Through the eyes of the 'other'

As the British wrested power across the country, their racial attitude against the native came to the fore.

The claim that the Hindus are a separate nation, and so are the Muslims, and cannot live together in peace without the British was an Orientalist construct that was applied to tear apart the social fabric of the sub-continent. Once their motivation had graduated from commerce to empire, the colonial hegemony was asserted through cultural supremacy of power and control. It was much sinister than that, as it had proclaimed a moral superiority by reducing the subjugated to a ‘decomposed society, with intellect no higher than a dog’. So profound was its cumulative impact on the masses that 5,000 officers with an army of 65,000 white soldiers were enough to control 300 million people spread across the undivided landscape. Arvind Sharma examines Edward Said’s fundamental thesis - that power invariably drives the production of cultural knowledge – to unfold the ideological might which helped the British exercise full control over people of India.

There is little denying the fact that widespread social influence caused by the imposition of the subjugating culture helped the ruler justify its rule. The British had the luxury of time to reconstruct the cultural history of the undivided landscape, to convince themselves that without their intervention the sub-continent had little future. Else, they could not have created a veil around the plunder of country’s riches, first as East India Company and later as the Empire, which they were engaged in for almost two centuries. India had 24.5 per cent share of global manufacturing output in 1750, which was reduced to mere 2 per cent at the time of independence.

Sharma’s sharp and thought provoking narrative leaves one wondering at the change in attitude of the British during the early nineteenth century. In its early days, the company patronized both the Hindu and the Muslim religions, which transformed dramatically thereafter. As the British wrested power across the country, their racial attitude against the native came to the fore. It will be unjust to judge that action in hindsight, as the ruler had an obligation to not only build their national identity but to reflect a superior self-image back home. Perhaps, permission to allow Christian missionaries to set up educational institutions in 1813, euphemism for conversion, was a step in pushing racial arrogance to the next level. It only helped widen the racial divide further, leading first to the Mutiny, and then to the quest for freedom.

The Ruler’s Gaze is an in-depth study on how misinformation and misinterpretation guided the way in which the myth called India was interpreted by the Greeks and the Europeans. It is intriguing that Indian civilization - its languages, epics and cultures – has been a subject of intense enquiry through most of the recorded history. Did its riches not turn the sails of marauding seamen to unleash organized violence on India? Not without reason the British fought some 110 battles, including those with the Dutch, The French and the Portuguese, to seize India with the ulterior motive of enriching their own resource-poor existence.

Exploring a nuanced understanding of the outside/insider dichotomy of understanding the native, Sharma attempts to presents the ‘other’ perspective as the one that helps to know ‘us’ better. Far from being objective, the ‘others’ saw and understood the native as they deemed fit, justifying George Orwell’s remarks that ‘they denied and obliterated peoples’ understanding of their own history’. To justify their own anomalous presence, the British drew an anomalous portrait of the India based on deep-rooted caste configuration and well-entrenched social practices viz., sati practice, child marriage, dowry and rampant untouchability. It helped them score some brownian points for enforcing their kind of governance on the natives.

The question that begs attention is whether that situation has changed for the better. The ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dichotomy continues to persist, and so are other socio-cultural anomalies. Lord Macaulay had drawn a long term aim ‘to form a class of persons, Indians in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect (who in time would become) by degrees fit vehicles for conveying (our) knowledge to the great mass of the population’. While this wider argument did apply correctly during the colonial period, that it has transcended time zone to afflict potent impact on the dominant politics remains discerning.

A professor of comparative religion at the McGill University in Montreal, Sharma unfolds the Saidian perspective to prism India through the eyes of the rulers. It is scholarly work that is insightful, revealing, and disturbing, leading to multiple interpretations but not without accepting that Saidian frame of mind continues to remain relevant even today.

The Ruler’s Gaze: A Study of British Rule from a Saidian Perspective
by Arvind Sharma
Harper Collins, New Delhi
Extent: 426 pages, Price: Rs 699

First published in the Hindustan Times dated March 17, 2018.

What if Lehman Brothers were Lehman Sisters?

