Alternative Life-Styles: A Third World Perspective

Abstract

There is a fundamental difference between the search for an alternative ways of life on the part of certain sections in the rich, industrialized West and on the part of the elites of the poor, underdeveloped Third World. In the West, this search stems from a sensitivity to the pernicious consequences of a material civilization - such as the fragmentation of institutional structure and consequently its incapability to provide a ‘rational’ basis for individual identity formation and control of individual emotions, all leading to alienation. In the Third World countries, the search springs from the belief that the only way of tackling mass poverty and raising the standards of living is rapid industrialization on the Western model. It is not sufficiently realized that even if they are willing to pay the price, the quest for Western affluence would be futile, not only because of resource limitation, but also because of social limits to growth. This is well illustrated by the case of India where, in spite of 25 years of centralized planning, no significant dent has been made on mass poverty, mass illiteracy or communicable diseases. The rational choice - and one likely to be more fruitful - is to seek an alternative model of development and life-style, based, as Gandhi insisted, on minimization of wants and engaging in bread labour, and on self-sufficiency of small communities, with complete decentralization of political and economic power and participation in decision-making process.