement of human freedom and
dignity. It is a science that is deeply set in social and moral ethic and, therefore,
not value-neutral. It is also intimately connected with prevalent social practices
and also political practices and behaviour. One would have thought that it would
be natural for psychologists to be concerned with developing social and political

R. C. Tripathi (*) · Y. Sinha 
Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]
Y. Sinha
e-mail: raghoosinha@[Link]

R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha (eds.), Psychology, Development and Social Policy in India, 1
DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-1003-0_1, © Springer India 2014
2 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

structures that enhance freedom of both individuals and collectives. Strangely,

the role that psychological sciences can play in the development of public and
social policy structures is not even deliberated upon by various professional bod-
ies of psychology. The only exception, perhaps, are the American Psychological
Association (APA) and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
(SPSSI), which have consistently tried to provide inputs for policy making.
Psychologists, by and large, have failed to redeem the promise their discipline
holds. No wonder Baritz (1960) calls social scientists—a category that, of course,
includes psychologists—“servants of power”. Goodman et al. (2010), too, point
out that psychologists have been accused of working to perpetuate social injus-
tices by not working against oppressive social structures and indirectly support-
ing the maintenance of status quo. It may be for this reason that Levinas calls for
infusion of social justice in the role of psychologists (Hand 1996). He holds that
psychologists’ lack of interest or inability to play a role in societal matters is due
to the emphasis on self and identity in western philosophical traditions. This has
resulted in such societies becoming morally anaemic. What is encouraging is that
an increasing number of psychologists feel that the time has come for psycholo-
gists to engage with social issues in a more proactive manner.
Psychologists can help in social policy making in many ways. Firstly, psycho-
logical research can provide academic inputs that can help frame social policies.
Psychologists can also engage in advocacy and even play the role of social activ-
ists; at least, in cases where social issues are not complex, such as in issues related
to mental health and building of capabilities. Be that as it may, psychologists in
India have not done that. They have been generally content with psychology’s
status as an academic discipline and its emphasis on individual-level variables.
Their involvement with micro-variables that have macro-level consequences has
been minimal. More often than not, they have turned even economic and political
problems into individual (level) problems, which may be why policy makers see
them as less relevant than other social scientists. The recent emergence of criti-
cal psychology, which veers away from mainstream psychology and focuses on
power differences between social classes and groups and how they influence over-
all wellbeing of people, shows that a paradigm shift is in the offing (Prilleltensky
& Nelson 2002).
The essays included in this volume seek to deliberate on where and how psy-
chology can inform decisions related to social policies. If psychology is to play
a meaningful role in formulation of social policies, psychologists will first need
to come forward and accept the responsibility for disseminating such “objective”
information that can be acted upon and play a proactive role in the utilization of
psychological knowledge related to peoples’ concerns related to life and living.
The job of policy making, which concerns peoples’ lives, is too important and
cannot be left to lawmakers alone. The role of psychologists also comes in after
the policies have been formulated because policies are directed at bringing about
change in someone’s behaviour or maintaining it. One of the reasons that psychol-
ogy has not gained much in importance in policy circles is that governments all
over the world have accepted the philosophy of neo-liberalism that has resulted in
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 3

underscoring the supremacy of the economic man. It is the creation of wealth and
not welfare of the people, particularly of the weak, that has become their prior-
ity. Pepitone (1974) had struck the nail on the head a long time ago when he said:
“Political power is the handmaiden of economic interests. Is it not obvious that
legislative bodies, regulatory and other policy making and enforcing agencies at
all levels of government operate to protect corporate interests and resist protecting
the general public including especially the poor and politically powerless?” (p. 1)
This volume may be seen as the first step in the direction of making psychology
relevant in policy making in India as it seeks to examine and address social issues,
of equity and social justice, of wellbeing and health, of harmony and sustainable
development, all of which ought to be the concern of psychologists in India. We
also realize fully that social issues and problems raised here are complex and are
not amenable to easy solutions or “prescriptions”. Nevertheless, it is our belief that
psychological knowledge can undoubtedly help at the least in expanding choices
of the policy makers and in helping them make right decisions.

1.1 Policy and its Relationship with Psychology

Let us consider first what policy is and what is its relationship with psychol-
ogy. Policy consists of a set of measures, instruments or procedures for achiev-
ing specified goals. Social policies have a normative character and do not always
convert themselves in the form of laws. Social policy is a whole package that
requires its acceptance not only across systems, but also at all levels of the sys-
tems. A social policy becomes successful when it acquires the force of a cultural
norm. More often than not, social policies relate to creating structures and pro-
cesses that are directed at solving problems that cannot be solved using the estab-
lished structures and procedures. Mishra (2006) points out that solutions of social
problems lie outside the system and they come in the form of policies, which are
drawn by governments or other bodies, such as the United Nations. The methods,
instruments or procedures to achieving such specified goals that are sought to be
achieved by social policies are generally at the macro level, although other levels
are as important. Policies, hence, demand clearly spelt out goals or end-states to
be achieved and also clearly laid out methods and measures to reach them. They
need to be holistic and not partial. Policy formulation can hardly admit ambigu-
ity in either goals or methods to achieve them. This is not to suggest that goals,
once clearly spelt out, are necessarily attained or become easier to achieve; nor
that measures, clearly spelled out, always have only the stated and intended con-
sequences. Often, they have quite the opposite and messy consequences because
they do not take a systemic view and focus on providing immediate and localized
solutions without considering system-wide ramifications. Social policies need to
be distinguished from other kinds of policies, such as fiscal policies. Social policy
concerns itself with wellbeing and improving the life chances of people by build-
ing structures and functionalities, which unfold processes that make attaining such
4 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

goals possible. But structures and building of functionalities are not enough. The
term “wellbeing” is used here in a broad sense and connotes not only physical and
material wellbeing but also its political, social, psychological and spiritual facets.
This kind of wellbeing can come about only with the building of positive relation-
ships among people, communities and nations.
Social policy framing is a complex process. It is largely political, because it
involves a number of stakeholders. The most important among these are, of
course, people and organizations that are likely to be its beneficiary. But it also
brings in those who are going to be left out in some way; those who are going to
be affected by the policy; or for whom the policy is going to have negative social,
political or economic fallouts. As stakeholders, scientists figure low on priority,
if one can count them as stakeholders in the first place, although, most of them
would like to gain credibility and social recognition by having a voice in formula-
tion of social policies. It is, therefore, understood that policy makers, while mak-
ing policies, are driven more by social, political and economic considerations, and
not by science and empirical data (Shonkoff 2000). In case of nations that have a
history of colonization and have adopted western democratic structures, like India,
more often than not, the politics of identity overrides other factors. The knowl-
edge and data that the psychological sciences generate can, nevertheless, be used
as evidence to support the making of social policy and also in the manner in which
it is to be implemented. However, tension often arises due to equivocality in scien-
tific research findings and lack of clarity required in policy formulation. A certain
amount of ambiguity is, of course, inherent in all empirical research, more so, in
psychology that, as some assert, lacks ecological validity (Cole et al. 1978). The
mainstream paradigm, it is held by critical psychologists, has little concern with
human welfare. Fox and Prilleltensky (1997) say: “We believe that psychology’s
traditional practices and norms hinder social justice, to the detriment of individu-
als and communities in general and of oppressed groups in particular”. (p.1)
Our intention here is not to decry the dominant paradigm of psychological
research or praise the often-artificial clarity that is posed by social policies. We
want to point out that there is a possibility of contradictions arising between the
orientations of these two human endeavours. The contradictions between scientific
data generated by psychology and policy making are true for other social sciences
too, including economics, though many social scientists see economists as having
“made it” in terms of the credibility they have gained among public policy makers
or administrators. There are other reasons also for the influence that economists
have in policy making. Firstly, economists’ data are not called into question, at
least not as often as those of other social sciences. Their findings also help justify
policies based on economic and political considerations. It is, perhaps, for this rea-
son that they are regularly called upon to play a significant role in policy making,
in economic, and what many are unable to understand, non-economic domains
in India. Because of this, there is a sort of a sibling rivalry that seems to have
emerged between economists and psychologists, in which economists despite their
weaknesses and drawbacks are seen by psychologists as ruling the roost, whereas
psychologists are seen as always trying to catch up with them. Be that as it may, it
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 5

is conceded that micro processes are at the root of what emerges eventually at the
macro level. The recent shift from GDP and HDI to happiness also underscores
this (Helliwell et al. 2012). In fact, the case for this shift was built by Mehta, a
Gandhian economist, in his “theory of wantlessness” a long time back. He distin-
guished between what he called objectives of “life”, which consist in realization
of the “self”, and objectives of “living”, which consist in simple and austere living
and the practice of “non-violence” or “love” towards fellow beings (Mehta 1985).
Most societies have sought to find the right balance between moral and material
aspirations. The philosophy of neo-liberalism that drives the dominant develop-
ment paradigm today has sidelined the moral, resulting in exclusion of most social
science disciplines other than economics. All policies have to translate eventually
at the micro or individual level. We may lay down policies related to removal of
illiteracy, as, for example, is done by the UN in case of the millennium develop-
ment goals, but the fact remains that illiterates will have to be motivated to attend
and remain in schools. Mere provision of easy access to schools, as has now been
found in many studies, is not enough. Till there remains a gap between the for-
mulation of policy and its implementation in bringing about a desirable change in
the behaviour of people, the problem would remain. This role of bringing about a
desirable change in people’s behaviour that psychologists alone could have filled
has gone a begging.
A more important point that needs to be made is that social policies are not
only about physical and material aspects of life, such as housing, food security,
health and education, important and pre-eminent as they are. There is more to liv-
ing and life than fulfilment of basic needs. All alternative models of development
put a great deal of emphasis on living in harmonious and sustainable relationship
with others in society and emphasize people-centric approaches away from eco-
nomic development (Pieterse 1998; Shrivastava & Kothari 2012). We have seen
the world over, and indeed in India, how large development projects have led to
displacement of large sections of population and communities resulting in erosion
of their human, social, cultural and moral capitals. Social policies also need to be
about other life domains and about responding to natural disasters as well as situa-
tions created by wars and social conflicts. The agitations being carried out by the
Bhopal gas victims1 and the Narmada Bachao Andolan2 are enough to point out
the lack of foresight of our policy makers.

1  The Bhopal gas tragedy, considered to be one of the worst industrial accidents in the world,
occurred in December 1984 when MIC gas leaked out of the pesticide plant of the Union Carbide
factory located in Bhopal in central India, resulting in deaths of between 4,000 and 8,000 people
and permanently disabling over 40,000 people. More than 500,000 people were exposed. The
victims have been demanding rehabilitation and compensation but the government has provided
them only nominal compensation so far.
2  The Narmada Bachao Andolan (Agitation to Rescue Narmada) is a movement led by environ-

mentalists and human rights activists who have been fighting for locals who will be displaced
from their villages because of inundation of their villages by the river Narmada over which a big
dam is being constructed.
6 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

It is not that psychologists have not tried securing a place for themselves in policy
making. Often, psychologists who advocate a role for psychology in policy mak-
ing have been those who also have been involved in the struggle to make academic
psychology more “socially relevant” by asking their fellow psychologists to address
important social problems through their research (Pareek 1980; Sinha 1966, 1988).
The history of this struggle suggests that the social relevance of such studies can
be considered at three levels. At the first level, studies are considered relevant to the
extent they add to the theoretical understanding of social problems; at the second
level, it is asked how far they are relevant to the Indian cultural context and help in
better understanding of social processes; and thirdly, a study is considered relevant if
it points to a way of providing solutions to Indian social problems. The first concern,
because it is primarily academic, has resulted in studies that have a low probability
of becoming an input in social policy making. The second concern of psychologists
with relevance to cultural context and processes led them to undertake studies pri-
marily due to their concern with the generalization of psychological research find-
ings obtained in other cultural contexts, largely western. The problem with such
research studies is that they not only tend to ignore macro-level variables but also
lack historical perspectives, which any understanding of culture requires. Such
an approach, therefore, has remained, at best, evanescent. If the social relevance
approach had made some headway, it could have added to the understanding of the
policy makers and helped them fine-tune their social policies. The strongest support
for the notion of relevance, however, comes from efforts of psychologists who have
attempted to address social and individual problems through “problem-oriented”
research. Some of the more prominent areas that psychologists have addressed relate
to social disadvantage and deprivation, poverty, community and agriculture devel-
opment, education, health, inter-group conflicts, violence and national development
(Sinha et al. 1982; Mishra & Mohanty 2000; Dalal & Mishra 2001, 2011; DeRidder
& Tripathi 1992; Berry et al. 2003). In other countries, e.g., in the United States,
psychologists are involved in providing inputs for policy making in a number of
other areas, such as in decision making related to nuclear policy, affirmative action,
television violence, issues related to criminal justice system (Suedfeld & Tetlock
1991). Another major area that has found application in the West by psychologists
is related to environment and energy use. Somehow, such areas have attracted less
attention of psychologists in India except in isolated cases (Ruback & Pandey 2011).
Thus, the main concern of psychologists in India has remained with issues related
to economic, political and social inequalities, quite in line with the preamble to the
Constitution of India.

2 Why Psychologists Have No Voice in Policy Making

One may ask why is it that psychologists so far have not been able to play as promi-
nent a role as they desire in social policy making. Is it only because of the level at
which they address social problems or could there be other reasons? Policy making,
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 7

because it is a political process, involves the framing of rules and laws that underlie
governance. It requires that there be a degree of ideological similarity between the
makers of public policy and enlightened advocates of a certain policy. As pointed
out above, this comes easily to economists because most governments worldwide
have uncritically accepted the ideology of neo-liberalism supported by various inter-
national economic and political institutions with which governments work closely.
Korten’s (1995) book, When corporations rule the world, analyzes this most suc-
cinctly. Most economists of the world subscribe to the ideology of neo-liberalism
and, therefore, are seen as “soul mates” of politicians who are part of the nexus they
have formed with the corporate. Psychology, as a discipline, is colour blind to such
ideologies and has also been notoriously unaware of the politics of policy making
institutions. Psychologists have failed to evaluate critically the processes and institu-
tions of policy making. Hardly any mention is made of the processes by which plans
and policies are made in India in the psychological literature. They also display a
lack of understanding of the socio-political milieu within which social sciences are
called upon to play a role in policy making. There are, of course, other reasons also
for the non-involvement of psychologists and of other social scientists. Some of
these have to do with academic politics in the country. Most social science institutes
of the country have a disproportionately larger number of economists on their fac-
ulty with little cross-disciplinary interactions. This is also true of various important
bodies, where social scientists are represented and are involved with policy formu-
lation in India. On such bodies, the social scientists that find representations have,
more often than not, the same ideologies as the government of the day. These mem-
bers collect research findings and bring their collective wisdom of social sciences to
bear upon policy recommendations and formulations. For politically naive and non-
committed psychologists, the goings on of these institutions may be seen to be sober
and rational recommenders of policies carrying weight and respect. But for those
who know, it may be seen instead as pleading or engaging in advocacy for decisions
already made by powers that be.
A question often asked in the Indian context and in various forums is whether
policies are made in a deliberative manner or if the will of the few in the govern-
ment is peddled as policies. If it is the latter, social scientists will only be engaged
in providing lip service. Recent events give some hope to social scientists.
Political powers have woken up to the pressures of the Indian middle class and
also to various civil society groups. The Right to Information (RTI) Act,3 which
was enacted recently by the Parliament, and the ongoing debate relating to the
Lokpal Bill4 are some examples of governmental response. The opening up of
the debates around the Communal Violence Bill, the Sachar Committee Report,

3  The Act permits citizens of India to seek information from any public authority, which is to be

supplied to the seeker within 30 days. The Act has resulted in bringing to light many scams of
politicians and public servants.
4  The Lokpal Bill purports to enact a legislation to consider complaints of citizens against civil

servants and politicians involved in corruption.

8 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

the Land Acquisition Bill5 that are pending approval, provide new opportunities
for psychologists to play an important role in policy making, as do the bills related
to food security, the differently abled, and for ensuring physical and mental health
equality. In fact, the more important role of psychologists is also likely to come up
when such policies are actualized on the ground, since all policies assume behav-
ioural change at multiple levels. There are also other issues involved in public pol-
icy framing than those related to justice and development; although one concedes
that these issues will need to be addressed before others.

2.1 The Emerging Role of Psychologists in Policy Making

The above discussion may have made it clear that psychologists in India have
been late entrants in the arena of social policy making. It is not that psycholo-
gists did not consider doing research that was relevant for social policy. Initially,
in the 1960s, while trying to play a role in national development, psychologists
found themselves crowded in by economic goals. National development was then
defined almost exclusively in economic terms and applied psychology played
only an ancillary role in it. Psychologists largely played the role of facilitators of
economic plans. Their job was to help locate resistance to plans of change and
look for inhibitory factors in the psychological makeup in sections of the soci-
ety (Sinha 1973, 1983; Sinha 1990). However, what is to be noted is that during
this period there was an absence of effort on the part of psychologists to critically
evaluate the plans per se or the stated goals or in developing measures to assess
achievement of these goals. The situation is no different today. Psychologists still
continue to play a secondary role. They are not involved with defining what consti-
tutes development, with the development of plans and policies, or for that matter,
with their delivery. If there is a slight shift that has happened towards psychology,
it is because of the growing realization on the part of economists that develop-
ment has a human side and human behaviour and decisions are not always based
on rationality principles (see, for example, Sen 1999; Kahnemann 1999). Largely
due to this, quite a few psychological terms—happiness, for example—have found
entry into the lexicon of development discourses. Another reason for this is the
newly formed association of psychology and development economics in the form

5  The Communal Violence Bill seeks to make it mandatory on part of the state and Central gov-

ernments to exercise powers to control targeted violence against all vulnerable groups in society,
such as, minorities, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes in particular.  The Sachar Committee
Report focuses on the status of Muslim minorities in India, their educational status, economic
and employment status in urban and rural areas. Land Acquisition Bill 2012 provides for land
acquisition as well as rehabilitation and resettlement. It replaces the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
The process of land acquisition involves a social impact assessment survey, preliminary notifica-
tion stating the intent for acquisition, a declaration of acquisition, and compensation to be given
within a specific time. All acquisitions require rehabilitation and resettlement to be provided to
people affected by the acquisition.
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 9

of behavioural economics (Mulainathan 2005; Amir et al. 2005), which is seeking

to play a role in public policy formulations. But it holds true that the term “devel-
opment” is still largely viewed by policy makers through the lens of economics,
and, not through the lens of psychology or other social science disciplines, which
reduces the space for public policy making for psychologists, as also for other
social scientists in India. This is despite some interesting and worthwhile attempts
that have been made by psychologists to define the whole gamut of development:
its model, goals, and procedures. We may draw attention to two efforts that can
inform ongoing discourses on development in India. First, what may be called
efforts that call for an indigenous model of development; and second, those that
conceptualize development as a space jointly created by two coordinates, namely,
embeddedness and openness (Tripathi 1988).

3 Indigenous and Alternative Models of Development

3.1 Indigenous Models

In the last few decades the mainstream paradigm of development has come under
severe criticism. New terms have gained ground, like “post-development” (Nustad
2001; Pieterse 1998). Some criticize it on the ground that it sees the “third world”
or “developing societies” as homogeneous and having one kind of aspirations and
goals not very different from colonization (Escobar 1984) and an attempt to stop
the spread of Marxism in favour of Americanism (Pieterse 1991). Alternative mod-
els of post-development are participatory and people centred and are more rooted
in the “local” as opposed to the "global”. Culturally speaking, they derive more
from “neo-traditional” as opposed to “modern” (Pieterse 1998). Another opposi-
tion to mainstream model of development arises from twin concerns of oppo-
sition to colonial knowledge and also the dominant paradigm of science that
generates such knowledge. Such knowledge is seen as part of the agenda of the
politics of development. Here the attempt is to look for models that are indigenous.
Indigenous models of development and knowledge are based on the correspond-
ence between the internal characteristics, specific features, integrative qualities,
traditional values and authenticity of the culture of a society and the development
of this culture. This admittedly leads psychologists, who argue in favour of this
approach, to search for some essential characteristics of their society that have
served as its foundation all along. In such a situation, the risk of falling into the
trap of an essentialist position is there. The essentialist argumentation is as follows:
First, some quality or virtue or characteristic is self-posited as an essential and dis-
tinctive positive feature of a society, very similar to what Tajfel (1981) says would
arise from a desire for positive group distinctiveness. This is then traced back to
the past and antiquity, at most times supported by myths and sometimes supported
by archival material. The desirability and centrality of these values, life goals and
social life are derived from ancient scriptures and/or religious books. These are
10 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

shown to have existed all through the ages, as essentially the same, particularly
during the golden period of a nation. In effect, the posited characteristics are ren-
dered as ageless and timeless. They are divested of any relationship with society
and history. Hence, essentialists may posit concepts from any period or society and
put them up as the “hallmark” and distinctive characteristics of a society.
In this approach, there can be as many essential characteristics of a society as
one chooses to posit. Non-violent, stable, collectivistic, religious, tolerant, assimila-
tive and accommodating are among many such essential characteristics of Indian
society that often find mention in the writings of various scholars. These essential
characteristics of the Indian society are in turn invoked to explain the differences
between empirical data collected on different samples from two or more nations or
societies. One can see why psychologists may fall prey to essentialist arguments,
as the claim is to study many of the universal processes as ageless and ahistorical
phenomenon. Nevertheless, within the “indigenous” approach lies an explosive and
volatile combination of essentialist and the post-industrial criticism of economic
development and affluence. For the adherents of this approach, everything of the
West becomes infected in the embryonic form and is seen as artefacts of the eco-
nomic model. Pride in cultural and traditional mooring notwithstanding, one needs
to be cautious as the approach, if stretched to the limit, can create a danger of reviv-
alism. Social scientists generally agree that societies have cultural histories and that
there are differences in the way people belonging to different societies think and
also in their preferences for values around which they organize (McClelland 1961;
Hofstede 1980; Nisbett & Cohen 1996; Nisbett 2003; Schwartz 2006; Markus &
Kitayama 1991). Still, cultures evolve, much like biological entities, and are given
to processes of acculturation (Berry 1990; Mesoudi et al. 2006). They, therefore,
come to develop cores that they share with other cultures. It is also conceded that
imposition of values and ideas alien to a culture can come in the way of harmoni-
ous development of a society. Nevertheless, however thin a line between being sen-
sitive to one culture and being a revivalist, it still needs to be drawn carefully. The
danger in following an indigenous approach is that such an effort may be totally
wasteful because it is extremely difficult to reverse the course of cultural evolu-
tion. But what the approach does is to remind us that there is a need to review and
reflect, ever so often, by people within cultures, where they are coming from and
where they want to arrive in terms of development. This is seldom done and in rare
cases where it is done, the centrality of values and goals are decided, not by the
people of a nation, but by a few leaders, and often enough, by despots. This is more
often the case in nations which have recently emerged out of the colonial rule,
India being no exception. It may appear that several amendments to the constitution
of India have been done with a view to finding new paths to securing economic,
social and political justice for the Indian people and for setting a future agenda but
most of them are in line with what will find acceptance by the elites in so-called
modern societies and help them maintain their hegemonic position.
From where does the impetus for the indigenous model of development come?
Most of it results from the criticism of the western model, which is seen as per-
petuating injustice in social, political and social domains and is also culturally
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 11

inappropriate. The search for alternative models admittedly seems to have arisen
in decolonized nations as a reaction to colonization and cultural dominance of the
western nations. The argument put forward is that the prevalent notion of develop-
ment is largely western and is not consonant with the core cultural values of these
societies and if adopted will make a nation lose its cultural identity sooner or later.
The dominant model is seen by Levinas as based on greed, uninhibited pursuit of
material possessions, power and achievement (Hand 1996). The other criticism is its
focus on individual and not on the collectives or social relationships. It is argued that
happiness has to be given greater value than mere basic needs or wealth. This argu-
ment finds support from studies that show that an individual’s happiness (a psycho-
logical variable) saturates and does not increase with affluence after a point (Easterlin
1974; Easterlin et al. 2010). This may hold true. The problem faced in this connection
is in locating the point, or the degree, at which affluence may not lose its utility or
the threshold of affluence at which it may not become “bad” for happiness. Another
problem that may arise relates to who chooses these criteria. The legitimacy of
socially created inequalities within Indian culture, be it poverty or social discrimina-
tion, will make such choice even more complex. It will need an engagement of psy-
chology with philosophy, human rights, justice and ideology. Psychologists require
this kind of engagement if they have to become relevant in framing of the public poli-
cies. The point, however, is that in an effort to rediscover an appropriate alternative
model, psychologists should take care not to fall victim to committing the essential-
ist fallacies. Still, there is little doubt that a greater degree of sensitivity is needed
towards the historical and cultural contexts within which indigenous concepts are
embedded, while understanding at the same time that essences too undergo change.
Another problem that can be seen with the indigenous approach of development
(and indeed with other approaches) is in its conceptualization of India as econom-
ically, socially and culturally one nation. India is one country but it has within it
many little Indias as well as big Indias. In today’s India, the metropolitan India, the
“middle-class India”, the “genX India” and the “Net India” are far more like the
West in terms of their life preferences and values. But then, there are other Indias,
too. There is an India that is not so westernized, but still connected to modern India
through newer means of communications. There is yet another India which is big-
ger than all these, that is very distantly connected, if at all, to all the other Indias,
which is not heard, seen or discussed within psychology or most social sciences.
Most advocates of indigenous models ignore such distinctions of India. Psychology,
as also other social sciences, does not address the issue of many Indias and how a
single India concept relates to the many Indias through policy recommendations.
Whether or not there is a need to tweak policies to suit different Indias and, if
yes, how, actually remains the most vexatious issue for all social scientists who
want to play a role in policy making. After all, social policy making requires mak-
ing assumptions about the nature of society. Ideally, all policy makers or planners
assume social and cultural homogeneity, because it makes life less complicated
and more comfortable for everyone. They would not want cultural diversity, but
would never publicly admit it as it would be politically incorrect to do so in view
of the recent UN policy on cultural diversity.
12 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

Mankind is still groping in the dark to find the correct path. This concern for
the right path often shows up when the question relating to possibilities of “alter-
native models” is asked by social scientists, policy makers and others concerned
with the future of humanity. The following dialogue between Krishnamurti and
Bohm is illustrative of this yearning:
Krishnamurti: How shall we start? I would like to ask if humanity has taken a wrong turn.
David Bohm: A wrong turn? Well it must have been so, a long time ago, I think.
K: That is what I feel. A long time ago…. It appears that way—why? You see, as I look at
it mankind has always tried to become something.
DB: Well possibly. I was struck by something I once read about a man going wrong some
five or six thousand years ago, when he began to be able to plunder and take slaves. After
that, his main purpose of existence was just to exploit and plunder.
K: Yes, but there is the sense of inward becoming.
Krishnamurti and Bohm (1992), p. 9.

Psychologists can create a space for themselves if they can help policy makers
find a new turn that humanity can take by searching for new ways of “being” and
“becoming” human (Tripathi & Sinha 2009). Let us examine some possibilities.

3.2 Repositioning Human Development

The mainstream paradigm of development has primarily been criticized, as dis-

cussed above, on grounds of what should be developed and how it should be devel-
oped. Generally, discourses of development have centred on economic development,
human development, sustainable development and, in some cases, on territorial
development (Bellu 2011). The differences are found not so much in terms of the rel-
ative emphases of what should be developed but quite often in terms of how it should
be developed. We have already made reference to some critiques of the dominant
paradigm of development which point out that they are flawed because they fail to
deliver what they promise, viz., equality, justice and freedom and show a lack of con-
cern for cultural continuity. There are other problems. A major problem is pointed out
by Roy (2003). In his view, the dominant paradigm is flawed because it is based on
the wrong notion of who man is. He points out that there are two views of man. One
that man is a “self-complete entity and, therefore, autonomous and can and should
determine what he wants to be and do for whatever he wants to become” (p. 33). A
different way of looking is to “treat him as something more than a natural man, as
something more than a bundle of desires and appetites” (ibid.). He goes on to sug-
gest that it is the transcendence of his animal nature that makes man truly human.
Development in its current usage and practice focuses primarily in creating struc-
tures that take care of the lower order needs of the individual. Such structures focus
on controlling scarce resources of the environment in order to enhance one’s selfish
ends and to enhance an individual’s power base so that he may control additional
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 13

resources. The model does not focus on creating structures which take into consid-
eration the good of others, or which contribute to creative and purposeful living.
Development has to be about human needs and not about human wants and aspira-
tions that are limitless and keep rising. Wants invoke competition and obviate cooper-
ation. Development is not, only about the state of the nation, it is more about the state
of the people. Development has to resolve many dilemmas and dichotomies, of order
and chaos, of democracy and autocracy, of man and machine, of local and global.
It also should aim at resolving value dilemmas pointed out by Schwartz (2011) of
power holding and power sharing, of movement with stability, of individualism and
collectivism, of equality and elitism, of social and personal space. There are also
dilemmas that development poses for social systems. These are of effectiveness or
long-term survival with efficiency–immediate gains, of immediate gratification with
delayed gratification, of giving with receiving, of argument along with dialoguing,
and also of material achievements together with spiritual realization. Development
inheres in the resolution of these dilemmas and, in this sense, simultaneously involves
dialectical as well as dialogical processes. Policies succeed or fail depending upon
how successfully and creatively they help out in the resolution of such dilemmas and
whether or not they result from intensive dialogues involving the people.
Development and modernity are often used interchangeably and the above posi-
tion may be seen as a critique of modernity. There are both culturally conservative
and postmodern critiques of modernity. Interestingly, both focus on parameters
and coordinates that are not economic or material, but non-economic and human,
and foreground the relationship among humans. Humans are essentially seen here
as interdependent beings. All social systems are complex and their complexity
increases as a function of evolution and so does their interdependence with sys-
tems around them. These two attributes—complexity and interdependence—con-
tribute critically to what is called development, provided they serve the systemic
purpose or goals. Are there not some universal parameters that can be used to eval-
uate the state of social systems and also whether the change that is taking place in
the system is in the positive direction? One of the central characteristics of sys-
tems is order (Tannenbaum 1966). Order emerges if a system is able to deal with
dilemmas that it faces and the extent it is able to solve them in a creative fashion.
Human physical development is guided by two principles: a cephalo-caudal prin-
ciple that states that development proceeds from head to toe; and a proximo-distal
principle that states that it proceeds from the centre of the body outward. The two
principles operate in conjunction and do not come into conflict. The same is true
of social systems too. There is no development if what is at the top does not flow
down to the bottom and, similarly, what is at the centre does not reach the periph-
ery. A system needs differentiation as much as it requires integration to grow and
develop. Development must not uproot. It should not result in loss of social and
cultural identities. Both conditions will create conditions that will promote disin-
tegration and reduce the degree of order that may be present in a social system. It
is in this context that Tripathi (1988) suggests an alternative conceptualization of
development as the space that comes to be created when systems seek to simulta-
neously maximize embeddedness and openness.
14 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

Social systems as they come into contact with other evolving systems in their
environment need to learn from each other and for this one of the attributes they
require is openness to admit new ideas, new strategies, new values and ideologies.
But in so doing they open themselves to the possibility of losing their identity, or
the centre, which may disintegrate. Development occurs when a system, in its pro-
cess to adapt with the changing environments, does not compromise with its core
values and purposes. It does not reinforce tendencies that uproot or exclude peo-
ple, implicitly or explicitly, and create disjuncture between Man and Nature.
Exclusion of people and communities takes place due to political, economic and/
or social reasons. Both traditional and modern societies have invented ways and
ideologies to keep groups of people excluded on one count or another. Liberal
democracy is offered as a political system that will create facilitative conditions
for social inclusion. Dalits6 and tribals in India continue to be as socially excluded
as they were in ancient times, and sometimes even more. The political dynamics
of liberal democracy has created more fractures in the society than were there in
earlier times. So is the case with religious and racial groups in various countries.
Development finds expression in the form of a social system that is able to con-
structively resolve critical dilemmas of freedom and control and efficiency and
effectiveness. It is able to ensure its survival over time and is not concerned with
winning in the present. It is able to balance rights with obligations, equality with
elitism, and individual with collective, among others.
Development, we suggest, is as much about process as it is about its outcomes.
One may ask what “develops” and in what terms a society or a nation needs to
be assessed. Recently, a number of social scientists have suggested that develop-
ment needs a multi-dimensional approach. Alkire and Santos (2010) has further
expanded Sen’s (1999) view of development as freedom which focuses on devel-
opment of human capabilities and empowering people to participate in matters
related to their own futures. She has proposed a new Human Development Index
(HDI) that is adjusted for inequality. So do Ranis et al. (2005) who find the con-
cept of HDI too reductionist and propose a concept of human development that
goes beyond taking into account life expectancy, literacy, years of education, a
modified measure of income. They include within human development dimensions
like material wellbeing, bodily wellbeing, mental, work, security, social relations,
spiritual, empowerment and political freedom, and respect for other species.
Our view is that the added dimensions of development should not arise out of
a value base that privileges the individual over the collective, money over rela-
tionships and elitism over equality. What is required is a more holistic and mul-
tidimensional approach. We suggest that such an approach will seek to maximize
development of capitals other than economic, such as human (including knowl-
edge), social, ethical and spiritual (see Malloch 2003). A great number of scholars
agree that development has to go beyond GDP (Costanza et al. 2009; Environment

6  Dalitsconstitute the lowest castes who have been traditionally considered “untouchable” by
upper castes.
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 15

Commission 2007). Sen’s capability approach, which is at the centre of the HDI,
holds that human beings have to be the primary ends in the process of develop-
ment just as they also are the primary means of development (Sen 1999). But
this approach, as well as the UNDP’s approach in measuring HDI, focuses only
on three dimensions, namely, life expectancy, education and standard of living. It
leaves out other dimensions that impact on people’s lives and living. Some of the
scholars, therefore, have gone on to suggest measures related to subjective wellbe-
ing and happiness that deserve our attention (Diener & Oishi 2005; Kahnemann
1999; Layard 2005; Veenhoven 1984). Another such dimension is social capital
(Bourdieu 1972; Fukuyama 1995; Putnam 2000). A United Nations conference on
“Happiness and Wellbeing” held on April 2, 2012 in New York shows the clear
shift that is taking place in looking for non-economic and subjective measures.
The Bhutanese government’s initiative to measure Gross National Happiness
(GNH), instead of focussing on GDP, has found many takers around the world.
GNH Index is based on nine areas that include: (1) psychological wellbeing, (2)
time-use, (3) community vitality, (4) cultural diversity and resilience, (5) health,
(6) education, (7) ecological diversity and resilience, (8) living standards and (9)
governance. The main problem with the dominant paradigm of development is that
it is driven primarily by the philosophy of neo-liberalism and neo-liberal democ-
racy, which pits one man (and, also human groups) against another and leaves
out important questions related to human quest and morality. Because of this, the
dominant paradigm of development remains inadequate and underspecified.