Because women are warm, tender, caring, and compassionate, their perception is at a tangent to the mainstream economics that hinges on the science of self-interest.

She must have said it in a lighter vein then, but France’s Minister of Finance Christine Lagarde statement ‘if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, the financial crises would have turned out differently’ is worth a curious scrutiny. Women may not have been on top in the capital market, but Lehman Sisters would not have allowed the American housing market to overheat in the first place. Past is unlikely to be rewritten, but an emphatic post-facto speculation may ring a different bell at the Wall Street in future. Is such a thought experiment worth any cause now? 

It indeed is, because it helps infer distinctions as humans of opposite sexes have contrasting biologies to handle risks and opportunities. That higher testosterone levels in men make them prone to taking risks is one significant manifestation. And, it is the excessive risk-taking that caused banks to capsize and the resultant financial meltdown to occur. Could it be that simple? May be not, concurs Katrine Marcal, but there is some logic in viewing economics through female mind. Because women are warm, tender, caring, and compassionate, their perception is at a tangent to the mainstream economics that hinges on the science of self-interest. The world that is driven by self-interest is essentially masculine, hence the dichotomy and the disaster!   

The trajectory of Marcel’s argument rests on this missing feminist dimension in economics, the seeds of which were sown by Adam Smith who even discounted his mother’s contribution in household economic statistics despite her daily contribution to cleaning the house, cooking the food, washing the clothes, and squabbling with the neighbors. One wonders if The Wealth of Nations could have been written had Margaret Douglas not prepared dinner for Adam years on end since he never married. The reason for discounting women contribution is primordial, borne out of the assumption that women’s responsibility for care is but a free choice inherited as an opposite sex. Nothing could be far from the truth, however.

Taking a rigorous economic route, the book challenges patriarchy and the entrenched masculine notions that have, and continue to belittle women as the ‘other sex’ who is only good at pushing the washing machine button or at changing the soggy nappy. Could there be something in women’s biology that makes her better suited for unpaid work, questions Marcel. Freud’s view that women scrub, wipe and clean to compensate for a feeling of inherent filth in their own bodies has been proven to be a sheer psychological myth. The renowned psychoanalyst didn’t know what he was talking about, as woman’s sexual organ is an elegant self-regulated and much cleaner organ than other parts of human body. Such prejudices run much deeper, and often do not cohere with reality. Women bodies, emotions and skills have been suitably appropriated to serve the economic man, as if they aren’t productive in any sense of the term. 

The narrative is terse but witty, and makes the reader feel the glaring absence of women as a cog in the economic wheel. As economics is still a science of choice, a choice has broadly been made in favor of man being its driver. No surprise, therefore, that economics is but a male bastion that relies on a rational behavior that is deft at the art of maximizing profit by discounting the importance of emotions, relationships, cooperation, and altruism. The activities that happen without dollars changing hands remain intangible, and hence discounted as feminine vocations. 

Has economy not failed women? Taking a passionate dig at the economic man, the author argues that economic man’s primary characteristic is that he is not a woman. Women may have selectively moved up the economic ladder, but essentially to be like him. It is precisely for this reason that economic outcomes are gender neutral, as if an opposite sex can’t have different structural relationships to production, reproduction, and consumption in society. And, how can there be a comprehensive understanding of economics when what the other half is doing is not brought into the picture. Economics cannot have only one sex!  

Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner is an intense but revealing undertaking. Originally written in Swedish, the translation by Saskia Vogel retains its verve and flair, and is a joy to read. If economists have any intention of ridding the world of its complex economic problems, this book has multiple perspectives that can be worked upon. Feminism’s best kept secret, concludes Marcal, is just how necessary a feminist perspective is in search for a solution to our mainstream economic problems. Feminism is more than just ‘rights of women’; the economic system needs improvement to accommodate the missing dimensions of what it means to be human. 

One thing is clear that if Margaret Douglas was alive today, and witness to the impact of Smith’s economic theory, she would not have cooked dinner for her son. She would have instead ordered it online. 

Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?
by Katrine Marcal
Portobello Books, London
Extent: 230, Price: Rs 374  

First published in Hindu BusinessLine dated March 31, 2018