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Postscript

Intellectual bankruptcy massive wastage of harvested food and horticulture
The root cause of India’s rural majority suffering

ARIOUSLY ACCLAIMED AS THE GARDEN CITY produce can be traced back to adoption of Soviet-inspired
and Silicon Valley of India for having emerged as central planning and decree of socialism as the official
Vthe epicentre of the country’s thriving ICT (infor- creed of newly independent India by the Congress party
mation communication technologies) industry contribut- under the leadership of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
ing 42 percent of ICT services exports annually (Rs.4 lakh Instead of according priority to rural development where
crore), Bengaluru is slowly, but inexorably grinding to 80 percent of the population eked out subsistence lives,
a halt. The prosperity of the garden city whose popula- national savings were deployed to develop heavy industry
tion has swelled to 14 million currently, is smothered by in massive public sector enterprises (PSEs) managed by
streams of automotive vehicles (2.3 million cars and 11 business illiterate bureaucrats and clerks. The Centre’s
million mobikes); rising air pollution; acute water short- 256 PSEs never earned the surpluses promised for
age; persistent misgovernance; institutionalised corrup- investment in village India.
tion; bankrupt academy and middle class unable to ideate Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, faux socialist jholawalas
necessary solutions to prevent slow death of the city. and big farmers are up in arms against business tycoon
At the helm of this city gradually sliding into the Gautam Adani because he has established 18 hi-tech silos
slough of despond, is the state’s reckless Congress for food storage.
government elected to power in 2023 and aided and
abetted by the country’s most corrupt bureaucracy. In
the state’s budget of 2025-26, the government gave away Enduring appeal
freebies (free-of-charge electricity, bus rides and food
rations) valued at Rs.52,000 crore from its total revenue EADERS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, ESPECIAL-
receipt of Rs.2.92 crore. As a result the state doesn’t have LY fiction, may be aware this year marks the cente-
sufficient resources to build flyovers, tunnels, increase Rnary of E.M. Forster’s celebrated novel A Passage
public transport capacity to improve road traffic flow, and to India. Last month we featured a reminiscence review
is unable to hire sufficient traffic police to monitor the of this enduring and nuanced classic which provides mul-
city’s rampaging road traffic. Consequently, the average tiple interpretations of India’s love-hate relationship with
car speed in its gridlocked road network is 10 kmph, the the British Raj that continues to this day.
lowest worldwide. It’s noteworthy that during their almost two centuries
It’s also pertinent to note that Bengaluru hosts over rule over India the Red Devils’ massive pillage, plunder
1,000 science and humanities institutions of higher edu- and transfer of resources, reduced India (and China)
cation, including the prestigious Indian Institute of Sci- from their status of the world’s wealthiest countries to
ence (estb.1908), IIM-Bangalore (1973) and 67,000 ICT the poorest. Meanwhile in 1835 in pursuance of this
companies. Yet no worthwhile solution to its multiplying project, Lord Macaulay, a grandee of the Raj, overhauled
woes has emerged from these bastions of knowledge as India’s education system to nurture an anglicised class
the garden city continues its dystopian descent. of English-speaking Indians “who may be interpreters
between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of
persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste,
Wasteful nation in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” This proved a
fateful decision as it enabled this class to unite India,
then a region of 525 princedoms with an equal number of
UGE FINANCIAL LOSS SUFFERED EVEN BY
prudent onion farmers of Maharashtra’s Junnar languages and dialects into a nation led by native leaders
Hand Shirur districts who had taken the precaution who quickly became proficient in English, aka Inglish,
to store their harvest in warehouses during sweeping and led a successful freedom movement hoisting the Brits
rains in late September, after nearly half the crop was on their own petard. The enduring charm of Passage to
damaged in makeshift warehouses and sheds, is proof of India is that it is centred around a maturing relation-
continuous neglect of Indian agriculture. Substandard ship between the rulers of British India and Macaulay’s
storage facilities resulting in high moisture and poor Indians against the backdrop of a snowballing freedom
ventilation prevented stored onions from drying, rotting movement.
them. Almost every year tomato farmers in Karnataka A century later upon re-reading this impartial and
suffer similar loss after bountiful output, because prices under-started novel and re-viewing American director
crash and there is not enough storage and/or adequate David Lean’s lavish cinema version, it becomes quite clear
food processing infrastructure. that the British rule over India was almost entirely an
According to a NABCONS (NABARD Consultancy upper class project. With centuries of experience of belit-
Services) study commissioned by the Union ministry tling and suppressing the working class back home, the
of food processing industries, India suffers food loss Oxbridge elite who also dominated the media, kept the
estimated at Rs.1.53 lakh crore per year (a sum larger British middle and working classes in the dark about their
than the Centre’s annual outlay for education) from cruelty, and exploitation of India. Even to this day school
rotted agricultural produce because of deficient post- history texts in the UK are reticent about the atrocities of
harvest infrastructure. In particular, 40 percent of the the British Raj. The abiding appeal of Passage to India is
country’s horticulture (fruits and vegetables) produce is that it recounts rising disillusionment with the Raj back
wasted annually due to post-harvest neglect. home and in India.

156 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2025