3.3 Embeddedness

The “embeddedness and openness” approach to an alternative model of develop-

ment also tries to cut through the heart of longstanding debates between tradition
and modernity (Tripathi 1988). This false dichotomy (tradition versus modernity)
is seen as a gumption trap, which has consumed a lot of research energy. The
approach posits that social system in order to survive needs to change and in an
effort to do so it can hardly remain totally embedded in tradition or uprooted by
newness or modernity. Hence, the balance should be attempted by society between
meaningful self-sameness, continuity and the need to incorporate new experience
and ideas which can often lead to uprooting and meaninglessness. If such a bal-
ance is not possible, the opposites may co-exist till they get reconciled (Sinha &
Tripathi 1994). The approach, therefore, admits that social values and traditional
institution are to be used both in bringing about change and also in resisting
change. Theoretically, there is a possibility that embeddedness may not be compat-
ible with any change. Hence, there always will be a need to arbitrate between
embeddedness and change by creating new structures and/or new systems of
meaning. To achieve this, one would have to evolve criteria that may not, at first,
be meaningful to all sections of the society but over time as meaning comes to be
shared, the embeddedness will get restored. It is assumed that new experience and
16 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

plans will be wrapped within meaningful and embedded terms. However, the ques-
tion may be posed whether it is possible to wrap concepts alien to the system, like
the removal of poverty, inequality, casteless society, or the promotion of secular-
ism, using traditional meaningful systems. “Openness” allows for change and new
knowledge and values to come in, but many of the new values and practices come
from societies that have a different knowledge tradition. Thus, for example,
embedded persons in the Indian tradition who have imbibed the most enlightened
meaning of “dharma”, which allows for flexibility and contextualization (desh and
kaal7 in particular), could find it difficult to reconcile this idea with the universal
rationality of the West.
The Indian constitution, which is an outgrowth of such a universal rationality,
has not been able to accommodate changes in normative standards according to
stages in life, desh or kaal. Hence, often one hears that the Indian legal system of
treating everyone equally is traditionally unacceptable and unjust. But the fact also
remains that the Indian constitution also has shown resilience and law makers as
well as judges have sought reconciliation between the traditional and the modern
on a continuous basis. The middle path suggested by Lord Buddha remains the
preferred way of resolving conflicts and dilemmas in India. A judgment of the
Allahabad High Court relating to the dispute of Babri Masjid and Ram
Janmabhumi Temple8 amply demonstrates the balance that has been sought
between the secular and the religious. The two coordinates of embeddedness and
openness are taken as attributes of all social systems and are not peculiar to Indian
or western systems. It may be too early to judge whether this approach will serve
as an alternative model of development, but it certainly has the potential of enunci-
ating national development in psychological terms and carve out a role for psy-
chology in policy making.

4 Psychologists’ Role in Policy Making

It may be asked what role psychologists can play in making of social policies
and how distinctively unique these roles are. One of the major agendas of psy-
chologists is to create conditions that enable all humans to realize their full crea-
tive potential. In order to realize this goal, they concern themselves with studying

7  Desh and kaal refer to space and time, respectively. Indians seek to tailor their responses and
their appropriateness to social situations based on these two coordinates.
8  Hindus claim that Mir Baqui, a lieutenant of the Mughal emperor Babur, demolished a temple

built at Ayodhya in north India, where Lord Rama is supposed to have been born, and erected
a masjid (mosque) over the remains in 1528. Three different groups claimed title to the land of
the masjid, which was razed by a group of militant Hindus in 1992. The Allahabad High Court
in a judgment given on September 30, 2010, ruled that the land be divided equally among the
three litigants: The Sunni Wakf Board, Ram Lalla, represented by the Hindu Mahasabha, and the
Nirmohi Akhara.
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 17

conditions that make it possible to move towards such a society. They also attempt
to identify conditions that create obstacles in the realization of this goal. They par-
ticularly concern themselves with social conditions that lead to dehumanization
and loss of freedom for individuals and create conditions of anomie. Accordingly,
they can come in whenever questions related to unfairness or injustice are posed,
be they in economic, political or sociocultural domains. The major concern of psy-
chologists is with the creation of a holistic society based on relationships that is
free from any or all kinds of exploitation. Psychology sees conflicts, oppression,
violence, discrimination, subordination, and similar phenomena as unacceptable
and ugly, be they at the individual, group, community or national levels. Social
exclusion, whether of women, of dalits or tribals, ought to have been of as much
concern to psychologists as it has been to other social scientists. Psychologists
have, however, engaged with such issues in a superficial manner. When they have,
their efforts have been largely due to their academic concern and not due to their
concern with the oppression faced by such groups of people.
Education and employment are often suggested as twin strategies to create
social inclusion. It is with this in view that the Indian constitution provides for res-
ervation in educational institutions and in jobs in government-run institutions. A
pertinent question to ask here will be, how far has such a strategy enabled socially
disadvantaged people to secure social justice? While there is some evidence that
representation of the socially disadvantaged has gone up by about 5 % in govern-
ment jobs and educational institutions (Borooah et al. 2007), the social inequalities
and stigma faced by close to more than a million manual scavengers, despite man-
ual scavenging becoming outlawed in 1993, is just one example that underscores
the failure of our social policies (Narula & Macwan 2001). Education, which
Drèze and Sen (2002) consider to be a tool of empowerment, in many cases, has
turned out to be a tool of exploitation in rural areas (Tripathi et al. 2007). How is
this to be explained? Not by any of the economic or political theories but by psy-
chological studies that show that when caste is made salient, as is done through
reservation in educational and political institutions, old systems of social domi-
nance may become weak, but cultural belief systems persist in perpetuating ine-
qualities. Hoff and Pandey (2004) found that when social identity based on caste is
made salient, low caste people expect that their efforts will be poorly rewarded,
which eventually affects expectations and also their motivational levels. In another
study, Pandey and Tripathi (1982) had also found that studying in high caste
schools lowers the motivational levels of Scheduled Caste (SC)9 students much
more in comparison to when they studied in SC-run schools, in which caste sali-
ence was not that pronounced. Macro-level interventions alone do not deliver.
They need to be supported by large-scale interventions in cultural belief systems.
One of the major concerns that have emerged in developing societies relates to
the large-scale corruption that appears to have become the bane of these societies.

9  SCs are people belonging to those caste groups who have remained disadvantaged historically
and find a mention in the First Schedule of the Indian constitution. Such people are entitled to
receive benefits under various affirmative action programmes of the government.
18 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

China and India have the two fastest growing economies of the world. But India
ranks 95 and China 65 among the most corrupt nations according to the surveys of
Transparency International for the year 2011. The recent efforts of civil society to
have a strong Lokpal Bill10 passed by the Indian Parliament may be seen in this
light, but as we have seen in this country and elsewhere, laws alone are not enough.
On paper, India has more laws than most other nations but fails to get people to fol-
low them, and also to get law-enforcing agencies to implement them. It is here that
psychologists can make a unique contribution. The large scale behavioural aberra-
tions and unethical acts of people that are observed today are explained by
Bandura’s (1999) concept of moral disengagement of people, particularly of those at
the top. This concept has also been used to explain corruption at individual and
organizational levels. Moral disengagement may also explain the movements
recently witnessed against corrupt totalitarian regimes in the Arab countries.
Corruption is only one example. There are other social ills and issues that call
for critical inputs and interventions of psychologists in India, most of which involve
a complex mix of emotions and cognitions. Some of these are social change issues
arising due to the acceptance of new communication technologies. But these do not
pose so much of a challenge as does the spread of the ideology of neo-liberalism
and globalization that has engulfed not only the economic system of the country
but all spheres be it social, cultural or political. It is here that the Indian people and
people of other developing societies face the challenge to remain embedded while
remaining open to changes posed by their changing environments. Globalization
of the economy and telecommunication technologies that have made nations
more connected than ever have thrown up a number of other challenges. They are
believed to have increased the marginalization of people and increased economic,
social and political inequalities. In other words, it has impacted negatively on social
development (Fournier 2002). There are other problems which they create. On the
one hand, they create issues related to sustainable development and prudent use of
natural resources; and on the other hand, they raise issues related to human rights
and, therefore, of agency. Accordingly, leaders around the world have been forced
to reassess their approaches towards development and move in the direction of
development of human capabilities and their wellbeing.
The forte of psychology has been to measure individual wellbeing and func-
tioning. Hence, the evaluation of planned efforts at this facet of development, even
when such an effort is made without taking into consideration individual-level
variables, can be gainfully undertaken by psychologists (Singh & Tripathi 2010).
However, even today planners and policy makers do not readily accept the role
of an evaluator or of a social auditor from psychologists. More often than not
such people are either economists or political scientists, because there is a polit-
ico-economic side to all governmental plans. On the face of it, maximization of

10  A new political party called India Against Corruption, led by Arvind Kejriwal, and a group led

by Anna Hazare, have come up with a parallel Jan (People’s) Lokpal Bill that visualizes a totally
autonomous ombudsman with powers to investigate all functionaries of the government, includ-
ing even the prime minister of the country.
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 19

such outcomes may sound logical, but it is forgotten that economic planning has
individual consequences. The planned, unplanned and unintended consequences
of policies, therefore, need to be studied from psychological perspectives. The
role of the psychologist as an evaluator of planned efforts, we hold, should not be
restricted only to projects run by the government but also to projects and move-
ments run by NGOs. Psychologists, generally, have not felt the need to associate
themselves with such groups and have only occasionally helped them in evaluating
outcomes of their interventions. This has led to psychologists having lost out on
chances of being involved with grassroots changes. They also have not been able
to test findings and temper their theories with real-life situations. Psychologists,
because they do not associate themselves with such groups and movements, also
lose out when the government takes into account the learning from these move-
ments into policy making.
Psychologists need to pay more attention to voluntary groups and their efforts to
change society and forge a role for themselves within these efforts. They need to
commit themselves to ideologies of humanism and democracy and only then will
they be able to develop a critical perspective. This will not only enable them to gen-
erate knowledge that is socially useful and can be used by the policy makers, but
also help them to perform the role of advocates for social causes more effectively.
The kind of psychological research in which they need to involve themselves and
which is potentially useful to policy makers, as Ruback and Innes (1988) suggest,
will focus on a policy variable that can be changed by policy makers and/or on a
high-utility dependent variable that is associated with important societal outcomes.

5 Promises to Keep

Jawaharlal Nehru in his “Tryst with Destiny”11 speech on the eve of India’s inde-
pendence from the British on August 14, 1947 had said that time had come to
“redeem the promise” to the people of India. This promise later found reflection in
the Constitution of India, which the people of India gave themselves on January
26, 1950. Social policy makers will have to ask themselves how far they have been
able to redeem the promise of delivering social, economic and political justice to
people in post-independent India (Tripathi 2010). It may also be asked to what
degree we continue to be a “sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic”
as is envisaged in the Indian constitution. In spite of achievements on various
fronts, all does not appear to be well with the Indian nation, if one were to go by
what Naipaul (1990) calls a “million mutinies” that have been taking place in vari-
ous domains and regions in India, but more notably in the border regions. The
trauma of the partition of India and Pakistan has stayed and surfaces every now
and then, sometimes in the form of communal riots and generally in the lack of

11  The speech given by Jawaharlal Nehru on August 14, 1947 on the eve of India’s independence

to the Constituent Assembly.

20 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

trust that minority communities have in the dominant majority community. Hindu
India also has not been able to work out and accept at the emotional level, the par-
tition of the country, which it assiduously tried to resist. It feels betrayed by the
British but more so by its own leaders, who yielded to the two-nation theory by
accepting the partition of the nation, yet decided to keep a large Muslim popula-
tion as part of the “secular” India. Hindu India complains that while Pakistan has
all but “cleansed” itself of Hindus by squeezing them out (only one percent
remain, including Sikhs), India has gone out of its way to “appease” minorities
who got best of the both “countries”! The two-nation theory won Pakistan for the
Muslim, while those Muslims who stayed back in India became a “privileged
minority” because their interests are protected under the Indian constitution. This
perception of some Hindus surfaces every now and then in the form of riots when
one hears Hindutva slogans: “Bharatvarsha mein rahna hai toh Vande Mataram
kahna hoga” (If one wishes to stay in Bharatvarsha [India], one must sing Vande
Mataram [Ode to the Mother, in Sanskrit]) or “Muslims should be dumped in the
Bay of Bengal”. There are other fractures that are as perceptible. People living in
Indian states bordering Pakistan or China are a long way away from building a
national identity, be it in Kashmir, Manipur or Nagaland. To keep the peace in
these states, the government has enacted an Armed Forces Special Powers Act
(AFSPA),12 which has not helped much and has contributed to a great deal of
alienation of these people. The only way the Central government in Delhi has
attempted to integrate them is by offering them special economic packages, every
now and then, and that has not helped. Such altruism in situations where it threat-
ens the self-esteem of the group never helps. On the contrary, it invites reaction
from the recipients (Fisher et al. 1982). A long time ago, G. Murphy, after India
witnessed the horrendous killings at the time of partition, drew our attention to the
UNESCO constitutional principle that “wars begin in the minds of men; it is in the
minds of men that defences must be constructed”([Link] social
policies have remained far away from it.
There is very little that the Indian government has done towards nation build-
ing, although it has ever since Independence a National Integration Council whose
sole purpose appears to be to pass resolutions when communal harmony of the
nation is disturbed. There is no attempt to intervene in processes that lead to con-
structions of the other or of the enemy, or to deal with the traumas that are suffered
by children who live in such conflict-ridden areas, or by children who are victims
of communal riots. Psychologists can play a major role here. The major policy that
the government has adopted is to create legal structures so that those who are at
the receiving end feel secure. An example of this is the bill that is to be placed
before the Indian Parliament relating to “Prevention of Communal and Targeted
Violence”. The usual response of the Indian government to major riots that have

12  The Act empowers an Army officer in an area declared “disturbed” to arrest civilians without

a warrant, search their premises, to make arrests and even fire upon suspects even if it causes
death.
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 21

taken place in the country has been to get them investigated by commissions of
inquiry that have done very little to restore confidence of the victims of riots.
A major concern of policy makers in India has been with empowerment of
minority groups and socially disadvantaged groups. The Minority Commission,
created for ensuring the rights of the people of minority groups, is expected to
intervene in matters related to their welfare in India and on issues related to their
empowerment. But minorities are not the only groups that are sought to be
empowered. Dalits, tribals and backward classes, too, who have lived on the mar-
gins for many millennia, have their own commissions. Several policy initiatives
have been taken to bring them into the mainstream of the society. One major inter-
vention was by creating more opportunities for the STs, SCs and OBCs13 has been
through reservations in various political bodies and jobs, as also by creating quotas
for them in educational institutions. This is now sought to be extended to such
“caste” groups within Muslims too. How far the policy of reservation and quotas
has worked in achieving social inclusion of these groups remains an important but
largely unanswered question. Psychologists can play an important role in answer-
ing this question. The fact that reservation that was initially provided for 10 years
after the creation of the Indian constitution still exists and is now finding its way
even in constitutional positions after 60 years, tells its own story. The question that
needs to be raised is what factors have acted as barriers and have prevented it from
being an effective programme. Crosby and Clayton (2001) feel that psychological
research can importantly inform the need for affirmative action and also assess the
effectiveness of such policy. There are scholars who argue that such provisions,
instead of securing fairness for such groups of people, have only succeeded in cre-
ating feelings of relative deprivation among higher caste people. Leach et al.
(2007) found such feelings for aborigines among the structurally advantaged non-
aborigines in Australia. Caste and minority group politics also appears to have
become a convenient political tool for some in the name of “secularism”. India
today stands very much a “fractured nation”, divided along the lines of religion,
caste, regions, languages and cultures, if one were to go by the frequency of con-
flict among various groups and the prejudices they hold for each other.
People from the marginalized groups continue to have weak voices. Among
the many promises that we are required to keep is that of a nation that is fully
integrated and in which weak voices are heard as clearly as the loud voices. But
what about the voices of the millions of manual scavengers who Gandhi called
“Harijan”, of the bonded, of the street children, of the prostitutes and scores of
other groups which continue to fall on deaf ears. Can psychologists help in deliv-
ering on this promise? There is a fairly long history and pedigree of Psychological
research on inter-group relation in India. (Singh 1985; Hutnik 2004). However,
useful these works may have been to policy makers, there are related historical and
cultural issues related to victimization and collective humiliation of these groups

13  The Indian Constitution under Article 16 (3) provides for caste based reservation in educational

institutions and in government jobs. Under this provision 15 % seats/jobs are reserved for Scheduled
Caste (SC), 7.5 % for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 27 % for the Other Backward Caste (OBC).
22 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

that still need to be looked into. The social repairing of inter-group relationship;
the need for “truth and closure” in order to recover from victim hood and/or guilt
are some tasks in which psychologists can render help in framing policies.
Another major area where psychologists can contribute uniquely relates to
conditions that lead to stigmatization, either because of reasons of “inheritance”
such as in case of dalits and tribal or physically or mentally challenged or ill or
those suffering from such contagious diseases as AIDS or leprosy. One of the most
important among these groups is of people suffering from various psychological
disorders or children with learning disabilities. The exclusion and the pain suffered
by these groups can be understood only by those who have lived such lives and
by their families and not by others. Social psychologists will need to suggest how
sufferings of these can be mitigated by changing cognitions and attitudes of people
around them as also of the caregivers and making them capable. They will also
need to suggest how social support networks can be created for them.
If we accept that modern life is going to become increasingly more compet-
itive, and will also be driven by meritocracy, then we have to expect that there
would be more failures. At present, social welfare ideology of the state provides
the protective shield for the weak and indigent, at least in the case of those who
belong to the socially disadvantaged class. However, sooner rather than later,
social development would have to be factored in at the policy level to handle
issues of “failure”. A policy for certain sections of society that must fail and yet
learn to live with such failures and contribute towards a healthy society will have
to be worked out. If this is not done, many people belonging to such groups would
feel “being wronged and aggrieved”, a sense which they carry today. Psychology
with its vast data and rich experience with recovering and working through failure
and victim hood can play a major role here.
Related, but not similar, to the sense of being aggrieved is the “victimhood”
resulting from communal conflicts involving religious, caste and ethnic groups.
With communal relations being what they are, and politics of identity being
closely associated with voting and democracy, one can see the need for policy
for dealing with feelings of victimhood. The sense of “closure” that the govern-
ment, perpetuators and the victims, and all “riot-affected people” need will have
to be addressed at the policy level. Social policies are also needed to ensure
that conditions that give rise to such situations are prevented from occurring in
the first place. Communities live and relate with each other after the evil has
happened. They need truth, justice reconciliation and closure to work through
the social traumas. Such repairing of relationships, after serious breach of rela-
tionships, needs inputs from psychology. Psychologists do cover some of these
efforts under the general rubric of procedural and distributive justice studies, but
not fully. Reconciling, forgiving and rebuilding community relations still need
to be addressed at the level of cultural policy. Here, the psychologist can play a
very crucial role along with other social scientists. Some of the works of Butalia
(1998), Nandy et al. (1997), Sonpar (2006) about memories of the victim hood,
do point towards the role that psychology could play in this connection. The cen-
tral issue in relationship repair—repair means change as well as bringing about a
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 23

sense of closure—is the rebuilding/re-establishing of trust. Trust between victim

and perpetrators, government and those it governs, trust between various institu-
tion and its clients, trust of individual in their relationships with others, all need
to be factored into concept of happiness, well being, and development. The often
cited “trust deficit” needs to be reduced. For this, we need policy that will enable
us to develop community structures. The 73rd and 74th amendments, if used imag-
inatively, can go a long way in the creation of these structures. By so doing, one
can focus on building the trust of people in communities and institutions and each
other so that the overall social capital of the community may get raised. Social
capital has been found related not only to economic development but it also plays
a significant role in levels of overall happiness of people (Bartolini et al. 2008;
Kroll 2008; Lin 2002). Poor people in villages lose their food security along with
a sense of wellbeing when their community has no food.
Psychologists, at present, may appear to be far from being in a position of play-
ing a decisive role in policy formulation. One is also aware of the pitfalls on the
way to playing such a role. Psychologists would remain sidelined so long as they
do not develop ideological clarity and are able to show their commitment to work
for improving the quality of living of the humankind, and also human dignity.
They have to stick their necks out and become more committed to changing soci-
ety by playing a role along with other social scientists risking both the comforts of
being a scientist and the innocence of the role they have played till now. Once they
do that, they would have turned the corner from being called “servants of power”
to “true servants of society” and will be able to take the place they deserve among
the makers of social policy in India.

6 The Present Volume

The present volume consists of a collection of articles by prominent psychologists

who have attempted to carve out a role for psychology in national development
and policy formations. The collection is not exhaustive nor is it a state-of-the-art
review. It may be seen as an attempt by psychologists to venture out of their zones
of comfort. This chapter provides the framework within which the discourse of
social policy framing and the possible role that psychologists can play is carried
out in the book.
In Chap. 2, Rajnarain sounds a warning saying that while there are undoubtedly
policy implications of psychological research, psychologists’ need to be cautious
and not to engage in overgeneralization of their findings. He also raises issues
relating to the dangers of participating in policy making processes. Policies, he
points out, are guided not only by scientific findings but also by political and eco-
nomic considerations.
F.M. Moghaddam, Cynthia Bianchi Katherine, Michael J. Apter and Rom
Harre in Chap. 3 assert that psychology has a role in national development more
so now that human development is viewed as central to national development.
24 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

The post-1990 period is seen as an “opportunities” era of development. Herein is

located the capability argument. Opportunities turn real only if people have the
ability to choose and capabilities to translate these opportunities into a better life.
Tracing the works of older psychologists like McClelland, Sinha and others, they
make out a case for a role of psychologists in planned interventions in national
development, particularly in identifying the barriers to change and carriers of
change at the individual as well as national level.
Sinha, in Chap. 4, carries forward the arguments of Moghaddam and others.
He suggests that there is a need for developing an inclusive strategy that can pro-
mote sustainable human development that encompasses not only economic but
also social and psychological wellbeing of people. Happiness too is seen as cen-
tral to development. He argues for endogenous development that would blend core
Indian characteristics with development. He locates core Indian orientations along
with their inherent paradoxes and seeks to align them with development efforts
and goals. He critiques various governmental efforts at development and argues
that they have nurtured dependency rather than agentic capabilities. He argues that
inclusive human development will be possible if organizations and institutions are
guided by continuous societal discourse on human development, particularly relat-
ing to social and economic development.
Tripathi, in Chap. 5, examines the relationship between education, development
and happiness. Education is generally seen as a major enabler of human devel-
opment. He presents data from certain villages of western Uttar Pradesh in north
India to question this “article of faith”. In these villages, educational develop-
ment was found to be associated with loss of income for the disadvantaged and an
increase in the income of the advantaged, reduction of interpersonal contact, com-
munity feelings, and hope for future improvement. Education, both in its present
form and content and the institutional system which supports it, seems to result
in a more iniquitous, competitive and unhappy society. He suggests that there is
a need to look closer and critically into the values that underlie today’s education
and prevalent educational institutions if education is to be used for human devel-
opment, and also for raising the levels of happiness of people.
In Chap. 6, Minati Panda and Ajit Mohanty, while sounding the alarm that
languages are dying all over the globe at ever-increasing rate, also point out that
in India the death of languages is caused mainly due to the present educational
system. In India, they find that there is a double divide wherein English stands
at the top, followed by the dominant regional languages, and at the very bottom
come the mother tongues, mainly those of the tribal people. The near absence of
these mother tongues as medium of instruction is causing high rate of drop outs
and results in lower cognitive skills of the tribal children and in their weak cultural
identity. Panda and Mohanty argue in support of multilingual education (MLE) to
delegitimize hegemonic positions of certain languages over the language of tribal
children. They further argue that the right to education needs to be linked to the
right to receive education in one’s preferred language because such linking would
not only go a long way to benefit the tribal child in school but would also help in
preserving the multilingual multiculturalism of India.
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 25

Bhoomika R. Kar in Chap. 7, explores issues related to learning disabilities and

shows how interaction between the environment and the brain shapes language,
memory and motor abilities. Hence, tools for identifying, diagnostic procedures,
intervention and research on learning disabilities can help inform policy making.
In Chap. 8, Komilla Thapa raises some basic questions related to how clini-
cal psychology can possibly play a role in the formulation of social policy. She
reviews mental health policy in India against the backdrop of prevalence of men-
tal disorders in India. She points out how cultural diversity and cultural factors in
India complicate issues related to the formulation of mental health policies. She
states that there is an urgent need to build an asset base of mental health profes-
sionals and paraprofessionals and to develop effective and efficient mental health
services.
Chapter 9, by Namita Pande and Shruti Tewari, critiques social policies related
to physical disability in India and focuses on how psychology can help in creating
better policies for physically challenged persons. In particular, the Persons with
Disabilities Act 1995 could be made more comprehensive if informed by psycho-
logical research done on disabilities.
In Chap. 10, Dalal discusses and critically examines traditional healing prac-
tices and systems, such as ayurveda, yoga, Unani, Siddha and homeopathy, along
with the western medical practices, in order to support his argument for develop-
ing a more eclectic and integrative approach to the health delivery system in India.
Such a system, he advocates, will be in consonance with the health beliefs and
practices of the patients and will go a long way in improving the health status of
people.
In Chap. 11, Durganand Sinha, while underlining the effects of long-term dep-
rivation on the cognitive capabilities of children, shows how these deficiencies
turn into lifelong handicaps for the poor because of which they are not able to
avail of whatever meagre opportunities are available to them to improve their life
chances. He points out the role psychology can play in helping children develop
cognitive capabilities so that they utilize the opportunities if and when they are
provided by various government schemes. He also shows how by sticking to rig-
ours of basic research one can make contributions to policies, particularly with
regard to education and poverty alleviation.
In Chap. 12, Lilavati Krishnan makes a case for the inclusion of the social psy-
chological perspective in policy formulation pertaining to the domain of distribu-
tive justice, along with the economic, sociological and legal perspectives, which
already have a prominent place. Focusing on findings that show specific “justice
rule” preferences, and the effects of personal, situational and cultural variables
on these preferences and justice perceptions, she underlines the need to under-
stand how people conceptualize “justice”, and how this conceptualization varies
between different sections of Indian society, to distinguish between the allocator’s
(the policy makers) and recipient’s (the target group) perspectives, and to take due
cognizance of the role of resource and sociocultural variables.
The issue of communal conflicts involving Hindus and Muslims is addressed in
Chap. 13, by Tripathi, E.S.K. Ghosh and Rashmi Kumar. Based on studies carried
26 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

out in India, and on the history of such conflicts, they have attempted to understand
the social psychological roots of such conflicts. They also analyze the existing poli-
cies of the government for establishing communal harmony and argue that they have
failed because they have not addressed the problem at the source. Based on their
analysis of existing relations between the two groups and various social psychologi-
cal theories they present proposals to policy makers for improving relations between
these communities.
Daya Pant in Chap. 14 explores the differences between urban and rural women
particularly with regard to “learned helplessness” with a view to understanding the
issue of empowerment of women. Various attempts made in India to bring about
empowerment of women are critiqued and their differential effects upon the urban
and rural women are evaluated. The top-down approach is seen as less empow-
ering. The author advocates an approach in which women will get to participate
in community and social decision making, such as seen in the case of village
panchayats.
Over the past decades, environmental issues have become a major area of interest
for psychologists. Environmental problems are no longer seen as technological prob-
lems only but also behavioural problems involving humans. They are not only the
victims of environmental degradation but also the source of it. The solution to such
environmental degradation lies in controlling behaviour that degrades environment and
in developing attitudes that support protection of environment. In Chap. 15, Roomana
N. Siddiqui empirically examines these issues. Her focus is on crowding, noise, air
and water pollution. She also focuses on environmental disasters and on how changes
in the environment affect behaviour. She asks policy makers to consider the attitudinal
and behavioural aspects of practices which lead to degradation of the environment and
also of “pro-environmental practices” in order to develop a comprehensive environ-
mental policy.

References

Alkire, S., & Santos, M.E. (2010). Acute multi-dimensional poverty: A new index for develop-
ing countries. Human Development research paper 2010/2011. United Nations Development
Program, July 2010.
Amir, O., Ariely, D., Cooke, A., Dunning, D., Appley, N., Gneezy, U., et al. (2005). Psychology,
behavioral economics and public policy. Marketing Letters, 16, 443–454.
Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and
Social Psychology Review. Special Issue on Evil and Violence, 3, 193–209.
Baritz, L. (1960). The servants of power: A history of the use of social science in American
Industry. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
Bartolini, E., Bilancini., & Pugno, M. (2008). Did the decline in social capital depress Americans’ hap-
piness? Siena University, Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia Politica. Working paper 513.
Bellu, L.G. (2011). Development and development paradigms: A (reasoned) review of prevailing
visions. Retrieved on 2 Jan 2012 from [Link]/easypol.
Berry, J.W. (1990). Psychology of acculturation. In J. Berman (Ed.), Cross-cultural perspectives.
Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 37, 201–234.
Berry, J. W., Tripathi, R. C., & Mishra, R. C. (Eds.) (2003). Psychology in human and social
development: Lessons from diverse cultures. New Delhi: Sage.
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 27

Borooah, V. K., Dube, A., & Iyer, S. (2007). The effectiveness of jobs reservation: Caste, reli-
gion, and economic status in India. Development and Change, 38, 423–455.
Bourdieu, P. (1972/1977) Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Butalia, U. (1998). The other side of silence. New Delhi: Viking.
Costanza, R., Hart, M., Posner, S., & Talberth, J. (2009). Beyond GDP: The need for new meas-
ures of progress. The Pardee papers No. 4, Pardee Center, Boston University.
Cole, M., Hood, L., & McDermott, R. P. (1978). Ecological niche-picking: Ecological invalidity
as an axiom of experimental cognitive psychology. NY: Rockefeller University.
Crosby, F. J., & Clayton, S. (2001). Affirmative action: Psychological contributions to policy.
Analysis of Social Issues and Policy, 1, 71–87.
Dalal, A. K., & Misra, G. (2001). Social psychology in India: Evolution and emerging trends.
In A. K. Dalal, & G. Misra (Eds.), New directions in Indian psychology: Social psychology,
19–52. New Delhi: Sage.
Dalal, A. K., & Mishra, G. (Eds.) (2011). New directions in health psychology. London: Sage.
DeRidder, R., & Tripathi, R. C. (Eds.) (1992). Norm violation and intergroup relations. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (2005). The no obvious social psychology of happiness. Psychological
Inquiry, 16, 162–167.
Dreze, J., & Sen, A. (2002). India: Development and participation. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Easterlin, R. (1974). Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence.
In P. A. David & M. W. Reder (Eds.), Nations and households in economic growth: Essays in
honour of Moses Abramowitz. New York: Academic Press.
Easterlin, R. A., McVey, L. A., Switek, M., Sawangfa, O., & Smith Zweig, J. (2010). The happi-
ness- income paradox revisited. Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences, 107(52),
22463–22468.
Environment Commission (2007). Beyond GDP: Measuring progress, true wealth, and the well-
being of Nations. Brussels: European Commission.
Escobar, A. (1984). Discourse and power in development: Michel Foucault and the relevance of
his work to the third world. Alternatives, 10(3), 377–400.
Fisher, J. D., Nadler, A., & Whitcher-Alagna, S. (1982). Recipient reactions to aid: A conceptual
review. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 27–54.
Fournier, V. (2002). Utopianism and the cultivation of possibilities: Grassroots movements of hope.
In M. Parker (Ed.), Utopia, ideology and organisation (pp. 189–216). Oxford: Blackwell.
Fox, D., & Prilleltensky, I. (1997). Critical psychology: An introduction. London: Sage.
Fukuyama, F. (1995). Trust: Social virtues and the creation of prosperity. New York: Free Press.
Goodman, D., Walling, S., & Ghali, A. (2010). Psychology in pursuit of justice: The works and
lives of Emmanuel Levinas and Ignacio Martin-Baro. Pastoral Psychology, 59(5), 585–602.
Hand, S. (1996). Facing the other: The ethics of Emmanuel Levinas. New York: Routledge.
Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2012). World happiness report. Accessed on April 11, 2012
from [Link]
Hoff, K., & Pandey, P. (2004). Belief systems and durable inequalities: An experimental investi-
gation of Indian caste. World Bank Policy Research Paper No 3351. Retrieved on December,
27, 2011 from http//www. [Link].
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work related values.
Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Hutnik, N. (2004). An intergroup perspective on ethnic minority identity. In J. Pandey (Ed.)
Psychology in India revisited: Developments in the discipline. Vol 3: Applied Social and
Organisational Psychology. New Delhi: Sage Publication.
Kahnemann, D. (1999). Objective happiness. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-
being: Foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 3–25). New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.
Korten, D. C. (1995). When corporations rule the world. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.
Krishnamurti, J., & Bohm, D. (1992). The ending of time. Madras: Foundation India.
Kroll, C. (2008). Social capital and the happiness of nations. The importance of trust and net-
works for life satisfaction in a cross-national perspective. Frankfurt, New York, Oxford: Peter
Lang Publishing Group.
28 R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha

Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a new science. New York: Penguin.
Leach, C. W., Iyer, A., & Pedersen, A. (2007). Angry opposition to government redress: When
the structurally advantaged perceive themselves as relatively deprived. British Journal of
Social Psychology, 46(1), 191–204.
Lin, N. (2002). Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Malloch, T. R. (2003). Social, human, and spiritual capital in economic development. Retrieved
January 5, 2012 from [Link]
Markus, H. R. & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotions
and motivation. Psychological Review. 98(2), 224–253.
McClelland, D. C. (1961). The achieving society. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
Mehta, J. K. (1985). Gandhian thought: An analytical study. New Delhi: Ashish Publishing.
Mesoudi, A., Whiten, A & Laland, K. N. (2006). Towards a unified science of cultural evolution.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29, 329–383.
Mishra, G. (Ed.) (2006). Psychology and societal development: Paradigmatic and social con-
cerns. New Delhi: Concept Publications.
Mishra, G., & Mohanty, A. K. (2000). Consequences of poverty and disadvantage: A review of
Indian studies. In A. K. Mohanty & G. Mishra (Eds.), Psychology of poverty and disadvan-
tage. Concept: New Delhi.
Mullainathan, S. (2005). Development economics through the lens of Psychology. In: Lessons of
experience: Annual world bank conference on development economics, 2005, (pp. 71–78).
World Bank, Washington, DC.
Naipaul V.S. (1990). India: A million mutinies now. London: Heinemann.
Nandy, A., Trivedi, S., Yagnik, A., & Mayaram, S. (1997). Resisting regimes: Myth, memory and
creation of a Muslim identity. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Narula, S., & Macwan, M. (2001). ‘Untouchability’: The economic exclusion of the dalits in
India. Geneva: The International Council on Human Rights Policy.
Nisbett, R. E., & Cohen, D. (1996). Culture of honor: The psychology of violence in the south.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Nisbett, R.E. (2003). The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently and
why. New York: The Free Press.
Nustad, K. G. (2001). Development: The devil we know? Third World Quarterly, 22, 479–489.
Pandey, N., & Tripathi, R. C. (1982). Scheduled caste children in high caste schools. In D. Sinha,
R. C. Tripathi, & G. Mishra (Eds.), Deprivation: Its social roots and psychological conse-
quences. New Delhi: Concept.
Pareek, U. (Ed.). (1980). Survey of psychological research in India, 1971–1976. Part 1. Bombay:
Popular Prakashan.
Pepitone, A. (1974). Social science and social issues. SPSSI Newsletter, 138, 1, 8.
Pieterse, J. N. (1991). Dilemmas of development discourse: the crisis of developmentalism and
the comparative method. Development and Change, 22(1), 5–29.
Pieterse, J. N. (1998). My paradigm or yours?: Alternative development, post-development,
reflexive development. Development and Change, 29, 343–373.
Prilleltensky, I., & Nelson, G. (2002). Doing psychology critically: Making a difference in
diverse settings. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Ranis, G., Stewart, F., & Samman, E. (2005). Human development beyond the HDI. Economic
Growth Center, Yale University. Center Discussion Paper No. 916.
Roy, R. (2003). Samskara in Indian tradition and culture. Delhi: Shipra.
Ruback, R. B., & Pandey, J. (2011). Policy relevant research for development: A conceptual
framework and empirical approach. In J. Pandey, T. N. Sinha, & A. K. Sinha (Eds.), Dialogue
for development (pp. 201–215). New Delhi: Concept.
Ruback, R. B., & Innes, C. A. (1988). The relevance and irrelevance of psychological research:
The example of prison crowding. American Psychologist, 43, 683–693.
1  Introduction: Psychological Coordinates of Social Policy in India 29

