Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations

Abstract

Every once in a long while the flood of new publications will wash a book onto the market that manages a particularly astute grasp of our present situation with a combination of originality and sharp analytical under standing. We may then be provided with an entirely new basis for the discussion of some of our traditional problems. Such is the case with Gunnar Myrdal's new epic An Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. Myrdal's inquiry into the economic problems of the countries of South Asia lasted nearly ten years. The result is a three-volume study of monu mental proportions covering 2,284 pages. Prologue and introduction alone run to 70 pages and are, strictly speaking, already a small, self-contained book on problems of applied methodology. A search for a handy con cluding chapter turns out to be in vain. A course in speed-reading, then, appears to be a prerequisite. This book has been received in the West with decided discomfort, not to say horror, while in the underdeveloped countries of Asia it has caused consternation and pain: horror in the West for fear that Myrdal is saying the billions spent on development aid over the last 20 years have been wasted; pain in Asia for fear that he is saying the whole economic and social mess is really the fault of the Asians themselves. v Myrdal is saying both. Indeed, his analysis bears some superficial re semblance to the rhetoric that comes out of Peking, Algiers and Havana. But he has scrupulously avoided the doctrinaire muddle that has paralyzed development in China, Algeria and Cuba. Instead he opts for a new pragmatism that is neither pure capitalism nor pure Marxism but incor porates elements of both. His emphasis is on clarity of expression and thought, his search for true scientific freedom from bias and prejudice. This was no easy task. The difficulties started with the available statis tics that have been quoted in professional journals and elsewhere for a long time and with surprising confidence. Myrdal found, however, that in 118