POVERTY OR PLENTY M. N. ROY with an INTRODUCTION By G. D. PARIKft, M. A. Professor of Economics, R, N. Ruia Cottegz Bom Bay RENAISSANCE PUBLISHERS Post Box 580, CALCUTTA Price Rs. 2-8-0 CONTENTS PAGE INRODUCTION ... ... i xxxvii I. PROBLEM OF PRICE CONTROL ... ... 1 II. DEMOCRACY vs. CAPITALISM ... ... 24 III. THE ABSURDITIES ... ... 30 IV. Axis OF INDIAN POLITICS ... ... 45 V. BROTHERHOOD OF BIG BUSINESS ... 58 VI. AN ECONOMIC FALLACY ... ... 70 VII. SPECTRE OF POST-WAR SJHJMP .... 81 VIII. PLANNED ECONOMY I .. ... 91 IX. DITTO II ... ... 101 X. DITTO III -.., ... 112 XI. DITTO IV ... ... 123 Appendix A Memorandum on Food ... 137 Do. B A Costly Experiment ... 141 Do. C Tables ... ... ... 146 INTRODUCTION To write an introduction to a book like the present one is a difficult task, and particularly so for one with only a few years ot apprenticeship in the study of a disci pline of thought, to which many have devoted their life time. I was never more deeply conscious of this limitation of mine than when I consented to write the present intro duction. The consciousness was further intensified by the fact that it is a book by one of the most acute thinkers of our times. It is a book of a thinker whose thought springs from the social reality, closely resembles it, and grows and develops along with it. The result is clarity, perspective, and an ever-present freshness hardly to be met with elsewhere. And all this with the purpose of freeing the path of economic progress of this huge sub-continent, a path which must pass through the social and economic emancipation of its millions. It was this that attracted me to the present work and it is this again that enables me to venture to write the present intro duction, more with the object of expressing my agreement, for whatever it is worth, with the analysis contained herein and the conclusions drawn therefrom, than with any other purpose. The book is a collection of articles that M. N. Roy wrote from time to time in the weekly Independent India. Though written months back, these articles still retain their topical interest. As a matter of fact, they possess much more than such an interest. They go to the fundamentals of our economic organisation, and subject these to a pene trating analysis. They aim at discovering the roots of our various economic evils, and forcefully plead for their removal. They must, therefore, retain their interest as long as the roots continue to operate. The problems that con front us to-day are not going to be solved by meeting a situation here or tackling a tangje there. All solutions advanced on these lines are responsible for missing the wood for the trees. They are the result of a partial think il INTRODUCTION ing that vitiates analysis, prevents a clear grasp of the situation as a whole, and therefore precludes the prescrip tion of correct cures. We live in an age that has thoroughly exposed the foundations of our social existence, as inade quate and incorrect for the building up of a healthy and harmonious social life. They, therefore, deserve to be revised. Roy pleads for such a revision. We can ignore this demand of ruthless reality only at our own peril. The articles contained herein, will be found not to pertain to the economic field alone. Many of them are political and aim at bringing out the interactions of the economic and the political phenomena. No apology is needed for this approach. On, the contrary it is as it should be. No discussion of the economic situation in the country has been able to ignore the political aspect. There are, further, cases in which political remedies have been clearly advocated to remove the economic troubles. Those, who have not chosen, this path, have also been led, perhaps in spite of themselves, to advocate, by implications if not directly, a certain kind of politics...