Schwartz, S. H. (2006). Value orientations: Measurement, antecedents and consequences across

nations. In R. Jowell, C. Roberts, R. Fitzgerald, & G. Eva (Eds.), Measuring attitudes cross-
nationally—lessons from the European social survey. London: Sage.
Schwartz, S. H. (2011) Values: Individual and cultural. In S. M. Breugelmans, A. Chasiotis, &
F. J. R. van de Vijver (Eds.), Fundamental questions in cross-cultural psychology (pp. 463–
493). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Shonkoff, J. P. (2000). Science, policy and practice: Three cultures in search of a shared mission.
Child Development, 71, 181–187.
Shrivastava, A., & Kothari, A. (2012). Churning the earth: The making of global India. Delhi:
Penguin Books India.
Singh, A. K. (1985). Developing secularism and national integration in India. Presidential address,
section of psychology and educational sciences, 72nd Indian Science Congress Association,
Lucknow.
Singh, S., & Tripathi, R. C. (2010). Why do the bonded fear freedom: Some lessons from the
field. Psychology and Developing Societies, 22, 249–297.
Sinha, D. (1966). Psychologists in the arena of social change. Presidential address to the section
of psychology and educational sciences, 53rd Indian Science Congress, Chandigarh.
Sinha, D. (1973). Psychology and the problems of the developing countries: A general overview.
International Review of Applied Psychology, 22, 5–27.
Sinha, D., & Tripathi, R.C. (1994). Individualism in a collective culture: A case of coexistence of
opposites. In U. Kim, H.C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism
and collectivism: Theory, method and applications (pp.123–136). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Sinha, D. (1983). Applied social psychology and the problems of national development. In F.
Blackler (Ed.), Social psychology and developing countries. Chichester: Wiley.
Sinha, D. (1988). Indigenisation of psychology in India and its relevance. The Indian Journal of
Social Science, 1, 77–91.
Sinha, D., Tripathi, R. C., & Mishra, G. (Eds.) (1982). Deprivation: Its social roots and psycho-
logical consequences. New Delhi: Concept.
Sinha, J. B. P. (1990). Role of psychology in national development. Keynote address delivered at
the 22nd International conference of applied psychology, Kyoto, Japan. Role of psychology
in n at the 22nd International Congress of Applied Psychology.
Sonpar, S. (2006). Violent activism: A psychosocial study of ex-militants in Jammu and Kashmir.
New Delhi, India: AMAN Charitable Trust.
Suedfeld, P., & Tetlock, P. (Eds.) (1991). Psychology and social policy. Washington, DC:
Hemisphere.
Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tannenbaum, A. (1968). Control in organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Tripathi, R. C. (1988). Aligning development to values in India. In D. Sinha & H. S. R. Kao
(Eds.), Social values and development: Asian perspectives (pp. 314–322). New Delhi: Sage.
Tripathi, R. C. (2010). Poverty alleviation: Is it only tilting at the windmills. Psychology and
Developing Societies, 22, 201–220.
Tripathi, R. C., & Sinha, Y. (2009). The ways of “being” and “becoming” human. Integrative
Psychological and Behavioural Science., 43(4), 311–323.
Tripathi, R. C., Majumder, B., & Bhatt, K. N. (2007). Education for development: The Mawana
study. New Delhi: Sri Ram Foundation.
Veenhoven, R. (1984). Conditions of happiness. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Reidel Publishing
Co.
Chapter 2
Social Research and Public Policy: Some
Cautionary Notes

Rajnarain

1 Introduction

It is tempting for a researcher to declare the policy implications of certain relation-

ships found by him in analyzing his data. But the declaration should be made with
caution. It should be remembered that the relationships have been obtained because
of his ability to exercise control on many phases of the research. But in real life,
activities and patterns cannot be held constant. It should also be remembered that the
results of research are true for the population studied and one has to make sure that
the results can be generalized to other populations. Further, it needs to be remem-
bered that the execution of policies may affect activities and behaviours not stud-
ied, generating effects that are unpredictable on the basis of research undertaken and
may even be undesirable. Therefore, while suggesting policy implications of one’s
research, one should emphasize the need for small-scale trials of the implications,
and outline strategies for the evaluation of the operations and results of such trials,
in the hope that the trials will uncover undesirable effects, and suggest further tri-
als designed to eliminate the undesirable effects, in light of which large-scale efforts
can be launched. The ethical responsibility of a researcher to maintain the wellbeing
of human beings involved in the extension of research findings cannot be avoided.
Head (2010) points out that social scientists need to be sensitive to these inherent
limitations of social research before they start to offer to the policy makers’ evi-
dence-based research findings as inputs for policy making. Stone (2002) states that
the relationship between the policy makers and researchers is problematic on sev-
eral counts. Besides issues related to validity of findings and relevance of research,
she points out that the divide between the researcher and policy makers may be
because researchers in the first place do not have access to data and research that
address directly the policy issues. The other major problems which researchers may
face involve understanding the nature of the process of policy formulation and their

Rajnarain (author deceased) 
Department of Psychology–Philosophy, Lucknow University, Lucknow, U.P, India

R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha (eds.), Psychology, Development and Social Policy in India, 31
DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-1003-0_2, © Springer India 2014
32 Rajnarain

inability to communicate properly how and where the policy makers can make use
of the research findings. According to a study carried out in Canada, research ema-
nating from professional social science disciplines like industrial relations and social
work got utilized much more compared to disciplinary social sciences like econom-
ics, political science and sociology because they not only were able to communi-
cate better but directly addressed the issues confronted by the policy makers (Landry
et al. 2001). Similarly, the policy makers may suffer from problem of awareness of
research but more than that very often they are also victim of an attitude of what
Stone calls “anti-intellectualism”. Edwards (2005) considers how this kind of divide
between researchers and public policy makers can be narrowed.

2 Social Context of Social Research

Social research is one form of organized social activity. It is intimately related to

other forms of organized social activity. Interaction and feedback take place con-
tinuously between social research and other social activities. For example, social
research is becoming more and more dependent on the larger society for financial
support. At the same time, the larger society is making more and more demands
from social research for information for identifying and in general two types of
sources for financial support of research are available. The first type is interested in
developing scientific knowledge. The second is primarily interested in the genera-
tion of information that will have policy or applied implications. Such information
is expected to help either in transferring basic knowledge and techniques for use in
policy decisions or in evaluating current policies or proposed policies. Many sources
support both types of research. Funded social research must discharge its contrac-
tual obligation to the sponsoring agency as well as to the scientific community.
Another issue relating to the social context of social research is the organization
of social research. There are several reasons for and against gains from organized
social research. As social research becomes larger in scope and more expensive,
lone researchers are not able to provide all the equipment, personnel and material
needed for research from their own sources. One advantage of organized social
research is that it stimulates interaction between disciplines. Another is the provi-
sion of opportunity for pooling and sharing of resources. A research organization
allows division of labour in the conduct of research, and research produced by a
research organization carries more weight than one done by an individual.
The most serious problem facing university-affiliated research organizations
is that the universities and teachers thereof frown on applied research, consider-
ing it irrelevant to the primary function of university research, viz., production
and transmission of scientific knowledge. Teachers undertaking applied research
are considered to be second-class academicians by their colleagues. This attitude,
which is changing but slowly, has led to the establishment of independent research
organizations. Such organizations are a haven for policy researchers. The organi-
zations may be non-profit making or commercial. Funding agencies are interested
in supporting organizations that are efficient. And in this respect, research firms
2  Social Research and Public Policy: Some Cautionary Notes 33

are favoured by funding agencies. However, inasmuch as the research firm tries to
please funding agencies, its allegiance to the scientific community is weakened.
This, however, may not be true only of the research firms; Baritz (1960) calls
social scientists in the United States, in general, “servants of power”.

3 Policy Research Process

Social research contributes both to policy and theory. Policy research begins with
(a) identification of needs, (b) specification of policy goals or (c) both. It is the
need of the target population and the goal of the clientele system that guide the
formulation of the objectives of policy research. In many cases, the goals may be
formulated without primary consideration being given to the needs of the target
population, although policy research must always address itself to the correspond-
ence between the needs of the target population and the policies of the clientele.
Ideally, policy research should have the option of challenging the existence of
parts of/or the whole of the clientele system, should the research show a failure in
matching the organizational goals with the needs of the target population.
The translation or operationalization of policy goals needs of the target popu-
lation, or both, represents the initiation of scientific activities in policy research.
Terms relevant to the organization and to the population are operationalized into
variables. Policy research then goes on to the process of sampling, measurement,
data collection and data analysis as in any rigorous social research process. But
when the interpretation of data stage is reached, policy makers, in contrast to theo-
retical research in which interpretation is geared towards the advancement of theo-
retical knowledge, have their way and policy research then passes from scientific
activity to organizational activity, for the generalizations obtained in research have
to be applied to a specific (target) population.
The formulation of specific policies for the population is guided not only by sci-
entific findings but also by many other extra scientific considerations like political
and economic ideologies (Edwards 2005). Political expediencies besides interper-
sonal relations may also come into play in the deliberation and execution of poli-
cies. Policy planning and execution thus are usually made after there has been some
“give and take” among various interested parties in the clientele system. The result-
ing policy may deviate considerably from the recommendations based on data.
Following the guidelines of the formulated policy, organizational and admin-
istrative steps are taken for the implementation of policy. Ideally, new policies
must be examined in small-scale trials to discover its ill and side effects. The
final scrutiny of results of policy research is based on its financial implications.
Meanwhile, information has to be disseminated to the target population about the
forthcoming policy and its involvement in the implementation. Finally, the policy
is implemented. The implementation should be paralleled by efforts to investigate
the effects of the policies on the fulfilment of initial needs and goals. This evalu-
ation activity can be a part of the new policies. Any discrepancy between policy
effects and the needs and goals, as well as unexpected effects, must be carefully
34 Rajnarain

Policy Research Process

Organizational Activities Scientific Activities

Identification of Specification of policy Formulation of

needs goals research objectives

Policy implementation Sampling

Budgeting and resource allocation Measurement

Trial and dissemination Data Collection

Policy organization and administration Data Analysis

Policy
Policy formulation and planning recommendation

Fig. 1  Policy research process

evaluated. This may be the beginning of another policy research, thus complet-
ing the cycle of policy research process. Public policies get formulated and
implemented very often without completing the cyclic process. The process is dia-
grammatically presented in Fig. 1 (Lin 1976, p. 373).

4 Developmental and Evaluation Research

According to the intent of the researcher, social research policy implications are
of two types. In the first, research effort is based on a theoretical tradition and an
attempt is made to apply it to a specific policy problem. This is called “developmen-
tal research”. It is characterized by (1) implicitness of policy implications of the theo-
retical tradition and (2) adaptation of the theoretical tradition to derive policy-related
information for a given policy problem. For example, the “diffusion of innovations”
tradition (see Rogers 2003) has been the basis of policies about marketing of new
products, promotion of family planning, and incorporation of educational devices.
Development research presumes that certain characteristics of the social phenomenon
on problem for policy correspond to the concepts and variables in the tradition.
The second type, while based on general social theory and methods, aims spe-
cifically at providing information for policy decisions. This type is called “evalua-
tion research” (Weiss 1998). It is marked by explicitness of policy implications in
the formulation and execution of the research plan; and incorporation of variables
2  Social Research and Public Policy: Some Cautionary Notes 35

specifically relevant to the problem in hand. It is not bound by any research tradi-
tion, but is problem oriented.
While both the types attempt to provide information for policy decisions, they are
derived from different conceptual perspectives and therefore arrive at substantially
divergent results. Developmental research does not challenge the research tradi-
tion on which it is based and its primary aim therefore is to broaden the explanatory
power of that tradition so that it can be extended to the study of more and more phe-
nomena. Evaluation research being not bound to any research tradition utilizes the
concepts and methods of any discipline that promises implications for policy devel-
opment and variables seldom considered by previous researchers. The relevance of
a variable to an evaluation researcher is determined by two considerations: (1) the
meaningfulness of the variable for the policy makers and for target population and
(2) manipulability of the variable by the policy organization. Obviously for policy
makers, evaluation research is more meaningful than developmental research. Many
social researchers are either unaware of the difference between the two types of
research or are unwilling to sacrifice their scientific theories.

5 A Typology of Policy Research

A typology of policy research can be constructed on the basis of its two dimen-
sions: focus and nature. The research focus can be of two kinds: on means and
ends. The former, for example, in case of formal organizations, is guided by exist-
ing goals of ends of the clientele system and attempts to identify potential defects
in the organizational–managerial structure and process. In case of the latter, an
attempt may be made to assess the outcomes of existing organizational–manage-
rial structure and processes to ascertain the degree to which the actual outcomes
are consistent with the defined outcomes.
The nature of the policy can also be of two types: existing or new. For the for-
mer, research is guided by variables already specified and defined by the clientele
system; it is variable-specified research. The latter is not bound by specified vari-
ables; although some constraints on the variables may be set out by the clientele
system; it is variable-unspecified research.
Given these two dimensions and their subtypes, a fourfold typology of policy
research emerges, as shown in Table 1 (Lin 1976, p. 378). The typology has a
bearing on the current methodological issues in policy research.

Table 1  Research focus
Policy Means Ends
Existing Variable-specified Variable-specified
Organizational–managerial analysis Productive-performance analysis
Alternative Variable-unspecified Variable-unspecified
Organizational–managerial analysis Productive-performance analysis
36 Rajnarain

6 Methodological Issues

There are four methodological issues of specific relevance to policy research.

These are the following: selection of variables, selection of theoretical structure,
use of field experiment and standardization of data.

6.1 Social Action and Academic Orientation

Since policy research is oriented towards social action or problem–solution, it

behoves the researcher to take into account variables in research that can not only
be identified in the clientele system, but also are open to manipulation. In theoretical
research, the selection of variables is done on the basis of their explanatory value.
The possibility of manipulation of the selected variable is of secondary importance.
For example, according to social stratification theory, an individual’s ascribed social
status, along with his educational achievement, accounts for a large part of his even-
tual occupational status and level of income. In the framework of policy research,
the variable of social status presents a problem: one’s ascribed status can hardly be
manipulated, and, perhaps, his educational achievement as well. Hence, it is scien-
tifically worthy but pragmatically poor. A useful variable seems to be the hiring and
promotion policy of the clientele system. Therefore, the selection of a variable in
policy research should be based on its manipulability and accountability (e.g., cost).
This is especially crucial for independent variables. This is not to suggest that in pol-
icy research, all selected variables should be manipulable and accountable, and basic
(explanatory) variables are ruled out. What is suggested is that while maintaining the
basic variables, it is also important to incorporate as many organizational independ-
ent manipulable variables as is feasible and meaningful.

6.2 Limited Variables

There are three different theoretical structures: convergent (causal), divergent

(effectual) and causal-effectual. In the first, the focus of interest is a dependent
variable and the objective is to identify the important and relevant independent
(causal) variables.
The second identifies a single or limited number of independent variables and
enumerates the multiple consequent (effectual) variables. In the third, the varia-
ble or variables of focal interest are studied in terms of both the independent and
dependent variables; the selection of the theoretical structure is determined by the
nature of policy research. For policy research focusing on the means for exist-
ing or proposed policies, the convergent structure seems desirable. But for policy
research focusing on ends, the divergent structure seems to be the most appropri-
ate. The causal-effectual structure is useful when the researcher is given certain
2  Social Research and Public Policy: Some Cautionary Notes 37

predetermined or proposed organizational–managerial characteristics and asked

to explore other desirable characteristics to achieve certain optimal results for the
predetermined or proposed characteristics.
The selection of an appropriate theoretical structure for policy research enables
a researcher to locate the variables in appropriate positions in the structure and
apply appropriate analytical procedures to the data and to increase the likelihood
of the results of research being useful for possible policy recommendations and
execution.
The performance of a field experiment in policy research serves as a criti-
cal test of any potential changes and their effects before these changes are fully
implemented. In the field experiment, the proposed changes are administered to
selective and representative subgroups (individuals or units) of the target popu-
lation, and subgroups of subjects not exposed to proposed change serve as con-
trols. A field experiment, however, faces certain problems. It is less applicable
when research is concerned with ends rather than means, as the outcome is less
susceptible to manipulation. Further, it calls for variations in each variable to be
manipulated as well as in different variables. In reality, economic and adminis-
trative constraints seldom permit such massive, intensive and controlled design.
The constraints pose a serious problem for the evaluation of the results of the field
experiment. And in many cases, decision makers have eventually to make arbitrary
choices among the variables for purposes of implementation. Such choices are
more often determined by economic, personal, social, administrative or political
considerations rather than scientific assessment.
There are two ways of treating data in policy research: analyzing data in their
natural units (rupees/dollars, number of hours, number of people, etc.) or analyzing
data in standardized units. The proponents of natural units argue that these are highly
useful in calculating the cost-benefit analysis of a proposed change in policy. Cost-
benefit analysis may reveal differential costs in the implementation of the different
variables. The proponents of standardized units argue that such units are meaning-
ful because they eliminate possible bias in the different natural units for purposes
of explanation. It is essential to uncover the differential effects of the independent
variables on the dependent variable, and for discovering the differential effects, the
independent variables must be converted to similar (standardized) units. It is obvi-
ous that both the arguments are valid. The use of natural units is indicated when one
is sure that the variables involved are important as far as the outcome is concerned.
Standardized units are indicated where such assurance is not forthcoming.

7 Practice of Policy Research

The practices of policy research involve certain professional responsibilities,

because policy research has an impact on many people whose lives may be sub-
stantially affected. It can be significant or devastating in its effect. The responsibil-
ities are fourfold. First is the ethical responsibility of protecting the confidentiality
38 Rajnarain

of the sources of information, so that the informants or units are not subjected to
legalistic or political persecution. Policy researchers are pressed by political and
legal agencies to reveal. The researchers have to resist these pressures (SRA 2003).
Secondly, since the relationship between the policy researcher and the sponsor of
his research is contractual, he is obliged to perform the research as a service to the
sponsor. Usually, the sponsor has vested interests to protect and tends to dictate the
directions the research should take. To accept this dictation is to betray the research-
er’s allegiance to scientific principles and to scientific community of which he is a
member. But where large sums of money are involved in the contract, and there is
a competition among research organizations for obtaining the contract, there is a
likelihood of the research organization giving primary consideration to the sponsor’s
wishes, with the result that the research may be biased in favour of the organization
as against the target population. The temptation has to be resisted.
Thirdly, the quality of policy research has to be controlled. Presently, quality
control is exercised at the time of funding of the research. The sponsors use con-
sultants to evaluate the research proposal, when it is submitted. The consultants
are guided by scientific and methodological considerations in evaluation. But the
execution and use of policy research are usually under no specified professional
and academic control. Quality control should be extended to these stages also.
Fourthly, even if full quality control is achieved, policy research remains con-
fronted with a possible gap between data, advocacy and policy decision. In prin-
ciple, there is a consistency between data and advocacy. But in practice, a gap
occurs when a researcher advocates a policy not in conformity with data, or a
policy without data. Where he advocates a policy without data, he should make it
clear that the advocacy is based on his ideology, not empirical evidence.
There is also a discrepancy between data and policy decisions. While data are
continuous, decisions are discrete (to implement or not to implement). Policy mak-
ers like to have recommendations in discrete terms (yes–no) while data indicate only
“more” or “less”. In some instances, continuous data can be made discrete by sug-
gesting “cutting-off” points. But generally the gap remains. And the policy maker
interprets it as equivocation on the part of the researcher and becomes alienated from
the researcher. To escape alienation, the researcher may give unwarranted categorical
answers. The real remedy for the gap is to educate the policy maker about the nature
of social research, so that he has the right expectations from research.

References

Baritz, L. (1960). The servants of power: a history of the use of social science in American
Industry. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
Edwards, M. (2005). Social science research and public policy: narrowing the divide. Australian
Journal of Public Administration., 64, 68–74.
Head, B. (2010). Evidence based policy: principles and requirements. [Link]
Landry, R., Amara, N., & Laamary, M. (2001). Utilization of social science research knowledge
in Canada. Research Policy, 30, 333–349.
Lin, N. (1976). Foundations of social research. New York: McGraw-Hill.
2  Social Research and Public Policy: Some Cautionary Notes 39

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York: Free Press.
SRA (Social Research Association). (2003). Ethical guidelines. London: SRA. ([Link].
uk/documents/pdfs/[Link]).
Stone, D. (2002). Getting research into policy. Paper presented at Global Development National
Conference, Rio de Janeiro, December 7–10. [Link]
Weiss, C. H. (1998). Evaluation—methods for studying programs and policies (2nd ed.). Upper
Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Chapter 3
Psychology and National Development

Fathali M. Moghaddam, Cynthia Bianchi, Katherine Daniels,

Michael J. Apter and Rom Harre

There is a virtual consensus among scholars in the field that the

study of the new nations has reached a state of acute crisis….
The hope such literature once contained for helping the World
slowly ebbed away.
Hermarri (1980), p. 16
The problem of access to food remains fundamental for
countless poor, even in areas that have benefited from new
technologies and production methods, even in the rich North.
As populations relentlessly grow, particularly in areas that are
already food deficient, the problem of food access is likely to
attain alarming proportions.
International Development Research Centre (1992)

For the last half-century, there has been considerable discussion on the part of both
practitioners and researchers, concerning the meaning and conditions of national
development. Although according to some criteria modest progress has been made
in the social, economic and political sectors, enormous challenges remain. For
example, population increases still threaten to outpace food supply. Despite seri-
ous attempts to control the size of populations, the number of human beings dou-
bled between 1950 and 1990. As many people as would constitute a city, the size
of New York was added to the human race each month (Brown et al. 1993). The
challenges facing developing societies in the domain of population are illustrative

Moghaddam has published extensively in the areas of cultural diversity and international psy-
chology. He has been deeply involved with issues relating to psychology and development.

F. M. Moghaddam (*) · C. Bianchi · K. Daniels · M. J. Apter · R. Harre 

Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, White Gravenor Building (3rd floor),
Washington, DC 20057, USA
e-mail: moghaddf@[Link]
R. Harre
e-mail: harre@[Link]

R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha (eds.), Psychology, Development and Social Policy in India, 41
DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-1003-0_3, © Springer India 2014
42 F. M. Moghaddam et al.

of serious challenges in a variety of other sectors which, it seems, call for more
than just economic solutions (Griuj & Saivatore 1994).
The major models of development, which have traditionally been eco-
nomic, have been the focus of intense criticism since the 1960s (Bernstein 1973;
Roxborough 1979; Schuurman 1993; Seers & Joy 1971). Not only have econo-
mists debated the best economic policies (David 1986), but also there has been a
call for a broader conception of development, one that incorporates social and cul-
tural characteristics of human societies (Dube 1988; Hagen 1962; Hoselitz 1960;
van Nieuwenhuijze 1988). Our first objective in this article is to briefly but criti-
cally review changes in the conception of development itself over the latter half
of the twentieth century. In doing so, we identify certain assumptions inherent in
the current notions of human development that have psychological implications.
Second, we shall review the psychological literature that attempts to contribute
to the debate on national development. A major shortcoming of this literature, we
shall argue, is the lack of an adequate account of social change. In the third part,
we shall outline an account of national development based on social reduction the-
ory (Moghaddam & Harre 1996) in conjunction with an alternative, but comple-
mentary account of change based on reversal theory (Apter 1989).

1 Changing Views of Development

Changes in the way that development is viewed seem to be subject to fashions

local to industrial countries. In the post-World War II era, these fashions have
undergone considerable changes (Menon 1980):
1948–1955 Import-substituting industries are the key to development.
1960–1965 Import substitution is no good; export expansion is the answer.
1966–1967 Industrialization is an illusion; rapid agricultural growth is the only
answer.
1967–1968 Give top priority to population control policies as all other forms of
development are likely to be submerged by population explosion.
1971–1975 The poor masses have not gained much from development. GNP
growth is rejected; more equitable distribution of existing resources
must come ahead of growth.
The latest avant-garde fashion in development circles is the so-called human
development. This trend is to some extent reflected in the changed concept of
development adopted by the European Union (EU) (for example, see report of
LOME IV in The Courier). It is reflected much more strongly in the first human
development report (UNDP 1990). This report demonstrated the commitment
of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP 1993), a major interna-
tional funding and planning channel for development, to the idea of development
as “enlarging peoples’ choices”, a broader cultural rather than purely economic
ideal. Associated with this trend is the replacement of purely economic indicators
3  Psychology and National Development 43

of change, such as gross national product (GNP), with the Human Development
Index, which incorporates three “human” measures indicative of choices avail-
able to individuals: of purchasing power, of quality of education, and of stand-
ard of health. But many questions remain to be addressed. For example, if there
is “increased purchasing power”, what goods does it make possible for people
to buy? And what exactly is meant by “quality of education” and “standards of
health”? Even in the West those criteria are not necessarily coherent.
The high level of attention now given to human development is also reflected
in the other major funding institutions as well as in those engaged in research
activities. As part of this trend, some in the World Bank have called for a radi-
cal reform of policies so that a central place is given to human development. For
example, Woods (1984) recognizes that the evolution of development theory has
divided government and assistance agencies into mutually exclusive “sectors”
(for example, “agriculture” and “education”), and this limits the effectiveness
of policy implemented by separate agencies responsible for each. However, like
most writers in this domain, Woods (1984) places considerable emphasis on the
formal “organizational structure”. He neglects the informal, and we would argue
the more important aspects of organizations and institutions. Often, formal organ-
izations and plans that seem constructive on paper have very different conse-
quences in practice from those envisaged by their proponents. This happens when
planners do not give sufficient consideration to what actually takes place in the
course of development. For example, the famous post-World War II debacle of
the British groundnuts scheme in East Africa was caused in part by inattention to
cultural factors.
Some development theorists have even suggested that economic policies that
are beneficial, at least in the short term, have harmful effects when implemented
in important domains such as education, health and employment (Haq & Kirdar
1987). During the process of economic adjustment, a soft sector such as edu-
cation (and the same may be true for other social services) faces “demands for
domestic austerity and competes with higher priority items such as export promo-
tion and military spending” (Lourie 1987, p. 170). Critics have argued that eco-
nomic growth and adjustment do not automatically lead to beneficial conditions
for all people. Economic indicators do not represent people, but they represent the
economy. Of course, this applies to rich and poor nations alike. In some respects,
“poor” nations may be “healthier” than rich ones who are to say that the problem
of “overweight” in the USA is any less serious than that of malnutrition in India
when considered as a factor in an assessment of quality of life.
Thus, on the surface, the distinction between development as economic growth
and human development seems to be becoming clearer. In response to calls for new
development policies, there is now greater awareness of a need for programmes
to improve primary health care, education, income distribution and nutrition (Gall
1992; Griffin & Knight 1992; Goulet & Wilber 1992). These elements, which most
directly have an impact on people, are taken as the focus of development with the
understanding that when people have certain basic needs cared for, they can more
effectively take part in the control of their own economic, political and social lives.
44 F. M. Moghaddam et al.

These basic needs are taken to be the foundations of expanding capabilities. At

a deeper level, however, the new emphasis on “human development” assumes that
western conceptions of health, education, nutrition and so on are universally valid.
This is a huge assumption which must not go unchallenged. First, we need to dif-
ferentiate between western ideals of health and western practices. For example,
what nutritional food is supposed to be part of a western diet and the actual prac-
tices of eating fast food. Ironically, it is often the latter rather than the former that
are exported to the Third World.

2 Development and Social Behaviour

Underlying the concept of “human development” is a concern for human behav-

iour generally (Moghaddam 1990, pp. 29–30; 1997, Chap. 5). However, once again
we find that researchers have assumed certain western values to be universal. This
is reflected, sometimes explicitly, in the writings of thinkers who pioneered the
new movement. For example, according to Sen (1992), economic growth is only
one narrow aspect of development. More broadly, development involves “entitle-
ments” and “capabilities”. The latter is “the ability to do this or that” (ibid., p. 15),
implying that the capacities of people to utilize resources and to take advantage of
“opportunities” are a key component of development. However, a critical question
is “opportunities to do what?” Surely, in some domains, such as family life, one
could argue that western societies have limited the opportunities individuals enjoy.
For example, the western model does not allow for those joining the middle-class
mainstream to participate in the personally enriching experience of life in extended
families, as enjoyed in Third World societies, as well as among some minorities
in the west. Surely, in the arena of family relations at least, westerners have less
rather than more capabilities.
Also, traditional societies may not approve of the very idea of “opportunities”,
implying a degree of choice among the younger generation that is offensive in the
eyes of the old. Furthermore, too great a range of opportunities may in practice
lead to anomie and despair rather than being a life-enhancing source of freedom.
Capabilities are closely tied with choices, in that increased capabilities make
available greater options to choose among possibilities in different domains, such as
economic, political, social and religious spheres. Choices are not made randomly,
but are guided by values. The very choice between trying to change and attempt-
ing to conserve the status quo is a value judgement (Bezanson 1994). Clearly,
values, alienation, attitudes, identity, motivation, participation, skills and other
“human” features of a population are central to the enlarged concept of develop-
ment. And these are psychological factors. Perhaps, this new orientation is best
captured by Donaldson’s (1973) description of development as, “… bringing about
basic changes in the underlying social fabric of attitudes and institutions” (p. 80).
Once again, however, this begs the question of why changes towards a western
model of society should be better for all humankind. This is put into question par-
ticularly because the western world involves greater specialization and entails the
3  Psychology and National Development 45

disappearance of satisfying craftwork (Moghaddam 1997). In many traditional soci-

eties, everyone has a part to play in the construction of houses, making clothing,
cooking, musical performances and so on.

2.1 Psychologists Enter the Debate on National Development

Parallel to the movement towards a people-centred concept of development, psy-

chologists have become increasingly aware of their potential contribution to devel-
opment taken in the enlarged sense with its obvious psychological aspects. This is
not a new idea (Klineberc 1956; McClelland & Winter 1969), but it is an idea for
which the time seems ripe because the new emphasis on “human development”
presents a historic opportunity for psychologists to have an important impact. The
psychological literature related to national development can be usefully conceived
as comprising the following broad categories.

2.2 The Call for “Appropriate” Psychology

The issue of “appropriateness” underlies discussions of the social sciences in the Third
World (UNESCO 1976, 1977, 1980), sometimes becoming explicit in considering of
psychology specifically (Connolly 1985; Moghaddam & Taylor 1986). In some ways,
the issues raised in discussions of “appropriate psychology” are also present in discus-
sions about “appropriate technology” transfer generally (see the journals Appropriate
Technology and Rain and Journal of Appropriate Technology). For example, central
to all such discussions are issues concerning the appropriateness of personnel (Ayman
1985; Moghaddam 1996; Moghaddam & Taylor 1986), as well as problems caused
by experts who are parachuted in (typically from western countries) without adequate
preparation enabling them to adapt to local conditions (Maruyama 1974).

3 Sensitivity to Power Inequalities

A second theme underlying the literature, and becoming far more explicit since the
1980s, is the power inequalities that characterize the abilities of nations to influ-
ence psychology and other knowledge domains internationally (Blackler 1983;
Gielen 1994; Moghaddam 1987; Sloan & Montero 1990). The United States has
been described as the only “Psychology Superpower” (Moghaddam 1987), and
Gielen (1994) has shown that North American psychology is exceptionally paro-
chial as compared to other knowledge domains such as linguistics. As a general
rule, North American psychologists only read the publications of other North
Americans (see also Lewicki 1982). American psychology presents the norms of
local middle-class US culture as if they were universal laws of human cognition,
emotion and social interaction.
46 F. M. Moghaddam et al.

In contrast, psychologists from the Second and Third Worlds do tend to read
North American publications, while Third World psychologists tend to read
the publications of the First and Second Worlds. Third World psychologists are
becoming more sensitive to this situation, and some have called for greater efforts
to build indigenous Third World psychologies and in this way to achieve control
over their own national psychology arena (see Adair 1992; Kim & Berry 1993;
Moghaddam 1990, 1998; Sinha & Holtzman 1984).

3.1 Direct Intervention in National Development

A third category of literature calls for direct intervention by psychologists in national

development (see Carr & Schumaker 1996) to help alleviate poverty (Connolly 1985)
and to tackle other important problems in Third World societies. It is probably in
India that psychologists have shown more interest in involvement in national planning
(Sinha 1990). For example, Sinha (ed) has outlined a tradition of social psychological
research in India, designed to contribute to a succession of five-year national plans.
Both supporters and critics agree that the impact of such psychological research has
remained minimal, and it is instructive for us to consider the reasons for this.
An array of possible reasons is mentioned in the literature. For example, psy-
chologists have had little influence on the broader “macro” processes of devel-
opment planning (Ayman 1985). Another criticism is that the historical role of
psychology has been to create underdevelopment and to strengthen the position
of colonial powers (see discussions in Sinha & Holtzman 1984; Sloan & Montero
1990). This may be in part because traditional psychology encourages the imita-
tion of western models of development.
In addition to these considerations, we believe that part of the reason why
psychologists have had minimal influence on national development is the lack of
effective psychological explanations of social change. This may become apparent
when we consider some of the main psychological models.
One of the major contributions in the area of national development was
McClelland and Winter’s Motivating Economic Achievement (1969). It is men-
tioned in nearly all the discussions on the subject of the potential contributions of
psychologists to national development programmes. McClelland and Winter devel-
oped a programme through which they believed they could alter people’s motiva-
tions for achieving economic growth. These programmes took the form of training
sessions for Indian businessmen, and they were aimed at reworking goals, skills
and approaches to work. One can see similarities between this agenda and that of a
rehabilitation programme: both attempts to change the participants’ motivations for
behaviour through external and causal reasoning. After the training sessions, follow-
up studies revealed that nearly all of the participants seemed to “have forgotten their
resolutions and are sliding back into their old ways” (McClelland & Winter 1969).
What made it possible for the participants, despite their good intentions, to revert
to their old behaviours? One likelihood is that the environment to which they returned
influenced them in such a way as to encourage their original patterns of conduct.
3  Psychology and National Development 47

While the model lacked the means to effect a significant change in behaviour, it did
recognize one underlying factor, namely the need for achievement as being a poten-
tial area where change might occur. McClelland and Winter’s isolation and manipula-
tion of this variable provided a new and seemingly logical approach to the study of
change, but unfortunately, the results of this idea in practice only strengthen the case
for viewing change from a normative, rather than a causal perspective.
Triandis (1984) approached the issue of development by considering certain char-
acteristics of societies which either foster or slow change. In particular, Triandis
made use of two dichotomies: predictability versus unpredictability and loose versus
tight societies. Predictable societies are those which have clearly developed norms.
The way a society will react to change, as Triandis suggests, can be foreseen by
observing the norms of that society. Predictability, according to Triandis, leads to sta-
bility, which is needed for economic growth (that is, through investments). However,
perhaps, it is that very stability which acts as a resistance to economic change. For
example, there could hardly be more clearly developed norms than among the camel
herders of Saharan Sudan, but their way of life has been static for a 1,000 years.
Triandis also distinguished between loose and tight societies. Tight societies
are those which encourage strict adherence to norms, which in turn foster social
cohesion. Triandis believed this cohesion to be beneficial for economic growth;
however, tight societies lack the openness necessary to adopt the new methods
proposed by development strategies, which leads to stability rather than change.
Loose societies might lack cohesion, but they tend to be more open to creative and
new strategies for social change.
In addition to these models, other discussions have identified specific areas of
contribution for psychologists in development programmes without questioning
the nature of social change itself. However, they suffer from three weaknesses: (a)
they are trained in causal metaphysics, leading to confusion between causal and nor-
mative explanations of social behaviour; (b) they give high priority to the process
sustaining formal organizations, rather than those involved in maintaining informal
social life; and (c) they assume change is actually being managed in the West (the
source of their original model of development). These weaknesses are well known
but have not been taken sufficiently seriously. The present discussion attempts to
address the nature of change in general and explore its application to national devel-
opment and, in so doing, try to move development programmes a step forward.

