Justice Markandey Katju: The main features of the 21st century

Justice Markandey Katju

By Justice Markandey Katju-

The 21st century will be characterised by two main features:

(1) The struggles of the peoples of the underdeveloped countries to make their countries developed ones.

(2) The conflicts between  alliances of developed countries. We may consider each of these separately, and then the impact they have on each other.

The 21st century will witness historical struggles by people living in the underdeveloped countries to transform their countries into highly developed ones, so that their peoples may enjoy decent lives and a high standard of living. Before the Industrial Revolution, which started in England around the beginning of the 18th Century, and then spread to France, then Germany, and then in many parts of the world, there were feudal agricultural societies in most parts of the world.

In feudal societies the methods and tools of economic production were so backward and primitive that very little wealth could be generated by them. In much of Asia the bullock or buffalo, and in Europe the horse, was used for tilling the land (there were no tractors in those days). Consequently. little wealth was generated by the feudal method of production that only a handful of people (kings, aristocrats, etc ) could be rich, while the remaining vast majority (mostly poor peasants) had to live in abject poverty and ignorance.

When the cake is small very few people can eat it. (This statement must however be qualified with a caveat that at the later stage of the feudal era, e.g. during the Mughal and Chinese Empires, handicraft industry had grown enormously in many parts, so that a considerable number of people, mainly artisans, had risen above abject poverty).

This situation has drastically changed after the Industrial Revolution. Now a unique situation has developed in world history, and that is that now no one in the world need be poor. This is because modern industry is so powerful and so big that now enough wealth can be created to give everyone in the world a decent life. If society is organized on scientific lines, everyone can get jobs, healthcare, education, and housing, and no one need be poor.

However, the truth is that the overwhelming majority of the people of the world, particularly in underdeveloped countries are still poor, many extremely poor, and their numbers are increasing.

Why is this so ? After all, almost 300 years have expired since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the first half of the 18th century. By now poverty, unemployment, and hunger should have been abolished everywhere in the world. Why has that not happened ? The reason is that soon after the Industrial Revolution a handful of countries e.g. in Western Europe quickly industrialised and grew relatively prosperous, but then they would not let others follow suit, thinking the latter would become economic rivals.

In fact, their industrialisation was aided by plunder and loot of their colonies, as England did in India, leaving the latter far poorer. There are in fact now two worlds in the globe, the developed world, consisting of North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, (and now even China, which by a Revolution has broken into their ranks), and the
underdeveloped countries (Asia, except China and Japan, Africa and Latin America ).

The developed countries now have a secret, unwritten rule not to allow underdeveloped countries to become developed, as that would adversely affect them. To understand this one must go into economics, for, as is often said, politics is concentrated economics.

Cost of labour is a big chunk of the total cost of production, and so if labour is cheap, the cost of production is less, and then one can sell his goods at a cheaper price. There is competition in the market, and one businessman eliminates another not by guns or bombs but by underselling him, i.e., selling the same high-quality goods at a
cheaper price. Thus, China, which built up a massive industry after its Revolution of 1949, captured much of the markets in the world because it has much cheaper labour than in Western countries.

Western supermarkets are packed with Chinese goods, because they often sell at half the price at which Western manufacturers can sell them (because of the expensive Western labor).

If underdeveloped countries like India set up a massive industry, with their cheap labor they will undersell the products of Western industries, which will then collapse, throwing millions out of employment. Will the developed countries easily permit that ? Will they let their industries collapse, throwing millions out of employment ? No, they will oppose it tooth and nail.

And how do they oppose it ? They oppose it by making people in underdeveloped countries, e.g. in India,  fight each other on the basis of religion, race, language, caste, etc instead of waging a united people’s struggle for  emancipation from their socio-economic plight. This they do through the local politicians, of all parties, who are all objectively their loyal agents, e.g. Narendra Modi whose politics  thrives on religious polarisation and inciting hatred against religious minorities (like Hitler’s hatred of Jews).

I have expained this in my interview by Moeed Pirzada, a Pakistani journalist, in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmoDYaAIbNI&t=851s&pp=ygUTbW9lZWQgcGlyemFkYSBrYXRqdQ%3D%3D

Thus there is a direct  conflict between the interests of the developed countries, who do not want underdeveloped countries to become developed ones, and the interests of the underdeveloped countries whose enlightened section realise that unless their country becomes developed it can never escape from abject poverty.

So people of underdeveloped countries have to launch historical united people’s struggles, under patriotic, selfless, modern minded leaders, which will be long drawn, and in which tremendous sacrifices will have to be made, to create a political and social order under which all our people enjoy a high standard of living and lead decent lives.

The other feature of the 21st century is the hostility between alliances of powerful nations e.g. the hostility between the alliance of USA and European countries on the one hand, and the alliance of China and Russia on the other. This hostility is unlikely to grow into nuclear war, as that would destroy all, but it will lead to proxy wars between them, using their local agents.

If utilised skilfully by the patriotic leaders of the underdeveloped countries, this hostility between the present two alliances of powerful nations can be turned to the advantage of underdeveloped countries, as the Chinese leaders who later came to power did during the conflict between Western nations and Japan in the Far East.

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