ASIA'S FUTURE

Summary

“Asia’s Future,” issued by Forum-Service for the week of December 19, 1959, presents an interview with Jayaprakash Narayan conducted by Pierre Schneider. Narayan discusses imperialism, the Sino-Indian border dispute, Asian and African political development, and the prospects for democracy after Bandung. He distinguishes the declining threat of old Western imperialism from what he calls a new imperialism represented by China, while expressing confidence that countries recently freed from political domination can resist both external pressure and domestic authoritarianism.

Narayan rejects the idea that authoritarian methods are necessary for rapid economic development. He argues instead for development adapted to local conditions, indigenous forms of democracy based on self-governing communities, indirect elections, and a politics of cooperation rather than party competition. Economically, he favours decentralised, labour-intensive technology and dispersed small industries supported by some basic centralised industry. The interview closes by presenting educated youth as responsible for creating a society that values human welfare and quality of life over power, modernisation, or efficiency alone. The fourth rendered page contains an unrelated newspaper clipping rather than part of the interview.

Key points

• Narayan identifies China’s new imperialism as a serious threat to newly independent Asian countries.
• He sees the Sino-Indian border dispute as a continuing source of friction but hopes relations between India and Pakistan will improve.
• He rejects authoritarianism as an inevitable or desirable instrument of economic development.
• He advocates indigenous, decentralised democratic institutions based on self-governing communities and indirect elections.
• He criticises adversarial party politics and urges cooperation at local, national, and international levels.
• He proposes labour-intensive, decentralised technology and dispersed small industries, with limited centralised industry where necessary.
• He argues that economic development should serve human values and quality of life rather than efficiency, militarism, or power alone.
• He presents Indian youth as potential followers of Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave rather than mechanical imitators of Western or Russian institutions.