4 National Development and Psychology

In the most general term, there are two ways of attempting to understand social
change. One is to try to understand it at the level of the change itself, seeing such
change as following its own rules in relation to various organizational charac-
teristics. This is the level of sociology, political science, economics and so on.
Explanation of this kind can be regarded as structural, with Marxism serving as
the classic example. The other approach involves the level of the individuals who
make up the society or organization and attempting to understand social change
48 F. M. Moghaddam et al.

in terms of change or lack of change in their psychological characteristics. This

second approach necessarily involves two levels of analysis rather than one, that
is, structural and individual factors. It requires that some attempt be made to show
how these two levels interact with each other.
One way of pursuing the second approach has already been discussed in this
article. McClelland and his associates attempted to understand societal processes
in terms of individual motivation, emphasizing the deferential needs that individ-
ual people have for achievement, affiliation and power in different societies and in
the same society at different historical periods.
The point of departure for the social reduction theory (Moghaddam & Harre
1996) approach to national development, the second way in which psychological
factors can be brought into focus, is the insight that change at the “macro” soci-
etal level, involving political and economic transformations, can often come about
much quicker than change at the “micro” level of everyday social behaviour. This
becomes particularly apparent when one considers the outcomes of major politi-
cal revolutions, from those in the past (French Revolution) to the contemporary
(China and Iran). Whereas political and economic institutions can be brought
crashing down overnight (for example, the fall of the emperor and the collapse of
an economic system based on private property in China), the everyday social prac-
tices of people are much more stable, resilient and resistant to change.
From this insight, social reduction theory proposes a solution to the puzzling rela-
tionship between macro- and microprocesses. Social reductions are the elementary,
small-scale social forces by means of which the patterns of everyday life are sus-
tained, such as the ways of greeting and of organizing life in the family and home. We
shall elaborate on this solution in the following pages, but before that, it will be use-
ful to highlight an implication derived from social reduction theory that has consid-
erable applied significance: there are severe limitations to the traditional “top-down”
approach of attempting to achieve national development through manipulations in
economic and political structures just because of the resilience of everyday practices
to change. Those concerned with planning and implementing national development
programmes need to pay more attention to skills involved in everyday social practices.
The third way of trying to make sense of social change through an understand-
ing of individual psychological processes is that which is provided by reversal
theory (Apter 1982, 1989), which we shall now examine. As we shall see, this
approach is compatible with both social reduction theory and the theory of the
McClelland type and may even act as a bridge between them.

5 Reductions and Their Hierarchical Structures

5.1 Actions Performed and Acts Accomplished

To analyze social phenomena adequately, it is necessary to distinguish between the

actions that must be performed to convey certain social meaning and the acts, or
3  Psychology and National Development 49

the meanings so conveyed. Among the types of actions that can be used in social
interactions are speaking, gestures and so on. It is useful to extend the notion of
action to include patterns or sequences of gestures, speaking, etc., and even choice
of costume and the like. Actions are the intended behaviour of social actors. Acts
are what actions mean and, in particular, what they are taken to mean.
To develop that point we need to distinguish between individual actions, for
example the things a person says, from the joint acts accomplished when what that
person says is taken up as having a certain meaning by those to whom a speech or
gesture is addressed. For example, someone may wave to an acquaintance across
the campus, intending the action as a greeting, but it may be taken by the other
person as a summons. Only in the completed interpersonal act does the full social
meaning of an action or pattern of actions comes to be. This is because only thus
is the action significant for the further unfolding of the social relations and events
in which it has a part.

5.2 Correlations of Actions and Acts

At the local level and within one ethnicity and at one time, there may be quite
a strong correlation between type of action performed and act accomplished. For
example, invitations may be extended routinely by the use of the question format,
for example, “Why don’t we take in a movie?” Elsewhere, this correlation may
not be found. Gestures vary widely in the correlation between gesture type and act
conveyed. Notoriously, the forming of a circle with forefinger and thumb has one
meaning in Western Europe and another in the eastern Mediterranean.
The elementary “units” of social interaction, “reductions” have a hierarchical
structure. There are elementary actions, and elementary acts, differently completed
in different societies and even in different institutions within one society. A “dis-
missive” gesture may have one meaning in the classroom and quite another in a
meeting of the faculty called over some contentious issue and so on.

5.3 Change and Resistance to Change

To understand why some reductions are malleable and others are resistant to
change, we need to develop the action/act analysis further. There seem to be two
main reasons why some reductions are resistant to change, which are temporally
invariant. One, when a practice is unattended and habitual, it is resistant to change.
What was initially for an infant a form of behaviour that was inculcated and main-
tained by explicit rule-following or equivalent becomes habitual. It takes on the
outward character of the kind of pattern that has a causal explanation, though it
does not. Habitual wiping of the feet on entering a house can look as much like a
causal sequence triggered by the event of entering as a genuine causal sequence
50 F. M. Moghaddam et al.

such as the eyebrow flash emitted on encountering another human being. When
rule-following has become habitual or pseudo-causal, it is unattended, just some-
thing that happens. It is not even available as a topic for change and especially if it
is confused with genuine causal sequences.
Second, when a practice is biogenic, the running of a genetically programmed,
fixed action pattern, it is also resistant to change. For example, much that has been
redefined as “sexual harassment” may be biogenic, part of the inherited patterns of
interaction between the sexes and human ethology, though these action patterns are
usually heavily overlaid with cultural variations. The matter is complicated in that there
are many examples of action/act pairs in which one is biogenic and the other socio-
genic. Social patterns can be found exemplifying all possible combinations of the bio-
genic and sociogenic. For example, there are biogenic actions used to perform biogenic
acts, for instance frowning to warn. Then, there are sociogenic actions used to perform
biogenic acts, for instance, a victory cavalcade to signify triumph over an adversary or
the sending of a Valentine card, American style that is one that is signed to indicate an
interest in a member of the opposite sex. There are biogenic actions used to perform
sociogenic acts, for example handshaking to settle a bet. Finally, there are sociogenic
actions to perform sociogenic acts, such as signing a contract to get a mortgage.
It is tempting to identify the carrier of a reduction as the biogenic action, so that
in researching the field of persisting practices, one would concentrate on the fixed
action patterns, the ethology of social interaction, such as handshaking and eyebrow
flashing. These, it might be assumed, cannot be changed in less than hundreds of
generations, so the focus for a theory of national development as a theory of social
change ought to be on the local social meanings, the acts, that the ethological reper-
toire can be used to perform. The kiss, an ethological reduction, can be used to greet,
to initiate a sexual encounter, and, in the garden of Gethsemane, to betray.
However, this assumption does not seem to be supported by a casual glance
at the historical record. It is often the sociogenic reductions, be they behavioural
practices or socially meaningful acts, that seem to be found persisting through
macrochanges, be they political or economic or both. For example, the pay-offs
that are so characteristic of Italian life, and even now are seemingly resistant to
majority disapproval, have been a feature of that culture for hundreds of years,
regardless of Garibaldi’s unification, of becoming part of the EU, of notable eco-
nomic advancement and of the efforts of crusading magistrates. This suggests that
the very notions of a “carrier” and what is carried may be an unsuitable pair of
analytic concepts for applying reduction theory to the problem of deep resistance
to change. Since the point about reductions is that they are unmotivated patterns of
social interaction, it is not surprising that they seem to frustrate motivated change.
Carriers are integrated into complex dynamic social practice systems that often
survive fairly intact across generations in the same cultural group. They are “the
way things are done” in a particular domain of social life, for example the prepara-
tion and distribution of food in the family.
Carriers are formalized to different degrees. An example of a highly formal-
ized carrier is the Catholic mass. The mass consists of many different reductions,
integrated in a way that is meaningful, but also dynamic in the sense that the mass
3  Psychology and National Development 51

may change, but the entire body of action/acts itself could still be recognized over
generations. Ballet is another example of a fairly formalized carrier, of all sorts of
conventions and assumptions not only about deportment but also about social role.
An example of a less formalized carrier is the Christmas festival with the
exchange of presents, the formal dinner and so on. Of course, the less formalized
carriers do not have less of an influence on behaviour.
Carriers can be transported to other cultures, but their role and meaning will
change when this happens. For example, the Catholic mass can be transported to
Third World countries and Christmas dinner exported to the Australian summer.
So far, we used the term “carriers” to include reductions at various levels, for
example action reductions and act reductions. Reductions as structured sequences
of action/act patterns raise some further points about the hierarchical charac-
ter of the act/action patterns, of which such carriers as the mass consist. To keep
the terminology unambiguous, we shall use the term “complex carrier” for such
sequences as taking the bread or taking the wine.
There is a further level of complexity in this analysis, in that it frequently happens
that more than one action is needed for complex carriers individuated at a higher
level in the hierarchy by the social force of the performance. For example, the act
of greeting may involve a sequence of actions, including bodily gestures. A wave,
then a handshake, and, at the same time, “Well, how are you doing then”? One act is
accomplished through the medium of a stylized pattern of elementary actions.
Now criteria of identity become problematic. What is it about the mass that,
through all the changes that have occurred, makes it still “the mass”? In this
case, the answer is simple: it consists of the same indispensable arts in the same
sequence; however, much of the actions required to perform them have changed.
Perhaps, we do not know which acts are regarded as indispensable until reduction
change is in the air. It may also be the case that the repertoire of acts regarded as
indispensable may itself change. Though we doubt this is true of the mass, it is
certainly true of the ceremony of marriage in the Christian world.
We are now in a position to define more precisely the task of the psychologist
with respect to the management of social change. If the persistence of reductions
reproduces the old social order, then change in reductions is the necessary condi-
tion for real change, be it developmental or regressive. Reduction theory suggests
that the weak point in a social order is the correlation between actions and acts.
The most stable the social order, the most resistant to change will be one in which
the correlation between actions and their local meanings is so taken for granted
as to seem causally necessary. Obviously, acts and actions which are both bio-
genic are immune from managed change in the time span of a “development” pro-
gramme. Correlated pairs of this character must be tolerated as defining the human
form of life in general. But once we are aware of the difference in aetiology of
causal from habitual patterns of behaviour, and use our research techniques to seek
out the rules from which habits have evolved, we are in a position to change the
reduction conditions which carry a social order from one generation to the next.
While social reduction theory focuses more on stability and social relations, we
now turn to insights from a theory that highlights intra-personal change.
52 F. M. Moghaddam et al.

6 Personal Meanings in Relation to Social Change:

Reversal Theory

To put reversal theory in perspective, we need to make a distinction between

social and personal meaning. When we start to look at social phenomena at the
microlevel, we are dealing with individuals interacting with each other by means
of particular sequences of actions which go to make up acts of various kinds as
described by (Harre & Secord 1972). As these authors point out, such acts have
agreed social meanings, for example, paying a bill, having dinner with the family,
watching television, attending a mass. Some of these meanings are formal and rec-
ognized and even legitimated by higher level authorities and institutions—going to
mass, for example. Others are less formal and less structured, for example, watch-
ing television. But someone in that society watching that act would have little dif-
ficulty describing it in a way that others, including the actor, would agree with.
This kind of social meaning lies at the heart of discursive psychology and also of
reduction theory which is essentially discursive in this sense.
But this is not the whole picture. We also have to look at the personal mean-
ings of the actions and acts for the actors themselves if we are to fully understand
the significance of what is happening, since a given socially defined act can have
many different personal meanings. For example, watching television can be about
immediate enjoyment, sharing something with others, gaining information to use
at work and so on. Only the person who is doing the watching can say which of
these kinds of personal meaning apply in his or her case at a particular time.
This is where reversal theory becomes relevant, because it provides a system-
atic way of examining such personal meaning, arguing that all such meanings
relate to one or another basic psychological motives (or combinations of such
motives). In other words, acts in the sense of discursive psychology not only have
social meanings but personal meanings, and the latter relate to personal motiva-
tion. Putting things in this way emphasizes the manner in which reversal theory
has the potential of linking McClelland’s ideas and those of reduction theory.
What are these basic motives, according to reversal theory? Before listing them,
there are three points to be made. The first is that these are psychological rather
than biological motives. They are to do with mental health rather than physi-
cal health, the personality rather than the body. This does not mean that they are
not innate, but that they are to do with the individual person’s sense of identity,
wellbeing and happiness (the complex relationship between biological and psy-
chological needs will not be pursued further here). The second point is that these
psychological motives, according to reversal theory, come in pairs of opposites. As
one or another, within each pair, takes precedence, a reversal may be said to occur
and hence the name of the theory. One implication is that it is impossible for every
psychological need to be satisfied simultaneously, and indeed, it follows that the
more the need is satisfied over time, the less the opposite need will be. Third, each
need is associated with a state of mind (these states are called, for reasons which
we need not go into here, “metamotivational states”). While the basis of the state
3  Psychology and National Development 53

is a particular kind of psychological motive, it is also characterized by a certain

way of looking at the world (what one might, perhaps, call a “discursive style”)
and a unique range of emotions.
There are four pairs of such states. The first pair is made up of what reversal
theory calls the “telic” and “paratelic” states. The basic motive of the telic state
is to achieve something important, and pleasure comes from a feeling of progress
towards this. Here, ongoing actions are experienced as being important beyond
themselves, and the state can be characterized as serious-minded. In contrast, the
basic motive of the paratelic state is to have a good time, and pleasure comes from
having fun. In this case, the state can be characterized as playful, and the orienta-
tion is towards the present moment and its enjoyment.
The second pair is constituted by the “conformist” and “negativistic” states.
The basic motive of the conformist state is to belong, and rules, conventions and
the like are experienced as supportive and as providing desirable structure. The
basic motive of the negativistic state is, by contrast, that of freedom and inde-
pendence. Here, rules of every kind are experienced as essentially restrictive and
confining.
The third pair consists of the “mastery” and “sympathy” states. The basic
motive of the former is power and control and of the latter is intimacy and care.
The former sees the world in terms of struggle and the latter in terms of coopera-
tion and the desire for harmony.
The fourth pair is made up of the “autic” and the “alloic” states. In the autic
state, the basic motive is attention to the self, and it is what happens to the self
which matters. In the alloic state, the basic motive is to devote oneself to another.
These pairs can be combined in a variety of ways. For example, when the
autic state is combined with the mastery state, the outcome is a need for personal
power. But when it is combined with the sympathy state, the overall need is to be
cared for. When the alloic state is combined with the mastery state, the resulting
need is to help make some “other” (for example, the team one belongs to) strong.
And when it is combined with the sympathy state, it is to care for and look after
another (for example, one’s child).
Each of these pairs may be said to operate in terms of its own “domain of dis-
course”. Thus, the domain of discourse of the telic and paratelic states is that of
means and ends, that of the negativistic and conformist states that of rules, that of
the mastery and sympathy states is that of transactions and that of the autic and
alloic states is that of relationships. Each of these domains makes its own contri-
bution to the overall personal meaning of any given situation which an individual
finds himself in, and at any given time, they together make up the personal mean-
ing space of the individual. This personal meaning in turn interweaves with the
social meaning of the situation. Thus, at a wedding, it is the social meaning of the
acts involved, which constitutes “getting married”, that provide a route to the pos-
sible satisfaction of personal desires (for example, to care for someone and to be
cared for by them).
Now, if we are looking at how cultures differ from each other in terms of the
individual psychological level of society, we need to make reference to such
54 F. M. Moghaddam et al.

personal meaning states as those identified in reversal theory. These should be

manifest in the kinds of reductions in use. There are, in principle, two ways in
which societies and cultures may differ in this respect:
(a) The first is that they express the pursuit of different basic psychological
motives to different extents. For instance, the most cursory acquaintance with
Spanish culture will disclose that it is a culture imbued with an emphasis on
immediate enjoyment and joie de vivre, whereas the German culture is gener-
ally more serious and achievement-oriented. In reversal theory terms, Spanish
culture has a paratelic and German culture a telic bias. Whether it is an innate
tendency in the people who make up a culture which determines this, or
whether it is determined at the individual level by some overall determining
factor in the culture, is difficult to say; perhaps, both are involved.
(b) The second is that of the particular linkage of acts with basic psychological
motives. That is, in different societies, people will tend to pursue given goals
through different acts. This is an obvious point. In the paratelic state, people
in Spain may go to a bullfight, whereas in the same state, people in California
may go surfing. But there are also more general characteristics which seem
to emerge, that is, different generalized acts which go with different motiva-
tional states in different cultures. For example, it would be possible to argue
that French people pursue status (which is one version of the need for mas-
tery) through the look of things—wearing clothes which are chic, displaying
impeccable taste in home furnishings, etc. In contrast, it could be said that
Americans tend to pursue status more through quantity and size of house,
number of cars, etc.
When culture changes, then it may be according to reversal theory change in
any of these ways, or any combination of them. First, it may change in the empha-
sis it places on different basic psychological motives. For example, if we consider
English culture over the centuries, it is possible to discern periods when there
has been a strong paratelic bias in the culture, emphasizing the need for imme-
diate enjoyment and excitement. Such periods would include the Restoration, the
Edwardian era, the Gay Twenties and the Swinging Sixties. These would appear to
contrast with a more normal telic bias in English culture. To give another example,
any country which has undergone a revolution, such as France and Russia dur-
ing their respective revolutions, and China during the cultural revolution, will have
experienced a period during which the negativistic state has dominated. In these
periods of negativism, the need for freedom, and the desire to break away from
old rules and restrictions, becomes paramount. The second kind of change consists
of the kinds of acts which people perform to satisfy their basic motives. Here, we
see a complex picture of changing (and unchanging) habits, customs and skills.
But in a historical perspective, certain trends are obvious. For example, the way
in which people behave in pursuit of both paratelic entertainment and telic pro-
gress has been changed radically by information technology and particularly by
the advent of television and the personal computer; the ends have remained the
same, but the means have been transformed beyond all recognition. Third, changes
3  Psychology and National Development 55

can occur in a society in respect of which basic motives become subservient to

other motives. Thus, when a country goes onto a war footing for some purpose, all
motives become subservient in that country to the mastery motive. Even the para-
telic need for excitement is called into service to this end (Apter 1992).
A culture may also remain the same in any of these three ways, even while one
or both of the others undergo change. In particular, people in a given society may
continue to perform the same acts even though many other kinds of changes are
going on. This of course, as we have seen, is one of the arguments of reduction
theory. This is not at all inconsistent with reversal theory, except that reversal the-
ory would suggest that what tend to remain are not just acts, but links between
certain acts and certain psychological motives. To return to a previous example,
in French culture, dressing with style may be seen as a reduction—and certainly,
it has endured across regimes, republics and historical periods for all except the
peasant classes. Even some of the communist students in the streets of Paris in
1968 wore designer jeans and Gucci shoes (and did not seem to notice any contra-
diction in doing so). But wearing good clothes is not just a motiveless habit; it is
part of a self-conscious desire to maintain a certain standing.

7 Concluding Comment

As a theory of personality, reversal theory is unusual, in that it emphasizes change

rather than stability. As a cultural theory, reduction theory is unusual in that it
emphasizes stability rather than change. We have proposed that the two together
can provide new insights into the stabilities which underlie cultural change and
the changes which contribute to cultural stability. Most importantly, these theories
help to highlight key psychological issues involved in change at micro- and mac-
rolevels and in this way facilitate contributions that psychologists could make to
national development internationally.

References

Adair, J. G. (1992). Empirical studies of indigenization and development of the discipline in

developing countries. In S. Iwawki, Y. Kashima, & S. Leung (Eds.), Innovations in cross-
cultural psychology. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger.
Apter, M. J. (1982). The experience of motivation. London: Academic Press.
Apter, M. J. (1989). Reversal theory: Motivation, emotion, and personality. London: Routledge.
Apter, M. J. (1992). The dangerous edge: The psychology of excitement. New York: Free Press.
Ayman, I. (1985). Academic and professional development of behavioral scientists for and
in developing countries. In R. Diaz-Guerrero (Ed.), Cross-cultural and national studies in
social psychology (pp. 421–429). North Holland: Elsevier Science Publishers.
Bernstein, H. (Ed.) (1973). Underdevelopment and development. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Bezanson, K. A. (1994). Values and the new context of international development. Presentation
at IDRC forum “what roles do values play in sustainable development”, February 8, Ottawa,
Canada.
56 F. M. Moghaddam et al.

Blackler, F. (Ed.). (1983). Social psychology and developing countries. Chichester: Wiley.
Brown, L., Kane, H., & Ayres, E. (1993). Vital signs: The trends that are shaping our future. New
York: W.W. Norton and the Worldwatch Institute.
Carr, S. C., & Schumaker, J. F. (Eds.). (1996). Psychology and the developing world. Westport:
Praeger.
Connolly, K. (1985). Can there be a psychology for the Third World? Bulletin of the British
Psychological Society, 38, 249–257.
David, W. L. (1986). Conflicting paradigms in the economics of developing nations. New York:
Praeger.
Donaldson, P. (1973). Worlds apart. The economic gap between nations. Harmondsworth:
Penguin.
Dube, S. C. (1988). Cultural dimensions of development. International Social Sciences Journal,
40, 505–511.
Gall, P. (1992). What really matters—human development. In C. K. Wilber & K. P. Jameson
(Eds.), The political economy of development and underdevelopment (5th ed., pp. 532–541).
New York: McGraw Hill.
Gielen, U. P. (1994). American mainstream psychology and its relationship to international and
cross-cultural psychology. In A. L. Comunian & U. P. Gielen (Eds.), Advancing psychology
and its applications. International perspectives (pp. 26–40). Milan: Franco Angeli.
Goulet, D., & Wilber, C. K. (1992). The human dilemma of development. In C. K. Wilber & K.
P. Jameson (Eds.), The political economy of development and underdevelopment (5th ed., pp.
469–477). New York: McGraw Hill.
Griffin, K., & Knight, J. (1992). Human development: The case for renewed emphasis. In C. K.
Wilber & K. P. Jameson (Eds.), The political economy of development and underdevelopment
(5th ed., pp. 576–609). New York: McGraw Hill.
Grilli, E., & Salvatore, D. (Eds.). (1994). Economic development. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Hagen, E. E. (1962). On the theory of social change. Homewood: The Dorsey Press.
Haq, K., & Kirdar, U. (Eds.). (1987). Human development, adjustment, and growth. Islamabad:
North South Roundtable.
Harre, R., & Secord, P. (1972). The explanation of social behaviour. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hermarri, E. (1980). The Third World reassessed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hoselitz, B. F. (1960). Sociological aspects of economic growth. New York: Free Press.
International Development Research Centre. (1992). Our common bowl: Global food interde-
pendence. Ottawa: Author.
Kim, U., & Berry, J. W. (1993). Indigenous psychologies: Research and experience in cultural
context. Newbury Park: Sage.
Klineberc, O. (1956). The role of psychologists in international affairs. The Journal of Social
Issues, Supplement Series, No. 9, 1–18.
Lewicki, P. (1982). Social psychology as viewed by its practitioners: Survey of SESP members’
opinions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 3, 409–416.
Lourie, S. (1987). The impact of recession and adjustment on education. In K. Haq & U. Kirdar
(Eds.), Human development, adjustment, and growth (pp. 163–174). Islamabad: North South
Roundtable.
Maruyama, M. (1974). Endogenous research vs. “experts” from outside. Futures, 6, 389–394.
McClelland, D. C., & Winter, D. G. (1969). Motivating economic achievement. Glencoe, II. Free
Press.
Menon, B. P. (1980). Bridges across the South: Technical cooperation among developing coun-
tries. New York: Pergamon Press.
Moghaddam, F. M. (1987). Psychology in the Three Worlds: As reflected in the crisis in
social psychology and the move towards indigenous Third World psychology. American
Psychology, 42, 912–920.
Moghaddam, F. M. (1990). Modulative and generative orientations in psychology: Implications
for psychology in the Third World. Journal of Social Issues, 46, 21–41.
3  Psychology and National Development 57

Moghaddam, F. M. (1996). Training for developing world psychologists. In S. C. Carr & J. F.

Schumaker (Eds.), Psychology and the developing world (pp. 49–59). Westport: Praeger.
Moghaddam, F. M. (1997). The specialized society: The plight of the individual in an age of indi-
vidualism. Westport: Praeger.
Moghaddam, F. M. (1998). Social psychology: Exploring universals across cultures. New York:
Freeman.
Moghaddam, F. M., & Harre, R. (1996). Psychological limits to political revolutions: An appli-
cation of social reduction theory. In E. Hasselberg, L. Martienssen, & F. Radtke (Eds.), Der
Dialogbegriff am Ende des 20Jahrhunderts (The concept of dialogue at the end of the 20th
century). Berlin: Hegel Institute.
Moghaddam, F. M., & Taylor, D. M. (1986). What constitutes an “appropriate” psychology for
the developing world? International Journal of Psychology, 21, 253–267.
Roxborough, J. (1979). Theories of underdevelopment. Atlanta Highlands: Humanities Press.
Schuurman, F. J. (Ed.). (1993). Beyond the impasse: New directions in development theory.
London: Zed Books.
Seers, D., & Joy, L. (Eds.). (1971). Development in a divided world. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Sen, A. (1992). Development: Which way now? In C. K. Wilber & K. P. Jameson (Eds.), The
political economy of development and underdevelopment (5th ed., pp. 5–26). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Sinha, D. (1990). Interventions for development out of poverty. In R. W. Brislin (Ed.), Applied
cross-cultural psychology (pp. 77–97). Newbury Park: Sage.
Sinha, J.B.P. (n.d). Social psychology of planning: An Indian perspective. Division of Philosophy
and Human Sciences, UNESCO, Paris, 13-08141-PSH/32, 375. 444.5.
Sinha, D., & Holtzman, W. H. (1984). The impact of psychology on Third World development.
International Journal of Psychology, 19, 3–192.
Sloan, T. S., & Montero, M. (1990). Psychology for the Third World: A sampler. Journal of
Social Issues, 46, 1–165.
Triandis, H. C. (1984). Towards a psychological theory of economic growth. International
Journal of Psychology, 19, 79–95.
UNDP. (1990). Human development report. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
UNDP. (1993). Human development report. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
UNESCO. (1976). Social sciences in Asia I. Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand
(Reports and papers in the social sciences, No. 32). Paris: Author.
UNESCO. (1977). Social sciences in Asia III. Burma, Mongolia, New Zealand, The Philippines,
Singapore (Reports and papers in the social sciences, No. 35). Paris: Author.
UNESCO. (1980). Social sciences in Asia IV. Australia, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Papua New
Guinea, Sri Lanka (Reports and papers in the social sciences, No. 42). Paris: Author.
van Nieuwenhuijze, C. A. O. (1988). Culture and development: False dilemmas and real issues.
International Social Sciences Journal, 40, 513–523.
Woods, 13. (1984). The role of people: A paradigm for achieving sustainable development in the
rural sector. Unpublished manuscript (Operations Policy Staff, World Bank), October.
Chapter 4
Human Development: Concept and Strategy

Jai B. P. Sinha

1 Overview

The concept of human development has evolved over time. Initially, it was equated
to economic affluence that was measured in terms of per capita gross domestic prod-
uct (GDP). Subsequently, emphasis shifted to capability building for living the life
that human beings value. The capability is indeed built upon an economic base, but
life expectancy at birth and adult literacy rate too play a crucial role. The three taken
together, constituted the Human Development Index (HDI) for comparing countries
and entities within a country. Over time, new components were added, of which ine-
quality in income, education and health was considered to be the most crucial. They
led to develop the Human Development Index adjusted for inequality (IHDI). Human
development was also conceptualized as an individual’s experience in living a sus-
tainable, long and happy life without taking away resources meant for others and for
future generations. This yielded the Happiness Planet Index (HPI). There has been a
further shift that highlights conceptualizing human development at sociocultural and
personal value-based states of wellbeing. The evolving conceptualizations of human
development suggest the need for an inclusive strategy that can promote sustainable
human development encompassing economic, social and psychological wellbeing.

2 Evolving Conceptualization

2.1 Economic Approach

The mainstream economic approach equated human development with economic

growth that was measured in terms of increase in per capita GDP. The underlying

J. B. P. Sinha (*) 
ASSERT Institute of Management Studies, Patna, India
e-mail: sinhajbp@[Link]

R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha (eds.), Psychology, Development and Social Policy in India, 59
DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-1003-0_4, © Springer India 2014
60 J. B. P. Sinha

assumption was that human satisfaction and wellbeing are a direct function of the
consumption of amount and variety of goods and services. It was purely a mate-
rialistic western capitalist worldview that first competed with the socialist world-
view, but led to the unipolar economic worldview, particularly after the collapse
of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s. Creating
demand for material goods and services by manipulating market mechanisms,
thereby accumulating wealth often without scruples, thus allowing an opulent life-
style were the salient features of this approach. The approach has shown to have
many flaws, but still dominates the minds of the majority all over the world, partly
because the material affluence provides an explicit basis for satisfying a range of
needs, influencing others and proving superiority over others.

2.2 Access to Material Resources

Access to material resources, when restricted to the extreme, causes poverty,

which has a devastating impact on people:
Poverty involves much more than the restrictions imposed by lack of income. It also
entails lack of basic capabilities to lead full, creative lives—as when people suffer from
poor health, are excluded from participating in the decisions that affect their communities
or have no right to guide the course of their lives. Such deprivations distinguish human
poverty from income poverty (The Human Development Report 2003, p. 27).

It is this human poverty that, according to Pareek (1970), dehumanizes people, fur-
ther restricts their access to resources, diminishes their self-esteem and retards their
capability to cope with external exigencies causing a sense of helplessness and pow-
erlessness. Sinha (1975) pointed out the negative consequences of poverty for human
development ranging from retarded perceptual skills, through weak self-efficacy and
nutritional deficiency, to social pathology and poor mental health. It is not only eco-
nomic poverty, he argued, but a combination of adverse physical factors, social disad-
vantages, and institutional inadequacy that retards human development (Sinha 1982).

2.3 Poverty Syndrome

This is a fallout of the extreme and pervasive poverty in the minds of even those
who are not so poor (Sinha 2000). It gets into their subconscious causing a constel-
lation of beliefs, values and action orientations detrimental to human development.
Not-so-poor and even relatively affluent people perceive that societal resources such
are money, job, positions and material things are extremely limited while there are
many aspirants vying to grab them. The smartest among them grab disproportion-
ately larger share depriving others from what justifiably should go to them.
This compulsion to grab resources does not end with acquiring what one needs.
One has to keep accumulating, controlling, and protecting them from being usurped
4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 61

by other competitors. The more resources a person acquires, the more he feels tem-
porarily secure and satisfied, but paradoxically soon starts fearing that he might lose
them. Hence, he acquires, hoards and monopolizes and continues doing so till the
very end. In order to acquire more and more, he needs power more than merit or
social norm that can delimit what he deserves. Power helps to acquire even undue
resource which in turn, further enhances power. Thus, power and resources mutu-
ally support each other to the extent that people start believing that they cannot have
one without the other. So, power, like resources, has to be continuously enhanced in
order to keep it effective and immune from being eroded. Power, like resources, has
to be conspicuous in order to maintain an increasingly larger gap from the less pow-
erful persons who have to live with the leftovers of the resources. In other words,
fewer and fewer individuals have the larger share of scarce resources.

2.4 Too Much Wealth

Too much wealth possessed by a few does not help people realize a higher level of
quality of life. The more one accumulates, the more conspicuously one spends on
showing off by proving one’s superiority and to cover up a sense of insecurity.
Such consumption-oriented lifestyle neither remains healthy nor does it promote
longer life or ensure greater happiness. The opulent lifestyle is associated with a
variety of mental and physical health problems (Kasser 2002). Studies from many
different nations, involving preschoolers to the elderly and both males and
females, show that when people of different income levels place high premium on
financial wealth and material goods, this is associated with higher levels of anxi-
ety, depression and low life satisfaction. Individuals with a strong, materialistic
orientation are more likely to engage in antisocial behaviour, have personality dis-
orders and experience difficulties in intimate relationships.1 Those trapped in han-
kering for materialistic values have also detracted themselves from other people.
They become less sensitive to the needs and feelings of others which in turn dam-
ages interpersonal relationships. Consequently, less empathy and intimacy are
experienced, adversely affecting others, including their own children.

2.5 Relative Deprivation

Those who are engaged in getting ahead of others by acquiring more suffer from rela-
tive deprivation as well. It is natural that economically disadvantaged persons compare
themselves with advantaged ones and suffer from relative deprivation (Sinha 1982),
which affects their development. Interestingly, however, all of those competing for
material gains find to their dismay that there are always persons ahead of them. Human

1  [Link]

[Link] on August 25, 2011.

62 J. B. P. Sinha

beings have an in-built need to compare with others (Festinger 1954). High-acquiring
persons tend to compare with those who are ahead of them, causing dissatisfaction with
what they have, which, in turn, puts pressure on them to keep acquiring. Studies (Sinha
1968; Sinha & Pandey 1970) have shown that such people acquire, hoard and monopo-
lize resources that they might not need, thereby depriving others’ access to resources.

2.6 Economic Disparity

The race for acquiring more results in fewer people acquiring more. This leads to
greater economic disparity in the society. It is noteworthy that the gains of economic
growth do not spread evenly either at global, national or subnational levels. As a
country develops economically, the disparity between the poor and the rich generally
increases. According to the Human Development Report (2002), the world’s richest
1 % of people have 57 % more income as 1 % of the poorest. The income of the
world’s richest 5 % is 114 times that of the poorest 5 %. A more recent report shows
that this gap is even wider because inequality estimates do not take into considera-
tion the offshore wealth of the rich (Shaxson et al. 2012). The bottom half of the
world’s population owns roughly 1 % of the world’s wealth compared to 84 % held
by the top 10 %. Year after year, the HDR reports have pointed out that member
countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
have increased their income… but most have seen rising income inequality most
consistently and dramatically in the UK and the USA. In the USA, for example,
according to a New York Times report (October 10, 2012), income inequality had
risen to the highest level after the great depression with the top 1 % earners making
93 % of income gains. OECD countries show similar trends except in the case of
Greece, Ireland and Turkey (OECD 2011). The case of China is a little different.
While there was steady rise in inequality with the Gini coefficient rising from 30 %
in the 1980s to about 45 % in 2005, and 51.1 % in 2011, the real income of people
in the lowest quintile also rose, according to a World Bank report (2012). India in
comparison to China reported a Gini coefficient of 39.9 relative to 36.8 in 2005
(Euromonitor International 2012). In the 10 years of liberalization (1992–1993 to
2001–2002) of the Indian economy, the climbers (income range Rs. 22,000–45,000
per annum) and the consuming class (income range Rs. 45,000–215,000 per annum)
had doubled themselves while the size of the very rich class (income above Rs.
215,000 per annum) increased by about four times (National Council of Applied
Economic Research Survey quoted in Business Today, January 20, 2002, p. 177). In
the course of 2010–2012, the number of Indian billionaires (in terms of US $) has
almost doubled from 27 to 48. According to one estimate, 0.00001 % super rich of
India’s population now account for around 25 % of its trillion-dollar GDP.2 The
media is replete with stories of displays of their money power. For example, of two

2  [Link]
retrieved on August 25, 2011.
4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 63

billionaire brothers, one presented a yacht worth US$84million to his wife on her
birthday; another presented an Airbus 319 worth US$59million on his wife’s birth-
day, and then built a 27-storey sky palace at the estimated cost of US$1billion for
their family of four; the son of a billionaire casually gifted a handbag of Rs. 2.5 mil-
lion to his girlfriend in addition to similarly priced assorted items that he casually
gifted to her; and two top executives of an industrial development bank get over Rs.
60 million salary annually, besides perks. All this in a country where about 300 mil-
lion people survive on Rs. 20 a day! Noam Chomsky was cited commenting during
his visit to India in 1996, “The lifestyle of the Indian elite is amazing. I have never
seen such opulence even in America” (Varma 1999, p. 176).
A similar trend of disparity is observed among the major states of India
(Appendix Table 1). The growth rate in per capita GDP of India increased from the
1980s to the 1990s. But the increase was uneven for the major states. The five major
states (Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu) having the highest
per capita income reported increase in the growth rate of the state domestic product
(SDP); while in the lowest per capita income states [Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh
(UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Orissa], the rate of economic growth in the 1990s
in fact decreased from that of the 1980s. There were only two exceptions—Punjab,
where the growth rate decreased and MP, where it marginally increased.
Thus, equating human development with economic affluence is flawed reason-
ing since it discounts factors such as disparity among individuals and collectives,
absolute and relative deprivation, insecurity and anxiety in the minds of even those
who are affluent, and their lack of sensitivity to others.

