Dear Balram,
I write to you about your views on democracy and economic development. A democracy is a more effective approach to developing a country, but education is the most important aspect in creating a democracy. If I were establishing a country, I would first fix the educational system, which would improve the democracy, which would then lead to the development of the economy, however what do I know? I’m just a 10th grader at Vivian Webb School! By first strengthening the educational system, a democratic government will follow. India, contrary to belief, does not hold “the world’s greatest democracy. It may be so in an objective sense, but on the ground, the poor have such little power.”[1]
So how is it that you fix the poor having little power, you ask? Well, start with transitioning education like China did in 2006 to 2008. At that time, China recognized that having a better-trained workforce is an absolute necessity in order for it to raise its GDP. In order to make this goal a reality, China boosted scholarship funding and other types of aid from $240 million in 2006 to $2.7 billion in 2008.[2] However, because of India’s flawed democracy, “India’s elite educational institutions…are under pressure to limit merit-based admissions and accept half their students on the basis of quotas and affirmative action”.[3] Educating those who are considered “poor” directly influences the way a country is governed. In Hope, Human, and Wild Bill McKibben quotes an analysis, “Those who have felt the power of learning know they have rights. They are willing to struggle for them. Such people constitute a democratic force [to] which even a government ostensibly committed to their welfare must pay attention or face direction”.[4] McKibben argues that the government, through educating its residents, “has created citizens able to hold it accountable. They are no longer marginal humans.”[5] When the citizens of a country are educated, a democratic means of governing becomes a reality.
Education is the key to democratic success. People who are well educated about their rights are able to fight for those same rights. If Gandhi had been ignorant to his rights and the rights of his people, he would not have known of crusade for greater equality. Because Ghandi was an educated man, he had a voice in society and was able to fight for the rights of his people. Imagine, Balram, how much more you could have done for others to be able to flee the Rooster Coop, had you had more of a formal education and been aware of your rights earlier? When people can appreciate and fight for their own education, they are able to hold their government responsible. A government that accounts for its peoples’ need is, in its simplest form, a democracy.
So Balram, it seems we meet eye-to-eye in that we both think that a strong democracy, unlike that of India’s currently, is the most successful approach to economic development. I would expand on your idea, however, and add education to the mix as the way to implement the democracy, and I hope that after reading this letter, you agree.
Best Wishes,
Meredith Hess
[1] Hirsh Sawhney, “India: A View from Below Aravind Adiga with Hirsh Sawhney,” The Brooklyn Rail, September 2008, http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/09/express/india-a-view-from-below.
[2] Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World (New York: Norton and Company, 2008), 96.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Bill McKibben, Hope, Human, and Wild: True Stories of Living Lightly on the Earth (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1995), 140.
[5] Ibid.
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