One wonders if the same might be true in this country as well as India? Or at least former farmers dying early after losing the land often their family has worked for generations.

Gary

"There are other states in India where cotton seeds have been absorbed and which are really prosperous."...

- Really, where are they?

"What's happening is very much like the subprime mortgages in the United States, where a whole bunch of salesmen went out and sold mortgages"...

- Yes, Monsanto magic seed salesmen are as unscrupulous as predator bankers peddling subprime slime to unknowing dupes. On that we can agree.

India is in the unenviable position of having an abundance of "disposable" people and a caste system so deeply entrenched for so long such that its social policies embrace upward mobility for the fewest of the few.

This, combined with 100 million Islamic's living within its borders, those borders being within a rather 'tough' neighborhood, could make this a dicey century for the so-called largest democracy in the world.

Sadly, even India's profound contribution of Ayurveda can do little to protect its own citizens health from an environment that, in some places, is so severely toxic that it makes the worst environmental crimes in the US look almost tame by comparison.

May India's gods have mercy on them..

Tennessee Ernie Ford sand a song years ago called "Sixteen Tons." The refrain was, "Saint Peter don't you call me for I can't go; I owe my soul to the company store."

These poor souls have been caught in the Monsanto cycle. Frankenseeds for a price, a royalty to Monsanto for any crops grown, said royalty often more than the profit they might have made on their crops.

Most of the frankenseed and seed control programs around the world not only degrade biodiversity, but they are made with equal parts human sweat and human blood.

Astonishing that Vandana Shiva's words were allowed to appear under the initials "CNN".

Of course to "balance" Shiva (who gets so much media exposure you know) CNN had to get unrepentant "free-trade" globalization shill Jagdish Bhagwati to spin in the opposite direction...

"What's happening is very much like the subprime mortgages in the United States, where a whole bunch of salesmen went out and sold mortgages to people who couldn't afford them."

Yes, that's right. People were swindled by the snake-oil salesmen of globalization. Why are these salesmen allowed to trick innocent people into bankruptcy? Is it a crime to be trusting in the globalized world? Is globalization the end of trust?

I am ashamed that Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati was born in India. We have had many a traitor, but Mr.Bhagwati is a class apart.

A well known Cambridge Economist Joan Robinson once said:
"We should learn economics so that we are not fooled by the economists"

Despite the Indian government’s own admission and commencing various studies of farmers’ suicide Prof Bhagwati continued to engage in denial and rationalization of government neo-liberal policies to glorify globalization. Main thrust of his argument is that framers’ suicides have been around the country for a long time since he was student some 50 years ago and there was whole chapter about this in textbooks. Being a curious student of economics, on 10 April I sent an email to Professor Bhagwati asking him to provide me a reference of the textbook in which he had read a whole chapter about the farmers’ suicides. His prompt telling reply was as follows:

“I am travelling and am unable to reply substantively to the Absurd allegations in this email”.

In spite of many reminders, to date Professor Bhagwati is unable to provide me a reference because there is none. I suggested that he could check the reference of the textbook in question with Bhagwati Chair Professor of Indian Political Economy Arvind Panagaria, a former classmate of mine from India, but to no avail. To my own satisfaction, I carried out an electronic search and I also made enquiries of some well known economists of Prof Bhagwati’s time who were unable to support Prof Bhagwati’s assertions. One leading economist in India from ISI and IIM thought that Prof Bhagwati might have confused framers’ suicide with Nexalbari (Maoists armed up rise) movement of 1960s which erupted following the pauperization of farmers during the Green Revolution. He also said he tend to agree more with Vandana Shiva than Prof. Bhagwati. This reminded me of well know quote from Professor F.A. Hayke which I say was an attempt to open an area of Unified Theory of Economics.
"The Physicist who is only a physicist can still be a first class physicist and a valuable member of society. But nobody can be a great economist who is only an economist. And I am even tempted to add that an economist who is only an economist is likely to become a nuisance if not a positive danger.“

No wonder Vandana Shiva, though a Physicist by profession, appeared to many a more of an economist than Prof Bhagwati.

As to Prof Bhagwati’s understand of statistics that 200,000 is an insignificant number I find it quite misleading. Rather than looking at the figure compared to whole population of India, the correct measure would be to work out the percentage from total number of small farmers, which is estimated to be about 100 million, but this number is declining due to suicides. Some experts have analyzed the extent of problem by comparing the ration of General Suicide Rate (GSR) and Farmers’ Suicide Rate (FSR) per 100,000 populations, which tuned out to be 1:1.5.
Despite Prof Bhagwati’s attempt to glorifying globalization to downplay its consequences on the small famers.

First Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru spoke of a tryst with destiny and said that freedom and opportunity could not come at the expense of endemic poverty and inequality. At least, in theory he pronounced the fundamental principles of a socialist society in India although in reality even after 63 years of independence it is nowhere to be seen at a distant horizon. A booming India has provided the good life for millions in Mumbai, Bangalore, and other cities, jobs in call centers, high tech lifestyles, scripted out of a Bollywood romance in Eastman Color and corporate culture of lavish fulfillment in skyscraper shopping malls. But for the vast majority directly tied to agriculture and the land, debt and despair have driven some 200,000 to suicide in the last two decades. In fact, neo-liberal polices under globalization have created lopsided development creating two Indias: Rich & Poor (see: http://newsviews-raceclass.blogspot.com).

Prof S Deman, BSc, MA (Inda), MA&ABD(US)
M.Phil (UK), PhD (Japan)
Hon Director & Visiting Professor
Centre for Economic, Finance & Law
London/Pittsburgh/India