3 Capability Building

GDP, despite its vital role in providing tax revenues to the government and goods
and services to the people that might give them a sense of material wellbeing,
cannot be equated to human development. The United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) defined human development thus:
Human development is about people, about expanding their choices to lead lives they
value…. Fundamental to enlarging human choice is building human capabilities; the
range of things that people can do or be. The most basic capabilities for human develop-
ment are leading a long and healthy life, being educated, having access to the resources
needed for a decent standard of living and being able to participate in the life of one’s
community (The Human Development Report 2002, p. 13; italics added).

4 Human Development Index

The basic capabilities were first operationalized in 1990 in terms of life expec-
tancy at birth, adult literacy rate and per capita GDP that were combined to develop
the HDI for ranking countries. The founder of the Human Development Reports,
64 J. B. P. Sinha

Mahbub ul Haq, mentioned a number of other components such as greater access

to knowledge, better nutrition and health services, more secure livelihoods, security
against crime and physical violence and satisfying leisure hours. Later, the capa-
bility to enjoy political and civil freedoms to participate in the life of the commu-
nity was added. Human development was considered to be based on three essential
conditions: environmental sustainability, equality particularly gender equality, and
enabling global economic environment by strengthening the partnership between
the developed and developing countries (The Human Development Report 2003, p.
28). However, for a while, HDI remained a composite of the GDP per capita, life
expectancy at birth and adult literacy rate. India has slowly improved its HDI from
0.407 in 1975 to 0.519 in the year 2010, but still stands at the 119th position out
of 169 countries (The Human Development Report 2003, 2010). According to The
Human Development Report (2010), India has just improved one rank between 2005
and 2010, though India was among the top 10 performers globally in terms of HDI
measured on income growth. There has been an obvious discrepancy between the
economic growth and improvement in India’s human development position.

5 Human Development Index Adjusted for Inequality

The United Nations General Assembly set in the year 2000 eight millen-
nium goals that were considered to promote human development globally (The
Human Development Report 2002, p. 17). They were to eradicate extreme pov-
erty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality
and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat
HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and
develop a global partnership for development. Except the last two, all other goals
pertained to income, education and health, which were considered to play a pivotal
role in human development.
However, the aggregate measures of the indices were found to be misleading
as they cover up inequalities within a nation or collectives. Further, the way the
indices of income, education and health were added allowed the deficiency in one
area to be compensated by the progress in another. Similarly, adult literacy and life
expectancy at birth were found to be inadequate in reflecting the essence of human
development. Hence, The Human Development Report (2010) made a number of
modifications in the measures and the way they were summated.
More specifically, the GDP per capita was replaced by gross national income
(GNI) per capita as a measure of the standard of living on the ground that differ-
ences between them are often large in a globalized world. Income may have many
sources and may not match with the domestic production. Many, for example,
receive international remittances or remit or spend their income abroad. Similarly,
adult literacy was considered to be inadequate and was replaced by mean years of
schooling and enrolment. Life expectancy was replaced with access to health care
facilities. Modifications were also made in the way the indices were summated to
4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 65

derive the IHDI, which was now based on the geometric mean of the three indices.
Poor performance in any measure was now, instead of being substituted by others,
directly reflected in the IHDI. This captured a realistic position of a country across
the three dimensions. The IHDI also recognized health, education and income also
to be important and must be taken into account separately as well as aggregately to
get a better understanding of the state of human development in a country or col-
lectives within a country. As a result, The Human Development Report (2010) pro-
vided the IHDI within a country along with HDI, which allowed across countries’
comparison. The difference between the two revealed the loss in human develop-
ment as a result of the magnitude of inequality.
Figure 1 displays a comparative picture of India, China and the USA. The USA
not only had the highest Human Development Index (HDI = 0.902), but also the
lowest percentage of loss (11.40 %) due to inequality in per capita GNI, schooling
and health facilities. India stood third (HDI = 0.519) next to China (HDI = 0.663)
and also suffered the highest percentage of loss in its HDI (29.6 %), which was
lower than that of China (23.0 %).
India’s loss in the HDI was much more due to inequality in education (43 %)
than in health (34 %) than in income (16 %). As reported earlier, India has been
doing rather well in increasing its purchasing power parity (PPP) claiming fourth
rank in the world, next only to the USA, China and Japan (The World Bank 2011),
but still restrained to the category of medium-developed HDI countries, and in fact
fell into the low-developed IHDI ones (The Human Development Report 2010).
A recent attempt to profile Indian states in terms of the HDI and IHDI roughly
matched the national profile (Suryanarayana et al. 2011). Kerala topped (0.625)

1 35
0.9 HDI
30
0.8 LOSS IHDI

0.7 25
HDI LOSS
0.6
Indices

20
Loss

0.5 HDI IHDI

15
0.4
IHDI
0.3 LOSS 10
0.2
5
0.1
0 0
India China USA
Countries
HDI IHDI LOSS

Fig.  1  Human Development Indices. Note Human Development Index HDI, Human
Development Index adjusted for Inequality IHDI, Loss is percentage difference between HDI and
IHDI. Source Human Development Report (2010)
66 J. B. P. Sinha

followed by Punjab (0.569), whereas Orissa (0.442) and Bihar (0.447) were at the
bottom of the HDI. The most developed Kerala and Punjab suffered less loss in the
HDI (16.78 and 28.04 %, respectively) than Orissa (33.11 %) and Bihar (32.06 %)—
the losses which were the highest among the 19 major states. The average loss in the
HDI due to inequality in income was highest for Maharashtra (19 %) followed by
Tamil Nadu (17 %) but lowest for Bihar and Assam (9 %). Loss due to inequality
in education was the highest in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand (46 %) and
lowest in Kerala (23 %) and Assam (34 %). The loss due to inequality in health was
the highest in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh (43 %) and the lowest in Kerala
(11 %). In other words, Kerala, which was the best on the HDI, was the one that
also was able to reduce inequalities in income, education and health. Other states
had varying degrees of inequalities probably due to differential interventions in the
areas of health and education (Appendix Table 2).
Indices of human development apart, inequality is endemic in Indian life-
style. Income inequality is abominable; but inequalities in health and education
are not less appalling. World class heath care facilities are available, but only in
a selected few metropolis. The rest of the cities and towns, and more miserable
rural areas are left to poorly trained doctors, quacks and faith healers. Some of
the higher educational institutions are of reasonably high standard, but the rest of
them are either hardly functioning or are left to the educational entrepreneurs who
are like sharks in extracting the maximum not only from the neo rich but also from
the marginal middle class which bleeds to see their children share the “shining”
India’s future. Education, which is considered to be the most effective instrument
for development, has not always been found to deserve the adoration. Recent find-
ings of a survey in the villages of UP (Tripathi 2011) exploded the myth of educa-
tion as the most potent driver of human development as the levels of education
were associated with the increasing gap in the gender ratio, levels of infant mor-
tality rate for girls, decline in interpersonal contacts, loss in social cohesiveness,
prevalence in polyandry, “purdah” and fewer participation in gram panchayat. In
fact, and contrary to the expectations, educational levels were unrelated to villag-
ers’ happiness and wellbeing.
To conclude, it can be said that income, education and health indeed are essen-
tial ingredients of the capability to live the life that people want, though, in condi-
tions of gross inequality, people tend to want what might be detrimental to others’
as well as their own development. Income, health and education may be necessary,
but not sufficient for human development.

6 Human Happiness

A universally held assumption is that people want mostly happiness. Happiness

for a moment or a short period is not enough. They want it for an extended period.
The longer and healthier their life full of happiness, the greater will be their sense
of wellbeing, and hence development. Further, the happiness has to be experienced
4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 67

collectively, by not infringing upon the opportunity of others’ happiness or the

happiness of future generations. Hence, people’s search for happiness should not
lead them to overexploit resources and degrade the natural environment, which are
common heritage to all human beings. Resources have to be utilized judiciously
to maximize the totality of happiness of the world, the nation and the collectives
within a nation.

7 Happy Planet Index

The New Economics Foundation, a British think-tank, developed the HPI in July
2006 for cross-cultural comparisons. The HPI is a measure of the environmental
efficiency of supporting people’s happiness as an indicator of their wellbeing in
a given country. Computation of HPI is a little complicated, but, in a simplified
form, the HPI is the product of life satisfaction multiplied by life expectancy and
divided by ecological footprint. Ecological footprint is measured in terms of the
natural resources exploited, the carbon emission, etc., by a country causing per-
manent damage to the planet earth, and thereby impacting the happiness of other
people and the people of future generations.
A comparative profile of the GDP per capita, HDI and HPI of India, China, Japan
and the USA was given in Fig. 2. It was interesting to note that the USA topped the
list in the GDP, but had the lowest happiness level. India had the lowest GDP per
capita and HDI, but much higher happiness score than the USA, better than Japan,
and only next to China, which had the second lowest GDP and HDI, but the highest
score of happiness. Obviously, GDP per capita plays a vital role in affecting the HDI
but not the happiness of people. The average income of an American in 50 years

60 1
HPI HPI HDI 0.9
50 HDI
0.8
GDP GDP
HPI 0.7
GDP & HPI

40
HDI 0.6
HDI

30 HDI HPI 0.5

0.4
20 0.3
10 0.2
GDP 0.1
GDP
0 0
India China Japan USA
Countries
GDP HPI HDI

Fig. 2  GDP, HDI and HPI. Note Gross Domestic Product GDP per capita (US $). Human
Development Index HDI. Happiness Planet Index HPI. Source The World Bank (2011), Human
Development Report (2010) [Link]
68 J. B. P. Sinha

(1955–2005) has more than doubled, but the percentage of the very happy people
remained below 40. Similarly, the fivefold increases in GDP in Japan over the twen-
tieth century did not increase in Japanese personal happiness (Myers 2000). There
are instances of people in the West suffering from a sense of insecurity, loneliness,
depression, high divorce rates and so on (Bellah et al. 1985; Cobb 1976; Naroll
1983). Bhutan is another exemplary case. In the year 2009, Bhutan was quite low on
the GDP, but reported the highest score (58.50) on the HPI compared to China
(57.50), India (53.00), Japan (43.30) and the USA (30.70).3
So it can be said that the concept of ecologically supporting happiness adds to
our understanding of human development that was previously based on income,
education and health. Ecological sustainability is well taken for lasting happiness,
but the source of human happiness is still left unexplored. Happiness is a cultural
construction. It means satisfaction in enjoying material comforts and luxuries in
the West but that is not considered to be the real measure of happiness in the spir-
itually oriented collectivist culture of India.

8 Psycho-Social Approach

There has been an improvement in the conceptualization of human development as it

shifted from economic affluence, through the capability to live a life that people value,
to their ecologically efficient sustainable happiness. All of them claimed to view human
development as people’s wellbeing and attempted to tap it through the measures that
were believed to be universally valid so that the countries can be compared meaning-
fully. The measures were indeed comparable, but not the meanings attached to the
constructs of wellbeing, values, or life satisfaction of people across cultures. Hence,
a doubt is raised about the adequacy of the measures in doing full justice to the con-
cept of human development. Further, they reflected what Rist and Sabelli (1986) called
western “developers” perspective that may not gel fully with the indigenous character-
istics of non-western countries. As back as the early 1980s, the UNESCO sponsored a
project that advocated for a culture-specific endogenous human development:
Endogenous development meant development that corresponds to the internal character-
istics of the society in question, that takes account of its specific features and its integra-
tive qualities. When a country develops endogenously, its way of life should be based on
respect for its traditional values, for the authenticity of its culture, and for the creative
aptitudes of its people (Alechina 1982, p. 19).

The concept of endogenous development is based on the premise that human behav-
iour, including those reflective of their levels of development, is determined to a large
extent by their cultural conditions and experiences. No doubt, there are indeed a set
of universal capacities of human beings that are neuro-biologically determined; but
they turn into capabilities only when tempered by a culture (Berry 2010). Freedom

3  [Link] on August 26, 2011.

4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 69

to choose a lifestyle, pursue what people value, experience of being deprived, life
­satisfaction, happiness and wellbeing may mean different things in different cultures.
If that is so, the discourse of human development needs to be contextualized in, apart
from ecological and economic reality, the cultural frame and the mindset of the people.

Box 1. Development in the West and the East

We have over a century been dragged by the prosperous West behind its chariot,
choked by the dust, deafened by the noise, humbled by our own helplessness
and overwhelmed by the speed. We agreed to acknowledge that this chariot-
drive was progress, and the progress was civilization. If we ever ventured to
ask, “progress towards what, and progress for whom”, it was considered to be
peculiarly and ridiculously oriental to entertain such ideas about the absolute-
ness of progress, Of late, a voice has come to us to take count not only of the
scientific perfection of the chariot but the depth of the ditches lying in its path
(Rabindranath Tagore, quoted in Human Development Report 1996, p. 45).

8.1 Indian Values

Indian culture, for example, is characterized by the paradox of collectivism with a

built-in individualistic orientations, spirituality that rises from materialistic indul-
gence, hierarchical orientation that recognizes exemplary merit and qualities, har-
mony that is vulnerable to frequent violence at even modest provocation, excessive
dependency that quickly transforms into competitive entrepreneurship as soon as an
opportunity arises, emotionality that blends with calculative orientation, hair-splitting
analytical mindset that seamlessly turns synthetic and intuitive and so on (Sinha in
press). Given such a cultural context of diversity, human development has to assume
corresponding contours of complexity that is likely to be somewhat different from
the western linear view of development. Tripathi (1988), for example, proposed to
align human development to the values of embeddedness and openness. Collectivist
Indians relish being embedded in their collectives so that they have a mutually sup-
portive, meaningful and gratifying social network and yet be open to others’ views
and new ideas that are floating around in a culture of diversity. Only such a seemingly
inconsistent but internally unifying approach can realize human potentials in India.

8.2 Western Values

In contrast, the people in the individualist culture of the West want to develop as
autonomous individuals who want to realize three core interrelated values: Success,
freedom, and justice (Bellah et al. 1985, p. 142). For Americans, for example,
70 J. B. P. Sinha

success means climbing the corporate ladder, making lots of money and owning
material objects of satisfaction. Freedom means “being left alone by others, not hav-
ing other people’s values, ideas, or styles of life forced upon, being free of arbitrary
authority at work, family, and political life” (p. 23). Justice means equity in social
transactions, that is, one must get what one pays for. Society is like a market place
where individuals are entitled to exchange success and freedom with the goods and
services that assure both distributive and procedural justice. People value getting a
fair amount of freedom and success by engaging in social transactions that too are
expected to be fair and transparent. Following such values, Triandis (1982) delin-
eated the following elements of human development: openness to new experience,
independence from parental authority, concern for time and planning, willingness
to defer gratification, mastery over nature, determination, cosmopolitan perspective,
having enlarged in-group and striving for excellence.
Some of these characteristics are obviously detrimental to human develop-
ment in the Indian perspective. For example, independence from parental author-
ity might signify the value of freedom but negates the value of embeddedness
and social integration; mastery over nature allows over exploitation of natural
resources but increases ecological footprint and hence sustainability of human
wellbeing, striving for excellence of individuals accentuates inequality that dents
human development.

8.3 Agentic Capabilities

Striving for individual’s excellence is indeed the core of agentic capabilities that
are crucial for human capabilities for whatever people want to achieve. Agentic
capabilities in the West, however, follow the cultural imperatives and gener-
ate highly competitive behaviour where individuals strive to be on their own and
achieve success by their own efforts without concern for others. Agentic capa-
bilities manifest in self-reflective, self-organizing and self-regulative mechanisms
(Bandura 1997) that human being employ enabling them to improve the conditions
in which they live and to create new opportunities for further development.
We all have the potential to cultivate agentic capabilities. Further, whoever, the
poor or the rich, the privileged or the deprived, the people of developing or devel-
oped countries, are engaged in the process of cultivating agentic capabilities to solve
problems, live quality of life, and transcend limitations, will improve their levels of
development. The major difference lies in whether people cultivate it individually (as
they do in the West) or collectively as advocated by Indian scholars (Mehta 1987;
Sinha 1968; Tripathi 1988). The developed countries, because of their thin popula-
tion density, sound infrastructure, efficient work organizations and the protestant
ethic, provide a favourable condition for individuals to enhance their agentic capabil-
ities with very little dependence on other individuals, groups or agencies or govern-
ment. There exists a strong value of self-reliance and sorting out problems on one’s
own. Seeking help or support in fact is taken for one’s weakness.
4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 71

Not only are Indian values different from western values, but, opportunity
structure for Indians is also vastly discriminating the poor, the backward, the
low castes and variously challenged persons and groups. There are systemic bar-
riers to growth. Pervasive corruption, caste compulsions, rise of fundamentalism
and many others drain people’s energy and prevent its use for development. The
rich and privileged in India do shine as high achievers and successful in various
domains but they also accentuate inequalities, which, as stated earlier, are appall-
ing. The mass of Indians are left out being so deprived of and feeling so helpless
that they do not think of even making efforts for a change. They surrender to their
destiny. Agentic capabilities need to be kick-started in such conditions by planned
efforts of the State, international cooperation and grassroot agency.

8.4 Communitarian Agentic Capabilities

Agentic capabilities that are to be initiated have to be communitarian in nature.

Indians value “affective reciprocity” and “mutual caring” of others (Roland 1988).
People are emotionally connected to each other. Lapierre (1986) contended “Every
individual in India is always linked to the rest of the social body by a network of
incredibly diversified ties, with the result that no one in this gigantic country of seven
hundred and fifty million [now above one billion] inhabitants could ever be com-
pletely abandoned” (p. 56). “Indians seem to emphasize protection and caring [of
those below in hierarchy] in their social (and political) relations” (Kakar 1982, p. 272).
Achievement for Indians ideally means being good persons, thinking about the
wellbeing of in-group members, fulfilling their duties to friends and the family,
helping them, and being able to get affection and blessing from elders (Agarwal
& Misra 1989; Misra & Agarwal 1985). The scarcity of resources and weak infra-
structural facilities render Indians interdependent. Together, they can cope with
external exigencies more effectively and can help each other grow. It is not the
strong need for individual achievement, but a strong need for either social achieve-
ment (Mehta 1987) or cooperation (Sinha 1968) that can help people maximize
their collective gains.

8.5 Spirituality and Materialism

Indians’ communitarian values are inextricably blended with the core of their
spirituality, although the upper end of spirituality is a highly personalized in
nature. Spirituality, according to Kanungo and Mendonca (1996, p. 97), consists
of the profound consciousness of the eternal values of truth, goodness and beauty
(satyam, shivam, and sudaram), emotionally entrenched faith in these values, and
altruistic behaviour to keep others’ interest and concerns over one’s own inter-
est and concerns even at one’s personal risk and self-sacrifices. Roland (1988)
72 J. B. P. Sinha

believed that “the fundamental goal of all relationships and living [of Indians] is
the gradual self-transformation toward inner and subtle qualities and the refined
aspects of power in the quest for self-realization” (p. 294). Further, Roland con-
tended that spirituality is so deeply engraved in the Indian psyche; “it is virtually
impossible to comprehend Indian psychological make-up, society, and culture”
(p. 289) without taking into account of Indian’s striving for spiritual development.

Box 2. A Human Development Perspective

Individual’s growth and development comes about not when the individual
seeks his or her own interests, but rather when the individual strives, even
at a great pain, risk or inconvenience to the individual, to seek the good of
the other—whether that other be a friend or foe or stranger (Kanungo &
Mendonca 1996, p. 125).

There is a growing literature (Bhawuk 1999; Chakraborty 1987, 1993; Sharma

2007, among others) documenting the importance of seeking spiritual transforma-
tion and showing the effectiveness of the techniques of yoga, meditation, control
of breathing and stilling of turbulent mind. The techniques have the potential to
enable people to rise from animalistic impulses, through humanistic values and
spirituality, to a harmonious relationship with nature (OSHA model of Sharma
2007). They can develop an attitude of niskam-karm, cultivate sattva guna (purity
in thought and action) and adopt a drashtaa bhava (an observer’s stance) that
enable them to discharge their worldly duties in a detached spirit (Pande & Naidu
1992; Sinha 2003). Sthitpragya (totally composed) is the ultimate form of human
development that is ideal and at best can be approximated rather than realized.
Indian spirituality does not deny the presence of materialism in the mindset.
People need money and material resources to meet their basic need and to have a
reasonably decent life. We all have animal impulses and it is natural for us to seek
sensuous pleasure. There is nothing wrong about it. However, there is a deeply
ingrained cultural belief that by living a fully sensuous life, a person would get
disenchanted, and should aspire to refine his human qualities, relate with others
pro-socially, and connect with humanity at large. The underlying belief is that
lasting satisfaction in life emanates not from earthly pleasures but from contain-
ing one’s needs and rising on the spiritual level. The ideal Indian values, contrary
to the western, are humility, austerity, contentment and peace of mind that come
from inner self-transformation, and not from possession of wealth and material
things. Even in the West, questions are now raised about the validity of unlimited
linear material progress, disregarding austerity (Watkins & Shulman 2008).
The culture-specific endogenous human development in India has to be concep-
tualized in terms of the cultural values of embeddedness coexisting with openness
to diverse possibilities and influences, cultivating communitarian capabilities and
4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 73

accepting the reality of material needs, but aspiring to transcend them in order to
live a spiritual life of contentment and care and consideration for others.

9 Intervention Strategy

Intervention strategy for promoting human development in India has to be inclu-

sive with the aim to (a) create a sound economic base that enables people to meet
their basic needs and live a reasonably decent life, (b) build economic, social,
educational, religious and political institutions to provide enabling milieu to the
people for communitarian capabilities and (c) cultivate culture-specific values,
attitudes and practices that are functional for promoting human development.
Sinha (1982) has contended that human development is the result of a very com-
plicated interaction of a number of variables such as economic, social and psycho-
logical that have to be examined in an ecological framework incorporating a range
of micro-psychological process of acquiring perceptual skills during the childhood
to the general modernization of social structure, institutions, families, attitudes and
value systems—in fact, a large-scale programme of social change and transforma-
tion for entire society (Sinha 1984, p. 19). Some of the ways of interventions that
have been or can be tried out are the following:

9.1 Economic Inputs and Relief

9.1.1 Change Agents

Initially, the Government of India assumed full responsibility for addressing all
problems of development. It created at central-, state-, district- and block-level
organizations designed for planning and implementing development schemes.
However, the failure of some of its prestigious schemes such as the one directed
at the community development (Mehta 1957) and limited success of many oth-
ers made it realize that the bureaucratic nature of the government organizations
rendered them handicapped in effectively implementing the schemes. The govern-
ment officers remained distant, impersonal, rules and procedures bound, insensi-
tive towards the needs of (particularly poor) people, elitist, power oriented and in
fact politicized (Mehta 1989). Consequently, the government slowly moved to get
non-government organizations (NGOs) involved in the process of development.
The Sixth Five-Year Plan (1980–1981 to 1984–1985) allowed NGOs to supple-
ment government efforts for providing distress relief and social services to dis-
advantaged groups such as women, scheduled castes and tribes. By the Eighth
Five-Year-Plan period, the government realized the potential of NGOs to go
beyond providing distress relief and “make tremendous contributions in bring-
ing about people’s participation both in financial terms and through beneficiary
74 J. B. P. Sinha

support” (The Eighth Five Years Plan 1992–1993 to 1996–1997, p. 39). They
were called upon to get involved in almost all development-related activities.
Simultaneously, the government also invited or attracted international organiza-
tions such as UNICEF, Oxfam, UNDP, World Bank, WHO and others to extend,
through bi-lateral agreements, a helping hand in development efforts. Now the
public–private partnership is called upon in most of the areas of development.
Even smaller international agencies are allowed to approach NGOs directly to
share development-related responsibilities.

9.1.2 Design for Development

While the strategy of the government to address to development challenges evolved

from being solely responsible to seeking partnership with varied development agen-
cies, the design for developing people has not changed radically. It remains largely
externally determined and supply driven. All development agencies—governmental,
non-governmental, private sector and international—most often tend to offer mate-
rial assistance and relief to people, trying particularly to reach out the poorest of the
poor. The approach is to identify the targeted poor, estimate the cost of giving help
and deliver the help in an efficient way, mostly in the areas of health, education,
environment and poverty alleviation, as per the millennium goals of the UNO.
Although they all employ the rhetoric of instilling self-reliance, people’s par-
ticipation, capability building, sustainable development and so on, their concerns
remain how to allocate more and more resources and deliver them efficiently to
the needy. The volume of investment, not necessarily the impact that the invest-
ment has created on either improving conditions for development or building
recipients’ capabilities, has been the basis for estimating the extent of their suc-
cess. The underlying assumptions are that once (a) resources are allocated, (b)
required services and products are provided and (c) regulatory and monitoring
mechanisms are put in place, the people will automatically become developed.
It does not so happen always. Contrary to their understanding, dumping
resources without requiring the people to make efforts to develop their capabilities
inculcates excessive dependency in them (Sinha 1992). People attribute a moral
responsibility to development agencies to keep them providing the goods and ser-
vices, the magnitude of which depends on how miserable they are or present them-
selves, but not necessarily on how much efforts they are making on their own. As
a result, the people fail to acquire agenetic capabilities. The only skills that they
cultivate are how to display off their miseries in magnified forms in order to create
a pressing sense of moral imperative for the agencies to bestow maximum benefits
on them. Such a skill obviously is self-defeating in long run. As soon as the inflow
of resources dries up people reverse back to even worse conditions. There are also
reports that foreign aid has detrimental effects in other developing counties, for
example, African people became accustomed to the aid, and lost their cultural
identities, motivation and sense of common purpose rendering them depend-
ent, corrupt, and even poorer (Maathai 2009; Moyo 2009). Similarly, foreign aid
trapped Mexicans into a self-abnegating process (Diaz-Guerrero 2000).
4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 75

At times it may be indispensable to give distress relief, allot protective quota

in allocation of jobs and access to education and health facilities, reserve avenues
of opportunities for the deprived sections of population and subsidize the costs of
essential goods and services that are primarily meant for those who cannot afford
to procure them at market rates. To continue indulging in them helps neither the
recipients nor the change agents. Initial help may be useful as a kick-start to the
helpless and weak to take initiative, but must soon shift to stimulating self-help
and building their capabilities. Long back, Sinha (1984) highlighted the need to
shift from dumping resources to preparing the needy to avail of the opportunities:
It is tacitly assumed that given equal opportunity, financial incentives, and resources, all
persons and communities will respond similarly in their productive efforts and economic
achievement. The fact of the matter is that it does not happen that way. Further, Change in
economic and political environment must first provide opportunity, if the individual is to
change and benefit from it. But the ability to exploit the opportunity is determined by the
cognitive and motivational characteristics of the individual (p. 21).

10 Use of Psychological Knowledge

Knowledge from psychology can be fruitfully utilized to shape their cognitive and
motivational structures in order to enable them to have the capabilities to avail of
opportunities (Kagitcibasi 2002). Psychologists till recently have conducted evalu-
ative studies on the impact of development schemes, showed ways and means to
smooth the impact or to facilitate the implementation of schemes and made interven-
tions for making micro-level improvements in the areas of health, education, skills
acquisitions and wellbeing of people. There are other areas that have supportive—
positive or negative—relevance to development. They are, for example, religious
and caste prejudice and discrimination, social conflicts, cultural contacts, interper-
sonal and intergroup tolerance, national identity, communication, social stratifica-
tion, national cohesion where psychological concepts, methods of interventions and
training skills can be effectively utilized (Berry 1984, p. 1). Kagitcibasi (2002) fur-
ther identified the relevance of psychology to the domains such as early childhood
education and health, role of family in empowering and training of mothers, and
improving the quality of social, cultural and economic life of people. The descrip-
tion of the psychosocial approach to development in the preceding section suggests
that psychology can now participate with other social sciences in conceptualizing the
upper ends of human development that goes far beyond human achievement equity
in income, health, education and political empowerment.

10.1 Institutional Frame

Psychological knowledge can be best utilized in the institutional frame. People

live and function mostly through organizations and institutions. In the family,
they acquire values, norms, beliefs and practices, learn how to relate with others,
76 J. B. P. Sinha

obey superiors, take care of younger ones, compete with siblings and so on. They
carry this mindset to schools and colleges and subsequently to work organizations
and to the society at large where they participate in religious, community, social,
political and other organizations. Organizations and institutions have their own
systems, practices, rituals and demands. People modify their mindset and yield to
them even by suppressing their early acquired beliefs, values, norms and practices,
particularly if an organization is fair in dealing with its members and committed to
larger societal objectives.
There exists substantive evidence that the organizational characteristics are
reflected in employees’ perceptions and performance (Sinha 2008). In one of the
studies, for example, Sinha and Pandey (2007) indicated that Indians were per-
ceived to manifest a materialistic mindset in multinational organizations; but were
likely to turn holistic in combining excellence in work, personalized relation-
ships, abstract thinking, emotionality, rationality and spirituality in those organi-
zations that valued both performance and people. Studies by Krishnan and Mulla
(Krishnan 2001, 2008; Mulla & Krishnan 2008, 2009) revealed that spirituality
and karm-yoga of organizational leadership have impact on employees’ duty ori-
entation and beliefs in Indian philosophy. They substantiated Chakraborty’s (1995)
thesis that ethics in management can change how the members of the organization
view their work and relationship with others.
Evidence regarding the impact of work organizations on employees’ beliefs, val-
ues, norms and practices are more unequivocal than that of the social organizations
on the thought and behaviour of their members. The latter are less structured and
less demanding with scantly defined routines and weak control over their members
who are more open to a variety of extraneous and conflicting influences. Global
influences of largely western origin often overwhelm indigenous thoughts and aspi-
rations and market forces run over traditional Indian values and social norms.
It is here that the society at large, its civil society, media and thought leaders
have to intervene in the discourse on the nature of human development that the
people of India need. Once a broad understanding is articulated, it can serve as a
guideline to people and organizations and institutions to develop their road map
to realize the full potential of their members’ economic, social and psychological
wellbeing. Education, for example, provides thinking capability. Whether it leads
to human development or exploitation of others and self-injury, as Tripathi (2011)
recently found, depends on the contents of education that would reflect the val-
ues that would guide our education policy. Similarly, greater income and better
health facilities, fair and transparent procedural justice can create an opportunity
structure to which Indians as individuals and groups would respond readily and
responsibly. As indicated earlier, Indians in their repertoire have variety of seem-
ingly discrepant values, beliefs and skills that they are prone to use selectively to
respond to opportunities.
So the strategy for interventions has to be calibrated to an inclusive conceptu-
alization of human development by encompassing economic, social, psychologi-
cal, ecological inputs through building up organizations and institutions that are
guided by continuous societal discourse on the nature of human development.
4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 77

11 Conclusions

Human development is the state of wellbeing of human beings. It is characterized by

having income to meet the basic needs of life and access to material resources to have
a reasonably decent life. It also means having a long healthy life and the education
that lead to the capabilities to live a life that people value. More crucial than capabili-
ties, which can take people in a right direction, is the right kind of valuing. If people
value having unlimited income, they cause inequality that hampers other’s access to
material resources, health care and education sapping their capabilities, and hence
depriving them of their development. One legitimate value is happiness which, how-
ever, should not encroach upon other’s happiness by over exploiting natural resources.
However, what happiness means is a cultural construction. In the capitalist
individualistic context, it means having unlimited amount and variety of material
objects and services. On the other hand, in the collectivist spiritually oriented cul-
ture of India, the real and lasting happiness ideally emanates from being integrated
with collectives, open to the diversity of thoughts and practices, and pro-social in
caring and being cared by others. Human development in such a cultural context is
only partly external in its form; partly, and more importantly, it is internal in real-
izing oneself having peace and contentment. Strategy to promote human develop-
ment hence has to be calibrated accordingly.

