Development vs Evolution?

The West has, unilaterally,  set ‘standards’ for the world , by fiat, for  some  4 centuries.

In essence, , whatever fit its own situation and  dispositions was  ordained the iconic ‘model’ for Others.

One of these, via its (materialist) – EuroModernist –   ‘economics’ avatar, is the  still  persisting canard of  ‘development’.

Using that notion, in the Seventies, the US/UK were, by self-proclamation,  ‘developed’ (what a coincidence!).

India and China ‘underdeveloped'(never mind the signal role the former  set of nations  had played in  effecting this  alleged outcome).

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Let me  now counterpose, using  some non-materialist yardsticks.

Culture and civilisation are signal human achievements.

They take  time to ‘evolve’.

Civilization  involves a pacification of violence,  and aggression, both  natural and man-made (gender intended) . 

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Now let us return to the Seventies.

The UK and the US were then engaged in  wars and expropriation across the world – as they had for over   a hundred years, and still are – not at all limited to Indo-China .

India and China had one or two  border skirmishes (and none for thousands of years of co-existence) but  of little import:  neither  was  scouring the world seeking conquest or expropriation.

Stated simply India and China , as civilizations, were far more evolved, than  the US/UK dyad .

So, now counterpose  ‘evolved’. to  ‘ developed‘ – as  societal templates.

And let nations be ranked, purely as a mental exercise,  on this  new scale.

Taking abstention from war as a civilisational standard.

The US/UK sink , swiftly, to the bottom, and  India and China (and Others)  float up.

The latter are far more ‘evolved’, societally, than the former.

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There are many felicities to my notion.

Two are notable.

Human well-being cannot be reduced to material(ist) indices.

And people who live in grass houses shouldn’t stow thrones.

You read me?

 
[©R.Kanth 2023]

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (A Novel), A Day in the Life (Novel), Expiations (Verse), and Farewell to Modernism (Political Economy Tract).