Title: The
Republic of Hunger and Other Essays
Author: Utsa
Patnaik
Published by:
Three Essays Collective
ISBN
978-81-88789-48-1
Utsa Patnaik in
her book argues that India and China are the two major giants who constitute
almost one third of the total population in nominal terms but in more effective
and real terms northern countries are consuming more resources as compared to
India and China. She cites the example of USA and Canada which are consuming
47.5 times more units of energy than India and China, where former consumes 100
units and the later 230 units. Further, she argues that USA alone consumes 40
percent of the world energy consumption although it has only 4% of the world’s
nominal population. On the other hand two Asian giants consume total 4 percent of
the world’s energy consumption. Yet they are termed as the most populated
nations depleting resources.
The writer
further shows that, how trade became menace to underdeveloped and developing
countries due to Neo-Liberalism and deflationary policies of the developed
countries. She argues that the situation had been worse than the one in
Colonial times to Peasants. In 1990”s it became more difficult when export exceeded due to temperate
climatic conditions in north American and European countries not suitable for
growing crops as compared to tropical climatic conditions of Asian and
Sub-Saharan countries.
As Capitalism
spread, Russia collapsed in 1991 which had a great impact on her own resources.
It had world’s largest Oil, Gas, Gold deposits and other major source of raw
materials. Infant mortality rate rose to 18.6 which is worse than (16), an
Indian state. Life expectancy declined to six years, inflation rose steadily
and death rate also increased drastically. Utsa wrote that in Sub-Saharan
countries of Africa the situation became poorer when suddenly food output declined
during 1980’s. The most populated countries of the region such as Nigeria, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and Zaire met the ill fate. The situation Infact became shoddier
than Sahelian countries. GDP declined. It leads to starvation.
The author
attempted to highlight that how in India from 1998 to 2003 the per capita food
consumption had been sliding down by 177kg to 155kg which made the state of
affairs as bad as it was during the Second World War. The author also makes a
mention of the great femine in China and the Russia’s unrecognised femine of
1991.
In the
concluding section of the book, the author highlights the agrarian crises that occurred
in the era of Neo-imperialism and the role of peasants to tackle the situation citing
the examples of Mexico. In Chiapas province the peasants rose in revolt against
NAFTA. They forced Mexican government to set up a ‘National Commission for
Integral Development and Social Justice for the Indigenous People.’ The Neo-Liberal privatisation, deflationary policies and export promotion caused food insecurity
which paved the way for a revolt against the system.
About the
Reviewer: Riyaz Ahmed is a student of M.A Social Work at Central University
of Jammu.