Appendix

Table 1  Growth rate of per capita state domestic product (SDP, percent per annum)
States 1980–1990 1990–2000 Difference in Growth Rate
Andhra Pradesh 2.56 3.62 1.06
Assam 1.74 0.65 −1.09
Bihar 2.97 1.86 −1.11
Gujarat 3.62 6.38 2.76
Haryana 4.12 4.42 .30
Karnataka 4.00 5.27 1.27
Kerala 3.04 4.78 1.74
Madhya Pradesh 2.74 3.22 .48
Maharashtra 3.60 5.04 1.44
Orissa 3.96 2.12 −1.84
Punjab 3.19 2.71 −.48
Rajasthan 4.41 4.09 −.32
Tamil Nadu 4.79 5.40 .61
Uttar Pradesh 3.46 1.98 −1.48
West Bengal 2.93 5.41 2.48
All-India 3.36 4.07 .71
Source Bhattacharya and Sakthivel (2007)
78 J. B. P. Sinha

Table 2  HDI and IHDI estimates across Indian states

State HDI IHDI Loss (%) Rank
HDI IHDI
AP 0.485 0.332 31.55 11 12
Assam 0.474 0.341 28.17 12 11
Bihar 0.447 0.303 32.06 18 16
Chhattisgarh 0.449 0.291 35.14 17 18
Gujarat 0.514 0.363 29.50 8 7
Haryana 0.545 0.375 31.18 5 6
HP 0.558 0.403 27.81 3 3
Jharkhand 0.464 0.308 33.67 15 14
Karnataka 0.508 0.353 30.44 10 9
Kerala 0.625 0.520 16.78 1 1
MP 0.451 0.290 35.74 16 19
Maharashtra 0.549 0.397 27.75 4 4
Orissa 0.442 0.296 33.11 19 17
Punjab 0.569 0.410 28.04 2 2
Rajasthan 0.468 0.308 34.02 14 13
Tamil Nadu 0.544 0.396 27.28 6 5
UP 0.468 0.307 34.47 13 15
Uttarakhand 0.515 0.345 33.03 7 10
West Bengal 0.509 0.360 29.30 9 8
Source Suryanarayana et al. (2011)

References

Agarwal, R., & Misra, G. (1989). Variations in achievement cognitions: Role of ecology, age, and
gender. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 13, 93–107.
Alechina, I. (1982). The contribution of the United Nations system to formulating development con-
cepts. Different theories and practices of development (pp. 9–68). Paris: UNESCO Publications.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
Bellah, R. N., Madsen, R. M., Sullivan, W. M., Swidler, A., & Tipton, S. M. (1985). Habits of the
heart: Individualism and commitment in American life. New Delhi: Tata-McGraw Hill.
Berry, J. W. (1984). Policy and programme for national unity: A role for psychological research
in national development. Paper presented during the International Congress of Applied
Psychology, Acapulco, Mexico, September.
Berry, J. W. (2010). Culture and societal development. Patna: Lecture delivered at the Central
University of Bihar. (November 5).
Bhattacharya, B. B. & Sakthivel S. (2007). Regional growth and disparity in India: A comparison
of pre and post-reform decades. [Link]
Bhawuk, D. P. S. (1999). Who attains peace: An Indian model of personal harmony. Indian
Psychological Review, 52, 40–48.
Chakraborty, S. K. (1987). Managerial effectiveness and quality of work life: Indian insights.
New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.
Chakraborty, S. K. (1993). Managerial transformation by values: A corporate pilgrimage. New
Delhi: Sage.
Chakraborty, S. K. (1995). Ethics in management: Vedantic perspectives. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
4  Human Development: Concept and Strategy 79

Cobb, S. (1976). Social support as moderator of life stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 38,
300–314.
Diaz-Guerrero, R. (2000). Is abnegation a basic experiential trait in traditional societies? The
case of Mexico. In J. W. Berry, R. C. Mishra, & R. C. Tripathi (Eds.), Psychology in human
and social development: A Feschrift for Durganand Sinha (pp. 68–85). Delhi: Sage.
Euromonitor International. (2012). Income inequality rising across the globe. [Link]
[Link]/2012/03/[Link].
Festinger, L. A. (1954). A theory of social comparison process. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.
Kagitcibasi, C. (2002). Psychology and human competence development. Applied Psychology:
An International Review, 515, 22.
Kakar, S. (1982). Shamans, mystics, and doctors. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Kanungo, R. N., & Mendonca, M. (1996). Ethical dimensions of leadership. Thousand Oaks:
Sage.
Kasser, T. (2002). The high price of materialism. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Krishnan, V. R. (2001). Can the Indian worldview facilitate the emergence of transformational
leaders? Management and Labour Studies, 26(4), 237–244.
Krishnan, V. R. (2008). The impact of transformational leadership on followers’ duty orientation
and spirituality. Journal of Human Values, 14, 11–22.
Lapierre, D. (1986). The city of Joy. London: Arrow Books.
Maathai, W. (2009). The challenge for Africa: A new vision. London: Heinemann.
Mehta, B. G. (1957). Report of the team for the study of community projects and national exten-
sion services. Committee on plan projects, Government of India, New Delhi.
Mehta, P. (1987). Scoring imaginations for motivation: A scoring manual for personal
achievement, social achievement, and influence motivation. New Delhi: Participation &
Development Centre.
Mehta, P. (1989). Bureaucracy, organizational behaviour and development. New Delhi: Sage.
Misra, G., & Agarwal, R. (1985). The meaning of achievement: Implication for a cross cultural
theory of achievement motivation. In I. R. Lagunes & Y. H. Poortinga (Eds.), From a different
perspective: Studies of behaviour across cultures (pp. 250–266). Lisse: Swets & Zetlinger.
Moyo, D. (2009). Dead aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa.
London: Penguin.
Mulla, Z. R., & Krishnan, V. R. (2008). Karma-yoga, the Indian work ideal, and its relationship
with empathy. Psychology and Developing Societies, 20(1), 27–49.
Mulla, Z. R., & Krishnan, V. R. (2009). Do Karma-Yogi’s make better leaders? Exploring the
relationship between the leader’s Karma-Yoga and transformational leadership. Journal of
Human Values, 15(2), 167–183.
Myers, D. G. (2000). Wealth and well-being. In R. Stannard (Ed.), God for the 21st century.
Radnor: Templeton Foundation Press.
Naroll, R. (1983). The moral order. Beverly Hills: Sage.
OECD. (2011). Divided we stand, why inequality keeps rising. Paris: OECD.
Pande, N., & Naidu, R. K. (1992). Anasakti and health: A study of non-attachment. Psychology
and Developing Societies, 4, 89–104.
Pareek, U. (1970). Poverty and motivation: Figure and ground. In V. L. Allen (Ed.),
Psychological factors in poverty (pp. 300–317). New York: Academic Press.
Rist, G., & Sabelli, F. (Eds.). (1986). Il était une fois le développement. Lausanne: Editions d’en Bas.
Roland, A. (1988). In search of self in India and Japan: Towards a cross-cultural psychology.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sharma, S. (2007). New mantras in corporate corridors: From ancient roots to global routes.
New Delhi: New Age International.
Shaxson, N., Christensen, J. & Mathiason, N. (2012). Inequality: You don’t know the half of it.
[Link]
Sinha, D. (1975). Studies of psychological dimensions of poverty: A challenge and necessity.
Presidential address. 13th Annual Conference of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology.
Karnataka University, Dharwar, December.
80 J. B. P. Sinha

Sinha, D. (1982). Some social disadvantages and development of certain perceptual skills. In D.
Sinha, R. C. Tripathi, & G. Misra (Eds.), Deprivation: Its social roots and psychological con-
sequences (pp. 177–194). New Delhi: Concept Publishing House.
Sinha, D. (1984). Psychology in the context of third world development. International Journal of
Psychology, 19, 17–29.
Sinha, J. B. P. (1968). The nAch/n cooperation under limited/unlimited resource conditions.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 4, 233–246.
Sinha, J. B. P. (1992). A key address on developing psychology as a policy science: Problems and
prospects. In B. Wilpert, H. Motoaki, & J. Misumi (Eds.), General psychology and environ-
mental psychology: Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress of Applied Psychology
(Vol. 2, pp. 403–418). Hove (UK) and Hillsdale (USA): Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sinha, J. B. P. (2000). Patterns of work culture: Cases and strategies for culture building. New
Delhi: Sage.
Sinha, J. B. P. (2003). Trends towards indigenization of psychology in India. In K. S. Yang, K.
K. Hwang, P. Pederson, & I. Diabo (Eds.), Progress in Asian psychology: Conceptual and
empirical contributions. Westport & London: Praeger.
Sinha, J. B. P. (2008). Culture and organizational behaviour. New Delhi: Sage.
Sinha, J. B. P. (in press). The shifting mindset of Indians. In G. Misra (Ed.), Discipline of
Psychology in the series “The history of Indian science, philosophy and culture”, General
Editor: D. P. Chattopadhyaya.
Sinha, J. B. P., & Pandey, A. (2007). Indians’ mindsets and the conditions that evoke them.
Psychological Studies, 52, 1–13.
Sinha, J. B. P. & Pandey, J. (1970). Strategies of high aAch persons. Psychologia, 13, 210–216,
Japan.
Suryanarayana, M. H., Agrawal, A., & Prabhu, K. S. (2011). Inequality-adjusted human develop-
ment index for India’s states. New Delhi: United Nations Development Programme.
The Five Years Plans (Sixth 1982–1987; Eight 1992–1997). Planning Commission, Government
of India, New Delhi.
The Human Development Report. (1996). United Nations development programme (UNDP).
New York: Oxford University Press.
The Human Development Report. (2002). United Nations development programme (UNDP).
New York: Oxford University Press.
The Human Development Report. (2003). United Nations development programme (UNDP).
New York: Oxford University Press.
The Human Development Report. (2010). United Nations development programme (UNDP).
New York: Oxford University Press.
The World Bank: World Development Indicators Database (2011). Washington, USA.
The World Bank (2012). Inequality in focus. [Link]
Resources/Inequality_in_Focus_April2012.pdf.
Triandis, H. C. (1982). Towards psychological theory of economic development. Paper presented
at UNESCO & IUPsyS Conference, Edinburgh, UK, July 24–26.
Tripathi, R. C. (1988). Aligning development to values. In D. Sinha & H. S. R. Kao (Eds.), Social
values and development: Asian perspectives. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Tripathi, R. C. (2011). Education, development and happiness in Indian villages. Professor
Durganand Sinha memorial lecture at A. N. Sinha Institute for Social Sciences, Patna
(March).
Varma, P. (1999). The great Indian middle class. New Delhi: Viking, Penguin.
Watkins, M., & Shulman, H. (2008). Toward psychologies of liberation. London: Macmillan-Palgrave.
Chapter 5
Education: Path to Development
and Happiness in Rural India?

R. C. Tripathi

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been

educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne.
Education is a process which makes one rogue cleverer than
another.
Oscar Wilde (1856–1900).

1 Introduction

This chapter examines the relationship between education and development in rural
India in the context of ongoing discourses on human development. The discourses
on development have made a considerable shift in the last few decades, largely due
to the contributions of two South Asians, Amartya Sen and Mahbub-ul-Haq, which
have helped the United Nations in developing their approach of human develop-
ment. Traditional approaches of development were not only linear and unidimen-
sional; they focused primarily on economic development which was measured in
terms of GDP, forgetting the sage advice of Aristotle that “wealth is merely use-
ful for something else”. Human development paradigm holds that development is
about increasing human choices which is not achieved in societies in which wealth
is distributed unequally. Education is considered that instrument through which
human choices can be increased by capacity building. Raised levels of education
lead to raised income levels and overall quality of life of individuals. The ques-
tion which, however, needs to be asked is whether educational development of a

R. C. Tripathi (*) 
Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]

R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha (eds.), Psychology, Development and Social Policy in India, 81
DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-1003-0_5, © Springer India 2014
82 R. C. Tripathi

community, and not of individuals, will also result in an increment of choices for
the oppressed and the disadvantaged within a feudal society? Policy makers gen-
erally assume that what happens at the micro- or individual level will also reflect
at the macro-level, that is, at the level of community, which may or may not be
true. They consider social and cultural diversities of little or small consequence
while implementing social policies. Just as planners and policy makers ignore
sociocultural factors, they too ignore psychological factors which feed into not
only the motivational structures of people and the choices that people make for
their “capacity development”. Sinha (1969, 1974) was among the first psycholo-
gists to show that macro-level programmes, like community development failed
to give the expected results because they ignored psychological factors. He found
that development was not a simple matter of creating or providing resources in
scarce resource environment situations. Development was possible only by bring-
ing about a change in the motivational structures of rural people. Working with
rural communities, he found that level of aspiration of villagers was central to the
success of development initiatives and for the removal of poverty (D. Sinha, op
cit). Appadurai (2004) later developed this finding into the concept of “capacity to
aspire”. Rural poverty has remained one of the foremost concerns of our policy
makers all throughout but there has been only marginal improvement in the reduc-
tion of the number of absolute poor, except, of course, what is some times claimed
by jugglers of statistics. Most planners and policy makers, in line with the thinking
of the World Bank, believe education has played a role in poverty alleviation and
in raising the quality of life of people. Education is considered by them a panacea
which cures all human and social ills. This chapter looks at the developmental out-
comes which educational development of communities brings about in the context
of questions we have raised above.

2 Meaning and Concept of Development

Development, for a long time, has been understood in terms of economic growth.
However, the concept of development has become quite broad to include other
facets which are included under human development. This concept is now con-
sidered multidimensional and includes factors like education, health, gender par-
ity, political participation, etc (Alkire & Santos 2010). Development is now also
prefixed with words like social or human, to show the inclusion of these new fac-
ets of development. This is not to suggest that economic development has been
relegated to the background. There is no denying the fact that economic growth
is an essential prerequisite for social and human development. But an equally
important condition is whether such economic advantages are distributed in an
equitable manner and whether they percolate down to the neediest. The approach
of free market economy subscribes to the view that economic development trick-
les down to the bottom-most rung of a society. Most studies show that income
inequalities in rural India have either remained the same or increased over the
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 83

years (Vannemann & Dube 2010). This is supported by the oft-cited report of the
Arjun SenGupta Commission which suggested in 2007 that 836 million Indians
(roughly 77 % Indians) lived on less than Rs. 20 a day and the proposal of the
Planning Commission to treat only such people as eligible for the BPL status. The
economists differ with respect to actual poverty estimates. Tendulkar Committee
came up with an estimate of 33 % for people based on 2004–2005 figures. The
World Bank had a higher figure of 42 % based on 2005 figures. UNDP uses mul-
tiple poverty indicators (MPI) in its HDR of 2010 and puts the head count of
poor people in India at 55.4 %. By whatever count one goes, it is without doubt
that India continues to have unacceptable number of the poor compared to other
nations, particularly those who are categorized as chronically poor. A study by
Hulme et al. (2001) reports that almost one-third of the chronically poor of the
world live in India who remain disadvantaged in terms of not only income but
also education and health.
In the years that have gone by, the concept of development has become synony-
mous with human development, a paradigm proposed by Mahbub-ul Haque and
Amartya Sen. This paradigm has found acceptance all over the world and has been
adopted by the UNDP to put together its HDR reports on quality of life and over-
all wellbeing of people around the world. Human development approach views
poverty as “capability deprivation” and development as an “expansion of human
capabilities” (Sen 1999) which largely comes about as a result of governmental
interventions and initiatives taken by civil society organizations. Human devel-
opment, according to Sen (1999), essentially means making available to people
the right or freedom to lead the kinds of lives they choose and enabling them (in
terms of instruments and opportunities) to make these choices. But how does one
enable people? Economic growth can be seen as only one aspect of development
which is instrumental in enhancing human and social development. Aristotle too
viewed economic development as “merely useful and for the sake of something
else”. Drèze and Sen (2002) see this “something else” as enablement and freedom.
Freedom is postulated by them as an essential means as well as the most impor-
tant end for development. Freedoms are of various kinds, and it is believed that
they consolidate each other. Two important instruments of enabling people and
providing them greater freedom and choice, according to Drèze and Sen (2002),
are health and education. Many analysts and human rights activists have argued to
make these as fundamental rights. The Right to Education (RTE) Act can be seen
as a culmination of these efforts. Education and health can play an important role
in enhancing freedoms and expanding choices. Freedoms of different types com-
plement each other and help in building various capabilities which in important
ways contribute to enhancing quality of life. We will return to the issue of how
education is associated with development and happiness a little later.
Development is important for improving quality of life of people, but other
aspects of life have also been acknowledged as essential for a fulfilling life. The
concept and paradigm of human development focus more on economic aspects of
life and leave out social and psychological aspects. An increase in income or afflu-
ence, in general, does not necessarily lead to greater feelings of wellbeing even in
84 R. C. Tripathi

US or Britain. Offer (2006) points out that 2 million people, one in fifty, are in US
jails. He points out that Britain has overtaken the US in most other types of disor-
ders, such as family breakdown, addictions, mental disorders, poverty, economic
fraud, violence, stress, besides a general decline in security and interpersonal trust.
Enablement or freedom to exercise personal choice, according to him, has resulted
in people making choices that are not “prudent” and lack “self control”. They are
fallible and myopic with focus on the immediate and the present. The focus on
development, therefore, has started veering towards more holistic approaches, par-
ticularly those which are concerned with the quest for happiness. Thus, after GDP
and the HDI, there is a new index, Gross National Happiness (GNH), first proposed
by the king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wanchuk, on which countries are getting
evaluated and ranked (Veenhoven 2007). This new paradigm which is often seen
as complementary to the paradigm of human development has found support of
Nobel Laureate Kahneman (1999) who constructed the concept of “objective hap-
piness”, psychologists Diener and Seligman (2004) and Kramer (2010), and econo-
mist Layard (2005). In the happiness index, e­ conomic and social development is
just one of the four constitutive elements of happiness, the others being preserva-
tion and promotion of cultural values, c­ onservation of the natural environment, and
establishment of good governance ([Link]). Looking at
the dimensions of what makes people happy, one realizes that various things other
than just economic wellbeing are important for a life that humans find fulfilling and
meaningful. The concept of happiness goes beyond the domain of economic well-
being and lies in actualization of the human potential. The latter tradition found
both in the East and West is referred to as Eudaimonism. The underlying values
which govern the concept of good life under these two approaches are different.
The hedonistic approach is at the root of free market paradigm of economic devel-
opment which measures happiness in terms of measurable material achievements,
whereas eudaimonistic approach is guided by “moral sentiments” or “dharmic prin-
ciples”. As is pointed out by McDonald (2003, p. 1): “The underlying development
philosophy of globalization seeks to maximize happiness through the cultivation of
a narrow materialist self-interest and competitiveness, both at the level of the indi-
vidual and at the level of the nation-state”. Development and happiness at the level
of the individual are reflected in the state of subjective wellbeing of the individual.
The feelings of wellbeing are connected with both.

2.1 Cultural Ways of Understanding Development

One major problem with development paradigms is that they have directly evolved
out of the discourses on modernity which subscribe largely to Euro-centric beliefs
and practices (Tucker 1999). They, therefore, emphasize the “objective”, “technol-
ogy and science”, “rational”, “material” and “present” and have no use for alterna-
tive visions offered by non-western cultures. In fact, local cultures and their values
are seen as impediments in the path of human development, to put it more bluntly,
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 85

as nuisance. Development, particularly for agencies like the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund, is a value-free enterprise, although there is a per-
sistent veiled attempt made to impose western values and norms in the name of
modernity and “global culture”. More and more nations in the developing world
are becoming increasingly wary of the values of neoliberalism that underlie the
development discourses which threaten the moorings of local cultures and create
conditions which are antithetical to existing social and cultural realities and pre-
cipitate contradictions and conflicts. One of the fallouts of ignoring cultural reali-
ties has been that development in these culturally diverse societies has generally
bypassed the socially excluded and those living at the margins. Economic inequal-
ities have only increased and have deepened the divide between the rich and the
poor. The dominant paradigm of development also has reduced cultural diversi-
ties. It strongly supports individualistic values over collectivist and community
values, democracy over other political forms, and English as the lingua franca.
But of late, the dominant paradigm of development has been called into question.
Development is now seen as a “cultural discourse” which has implications for the
way social reality is understood and constructed, particularly in developing socie-
ties (Escobar 2000). Tucker (1999) suggests development is not a natural process
as is often made out by supporters of the paradigm of modernity which see it in
opposition to traditional cultures. It has at its core western values and beliefs. It is
driven wholly by technical interventions.

2.2 Education, Development and Happiness

Education has long been seen as the cure for all problems that detract a nation from
its path towards progress or development. Education is seen as central to elimina-
tion of poverty in various discourses that focus either on education and/or on pov-
erty. Sayed (2008) discusses four kinds of frameworks that link education with
poverty. These are the human capital approach, which holds that education is asso-
ciated with development of skills and knowledge that are required for efficient func-
tioning of organizations and enhanced productivity resulting in economic growth;
the human rights approach, which views education as an end in itself because it
adds value to living as a human; the social inclusion perspective, which holds that
education makes it possible for individuals to prevent from getting marginalized
and socially excluded from the main stream of society; and the capability perspec-
tive put forward by Amartya Sen, which sees education as an entitlement and an
opportunity to improve one’s quality of life. This last perspective has become the
corner stone of all developmental efforts of major funding agencies of the world
and also of the United Nations and is an important constituent of its Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Drèze and Sen (2002) posit five kinds of roles that
education has for the freedom of the individual. According to them, education has
an intrinsic value because learning provides an opportunity for self-improvement
and growth. It also has an instrumental value to the extent it is connected with
86 R. C. Tripathi

finding gainful employments and going up the rungs of socioeconomic ladder.

Education creates another kind of freedom by contributing positively to health sta-
tus of children as well as adults. The third role of education is seen as a social role
in which the educated people are seen as demanding accountability of public serv-
ants as also from their political leaders. Education is also a process which frees and
empowers individuals, particularly those at the social margins through formation
of attitudes and values which liberate them from various oppressive conditions and
equips them to oppose their oppressors. It supports processes of social inclusion.
Education thus enables a person. It enables him/her to become unfettered of the
restrictive effects of illiteracy, ill health, ignorance, exploitation and denial of rights.
Another argument put forward is that it enables persons to increase their levels of
communication which makes it possible for them to exercise choice and control
over their environment. It increases their agency beliefs. The human capital theo-
rists argue that education leads people to develop skills and competencies which
enable them to lead productive lives. Education is seen as a major determinant of
poverty alleviation (Education here is conceptualized as years spent in school, that
is, in terms of formal schooling which ignores education received from informal
sources and from critical life experiences). Much evidence is there to show that with
increased levels of schooling the wages and salaries also go up. In fact, they peak
faster for the more educated than for the less educated as they are able to acquire
new skills faster that are required by them to be more productive. This also is true
for those working in the informal sectors and for the self-employed. Education is
expected to contribute not only to the wellbeing of the individuals but also of com-
munities and nations. There is a positive relationship found between level of school
enrolment and GNP. Education relates positively not only to economic indicators
but also to various other indicators of development, such as health. For example, an
increase of 1 % in schooling level, it is pointed out, brings about an increase in life
expectancy by 0.0553 %. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that increasing the
schooling of women brings beneficial effects for their own control of fertility, for
their own health, and that of their families.
Education also appears to be correlated to psychological wellbeing as it is
conceptualized in Veenhoven’s happiness scale and his world database which
includes studies related to education and happiness (Veenhoven 2003). In Cantril’s
(1965) study, a significant relationship was found between happiness and levels of
education for adult sample. However, World Database on the relationship between
education and happiness shows that the correlations between the two variables
vary from non-significant correlations to medium and high correlations for differ-
ent samples within the same country and also across countries (Veenhoven 2007).
No meta-analytic studies are available to our knowledge which can give us ideas
about the effect size of relationship between education and happiness.
But one may ask if education is connected with improving quality of lives at
the individual level, does it also relate to creation of societies which are egali-
tarian and human centric. A recent study by Gomez (2009) examines the role of
education for eradicating poverty as a panacea in Mexico. She points out that the
emphasis on education comes from the belief that it is related to prosperity. But
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 87

the non-economic and humanistic sides of education are often not understood, nor
emphasized, particularly in bringing about social change and in creating a soci-
ety based on equity and equality. Education for prosperity or affluence approach
is unrelated to social transformation. Educational institutions created with this
approach create minds and organizations which train people into making myopic
choices which maximize individual interests and are self-defeating in the long run.
This is pointed out by Gomez (2009) and Oxaal (1997). The relationship of educa-
tion and various development indicators, they show, is not simple, as education is
offered within a context. The gender disparity found in educational levels, accord-
ing to Oxall (ibid.), underscores the role which cultural factors play in keeping
the females marginalized. Gomez (2009) argues that education besides develop-
ing cognitive skills also develops non-cognitive skills. These skills are respon-
sible for creation, as well as, perpetuation of social hierarchies and classes and,
therefore, contribute towards an increase in the level of social inequalities. In this
context, we are led to ask to what extent education which is imparted frees an indi-
vidual. Or does it only equip the educated with skills which enable him to exploit
the weak only more efficiently in his desire to become prosperous? There is an
urgent need to look at this question critically and to separate rhetoric from reality.
Most educational policies in developing countries have been thrust upon them by
the international funding agencies, such as the World Bank and others, and devel-
opment aid is linked to the implementation of these policies. Education in these
countries is driven by the values which have the underpinnings of the neoliberal
economies and not the local set of values. They seek prosperity and affluence at
the cost of true happiness and “wellbeing”.
It is in the above context that I would like to discuss some findings from a
recent study (Tripathi et al. 2007). This study looked at the relationship between
educational development and various indicators of human development in 12 vil-
lages of Mawana, a subdivision of western Uttar Pradesh (UP) in northern India,
and educational development’s unintended consequences.

3 The Mawana Study

Western UP is way ahead of all other regions in Uttar Pradesh in terms of agri-
cultural production (22 quintals/acre compared to 18 and 12 for east UP and
Bundelkhand, respectively). This is also reflected in higher levels of fertilizer use
and mechanized farming. The region has a much higher population density and
also shows a greater degree of urbanization. However, this relative affluence of
farmers does not reflect in similar ways in various social indicators, be it female
literacy levels, the sex ratio, gender development index, employment of farm
labour or the health status of women and children. This region happens to be quite
high, when compared to other regions in UP, with respect to the rate of crime. The
rural society here continues to be organized hierarchically and along traditional
lines based on caste. Dominant social values support patriarchy and feudalism.
88 R. C. Tripathi

Caste panchayats continue to be very strong in governing social relationships and

in maintaining them, particularly relating to marriages. Marriages within the same
gotra (patrilineage), and within the same village, are still unacceptable. The cul-
ture of honour is the characteristic feature of these villages. The dominant caste
of the region is Jat, and the culture of the region has largely evolved around their
values. Jats are a group of very proud people and trace their ancestry to the ancient
kings who ruled the Gangetic belt for a very long time. We were surprised by the
paradoxical relationship between economic development and human development
indicators. This naturally led us to the question of the relationship between educa-
tional development and various human development indicators. Consequently, we
decided to collect micro- and also macro-level data from 2,114 members, which
included males as well as females and children representing 873 households of 12
villages of the subdivision. The villages were sampled on the basis of their geo-
graphical location as well as their levels of overall development on a set of indica-
tors of social–human development. For each village, a HDI was computed based
on a set of measures of educational development, economic development, health
development, gender parity, social development and political development. A brief
description of these indices is given here:

1. Educational development: The index was computed based on monthly expendi-

ture on education, average education level, and the highest education level in
the household, educational and career aspirations for boys as well as girls.
2. Economic development: Agricultural and other domestic assets, gap between
annual income and loans, expenditure on household, per capita income, size of
land holding, number of children who have migrated, income from migrated
members of the family, percentage contribution to the agriculture income, per-
centage contribution to wage and other incomes, quality of housing, and avail-
ability of drinking water.
3. Health development: The index included expenditure incurred on health, num-
ber of members of the family who were sick in the last one month, and number
of persons suffering from major illnesses.
4. Social capital: The index developed was seen as a measure of social capital and
included the perceived status of households in comparison with other households
on economic, social and power dimensions and expectations about the future status
with respect to these dimensions, presence of disputes with other families, expecta-
tion of help forthcoming from other families in times of need, social contacts with
other families, and manner in which conflicts and disputes were resolved.
5. Gender parity: The index covered answers to the questions about the freedom
given to girls compared to boys in various life domains, such as studies, friend-
ship formation and decisions related to how to spend free time.
6. Political development: The index included the number of gram panchayat
(local self-government at village level) meetings in the past year, number of
members participating in the meetings, and number of households participating
in these meetings.
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 89

7. Happiness and wellbeing measures: Four indicators were used to create an

index of happiness following Csikszentmihalyi’s (1998) flow approach. These
were as follows: extent of family happiness; engagement in creative work;
social capital which included expectations of help from others in time of need,
absence of conflict with other families and constructive conflict resolution
methods; and optimism about future.

3.1 Relationship of Educational Development

and Development Indicators

Although we have carried out complex multivariate analyses to understand how

and to what extent educational development is associated with various indicators
of development, we will present some results based on univariate analyses relating
to educational development’s relationship with various indicators of development
and happiness. In our study, education was not found to be associated in the pre-
dicted manner with various indices of human development. Although educational
development was positively associated with economic wellbeing (beta =  +0.29)
and with the health index it was negatively associated (beta = −0.23). Educational
development had only a small correlation with social capital but only in the
case of respondents from the high Educational Development Index (EDI) group
(r = 0.13). Similarly, educational development did not correlate with gender par-
ity index but some interesting and paradoxical findings emerged. Educational
development correlated positively with career and life aspiration for boys but neg-
atively with career and life aspirations for girls irrespective of the level of educa-
tional development. In fact, in case of the girls, the relationship between these was
found to be much stronger in case of villages that were high on education develop-
ment (r = −0.36) in comparison with villages where education development was
low (r =  −0.26) which clearly indicated that educational development actually
increased the gender disparity rather than reducing it. We also examined whether
there is increased participation in village governance with educational develop-
ment, as it should, if education empowers people. The relationship between edu-
cational development and village governance index, which was taken as a measure
of political development, did show a low positive but significant relationship
within high (r = 0.14) and medium (r = 0.11) educationally developed villages.
The data which we present here can be better understood against this frame.
Educational development and economic wellbeing: One of the central argu-
ments, which proponents of “education as freedom” advance, is that it is related to
capability development which results in people finding gainful employment. We
looked at the unemployment status of our respondents between the ages of 19 to
60 years in the low, medium and high educationally developed villages based on
gender. Table 1 presents the percentage of unemployed males and females in these
villages.
90 R. C. Tripathi

Table 1  Unemployment status of population in 19–60 age group

Level Village name EDI Percentage Number
Male Female Total Male Female Total
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 17.2 78.1 46.0 163 146 309
Maqboolpur 45.1 14.3 58.0 34.9 56 50 106
Dudhi Khadar 45.6 8.2 62.5 32.6 49 40 89
Assa 47.7 15.7 72.6 41.0 197 157 354
Mean 45.4 13.9 67.8 38.6 465 393 853
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 14.9 74.9 43.8 246 231 479
Alipur Moma 50.8 16.8 74.5 42.5 137 110 247
Kohla 51.2 15.2 80.4 47.0 112 107 219
Makhan Nagar 51.7 13.3 77.0 42.4 150 126 276
Mean 51.1 15.1 76.7 43.9 465 574 1,221
High Bhandaura 53.1 17.8 68.0 39.2 101 75 176
Jhunjunee 54.1 16.7 79.5 46.1 216 190 406
Pali 56.1 14.2 78.6 44.4 148 131 279
Mean 54.4 16.2 75.4 43.2 465 396 861
Total Average 50.3 15.4 75.2 43.1 1,577 1,363 2,940
Note Percentages denote gender-wise row percentages

Contrary to our expectation, we found that as villages rose in educational devel-

opment, the percentage of both the male and female unemployed rose. In case of
the males, it went up from 13.9 % in the low-developed villages to 16.2 and for
the high educationally developed villages. The increase in case of the females
was even sharper—from 67.8 % for low educationally developed villages to about
75.4 % in case of the high educationally developed villages. But the most dramatic
findings appeared when we looked at the per capita income of the households for
different caste groups. Table 2 presents average household income of different
caste groups.
Capability development theorists argue that education brings about an increase
in the household income. While this is true at the aggregate level, that is, for the
entire population, if one disaggregates the data based for the socially excluded
groups, a very different picture emerges. We found that in our sample, the average
household income of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in low educationally developed
villages steadily went down with educational development. In the low education-
ally developed villages, the average household income for SC families was found
to be Rs. 10,139 which went down to Rs. 7,011 for the medium-developed vil-
lages and in case of the high educationally developed to a low of Rs. 5,889. People
belonging to the minority groups (Muslims) fared even worse. From an aver-
age per capita income of Rs. 9,982 in the low educationally developed villages,
the average household income in the medium educationally developed villages
dropped to Rs. 4,447 and Rs. 3,976 in the high educationally developed house-
holds, whereas in case of the other backward classes (OBCs), who are the domi-
nant caste in the region, it rose from Rs. 8,644 in the low educationally developed
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 91

Table 2  Caste-wise per capita income of sample households

Level Village Name EDI SCa OBCb Minorities General Total
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 15,812 – 13,209 – 13,332
Maqboolpur 45.1 7,081 6,019 – 19,800 7,581
Dudhi Khadar 45.6 12,329 8,191 4,738 3,668 8,274
Assa 47.7 5,334 11,721 12,000 14,133 9,638
Mean 45.4 10,139 8,644 9,982 12,534 9,706
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 5,870 21,764 5,518 24,563 12,912
Alipur Moma 50.8 7,458 14,922 4,447 18,811 10,693
Kohla 51.2 4,181 17,443 4,800 14,667 12,370
Makhan Nagar 51.7 10,536 10,252 6,600 16,356 11,188
Mean 51.1 7,011 16,095 5,341 18,599 11,791
High Bhandaura 53.1 4,364 17,099 – – 16,667
Jhunjunee 54.1 4,763 12,932 4,181 14,091 10,688
Pali 56.1 8,539 27,098 3,771 – 23,093
Mean 54.4 5,889 19,043 3,976 14,091 16,816
Total Average 50.3 7,133 16,902 9,914 15,789 12,596
a SC = scheduled caste, or one of the historically disadvantaged caste groups given express

recognition by the Government of India

b OBC = Other Backward Class, or a socially and educationally backward class identified for

empowerment by the Government of India. Groups may be added to or removed from this list
depending on their current socioeconomic position

villages to Rs. 19,043, an increase of over 100 %. Education, thus, appeared to

help the powerful but not the weak.
Educational Development and Health: Among the several indices that are
used to assess health status at the macro-level is the infant mortality rate. We com-
pared the number of children living and dead born in the 5 years before the survey
by gender in the villages, categorized in terms of educational development. The
results appear in Table 3.
As may be seen, the infant mortality rate for the male child shows improve-
ment with educational development, but in case of the girl child with educa-
tional development infant mortality rate goes up. While the low educationally
developed villages had 42.3 % girl children compared to 51.3 % boys, the num-
ber came down to only 34.6 % girls in case of the high educationally devel-
oped villages compared to 61.2 % for the male child, a staggering difference of
about 26 %.
We also asked our female respondents to report on how healthy they perceived
themselves to be, on the whole. While there were only small differences found
between those who reported themselves to be completely healthy in the low and
high educationally developed villages, only an average of 36.2 % respondents
reported to have some illness compared to 43.2 % from the educationally devel-
oped villages. For the medium educationally developed villages, this number was
35 %. We also looked at the percentage of people falling ill in the last one month
and found that there was little difference in the number of people falling ill in
Table 3  Survival, place of birth and gender of children born in 5 years in sample households
Level Village name EDI Alive Dead Place of birth
Boy Girl Total Boy Girl Total Home Pvt nursing Government Other Total
(%) (%) numbers (%) (%) numbers (%) home (%) hospital (%) (%) numbers
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 62.5 30.7 82 2.3 4.5 6 62.5 37.5 0 0 88
Maqboolpur 45.1 48.6 48.6 36 2.7 0 1 94.6 5.4 0 0 37
Dudhi 45.6 42.9 42.9 18 4.8 9.5 3 61.9 28.6 4.8 4.8 21
Khadar
Assa 47.7 51 46.9 94 0 2.1 2 76 20.8 3.1 0 96
Mean 45.4 51.3 42.3 230 2.5 4 12 73.8 23.1 2 1.2 242
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 47.9 45.2 68 5.5 1.4 5 64.4 32.9 2.7 0 73
Alipur Moma 50.8 63.1 33.8 63 0 3.1 2 84.6 15.4 0 0 65
Kohla 51.2 65 30.0 57 3.3 1.7 3 63.3 33.3 3.3 0 60
Makhan 51.7 45 45.0 36 5.0 5.0 4 82.5 15.0 2.5 0 40
Nagar
Mean 51.1 55.3 38.5 224 3.5 2.8 14 73.7 24.2 2.1 0 238
High Bhandaura 53.1 59.1 40.9 22 0 0 0 22.7 72.7 0 4.5 22
Jhunjunee 54.1 58.9 35.6 69 2.7 2.7 4 67.1 31.5 1.4 0 73
Pali 56.1 65.5 27.3 51 0 7.3 4 60.0 36.4 1.8 1.8 55
Mean 54.4 61.2 34.6 142 0.9 3.3 8 49.9 46.9 1.1 2.1 150
Total Average 50.3 56.5 38.1 596 2.2 3.2 34 69.2 28.6 1.7 0.5 630
Note Percentages denote row percentage. The percentages of live and dead children (boys and girls) are calculated from the total number of children in the
village
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 93

the low, medium and high educationally developed villages. However, when it
came to persons affected by severe diseases during the last month, fewer peo-
ple from the low educationally developed villages (5.3 %) reported falling sick
compared to 7.7 % in the medium educationally developed villages and 7 % in
the high educationally developed villages. An interesting finding relating to pre-
ferred treatment for children was found. Almost 77 % in the educationally devel-
oped consulted “jhola chhap doctors” when their children fell ill, compared to
only 52 % in the low educationally developed villages. Thus, in case of health
too, educational development was not seen as contributing to health status in any
way. In fact, educational development was associated negatively with a number
of measures related to incidence of illness and also health modernity beliefs.
Educational development and social capital: Social capital is taken here as a
marker of social development and refers to the degree of binding and bonding of
the members of the community who can be trusted to support other group mem-
bers when the need arises. As mentioned above, we measured it in terms of felt
deprivations in economic, social and political domains. The assumption made here
was that greater was the felt deprivation vis-à-vis other members in the community
less will be the trust which people would be able to repose in each other. The ques-
tion we asked here was whether these felt relative deprivations in these areas were
associated with educational development. Tables 4, 5 and 6 give responses of the
sampled respondents relating to how they felt they were doing in comparison with
others in their village on economic, social and political domains, respectively.
An interesting phenomenon that we came across was that roughly half of the
respondents in the low educationally developed villages said that they do not

