Madhusudan_Das

His Life and Achievements 171
motion the dissolution of the traditional society. 8 Mr. Lowenthal says -
An underdeveloped country is not one whose people suffer from
an innate, biological lack of aptitude for industry and modem
organization : nor it is one. as the opposite legend maintains,
whose people have been forcibly prevented from developing
these aptitudes by foreign imperialist rule. An underdeveloped
country is one whose traditional society did not allow the growth
of sufficiently strong independent middle-classes; the classes
which in the West were the main promoters of the accumulation
of capital, the creation of industrial enterprise and the growth of
a spirit of rational industrial discipline.'
The temper and the tensility of the indigenous middle-class amidst which
Mr. Das took shape of a leader, have to be considered as important. And
lastly one is tempted to ask this question, "Why did Mr. Das chose those
two or three enterprises in the line of cottage and small scale industries"
If he launched that adventure just to place his public career and patriotic
activity with those two glamorous units of economic undertakings then
it was disastrous as it resulted in the fence eating away the harvest in the
field. Otherwise one fails to understand why he chose that suicidal policy
at a time when better methods for modernizing an economy were already
available. Why did he not go for products of mass consumption, products
with the then available sophisticated machineries ? And why did he plunge
alone at a time when the joint stock idea had taken roots ? He himself had
to turn the leaf at the eleventh hour and plead for conversion into public
limited company ? Choice of economic goods and economic organizations
for producing those goods are strong determinants of economic growth.
Here is a remarkable story of the transformation of a barren hill top called
Manipal in Mysore into an internationally reputed town. That is because
of the vision, zeal combined with the business acumen of a banker
Dr.T.M. A. Pai who 'spearheaded a fantastic drive by his fanning community
to ensure that future generations of the area would not be condemned to
the poverty and illiteracy of the past'. According to Dr. Pai "thrift is the
best remedy for all economic maladies, and poverty is the result of want
of thrift". With the Pigmy Saving Scheme with 12 paise opening account
and the innovation of 'bank' going to the people and make them happy. 10
None can deny that Mr. Das shed profuse tears for his countrymen. But to
what extent he could succeed in wiping their tears and lifting them up
from the abyss of poverty is to be doubted. Orissa is known more for the
paradox of poverty amidst plenty even today.