Asian Drama, Act II: Development Prospects in South Asia

Abstract

G~! UNNAR MYRDAL justified the choice of title of his massive survey and T analysis, Asian Drama, by reference to set of inner conflicts operating on people's minds: between their high-pitched aspirations and the bitter experience of a harsh reality; between the desire for change and improvement and mental reservations and inhibitions about accepting the consequences and paying the price.1 These tensions form the inner unity of the Asian drama whose pace was judged to be accelerating towards a climax, possibly a tragic climax. Soon after Mydral completed his analysis hard reality intruded with suddeness and far-reaching consequences among the South Asian states. In i970, Pakistan had its first general elections based on universal suffrage which focussed popular discontent and led, along with the war in East Bengal, to the break-up of the state in I97I. Also in i97i the Ceylonese government was nearly overthrown by a wide-ranging rural insurrection. In late i973 and early I974 the four principal South Asian countries were listed among the twelve states of the world unable to meet their external liabilities and facing international bankruptcy. These and other events called public attention to the growing difficulties which the respective governments and planning commissions were already seeking to remedy. In the latest round of development plans priorities have shifted to take into account the reality of growing domestic political pressure for a more equitable sharing of the national income and the harsh fact of heavy dependence on foreign credit and suppliers. Each government's diagnosis criticizes, explicitly or implicitly, past failures and recognizes that a new orientation is needed in future development programmes. The Sri Lanka Planning Commission's analysis is the most explicit. It asserts that the Five Year Plan is presented at a time of social and economic crisis unparalleled in the history of modern Ceylon. The worsening foreign exchange situation and the continued growth of the number of