Table 4  Relative economic deprivation

Level Village name EDI Very Good Same Bad Very Does not No Total
good bad compare response numbers
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 11.5 6.9 5.7 5.7 1.1 69.0 0.0 87
Maqboolpur 45.1 0.0 2.5 10.0 15.0 0.0 72.5 0.0 40
Dudhi Khadar 45.6 0.0 0.0 30.3 33.3 3.0 33.3 0.0 33
Assa 47.7 4.3 9.6 17.4 32.2 13.0 22.6 0.9 115
Mean 45.4 4.0 4.7 15.9 21.6 4.3 49.4 0.2 275
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 3.6 13.6 18.6 30.0 16.4 17.9 0.0 140
Alipur Moma 50.8 2.5 7.6 16.5 25.3 2.5 45.6 0.0 79
Kohla 51.2 6.7 25.0 21.7 15.0 3.3 28.3 0.0 60
Makhan Nagar 51.7 1.3 3.8 31.6 29.1 0.0 34.2 0.0 79
Mean 51.1 3.5 12.5 22.1 24.9 5.6 32.5 0.0 358
High Bhandaura 53.1 2.2 17.8 2.2 6.7 0.0 71.1 0.0 45
Jhunjunee 54.1 7.0 14.8 30.4 14.8 8.7 23.5 0.9 115
Pali 56.1 3.8 17.5 37.5 25.0 6.3 10.0 0.0 80
Mean 54.4 4.3 16.7 23.4 15.5 5.0 34.9 0.3 240
Total Average 50.3 4.5 11.5 20.8 22.1 6.8 34.1 0.2 873
Note Percentages denote row percentages
94 R. C. Tripathi

Table 5  Relative social deprivation

Level Village name EDI Very Good Same Bad Very Do not No Total
good bad compare response numbers
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 16.1 5.7 5.7 1.1 1.1 69.0 1.1 87
Maqboolpur 45.1 0.0 2.5 20.0 5.0 0.0 72.5 0.0 79
Dudhi Khadar 45.6 0.0 12.1 45.5 6.1 0.0 33.3 0.0 80
Assa 47.7 6.1 18.3 24.3 17.4 0.9 22.6 0.9 79
Mean 45.4 5.5 9.7 23.9 7.4 0.0 49.4 0.5 325
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 7.1 12.1 33.6 17.1 0.0 17.9 0.0 45
Alipur Moma 50.8 5.1 12.7 22.8 11.4 0.0 45.6 0.0 140
Kohla 51.2 21.7 28.3 13.3 6.7 0.0 28.3 0.0 40
Makhan Nagar 51.7 2.2 12.7 39.2 11.4 0.0 34.2 0.0 115
Mean 51.1 9.1 16.4 27.2 11.6 0.0 31.5 0.0 340
High Bhandaura 53.1 2.2 4.4 17.8 4.4 0.0 68.9 0.0 60
Jhunjunee 54.1 1.7 16.5 33.0 20.9 0.9 23.5 0.9 115
Pali 56.1 5.0 22.5 53.8 7.5 0.0 10.0 0.0 33
Mean 54.4 3.0 14.5 34.9 10.9 0.3 34.1 0.3 208
Total Average 50.3 6.5 14.2 28.5 11.8 0.3 34.0 0.3 873
Note Percentages denote row percentages

Table 6  Perceived political deprivation relative to other caste groups

Level Village name EDI Very Good Same Bad Very No No Total
good bad comparison response numbers
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 17.2 4.6 5.7 1.1 1.1 69.0 1.1 87
Maqboolpur 45.1 7.6 12.7 10.1 22.8 1.3 45. 0.0 40
Dudhi Khadar 45.6 13.8 20.0 30.0 23.8 2.5 10.0 0.0 33
Assa 47.7 3.8 11.4 32.9 16.5 1.3 34.2 0.0 115
Mean 45.4 10.6 12.2 19.7 16.0 1.5 39.7 0.3 275
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 11.1 8.9 2.2 6.7 0.0 71.1 0.0 140
Alipur Moma 50.8 14.3 11.4 15.7 26.4 14.3 17.9 0.0 79
Kohla 51.2 2.5 5.0 12.5 7.5 0.0 72.5 0.0 60
Makhan Nagar 51.7 10.4 13.9 16.5 22.6 13.0 22.6 0.9 79
Mean 51.1 9.6 9.8 11.7 15.8 6.8 46.0 0.2 358
High Bhandaura 53.1 21.7 10.0 16.7 20.0 3.3 28.3 0.0 45
Jhunjunee 54.1 19.1 18.3 11.3 20.9 6.1 23.5 0.9 115
Pali 56.1 0.0 24.2 21.2 18.2 3.0 33.3 0.0 80
Mean 54.4 13.6 17.5 16.4 19.7 4.2 28.4 0.3 240.0
Total Average 50.3 12.4 12.8 16.0 18.6 5.7 34.1 0.3 873

Note Percentages denote row percentages

compare themselves with others compared to about 31.5 % in case of medium

and 34.9 % in case of the high educationally developed villages. Could it be that
it is education that raises capacity to aspire and results in making comparisons,
although there is a possibility that respondents may have been also reluctant to
make such comparisons because others in the community belonged to their own
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 95

caste groups and, therefore, were seen as “brothers” who had similar or common
fate. Nonetheless, it was found that fewer respondents from high educationally
developed villages felt less economically deprived relative to others. Those who
really felt worse off compared to others actually came from the low educationally
developed villages.
Educational development did not appear to be associated with feelings of social
relative deprivation, future relative deprivation or political relative deprivation in a
significant manner.
A significant finding of this study was that with educational development, the
degree of interpersonal contacts reduced considerably. In high educationally devel-
oped villages, 59 % respondents said that they do not visit other families even on
the occasion of marriages. In case of medium-developed villages, this number
was approximately 50 % and 38.7 % for the low educationally developed vil-
lages indicating much closer social contacts. Educational development appeared to
reduce the size of the social networks. On the other hand, a much smaller number
of people in the low educationally developed villages expected that help will be
forthcoming in times of need compared to respondents in the medium and high
educationally developed villages.
Educational development and gender parity: Gender parity and the status of
women are considered critical for rural transformation. Education is expected to
empower them to take decisions related to various aspects of their lives as it is
in case of others who are in socially and economically disadvantageous positions.
We used several indicators to compute gender parity index as mentioned above.
In Table 7, we show the percentage of women who desired to be wage earners.
This number went down with educational development from a total of 37.6 % who

Table 7  Work participation by women

Level Village name EDI SCa OBCa Minorities General Total
numbers
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 33.3 – 29.8 – 37.9
Maqboolpur 45.1 37.8 50.0 – 0.0 37.5
Dudhi Khadar 45.6 33.3 25.0 27.3 50.0 33.3
Assa 47.7 42.9 33.3 35.7 54.5 39.1
Mean 45.4 39.4 46.3 30.3 50.0 37.8
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 39.2 40.3 22.7 0.0 35.7
Alipur Moma 50.8 44.1 22.2 20.0 50.0 34.2
Kohla 51.2 45.5 8.8 66.7 100. 26.7
Makhan Nagar 51.7 64.0 32.5 0.0 7.7 38.0
Mean 51.1 46.2 28.8 25.0 22.2 34.4
High Bhandaura 53.1 100. 27.9 – – 34.4
Jhunjunee 54.1 30.8 34.2 18.2 0.0 29.6
Pali 56.1 5.0 16.9 0.0 – 13.8
Mean 54.4 20.0 27.0 17.4 0.0 24.6
Total Average 50.3 40.2 29.1 30.0 30.6 32.8
aSee Table 2 note
96 R. C. Tripathi

sought work participation in low educationally developed villages to about 22.9 %

in the high educationally developed villages, a clear indication of what obtains
in a patriarchic society. Although a clear preference for male child was found in
case of all groups, in the high educationally developed villages, woman showed
equal preference for male and female child. Though, this was not supported by
data which we got from respondents relating to and use of sonography. In low edu-
cationally developed villages, only 21.7 % reported the use of sonography in com-
parison with 40.8 % in the high educationally developed villages and 36.7 % for
the medium developed (Table 7).
Another finding related to practising purdah. We were surprised to find that
more (96.8 %) women in the high educationally developed villages practised pur-
dah compared to 90 % in the medium developed and 78 % in the low education-
ally developed villages. Another indicator of gender parity which we looked at
was the existence of polyandry. Only 9.3 % in the low educationally developed
villages reported prevalence of polyandry in their communities compared to 45 %
in the medium and 70.6 % in the high educationally developed villages (Table 8).
Although the number of women who cast votes in elections appeared to go up
with educational development, more women in the low educationally developed
villages cast votes of their own free will (71 %) than those in the high educationally
developed villages (66 %). Further, across educational levels, we found correlations
between aspirations for girls and the Educational Development Index (high = 0.36;
medium = 0.38; low = 0.26). On the whole, educational development did not seem
to contribute towards gender parity.
Educational development and political development: There are several indi-
cators of political development, the most important being political efficacy. This

Table 8  Existence of polyandry
Level Village name EDI Yes No Do not No Total
know response numbers
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 3.4 92.0 4.6 0.0 87
Maqboolpur 45.1 0.0 100. 0.0 0.0 40
Dudhi Khadar 45.6 0.0 97.0 0.0 3.0 33
Assa 47.7 3.5 61.7 3.5 0.9 115
Mean 45.4 2.0 87.7 2.0 1.0 275
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 35.7 61.4 2.9 0.0 140
Alipur Moma 50.8 59.5 36.7 2.5 1.3 79
Kohla 51.2 38.3 61.7 0.0 0.0 60
Makhan Nagar 51.7 46.8 49.4 2.5 1.3 79
Mean 51.1 45.1 52.3 2.0 0.7 358
High Bhandaura 53.1 73.3 26.7 0.0 0.0 45
Jhunjunee 54.1 69.6 27.0 1.7 1.7 115
Pali 56.1 68.8 27.5 2.5 1.3 80
Mean 54.4 70.6 27.1 1.4 1.0 240
Total Average 50.3 42.0 54.9 2.3 0.8 873
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 97

generally translates into participation in various democratic structures of govern-

ance. We, therefore, expected that educational development would lead people to
participate in matters related to village governance. Though, in the high education-
ally developed villages, almost everyone cast votes in local elections, this did not
reflect in increased participation in open meetings of the gram panchayat (Table 9).
Only 7.2 % participated in the open meetings of the panchayat in the high edu-
cationally developed villages.
Educational development and happiness: It is only recently that social scien-
tists have started making a distinction between life and good life. Economists have
shown that an increase in income is not associated with increase in happiness levels
after a certain point. Happiness surveys carried out in various countries show that
certain countries found to be quite low on HDI actually do much better on the hap-
piness index. The case of Ghana, may be cited in this context. We did find that
educational development and happiness index for the families had a positive cor-
relation. However, the correlation was somewhat low in the case of high education-
ally developed villages (r = 0.27) in comparison with medium (r = 0.42) and low
educationally developed villages (r = 0.34). We also enquired from the respondents
about the extent of family’s happiness. The results appear in Table 10.
There are only small differences in the percentage of respondents who report
the extent of family’s happiness as very high. But the number of respondents who
report the state of family’s happiness as “less” or “not at all happy” is found to be
30 % for high educationally developed villages compared to 21.7 % for the low
educationally developed. One reason for this could be that respondents in the high
educationally developed villages do not feel very optimistic about their economic
wellbeing in the next 10 years.

Table 9  Participation in open meeting of gram panchayat held in the last year

Level Village name EDI Yes No No meet No Total
held response numbers
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 18.4 42.5 35.6 3.4 87
Maqboolpur 45.1 7.5 5.0 85.0 2.5 40
Dudhi Khadar 45.6 6.1 15.2 78.8 0.0 33
Assa 47.7 26.1 34.8 35.7 3.5 115
Mean 45.4 14.5 24.4 58.8 2.4 275
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 2.9 39.3 54.3 3.6 140
Alipur Moma 50.8 5.1 25.3 63.3 6.3 79
Kohla 51.2 40.0 38.3 20.0 1.7 60
Makhan Nagar 51.7 16.5 7.6 72.2 3.8 79
Mean 51.1 16.1 27.6 52.5 3.9 358
High Bhandaura 53.1 8.9 24.4 64.4 2.2 45
Jhunjunee 54.1 5.2 27.0 66.1 1.7 115
Pali 56.1 7.5 26.3 62.5 3.8 80
Mean 54.4 7.2 25.9 64.3 2.6 240
Total Average 50.3 12.8 28.8 55.2 3.2 873
Note Percentages denote row percentages
98 R. C. Tripathi

Table 10  Extent of the family’s happiness

Level Village name EDI Very Neither Less Not No Total
happy very nor happy happy response numbers
less happy
Low Bahuroopur 43.4 28.7 56.3 13.8 1.1 0.0 87
Maqboolpur 45.1 26.6 46.8 15.2 11.4 0.0 40
Dudhi Khadar 45.6 32.5 47.5 17.5 2.5 0.0 33
Assa 47.7 27.8 46.8 20.3 5.1 0.0 115
Mean 45.4 28.9 49.4 16.7 5.0 0.0 275
Medium Mubarikpur 50.5 33.3 42.2 20.0 2.2 2.2 140
Alipur Moma 50.8 22.9 47.9 20.7 7.9 0.7 79
Kohla 51.2 20.0 45.0 22.5 12.5 0.0 60
Makhan Nagar 51.7 25.2 42.6 15.7 15.7 0.9 79
Mean 51.1 25.4 44.4 19.7 9.6 1.0 358
High Bhandaura 53.1 26.7 53.3 10.0 10.0 0.0 45
Jhunjunee 54.1 24.3 41.7 23.5 9.6 0.9 115
Pali 56.1 24.2 36.4 27.3 9.1 3.0 80
Mean 54.4 25.1 43.8 20.3 9.6 1.3 240
Total Average 50.3 26.3 46.5 18.4 8.1 0.5 873

4 Conclusions

I am aware that the findings that I have presented here will not be easily accepted by
those who have believed and argued for long that education is the panacea for solv-
ing all kinds of social problems and for enhancing human development. They will
still need to answer how for certain groups of marginalized people, for the excluded
and the indigent, educational development at the macro- or community-level results
in lowering down their average incomes and also reduces their life chances. How
would they explain the increasing gap in the gender ratio and raised levels of IMR
for girls with educational development? How, and why, does the frequency of inter-
personal contacts between the villagers show a decline and social networks lose
their strength in educationally developed villages? Why should polyandry and
“purdah” be more prevalent in the high educationally developed villages than in
the low educationally developed villages? Why does educational development not
translate into “voice” as very few in the educationally developed villages take part
in the meetings of the gram panchayat and seek to influence their decisions? And
finally, how is it that educational development does not result in raising the levels
of happiness or subjective wellbeing of the people? These are questions which call
for in-depth studies of villages in their sociocultural and political contexts and also
of the psychological make-up of the rural people. Apart from this, I feel, there is an
urgent need to examine the approach we have adopted which governs our and poli-
cies of education. Could it be that the values which underlie educational institutions
and, therefore, the education that is delivered, are the same which drive the neo-
liberalism and free market economy. Education more than ever has converted itself
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 99

into a business with most universities trying to link up with industry and looking
for places where they can open new campuses. Education is no longer about creat-
ing minds which are “free” but it is about creating such human resource which can
serve the various organized sectors. Such education and educational institutions end
up creating minds which believe in competing and exploitation rather than in col-
laborating and in forming interdependent and synergistic relationships?
It appears to us that the dominant approach of development which focuses
on enablement and capability development is individual centric and ignores the
larger matrix within which social systems function. We recall that many years
back, McClelland (1961) had argued that achievement motivation was at the root
of economic development of societies, and societies like India had not developed
as fast as societies in the West because they were low on need for achievement
and high on need for affiliation. He went on to show that if through training need
for achievement could be increased, such individuals will take up entrepreneur-
ial activities. But in an ingenious experiment, Sinha (1968) showed that need for
achievement released motivational processes which were not supportive of the sys-
tem’s growth and development. Higher need for achievement in scarce resource
environments led individuals to engage in hoarding behaviour which was against
the public good. It is our hunch that education when it is approached as capability
development equips the individuals with skills that set them apart from the illiter-
ate and poor and puts them in a different social class. It builds walls more than
opening up the windows. It also rewires them in terms of their motivational struc-
tures where they seek their future in gold, like Columbus. Zinn (2003) recounts
that when Columbus landed in America, he was greeted by the Indians with a great
deal of affection who came to meet him with all kinds of offerings because in the
worldview of “Indians”, there were no enemies and no others. Today’s education
is for prosperity, which has competition and greed as the central values. It is not
driven by what Offer (2006) calls “prudence”. For people with such mindsets, it
is easy to exploit illiterate villagers who trust others easily as they follow a world
view based on relationships. They come to the educated to seek help whether it
is in matters involving law or matters related to dealing with various bureaucratic
organizations and get exploited. How else can we explain that in high education-
ally developed villages the marginalized earn much less than their counterparts in
low educationally developed villages? Education frees but the nature of education
that is imparted also equips individuals with skills to take slaves. The history of
colonization stands in testimony to it. How else one can explain the ever increas-
ing disparity between the rich and the poor around the world with rise in the levels
of literacy and levels of education? The world may have grown prosperous many
times over in the past 50–60 years; it has certainly not become a safer place to
live. It has not deepened human bonds and increased trust in each other, but has
made people more paranoid than ever. Ambedkar had, perhaps, realized this when
he said that an educated man without character and humility was more danger-
ous than a beast. If his education was detrimental to the poor, he was a curse to
society (Keer 1990/1954, p. 305). And so it became. Kamble, an illiterate dalit
woman writer in a remarkable book titled The prisons we broke (2008), recounts
100 R. C. Tripathi

her oppressive life as a dalit woman of the Mahar community in western India
and shares her deep agony about the educated Mahars whose cravings for power
and self-aggrandizement have not helped in bringing about any change in the lot
of the dalits. One cannot expect other, educated “do-gooders” to transform socie-
ties unless there is a paradigm shift in development that departs from focusing on
affluence and self-interest and, instead, focuses on the development of communi-
ties and of social and ethical capitals.

References

Alkire, S., & Santos, M. E. (2010). Acute multidimensional poverty: a new index for developing
countries. Working paper -38, OPHI, University of Oxford.
Appadurai, A. (2004). The capacity to aspire: culture and terms of recognition. In V. Rao and
[Link] (eds.) Culture and public action. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Cantril, H. (1965). The pattern of human concerns. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1998). Finding flow: the psychology of engagement with everyday life.
New York: Basic Books.
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Beyond money: toward an economy of wellbeing.
Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5, 1–31.
Drèze, J., & Sen, A. (2002). India: development and participation. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Escobar, A. (2000). Beyond the search for a paradigm? post-development and beyond.
Development, 43, 11–14.
Gomez, E. O. (2009). Educating for prosperity: An historical analysis of education as the pana-
cea for poverty. Doctoral dissertation. University of Alberta.
Hulme, D., Moore, K. & Shepherd, A. (2001). Chronic poverty meanings and analytical frame-
works. Manchester: IDPM, University of Manchester (CPRC- Working Paper 12.
Kahneman, D. (1999). Objective happiness. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.),
Well-being: foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 3–25). New York: Russell Sage
Foundation Press.
Kamble, B. (2008). The prisons we broke: the autobiography of the dalit community. New Delhi:
Orient Longman.
Keer, D. (1990/1954). Dr. Ambedkar: Life and mission. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, first pub-
lished in 1954.
Kramer, A. (2010). An unobtrusive behavioral model of “gross national happiness”. In ACM CHI
2010: Conference on human factors in computing, Atlanta, GA.
Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: lessons from a new science. London: Penguin Books.
McClelland, D. C. (1961). The achieving society. New York: Van Nostrand.
McDonald, R. (2003). Finding happiness in wisdom and compassion: the real challenge for an
alternative development strategy. The Journal of Bhutan Studies, 9, 1–22.
Offer, A. (2006). The challenge of affluence: self-control and well-being in the United States and
Britain since 1950. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Oxaal, Z. (1997) Gender and empowerment: definitions, approaches and implications for policy.
Report No. [Link]: BRIDGE IDS.
Sayed, Y. (2008). Education and poverty reduction/eradication: Omissions, fashions and prom-
ises. In S. Maile (Ed.), Education and poverty reduction strategies: Issues of policy coher-
ence. South Africa: HSRC Press.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sinha, D. (1969). Indian villages in transition: A motivational analysis. New Delhi: Associated
Publishing House.
5  Education: Path to Development and Happiness in Rural India? 101

Sinha, D. (1974). Motivation and rural development. Calcutta: Minerva Associate.

Sinha, J. B. P. (1968). The nAch/nCooperation under limited/unlimited resource conditions.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 4, 233–246.
Tripathi, R. C., Mazumder, B., & Bhatt, K. N. (2007). Education for development: The Mawana
study. New Delhi: Sri Ram Foundation.
Tucker, V. (1999). The myth of development: A critique of Eurocentric discourse. In Critical
development theory: Contributions to a new paradigm, Ronaldo Munck and Denis O’Hearn
(eds.) Critical development theory: Contributions to a new paradigm (pp. 1–26), New York:
Zed Books.
Vanneman, R. & Dube, A. (2010). Horizontal and vertical inequalities in India, retrieved from
[Link]/conference/papers/vanneman-dubey on February 15, 2011
Veenhoven, R. (2003). World database of happiness, catalogue of happiness queries.
[Link]/fsw/research/happiness.
Veenhoven, R. (2007). Measures of Gross National Happiness, MPRA Paper 11280. Germany:
University Library of Munich.
Zinn, H. (2003). A people’s history of the United States: From 1492 to the present. Harlow:
Longman.
Chapter 6
Language Policy and Education: Towards
Multilingual Education

Minati Panda and Ajit Mohanty

1 Introduction

The constitutional discourse on language policy in education in independent India

has employed almost all colonial concepts and categories, like language, dialect,
mother tongue, vernacular language and tribal dialect, to categorize Indian lan-
guages. Corresponding discourses in the disciplines of psychology, education, lin-
guistics and for that matter in educational institutions like the National Council
of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)—a nodal central body for school
education—use these categories along with terms like medium of instruction,
regional language, national language, international language, first, second and
third language without unpackaging the colonial historical roots and meanings of
these conceptual categories. But does not the meaning change if the category “dia-
lect” or “tongue” is applied in place of “language” when, for example, we call
the language of the Saora tribe the “Saora dialect” and not the “Saora language”?
Further, what kind of political power and legitimacy get attached to each of these
categories when the term “vernacular” is prefixed to a language? Odia, Telugu,
Bengali, Punjabi—all Indian languages—are called vernacular languages, whereas
English is not, which accords English a higher status. So, even when the term
language is applied to regional languages like Odia, Telugu, Bengali and Punjabi
and to English, the term vernacular distinguishes the former from the latter and
places them in a hierarchical order in which English occupies a higher position.
Other languages like Saora, Desia, Kondh, Sambalpuri, Bhojpuri have the tag of

M. Panda (*) 
Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi, India
e-mail: minatipanda@[Link]
A. Mohanty 
NMRC, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Bhubaneswar, India
e-mail: ajitmohanty@[Link]

R. C. Tripathi and Y. Sinha (eds.), Psychology, Development and Social Policy in India, 103
DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-1003-0_6, © Springer India 2014
104 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

“dialect” attached to them that places them at the bottom of the language hierar-
chy. These three terms had specific meanings in the colonial period, but were used
regularly in constitutional debates and found their place in the Indian Constitution.
Their meaning never got sufficiently unpackaged. It could be that the Indian
Constitution uses these terms, because it accepted the language hierarchy created
by the colonial rulers. But, as a consequence, hundreds of Indian languages have
not found recognition as “languages”. They are treated as “dialects” or “tongues”.
Such practices have social consequences. Illich (1980) shows how the codifica-
tion of local languages has led up to their commodification. Languages are no longer
learnt from the environment, but have to be taught. Commodification of local lan-
guages has turned them into valued goods to be marketed. Such categorization has
had another consequence. After local languages became part of the language hier-
archy, created by the colonizers and the powerful elite, they were used as political
tools to make hundreds of local languages invisible. Further, it also created a market
for the language(s) of higher prestige, namely English in the local and traditionally
non-English areas. Some new functional terms, like first language, second language
and third language, were then invented and used in educational planning and dis-
course. This provided a politically acceptable hierarchical template for placing these
languages in the school system and also for developing a pedagogical approach to
teach these languages. The shift also legitimized the need to teach English along
with the vernacular languages in almost all non-English areas of India.
In this new political environment of the colonial India, another shift followed.
The term “mother tongue” was coined to accord an emotional priority with cer-
tain vernacular languages. This invisibilized other vernacular languages and many
so-called dialects. But this was nevertheless mooted by the powerful majority
communities partly because it did not change the existing language hierarchy in
the society and the neoliberal economic design of the world communities. What
this did was to allow certain languages to be used as the medium of instruction
on emotional and moral grounds for the first few years of school education. The
British Indian Government could therefore selectively work with people’s lan-
guages. The decision to offer mother tongue-based education to one community
on emotional grounds did not require the Government to apply the same criterion
to other minority languages in the country.
The Indian Constitution, as stated above, employed all these colonial terms. The
education policies were formulated using a three-language formula where English
and the vernacular languages occupied a higher position. These policies survived
because of their compatibility with the neoliberal economic philosophy. The
recently formulated National Curriculum Framework (NCERT 2005), the National
Knowledge Commission Report (2009) and the Right to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009, remain less informed by these historical facts and have con-
tinued to employ these terms uncritically. Instead of deconstructing these terms and
replacing them by more egalitarian terms, these three documents provided legiti-
macy to the commodification of languages. There is a fear that these policies may
work against the interests of the less powerful minority language communities.
The world today is getting poorer in terms of its linguistic and cultural diver-
sity. It is estimated that by the end of this century, we will be left with only 10 %
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 105

of the approximately 7,600 languages that are spoken today. UNESCO’s Atlas of
the World’s Languages in Danger (UNESCO 2009) lists 196 languages of India
that are in different degrees of endangerment. This is paradoxical for a country
like India, which is the fourth most diverse country in the world and has 300–400
major languages and a larger number of mother tongues: also for a country that
takes a great deal of pride in its cultural diversity. The Census of India of 2001
received 6,661 mother tongue declarations, which were rationalized into 3,592
mother tongues. Out of these, 1,635 mother tongues were listed and the remaining
1957, each with less than 10,000 speakers, were grouped under a single, “other
mother tongues” category. A large number of indigenous and tribal languages
have already been lost, and many more remain endangered. Loss of linguistic
diversity in India, as well as in the world, cannot simply be dismissed as a process
of “natural” organic decay of languages, with their speakers voluntarily shifting
to the use of dominant languages. The loss or disappearance of languages must
be seen as a process of linguistic genocide or language murder, and as expos-
ing power inequalities of languages and their speakers. State policies of neglect
and discrimination trigger a set of processes responsible for the loss of languages
(Skutnabb-Kangas 2000). Unjust and inequitable distribution of power across lan-
guages, socially constructed inequalities leading to stigmatization and marginali-
zation of some languages and state policies of discrimination among languages
and linguistic communities together facilitate the process of loss of languages.
Endangerment of languages is, therefore, a consequence of specific agencies of
state policies and social practices of discrimination and denial of linguistic human
rights in important socio-political spaces, such as in educational institutions,
media, official and bureaucratic communications and work organizations.
Since the use of languages in education is held to be one of the most power-
ful forces in enhancing the vitality of languages (Fishman 1991; Skuttnabb-Kangas
2000), this chapter focuses on examining the language policy and language prac-
tices in India, particularly with respect to the education of tribal and other minority
communities. We also ask how these policies and practices are informed by the
research done within the discipline of psychology, linguistics, sociology and edu-
cation and also how the latter help in developing an informed critique of the lan-
guage policy and practices in India. Towards the end of the chapter, we consider
a possible way forward in terms of multilingual education. The chapter analyzes
the nature of Indian multilingualism and the place of languages and their relation-
ship in the multilingual structure of the country. It argues that the hierarchy and
gross inequalities in languages can be seen as a linguistic double divide, both at
the level of policy and at the level of practice. We show that this double divide has
serious implications for education of the tribal children as it leads to educational
failure, capability deprivation and increased poverty among the tribal communities.
Some theoretically informed programmes of multilingual education based on tribal
children’s home language are discussed as attempts to deal with the problems of
language disadvantage encountered by tribal children. Although these programmes
have shown positive effects on education of the tribal children, we conclude that a
clear language policy in education retards the process of attaining a discrimination-
free inclusive Indian society.
106 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

2 Indian Multilingualism: Discrimination

and Disadvantage

2.1 Features of Indian Multilingualism

Indian multilingualism is characterized by complementary use of multiple lan-

guages in the routine daily life activities of people (Mohanty 2006). Many
languages are used in different domains of social activity, such as in familial com-
munication, marketplace use, religious activities, entertainment, intergroup com-
munication and formal workplaces. These languages are functionally allocated to
different domains with some regularity, consistency and without much conflict.
Languages are also characterized by fluidity of boundaries (Khubchandani 1983).
Speakers freely and effortlessly move between languages, such as Urdu, Hindi,
Punjabi or Haryanavi, as well as many between varieties of Hindi in and around
Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. Such multilinguality is found almost everywhere in
India. This kind of fluidity of linguistic boundaries goes with multiplicity of lin-
guistic identities, which are developed through complex processes of multilin-
gual socialization. These features of multilingualism also support the processes
of language maintenance in situations of language contact. Thus, as people move
between domains of language use, they often code-switch and code-mix, which
is another indication of multiplicity of identities or development of a multilin-
gual identity. No single language is sufficient for communicative requirements in
different situations and occasions in India. Bhatia and Ritchie (2004) also hold
that multiple languages and multiple language identities are defining features of
Indian and South Asian societies. Linguists also point out that despite the diver-
sity of languages, regional communication links in India show a natural and
unimpaired flow (Khubchandani 1978; Pattanayak 1981, 1984).
In many respects, Indian multilingualism is a positive force in the society and
is accepted as a necessary part of daily lives of people. Psycholinguistic and social
psychological studies in India (see Mohanty 2003 for details) show that multi-
lingualism is associated with positive cognitive and social consequences. But the
manner in which Indian multilingualism is practised in official and institutional
spaces, like schools and colleges, has resulted in gross inequalities and creation of
a power hierarchy of languages.

2.2 Hierarchical Multilingualism and the Vicious

Circle of Language Disadvantage

Languages in official spaces in India can be seen to be located at different levels

of a power hierarchy. Some languages, such as English, are privileged and endow
their speakers with greater power and access to resources. Speakers of English
have clear advantages associated with their language in significant and resourceful
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 107

areas of use, such as in trade and commerce, in employment, in education and

in many others. Indigenous tribal minority (ITM) languages, on the other hand,
are associated with disadvantage, marginalization and discrimination. These lan-
guages are deprived of opportunities in domains of socioeconomic and political
significance and gradually lose their instrumental vitality and get progressively
weakened. ITM languages in India do not provide privileged access to jobs, trade
and commerce, education, formal and statutory domains of activity. As a result,
they are perceived by their users as having little instrumental value. With pro-
longed neglect and powerlessness, languages have become marginalized and their
use has been confined to limited domains. They are mostly used in homes and for
in-group communication. With progressive domain shrinkage, these languages
have been cumulatively weakened. The weakness of such languages, which, of
course, is due to their long-term neglect, is used to justify their further neglect.
Exclusion of ITM languages in education is justified on grounds of inadequacy
of these languages for educational and scientific use. The absence of indigenous
or exclusive scripts or writing system for most tribal languages in India is used as
another argument to consign them to the status of “dialects”. This view ignores
the fact that a writing system is not a defining feature of a language and that many
major languages of the world do not have their “own” script, but use some com-
mon script. Thus, as shown in Fig. 1, indigenous tribal and other minority lan-
guages are largely weakened due to socioeconomic and educational neglect and
such weakness is used to justify their further neglect, catching them into a vicious
circle of language disadvantage (Mohanty et al. 2009).

INDIGENOUS/MINORITY
LANGUAGES

EDUCATIONAL
JUSTIFICATION &
OF SOCIAL
FURTHER THE VICIOUS CIRCLE NEGLECT
NEGLECT

WEAKENING OF
LANGUAGES

Fig. 1  The vicious circle of language disadvantage

108 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

The relationship between language and power in the hierarchical context of

multilingualism leads to relative weakness of languages and to marginalization
and language shift in the case of languages at the lower rungs of the power hier-
archy. This process has resulted in layers of power and dominance hierarchy of
languages in India with divisions between clusters of languages positioned at dif-
ferent levels of the hierarchy. Analysis of power gaps in the hierarchy of languages
shows two major cleavages that we have termed the “double divide” in the three-
tiered hierarchy of languages in India (Mohanty et al. 2010).

3 Double Divide in Indian Multilingualism

Languages in India can be seen as constituting a hierarchical power structure with

multiple layers within a pyramidal system. In post-colonial India, English contin-
ues to occupy the most dominant position in the power hierarchy, with the major
regional languages or the “vernaculars” coming in the middle and indigenous
tribal minority languages and other so-called local dialects figuring at the lowest
level. The maximum number of languages is found at the lowest level of the hier-
archy. The system of organization of the relationship between languages in India
is, thus, characterized by a double divide, one between English and major regional
languages/vernaculars and the other between the major regional languages and
indigenous tribal minority languages. In fact, all South Asian countries show a
common pattern of this kind of linguistic double divide (Mohanty 2010a) with
English figuring at the apex of the hierarchy. One or a few major language(s) in
the country may have a symbolic status, as language(s) of national identity, but
English is the language of effective power. Each country in South Asia also has
several minor and minority languages positioned at the lowest level in the lin-
guistic hierarchy. In Pakistan, for example, there are three official languages, that
is, Urdu, English and Sindhi. But in the power hierarchy, English is at the top.
Urdu, Sindhi and Punjabi come next, and nearly 72 other languages languish at
the bottom (Rahman 1998). In Nepal, English again is the language of power and
Nepali, the major national language, comes next at the second level, with nearly
100 other languages figuring at the bottom. Bangladesh came to be founded on
Bengali nationalism and rejection of the undue dominance of Urdu. Bengali was
declared as the only official language of the new nation. But here too, English is
the real elite language and has greater power compared with Bengali, although it
is not a language that contributes to Bengali identity in any way. Nearly 39 other
languages in Bangladesh remain neglected and marginalized.
In India, the linguistic divide is reflected in the dominant and hegemonic sta-
tus of English over Hindi and other major regional languages, which have been
constantly struggling to withstand its pressure. The major regional languages too,
in turn, keep the ITM languages marginalized. As a result, the ITM languages,
which figure at the bottom of the hierarchy, are subjected to maximum social,
economic and educational neglect and discrimination. Hindi is recognized as the
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 109

official language of the Union of India along with 21 other languages for pur-
poses of interstate communication and also communication between the states
and the Union (see Articles 343, 344 and 346 and the Eighth Schedule of the
Constitution of India). This assignment of “official” status to some languages
can be construed as a first step in the discrimination against all other non-offi-
cial languages. The Eighth Schedule is a reflection of recognition and domi-
nance that has come to some languages on the basis of organized political power
of the respective linguistic groups. When the constitution was framed in 1950,
the Eighth Schedule included only 14 languages, and none among them was a
tribal language. With political and organized movements by specific linguis-
tic communities, more languages came to be added through subsequent amend-
ments to the Constitution, which increased the number of “official” languages
to 18. The last amendment to the Constitution took place in December 2003. As
a result, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali were added in the schedule, increas-
ing the number of official languages to 22. This amendment, for the first time
since promulgation of the constitution, gave recognition to two tribal languages,
namely Bodo and Santali, as official language. This change happened due to
intense political lobbying and prolonged language movements which were car-
ried out by these two tribal communities. As noted in the People of India project
of the Anthropological Survey of India (Singh 2002), there are 159 tribal lan-
guages. Most of them have remained neglected, marginalized and stigmatized as
“dialects”. Multiple levels of discrimination and inequalities including statutory,
economic neglect and social stigmatization have caused progressive domain loss
to these languages. Institutionalized linguistic inequalities also are quite conspic-
uous. Besides the 22 “official” languages, very few languages are used in educa-
tion. Tribal languages, in particular, are subjected to gross neglect in education at
all levels.

