Amartya Sen's book, 'The Country of the First Boys' : A review - Part 2 -

Dr L Krishnamangol Singh *

Sen further also explored that apart from the rich Indian culture and the history of ideas, there were also hardened socio-economic inequalities in the Indian society. In fact, the book is intended to conquer the injustices, which relate to class, caste, gender, community and other socio-economic barriers. It is also intended to address the vastly diverse outcomes in nutrition, health and education for different groups of the Indians.

It is further found that there are essays in the book, which focuses on policy issues relating to economic, political, and social reasoning. In fact, these essays seek to address the various development issues among diverse groups and correct the various injustices among different groups in the country.

And apart from his vast knowledge of economics with mathematics, Prof. Amartya Sen has a large knowledge of Sanskrit, which he claimed that he could acquire during his pre-school days, and which influenced him in understanding various aspects of the world.

Thus, Sen has analysed many neglected aspects of life of the people in his latest book, the country of the first boys. And, these are basically concerned with equity and justice in different areas of human life such as social, political, economic, cultural, intellectual, fields, etc.

The book published by the Oxford University Press, New Delhi and edited by Antaran Dev Sen and Pratik Kunjilal includes 13 essays of which "the country of the first boy" is an interesting essay. And, the essay, the country of the first boy, which first appeared in the Little Magazine, Vol.VI, issues 1 and 2 (2005) is also the title of the book. v And, there are also other 12 essays in the book. In fact, as already noted, the central idea of the book is that the first boys are the favoured or privileged groups, who performed well in their life, while the last boys, particularly the last girls cannot even read. Prof. Amartya Sen is not against the first boys.

In fact, he emphasised that the country needs them for many purposes in order to promote quality and high standards in many fields of development. As Prof. Amartya Sen has again stated: "They are doing just fine for themselves and even for others, given the circumstances, and cannot be generally accused of rapacity or cupidity" (p.32).

Thus, the central theme of Prof. Amartya Sen's book is to explore and analyse the gaps (inequalities and injustices) that exist between the "first boys" and the "neglected people", particularly the last boys and last girls in terms of the educational opportunities and other benefits of development. And Prof. Amartya Sen also pointed out the tremendous deprivation and great violation of elementary freedoms that we all have reason to value and want (p.133).

In fact, he emphasises the need for providing basic (democratic) freedom to the people and the neglected people and seeks to address the various injustices in the society. In fact, the book is very comprehensive, analytical, and theoretical at appropriate places of investigation, and suggests suitable remedies for addressing the various issues of injustices.

Thus, from one of the articles in the book, a conclusion can be drawn that a system of combination of cooperative ownership, multiplicity of private ownership and ownership by independent bodies, statutory boards, along with a system of democratic freedoms within the polity (i.e. State and the nation) is essential in order to develop 'countervailing powers' (the concept of John Kenneth Galbraith used by Prof. Amartya Sen in the book under review) against the injustices and confrontation in any society.

In fact, the countervailing power is necessary to address the injustices and any form of bias. Prof. Amartya Sen also emphasised the role of freedom of the press along with other democratic freedoms to address the development issues including gender disparity. In fact, gender disparity in terms of socio-economic development is also an injustice which needs to be addressed without further delay.

The presence of media, not only the newspapers, but also radio, television and the Internet can also greatly help coverage and diversity (Cf. p.91). In dealing with the role of the press and also the freedom of the press within democratic freedoms, the book also drew attention to the visible deprivations such as famines, severe unemployment, defective schooling and other adversities. In fact, it is necessary that there should be a proper system for promoting all the boys and girls without any discrimination.

Thus, many scholars, intellectuals, policy makers, administrators, journalists, academicians, etc. will find the book very useful in many respects. On the whole, the different essays also emphasised the different aspects of injustices and suggest policy measures for addressing the problems of development from different approaches. It can also be pointed out that it is not possible to go into the details of all the essays included in the book due to the limited space of the article.

However, it can be concluded that the book, "The Country of the First Boys" seeks to address the gender disparity or the gender gaps. In fact, this social and intellectual wisdom is necessary for all stages of life. And the concept like "basic needs" is also not the only aspect in the totality of life of human beings. In fact, several aspects of life like culture, morality and ethics, ideology, religion, identity, etc. needs to be neatly woven into the framework of development without hurting the interest of others. The book, therefore, explores that the basic needs of life should be combined with all aspects of life in order to bring justice and development in the society.

Thus from what Professor Amartya Sen has said in his book, "The Country of the First Boys", it would be interesting and useful to conclude that there should be reintroduction and redevelopment of a system of "government by discussion" (a concept used by Prof. Amartya Sen), which needs to be virtually based on a new participative development in which the government can be both developmentalists in the form of state control people's development representatives, and facilitator of various people's economic, cultural, religion and other institutions in order to address the various development and security issues in Manipur.

Thus, it is high time that there should be a new model of development, which encourages the people's institutions within the framework of democracy. This naturally suggests that the time is now ripe for encouraging the non-governmental organizations in order to help in accelerating the various development activities and obliterating the various conflicts at the National and State levels.

This again requires reempowering the people in order to redevelop and reconstruct their own states within the national policy framework of development. In fact, Professor Sen's book is very timely for drawing various effective policy measures for promoting development and justice from different perspectives.

Concluded...