3.1 Education and Language Policy

We have argued above that education in India today amply reflects the dou-
ble divide and the hierarchical positioning of languages with a clear exclusion
of most of ITM languages from school and higher education. Only three to four
tribal languages are used as medium of instruction (MoI), and less than 1 % of the
tribal children have any option for education in their home language. As a result,
most of the tribal children are pushed into submersion education in a dominant
language. This adversely affects their chances of academic success. Early learn-
ing through a second and less familiar language has a subtractive effect on their
home language. As they acquire some competence in the school language, their
competence in home language goes down and becomes limited. While all of the
22 official languages are used as MoI and as school subjects, the use of other lan-
guages in schools has declined over the years (Mohanty 2008). The number of lan-
guages taught as subjects in schools used to be 81 in 1970. But the number had
110 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

declined to 41 in 1998. The number of languages used as language of teaching or

MoI in the primary grades (grades 1–5) declined from 43 in 1990 to 33 in 1998.
The position today is that only 11 of the languages, not listed as official languages
of India, are used as MoI in primary grades, despite the rhetorical support that has
been provided for mother tongue education in several policy documents of the
Government. Article 350A of the Constitution of India ([Link]
govt/constitutions_of_india.php) (see Mohanty 2008 for a discussion) clearly pro-
vides for instruction in the mother tongue of the minority children. It says that “it
shall be the endeavour of every State and every local authority within the State to
provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at primary stage
of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups”. But the Indian
policy in respect of languages in education has never categorically stated this. For
this reason, the ITM languages continue to be neglected at all levels of education.
In 1957, the Government of India came up with a three-language formula1
(TLF) that recommended the use of regional language or mother tongue as the first
language of teaching to be followed by teaching of Hindi or regional languages
and English, as school subjects. The distinction between regional languages and
mother tongues, though, was not made clear. This, in effect, formalized the impo-
sition of the state majority languages as MoI on tribal children who were forced
into education in a language that was not their mother tongue. Under pressure
from the southern states, where Hindi is not preferred, the TLF was modified in
1967, making the teaching of Hindi optional. It recommended the use of tribal lan-
guages as MoI in early school years for tribal children. However, this recommen-
dation in the TLF, as in several other policy documents, “remained untranslated
into practice” (Mohanty 2006, p. 274). The TLF was subsequently modified on
several other occasions with divergent interpretations and applications in various
states and school systems. Amid such confusion, English became the most com-
mon second-language subject in all the states, followed either by Hindi or by
Sanskrit, as the third-language subject (ibid.). Clearly, the TLF was not a language
policy that was developed keeping education in view. It was a formula that sought
to provide a balance between English, Hindi and other regional languages/vernac-
ulars and mother tongues of the tribal and minority groups. Unfortunately, it failed
to achieve that also despite several modifications.
The absence of a clear language policy for education and the growing impact of
private English medium schools have resulted in a hegemonic position of English
in school education. This has undermined the role of Hindi and other vernacular
languages and nullified possibilities of putting emphasis on tribal languages. One
reason for the divergent state- and regional-level practices in respect of languages
in education is that education is a concurrent subject. So, both the central and the

1  The three language formula was not a policy but a suggestive framework proposed by a lan-

guage committee in 1957 and was adhered to by the school education experts for deciding the
use of languages including medium of instruction in school education in India. So far, India does
not have any language-in-education policy.
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 111

state governments have joint jurisdiction over education. There is another reason.
At all levels of educational planning, while the policy rhetoric is guided by the
political compulsions to assert national and indigenous identities, the ground-level
decisions in respect of languages in education are influenced by the market forces
in favour of English (Illich 1980). In most of the states in India, English is now
taught as a school subject as early as in grade 1. Some states, like Andhra Pradesh
in South India, have gone one step forward and decided to introduce English
medium sections in government schools.
The National Knowledge Commission (2009) of India has also recommended
teaching of English from the first year of schooling in all government schools
in order to “democratize” English and make it available to children of all social
classes. Such proposals of early introduction of teaching of English in schools
belie unfamiliarity with the principles of teaching languages in a multilingual
framework and the well-established pedagogic grounds. As English has moved to
the most preferred position in education in India, pushing Hindi and other state
majority languages and “vernaculars” into secondary position, the constitutional
provision mandating mother tongue teaching (Article 350A) too not only has
been bypassed but violated. The ITM languages, too, as a result have remained
neglected and marginalized, caught as they are in the underside of the vernacular–
other language divide (Mohanty 2010b, p. 168).

3.1.1 National Curriculum Framework 2005 and the Right to Free

and Compulsory Education Act, 2009

The National Curriculum Framework (NCERT 2005) was seen as a landmark

document on school education in India as it raised hopes for restoration of the pri-
macy of use of mother tongues in early education. It acknowledged the research
evidence showing cognitive, scholastic and social advantages of bi/multilingual-
ism and reiterated the constitutional commitment for education in the mother
tongue for linguistic minority children. It recommended that “children will
receive multilingual education from the outset” and that “home language(s) of
children… should be the medium of learning in schools” (p. 37). However, when
it is read closely, the other aspects of NCF 2005 and the position papers by the
national focus groups reveal the built-in contradictions in the framework. Having
espoused the principles and advantages of mother tongue or home language as the
medium of schooling, the NCF 2005 failed to take a critical view of rapid expan-
sion of English medium school systems, not only in the urban areas but also in
the rural tribal areas. More importantly, “second-language acquisition” in Sect.
3.1.3, Chap. 3, of NCF 2005 focused on teaching of English with utter disregard
to the social reality that for millions of minority language children as well as for
most of the majority regional language children, English cannot be treated as a
“second” language. The National Focus Group—Position Papers (NCERT 2006)
on Curricular Areas on teaching of Indian languages and English proclaimed that
mother tongue(s) should be the medium of instruction all through the school, but
112 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

certainly in the primary school. It, on the other hand, also mentioned explicitly
the position of late introduction of English, which was supported on the rationale
of cross-linguistic transfer (see, Cummins 1984, 2009). At the same time, instead
of rejecting the current practices of teaching in English from the beginning of
schooling in English medium schools, it suggested that this practice also could
continue. The NCF 2005, when read along with its position papers, remains a
bundle of contradictions. Despite the initial wave of excitement that it generated,
the NCF 2005 has not been able to trigger substantive changes in the nature of
school education and in the positioning of languages in the school systems across
the country, because the framework itself lacked a clear direction on languages in
education. It failed to project a clear vision in respect of the role of home
language(s) vis-à-vis other dominant languages including English. In fact, in our
view, English has turned out to be the Achilles’ heel for NCF 2005. In 2009, the
Indian Parliament passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act (RTE) providing for education of 6- to 14-year-old children as a
right. But the RTE Act fails to guarantee education in mother tongues or in the
home language as a right. Article 29 (2) (f) of the RTE Act (Chapter V) says,
“medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be in the child’s mother
tongue”2 (emphasis added).
Panda (2009a) has critiqued the RTE based on evidence that education in
early years needs to be imparted in the child’s mother tongue (MT) or in her
first/strongest language (e.g. Thomas & Collier 2002; Mohanty 2003; Panda &
Mohanty 2009; Skutnabb-Kangas 2000). She also argues that the length of mother
tongue medium education has proven to be more important than any other fac-
tor in predicting educational success of students from minority and disadvantaged
communities (Heugh & Skutnabb-Kangas 2010). However, RTE has not been able
to get out of the national obsession with English medium schooling in order to
reject the dual system of private (and English medium) schools for the privileged
and public schools for the disadvantaged others. The denial of a common school
system (CSS), non-inclusion of early childhood care and education (ECCE) and
the absence of a multilingual perspective advocated by the NCF 2005 raise ques-
tions about the viability of RTE’s vision for a right-based inclusive society. The
complex dynamics of politics of language and identity in India has resulted in
vacuous policy statements and emotionally loaded rhetoric of ostensible support
for mother tongues or indigenous languages of identity, on the one hand, and the
actual practices acquiescent to dominance of and popular demand for English, on
the other.

2  See Dr. Giridhar Rao’s blog “MTM education in RtE Bill” at [Link]
1/[Link]; see also “Education Bill—three critiques by Anil Sadgopal” at
[Link]
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 113

4 The Language Barrier in Education and Capability

Deprivation of Tribal Children

Tribal children face a language barrier as they enter school where their mother
tongue is not the language of teaching or MoI. They also face a second barrier in
the form of learning a third language like English, which is not part of their lan-
guage environment and language socialization. The language disadvantage of
these children which they encounter in forced submersion schools with a ver-
nacular language MoI, has been shown to be a major factor in poor school learn-
ing, high push-out3 rates, high rates of school failure, capability deprivation and
poverty among the tribal mother tongue speakers in India (see, Mohanty 2008).
As shown in the report of the Task Force on Issues in Education of Tribal
Children (Panda 2012a) for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the literacy rate (the
percentage of literates in the total population) for the tribal population in India
is 47.10 %, compared with 65 % for the total population, showing a literacy gap
of 17.90 %. The percentage of children enrolled in schools (GER) in 6- to
11-year age group (grades I to V) are 140.76, 130.12 and 114.37 and for grades
VI to VIII (11 to 14 years) 77.52, 85.28 and 76.23 for the STs, the SCs and the
total population, respectively (MHRD 2010). The percentage of students joining
grade I, who are pushed out of school by grade V, are 31.26 for the STs, 26.71
for the SCs and 24.93 for the total population. By grade X, the “push-out” rate
rises to 76.16, 66.56 and 55.88 for the STs, the SCs and for the total population,
respectively. Thus, for every 100 tribal children joining school (in grade I), less
than 24 actually appear in the high school (grade X) examination, and only 9 out
of them pass. As Panda (2012a) notes, there is wastage of 91 % in the existing
system of school education for tribal children, which points to “both the wastage
of the national resources and the magnitude of failures in providing universal
quality education to tribal children”. As revealed in many studies, including in a
large-scale NCERT Survey (Singh et al. 2004), academic achievement of the
tribal children is also noted to be the poorest among the different demographic
categories in India. Again, a maximum of 50 % of the successful high school
graduates from the tribal communities are able to join higher and technical edu-
cation; the rest, with very low level of achievement in the high school examina-
tion, cannot enter higher and technical education. The forced submersion
education for tribal children in a dominant language, which is not their mother
tongue, thus, fails to develop capability for upward mobility and move such peo-
ple out of the web of poverty.
In the hierarchical power structure of languages in India, with a double divide
between English and regional majority languages and between the regional

3  The term “push-out” (Mohanty 2000; Skutnabb-Kangas 2000) is more appropriate (than the

usual term “dropout”) as it captures the essence of the phenomenon; children are pushed out by
inappropriate organization of schools, here mainly because of the wrong medium of education.
114 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

majority languages and languages of the indigenous tribal minorities, language in

education can be seen as a basis of power, control, discrimination and perpetua-
tion of inequalities through schools which, unfortunately, have become the institu-
tionalized instruments for exclusion. Monolingual school practice in a multilingual
society is the first step in this process of exclusion. Indian multilingualism is both
a resource and a challenge. Given the inequalities across languages, tribal lan-
guages suffer gross neglect and exclusion from significant social, political, eco-
nomic and educational domains leading to serious language disadvantage of tribal
children and large-scale failure in dominant-language classrooms, where their
home languages have little space. Spending more than ten years in school and not
getting the advantage of the literacy activities or education are a major reason for
capability deprivation (Panda & Mohanty 2009).
Education in the dominant language fails to empower since it fails to affirm
children’s cultural identity, which helps children develop a positive self-concept
and also is a fundamental requirement for promotion of diversity. Furthermore,
almost all studies on language and education show that if education is carried
out in children’s strongest language in early years for six to eight years, switch-
ing to another language takes only three to four years or less. If children are
taught in the second or third language from class 1, and their mother tongue is
not used as a classroom resource, they not only grow as weak multilinguals they
also perform poorly. Language policy for education in India, as reflected in the
Indian Constitution, seems to recognize the essential multilingual character of
the society, but it has failed to transform the Indian education system and pre-
pare it to face the challenges of India’s multilingual ethos (Mohanty 2008; Panda
2012b). Subsequent policy pronouncements, as we have discussed above, have
not been effective in shaping education to ensure an egalitarian positioning of
languages, particularly in case of the disadvantaged tribal and minority com-
munities vis-à-vis the dominant presence of English which has ensured that the
tribal people remain capability deprived and disadvantaged because the language
policy on which present educational system is based tilts the balance in favour of
a selected few.
Policy provisions at a national level, which we have been discussing, are reflec-
tions of the complicated socio-political dynamics of the society and also of a
complex multilingual and multicultural society. Unfortunately, policies and prac-
tices are driven by political compulsions rather than by research evidence–based
analyses. They tend to be covertly uniform and homogenizing despite claiming to
follow a “bottom-up” approach. As Shohamy (2010) points out, very often writ-
ten and top-down policies can be resisted when presented as innovative language
policies. In India, experimental programmes of multilingual education (MLE) in
government schools for tribal children in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, seeking to
provide quality education for tribal children (see, Mohanty et al. 2009; Panda &
Mohanty 2009), can be seen as local or bottom-up initiatives with the capacity for
influencing changes in the centralized language in education policy and as efforts
to contribute to capability development. We will briefly discuss the MLE initia-
tives in the next section and show how applications of psychological and linguistic
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 115

principles underlying development of multilingual proficiency in education can

influence macro-level policies in respect of education of the minority groups, par-
ticularly the tribal people.

5 Experiments in Multilingual Education of Tribal

Children: Regional Responses to National Policy

It is our view that education in India needs to foster proficiency in languages of func-
tional significance for routine daily life activities and formal workplace use- MT/
home language, languages for regional- and national-level communication and an
international language for wider communication. This involves development of com-
petence in two to three languages including English, for children of the regional
majority or dominant-language communities. For the tribal children, on the other
hand, education must target development of at least four languages—home language,
major regional- and national-level languages (e.g. Odia and Hindi) and English.
Studies show that it is immensely possible to teach more languages and also effec-
tively if learning is built on children’s home language and if the home language is
allowed to stay for longer time in the classroom either as MoI or as a subject. School
education in India involves multiple languages, usually one language as the MoI and
the other as language subjects. This system, however, does not promote multilingual
competence and can, at best, be characterized as a nominal form of multilingual edu-
cation (Mohanty 2008; Panda 2012b). MLE involves two or more languages of teach-
ing or MoI in subjects other than the languages themselves. It seeks to develop high
levels of multilingualism and multiliteracy (Mohanty et al. 2009). Psycholinguistic
principles of bi- or multilingual education (Cummins 2009) and international experi-
ence with MLE (Heugh & Skutnabb-Kangas 2010; Mohanty et al. 2009) show that
the process of education for development of multilingual proficiency must begin with
the development of proficiency in the home language, which is used as the language
of teaching (MoI) for at least six to eight years of schooling. It is only thereafter that
the students should be made to learn other languages through their systematic use as
language subjects and language of teaching (Mohanty et al. 2009). MLE is a system
of quality education for all children in any society where multilingual proficiency is a
valued objective of education. This is particularly true for the tribal, as well as other
linguistic minority group children, who are denied the choice of learning in their
home language and, therefore, development of multilingual proficiency in the avail-
able system of education which forces them to go through subtractive forms of sub-
mersion education in a second or third language. MLE, for these children, is not only
beneficial; it is an educational imperative. The critical role which MLE can play in
dealing with the problem of language disadvantage of tribal children facing the for-
midable double divide and in their capability development has led us to develop some
pilot intervention programmes of MLE in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha in recent years.
In the section below, we discuss these programmes and significant learnings that we
have been able to draw from them.
116 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

5.1 MLE in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha

Experimental programmes of MLE based on tribal children’s home language were

launched in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha in the years 2004 and 2006, respectively.
Andhra Pradesh started MLE in 240 schools for 8 tribal languages and Odisha in
195 schools for 10 tribal languages (see Mohanty et al. 2009, for details). Home
language of the tribal children, in most cases, written in the script4 of the major
state language (Telugu or Odia) is used as language of teaching and literacy
instruction for three to five years of primary education in these MLE programmes.
The second language in MLE, the state majority language (L2), Telugu in Andhra
Pradesh and Odia in Odisha, is introduced as a language subject for development
of oral communication skills in grade 2 and for reading and writing skills from
grade 3 onwards. The second language (L2) is used as a language of teaching,
along with L1, in grades 4 and 5 of primary schools. L1 (home language) is pro-
posed to be continued as a language subject from grade 6 onwards. Teachers in the
MLE programmes are drawn from the concerned tribal language communities and
speak the tribal mother tongue (L1) and the state majority language (L2). MLE
programmes in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha follow the common school curriculum
of the state and make special efforts to make use of the indigenous cultural knowl-
edge systems in developing the textbooks and curricular materials.
Evaluations of the MLE programmes in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha have shown
positive effects on classroom achievement, school attendance and participation, and
parental and community attitude (see Mohanty et al. 2009). The National Multilingual
Education Resource Consortium (NMRC) set up in India by the authors (see NMRC
website [Link] for details) to facilitate and augment MLE activities, par-
ticularly in the states with substantial tribal populations, and to take up formative
evaluation of the programmes, has conducted a longitudinal study to evaluate the
educational outcomes of MLE programmes. The study (Panda et al. 2011) shows that
compared with the primary school (grades 1–5) children in non-MLE schools, the
children in MLE programmes in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha performed significantly
better in classroom achievement measures (language, mathematics and environmen-
tal studies) at all the grade levels. The difference between the two groups, that is,
between the MLE school children and non-MLE school children widened over time
as children moved to higher grades in these subjects. MLE children in higher grades
also had better metalinguistic skills than their non-MLE counterparts. Qualitative
indicators revealed positive impact of the MLE programmes on children’s classroom
attendance and participation, as also on the attitude of tribal communities and teachers
towards tribal children’s capabilities, language and the knowledge systems.

4  Tribal languages in India do not have any exclusive script system; they are usually written in

the script of either the dominant regional language or another major language. However, in recent
years, some tribal languages, such as Santali, have developed their own writing system. Santali
writing system called OlChiki is now used in the MLE programme for Santali mother tongue
children in Odisha.
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 117

Classroom performance and participation of tribal children in the MLE programmes

in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha have been positively affected by the MLE programme
based on children’s languages, which helps them circumvent the language barrier of
the dominant-language schooling. However, several questions can be raised about the
broad plans and the structure of the early MLE programmes in India as well as about
transactional methods in the programmes (Mohanty 2010a, b; Panda 2012b). We will
return to the broad structural issues, particularly those concerning the plans of transition
from MT to other languages and their implications later in this discussion. In our earlier
writing (Panda & Mohanty 2009), we have raised some basic questions on the cultural–
philosophical underpinnings, the pedagogic assumptions and the transactional processes
of MLE in Odisha, which are also equally valid for the programme in Andhra Pradesh.
We have made the following observation:
If children’s everyday activities are used as critical cultural resources to teach in the class-
room, how are the relationships between everyday (empirical) and school (theoretical/
academic) concepts viewed? The processes of acquisition of an everyday concept and a
mathematical concept are very different as both are part of two very different epistemic
practices—home and school (Bernstein 1996; Panda & Cole 2007). The use of many
examples of everyday concepts does not necessarily lead to an understanding of a cor-
responding theoretical concept. It requires the use of carefully planned intervention by the
teacher where the children are assisted to perceive, for instance, a quantity in relation to
another quantity and move gradually from the notion of sharing to the theoretical concept
of ratio. In terms of discourse, the child’s discourse moves qualitatively from the everyday
(empirical) discourse to scientific (theoretical) discourse (see Karpov 2003 for detailed
discussion on everyday and scientific concepts). Even though everyday examples and dis-
courses are vital to start with, the use of everyday examples and discourses in the class-
rooms may not in itself be sufficient to ensure children’s access to academic mathematics
and science discourse (p. 298).

We also question the “packaged” training process for MLE teachers which, in
effect, reduces the classroom transactions to almost ritualistic routines and practices
of continued emphasis on only repetitions and rote memorization as a strategy. It was
obvious that in such pedagogic practices, the rules and the grammar of the package
were transferred and not the theory or the principles underlying such approach. It
may be noted that these questions are more in the form of concerns for qualitative
improvements in MLE and its philosophical, theoretical and pedagogic bases while,
at the same time, accepting the fundamental rationale of MLE and its possible posi-
tive impact on education of the tribal and other children. Our observations on the gov-
ernment-run MLE programme in Odisha and in other parts of India are as follows:
The current MLE programmes are still an improvement over the earlier programmes,
which almost completely excluded children’s language as well as culture. For a change,
the children in MLE classrooms looked happy and confident and they seemed to be relat-
ing to the classroom themes transacted in their mother tongue. The children found the
materials such as big and small books, activity charts, storybooks and a small book on
mathematics familiar. However, the approach was still very much materials- and teacher-
centered…. The programmes looked quite structured, as the same model is used every-
where and teaching–learning activities are often performed as a routine using methods,
which are, at the most, close to the Initiation-Response-Evaluation format (see Mehan
1979) (Panda & Mohanty 2009, p. 300).
118 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

The questions we raised in respect of the pedagogic processes in MLE and the
philosophical bases of the approach we sought to address in a special intervention
programme in Odisha called MLE Plus which is being implemented since April
2007 in some of the government MLE schools in Odisha.

5.2 The MLE Plus Programme in Odisha:

A Cultural–Psychological Approach to MLE

A special intervention in Odisha called MLE Plus (MLE+) is being simultane-

ously implemented by the authors in eight of the government MLE schools for the
children of Saora and Kondh tribal communities speaking Saora and Kui lan-
guages, respectively. The project aims at strengthening the MLE practices in these
schools through special activities to link tribal children’s everyday discourse5 to
the scientific/academic discourse of the school. The MLE+ intervention in this
project envisages good MLE practices to be holistic, culturally situated and histor-
ically informed of culturally embedded social, mathematical, literacy/oracy and
science practices. The MLE+ approach takes off from exhaustive ethnographic
survey of the everyday practices and the knowledge of the communities with a
view to using the cultural practices to evolve a set of classroom activities to scaf-
fold children’s learning of academic mathematics and science concepts (Panda &
Mohanty 2009). MLE+ programme, with a focus on making classroom learning a
culturally shared collaborative activity, emphasizes both school- and community-
level strategies including motivating parents to send their children to school and
close monitoring of the academic history and development of these children, pro-
moting literacy engagement both in the community and in the school through a
synergistic “Read Together” approach, providing authorship to the tribal villagers
in the bilingual (Saora/Kui and Odia) books published on the basis of oral narra-
tives provided by them on the local history, ecology, stories, songs, etc., and mak-
ing these books part of the Read Together programmes. MLE+ also seeks to
foster community interest in children’s schooling by developing reading and learn-
ing resource centres (libraries and activity sites) in which the oral tradition (story-
telling, songs and rhymes in the community) is linked to written texts6 (Panda &
Mohanty 2009). Each MLE+ school has a community MLE worker (CMW) taken
from the local community, who functions as a vital link between the school (and
teachers) and the community. The CMWs organize all the community activities

5 Here, discourse means knowledge. Therefore, everyday discourse means everyday knowledge.
6  The idea here is to develop a sense of continuity between oral and written practices by col-
lecting folk tales, stories and songs from individual community members and transcribing them
into written texts with authorship and photographs. These and other reading resource materi-
als go into community resource centres as well as school libraries. The International Reading
Association has implemented similar programmes in African countries.
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 119

and facilitate a close interaction between the children, parents, community mem-
bers, teachers and the MLE+ project team. Specific classroom interventions are
based on ethnographic data that are used to develop activities using a cultural his-
torical activity theory (CHAT)7 approach. These activities are designed to facili-
tate critical dialectic exchanges and movements from culture to classroom,
making the linkages from language to mathematics and to science easy, smooth
and culturally meaningful for children (see Panda 2007 for details).
Several internal and independent evaluations of MLE+ programme using
classroom achievement measures for language, mathematics and environmen-
tal studies and qualitative indicators such as classroom participation, teacher and
community attitudes show that the programme has had many positive effects. The
internal evaluations of the programme (Panda & Mohanty 2011) compared class-
room achievement scores (in grades 1, 2 and 3) of all the children in eight MLE+
schools (both Saora and Kui MT groups) with samples from MLE and non-MLE
schools in the same block at the end of the school year over a period of three years
from 2008 to 2010. All the children were tested in the language of school instruc-
tion (i.e. in Saora/Kui for MLE+ and MLE children and in Odia for non-MLE
children) for their classroom achievements in language, mathematics and EVS.
The children in MLE+ programme performed significantly better than their MLE
and non-MLE counterparts. MLE children also performed better than the non-
MLE ones (Panda & Mohanty 2011). External evaluation studies of the MLE+
and MLE programmes, undertaken by the Department of Psychology, Utkal
University (Rath & Sahoo 2011), found that MLE+ children in the primary grades
(grades 1–3) performed better than their MLE counterparts in classroom achieve-
ment measures of mathematics, language and environmental studies. The MLE
children, in turn, also performed better than the non-MLE children. The same pat-
tern of results was also obtained in qualitative indicators of classroom participa-
tion, teacher and community feedback. Another study by Manocha (2010) showed
positive effects of MLE+ programme on children’s classroom participation, com-
munity response to children’s MT-based education and a significant reduction
in fear among children for school education, teachers and textbooks. Although
MLE+ children showed significant gains compared with their MLE and non-MLE
counterparts, their overall classroom achievement scores were found to be in the
average range (50–60 %). MLE+ programme schools are government schools
in the tribal areas where classroom achievement scores of children in primary
grades tend to be generally very low. MLE+ did improve children’s performance

7  We have chosen to use the cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as a general theoretical

framework as it captures the paradigmatic essences of Vygotsky, Luria and Leontiev (for the
latest developments, see Engeström 2001 and Cole & Engeström 2007). We use those aspects
of CHAT that recognize the role of action, labour and activity settings in the co-construction of
mind. The CHAT framework is particularly instrumental because any reform would require a
good historical analysis of socio-political conditions that result in certain kinds of arrangement of
human life. It privileges children’s everyday knowledge without undermining the power for for-
mal literacy and academic practices. More than anything else, it has a clear theory of pedagogy
based on a theory of action.
120 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

significantly compared with their MLE and non-MLE counterparts whose scores
were even lower in the range of 30–40 %. MLE+ operated in the structure of the
government MLE schools, which had several problems in implementation, moni-
toring and evaluation. Further, boosting children’s classroom achievement scores
as such was not the primary concern of the cultural psychological intervention;
it primarily aimed at building a sustained culture–community–classroom inter-
face as a basic foundation for critical literacy engagement and school learning. It
is our view that an intensive programme like MLE+ could have achieved better
results if the implementers were allowed to adopt these schools for a period of
5 years, at least. But, our decision to implement MLE+ intervention in the exist-
ing structure of the government schools was deliberate. We believe that interven-
tions of such kinds need to be grounded, sustainable and replicable in the existing
government school system. For any such programme to have policy implications,
it is necessary to demonstrate its impact under the prevailing ground-level condi-
tions rather than creating a non-replicable set of ideal conditions. Thus, the MLE+
programme can claim at least a moderate degree of success in showing that a pro-
gramme of MLE based on children’s home language can improve the quality of
education for tribal children. However, as pointed out earlier, the pedagogic prac-
tices in MLE and its implementation strategies need to be more carefully looked
at, planned and executed than what seems to have been the case. Moreover, the
broad structure of MLE programmes in India and the positioning of the languages
in the programme in relation to children’s home language will need to do some
rethinking in the light of what was achieved by us and also in the light of what is
already known about the best practices and policies in respect of MLE in different
parts of the world.

5.3 Significant Learnings from MLE Initiatives in India

The experimental MLE programmes in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha are in the pro-
cess of being extended to a substantially larger number of schools. It is expected
that nearly 3,000 primary schools in both the states will be covered under
the existing pilot project. However, MLE is not yet a mainstream programme
for the Government. It is treated as a form of “innovation” in education for all
(Sarva Siksha Abhiyan or SSA) at both the central and state government levels,
also supported as a special initiative in tribal education. In the absence of a lan-
guage policy for education in India, this has led to some tentativeness evident in
the fluctuations in positioning of languages (MT, state majority language, Hindi
and English) in the programme. Particularly, the point of introduction of English
in MLE as well as in general education in the states has changed quite often over
the last few years. It has moved to earlier grades in most states including Andhra
Pradesh, but in some states (such as in West Bengal and Odisha), English has
moved in both directions in primary grades. The status of Hindi has also remained
quite uncertain. It has not been brought to the primary level in the two MLE states.
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 121

The tribal mother tongues in the MLE programmes in the two states have also
been treated only as a necessary step towards quality education in English and the
major state language. This has often resulted in the display of impatience with pro-
longed use of the tribal MT. The approach seems to be that MT/home language
can be supported only to a minimum necessary point in education, so that one can
get on with the business of education in the major languages and English. While
also problematizing the sudden loss of children’s cultural capital as a result of
disappearance of their mother tongue, the text and other classroom materials in
MT, Panda and Mohanty (2009) question this kind of minimalist agenda and such
early exit from the MT. Our view is that this system of transition with an early-
exit programme could be a trap, as it would cater to a minimalist agenda of the
Government, and also at the same time address the concerns of a few optimistic
reformists.
Thus, the positioning of and transition between languages are major problems for
MLE in India linked to the early-exit character of MLE in both the states. Analyses
of the status and nature of state MLE programmes in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha
(Nag & Manoharan 2009) also bring into focus the problems in transition from L1
(home language) to L2 (state language) and the points of introduction of English and
Hindi in the early-exit MLE in India. While MT gets less time for adequate develop-
ment of cognitive–academic proficiency than what is ideally required, development
of proficiency in other languages also remains limited. The children in MLE schools
are to join the regular majority language (Telugu/Odia) medium school programmes
in their respective states from grade 6 onwards, and the continuation of MT as a
school subject is uncertain. Thus, the experimental MLE programmes in India are
early-exit programmes in which home language is used as a language medium of
teaching for three to four years and as a language subject up to the five years of pri-
mary-level education. It is evident from various evaluations of the MLE programmes
in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha that they lead to better educational outcomes for
tribal children compared with the programmes of non-MT education in the regular
government schools. However, since the MLE programmes have not been evalu-
ated on a long-term basis, it may be too early to be optimistic about the current pro-
grammes despite their early-exit character.
International research findings (Heugh & Skutnabb-Kangas 2010) show that early
transition from home language to L2 and English may be somewhat better than the
forced submersion in a second language; but late-exit programmes of MLE, which use
home language as a language of teaching for at least 6 to 8 years, are more effective in
helping children get the conceptual machinery of different non-language subjects like
mathematics and EVS than the early-exit programmes. Thus, there is a need to review
the current schedule of transition from the home language to other languages in the
MLE programmes for tribal children in India. The problem of transition in the MLE
programmes stems from the fact that development of children’s home language is not
unequivocally accepted as a legitimate goal in itself. MLE is supported because it facili-
tates learning of and in more “important” languages. In other words, as Panda (2011)
points out, the home language is seen in the current MLE programmes in India only
as “a bridge” to the more significant languages. Bridging, according to her, becomes a
122 M. Panda and A. Mohanty

dominant metaphor among the tribal education experts including leading language ped-
agogues in India dictating the manner in which MLE discourses and models get framed
and tried out (Panda 2012a).
Clearly, the burden of the linguistic double divide weighs heavily on the initial
MLE programmes in India, which are under pressure to accommodate all the
“major” languages in the hierarchical multilingualism—the major state language,
English and Hindi—within the primary-level programme of education, even at the
expense of the children’s learning of languages and academic understanding. The
early-exit approach to transition from children’s home language to vernaculars and
English goes against the established research findings showing that a second lan-
guage or a foreign8 language like English is learnt much better, and faster, when
such learning follows a strong development of the children’s home language. In
fact, the longer the home language is continued as the language of teaching, the
better is the development of proficiency in other languages including English
(Heugh & Skutnabb-Kangas 2010). Unfortunately, as Panda (2012b) observes, the
new transition model of MLE does not question the societal language hierarchy as
it operates through the use of identified tribal language as the MoI in the class.
Different languages appeared sequentially and not in one class as multilingual
resources for teaching the structure of language or for teaching a concept. The
sequencing of the languages in the “early-exit” model in the MLE classrooms
more or less matched their hierarchical positions in our society. Panda (2011, p. 1)
has observed that “The major pedagogic achievement rests in the act of individual
child crossing the bridge between two languages to a certain level of success.
Success here was defined in terms of scholastic achievement and not in terms of
development of positive social identities and motivation”.
This raises a basic question of the nature of MLE in India: can MLE in India
be modified to a late-exit programme? In view of the complex dynamics of power
relations among languages, the dominant status of the regional majority lan-
guages over the tribal mother tongues and the absence of a clear language pol-
icy for education in India, it seems unlikely that the present MLE programmes in
India can be modified to late-exit varieties in the near future. Several factors seem
to negate such a possibility: the cost and complexity of accommodating a large
number of tribal languages into the MLE structure, the post-colonial binding to
the hierarchical positioning of languages and the resultant denial of an egalitarian

8  The status of English as a foreign or Indian language is often debated. Many consider it an

Indian language rooted in Indian culture, having permeated into the local communicative vari-
eties and with its own distinctive features. Indian English is considered one of many world
Englishes. The presence of a large number of English words and expressions in different lan-
guages and local varieties in India is cited as evidence of the “Indianness” of English. Some
other scholars, on the contrary, are of the view that “Indian English” will always be considered a
degenerate variety of Anglo-American English (Dasgupta 1993). However, the characterization
of English as a foreign language is based on a view that foreignness of a language is not just a
question of its origin, but one of the extent to which it is rooted in the cultural experiences of the
language users. In this sense, English as a language is quite alien to the average Indian life and
culture, more so for rural and tribal India.
6  Language Policy and Education: Towards Multilingual Education 123

multilingualism and the compulsions of pushing English (as a targeted language

of education and economic benefits in a globalized world) to earlier grades while
retaining the regional majority language as a marker of the popular identity. Thus,
the odds are stacked against pr