Economics of Mulla Nasruddin
Alamgir Khan reads a work that enlightens . . .
President Harry Truman asked to be sent a one-armed economist, having been tired of economists who say, 'on the one hand, this' and 'on the other hand, that'. Pararthoparatar Arthaniti, a serious Bangla book on economics of altruism, by Akbar Ali Khan is, on the one hand, enlightening, on the other hand, lightens the hearts of readers. The University Press Limited published it in 2000 and reprinted it in 2010. Akbar Ali Khan, alternative executive director of the World Bank for some years and an adviser of the caretaker government of Bangladesh in 2006, has written this book in quite a charming way. Following philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who said, 'A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes', the author has interspersed this book on economics with many, many jokes, from his personal experience and stories of Mulla Nasruddin. Pararthoparatar Arthaniti could be titled equally well as a book of jokes. The jokes are sharp, intelligent and subtle. Mulla Nasruddin has come so many times in this book to give simple explanations of many complex economic theories that this book could as well have been 'by Mulla Nasruddin'. A person asked the Mulla, 'How old are you?' 'Forty' replied the Mullah. The other man reminded the Mulla that he had said the same thing even ten years ago! 'Yes,' replied the Mullah, 'I always stand by what I have said.' On the one hand, this one-word Mulla Nasruddin could have been the most favourite economist to President Truman. On the other hand, the British economist Keynes who used to change his mind with the moving hand of a good clock, in a reply to a question about the inconsistency of his mind said, 'When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?' Like Keynes, Akbar Ali Khan has also changed his mind with the moving hand of a good clock. On the one hand, he blames the IMF and the World Bank for their enthusiasm in imposing illogical conditions upon the developing countries, which is compared to slapping the face of a boy, before delivering the much-needed cash to them, and, on the other hand, blames leaders of developing countries for being suspicious about the good advices the IMF and WB officials deliver to them. He has pointed his finger at the loan sharks of the IMF and narrated a story of Mulla Nasruddin. In the same breath, turning his finger away from the IMF he pointed it towards the developing countries and asked in the voice of Mulla Nasruddin, 'If this is your development, where's the investment, and if this is your investment, where's development?' The author has mixed up the condition of the United States, the most developed country on earth, with that of Bangladesh, a very poor country, regarding the welfare program of a state. He thinks that social safety net reduces the incentive for work among the poor, encourages them to overpopulate at the cost of the state, and helps the privileged people make abuse of the economic facilities to the poor by appropriating these for themselves. In his view, to help the poor is the hardest task of all. In order to drive this point home, he has quoted an English proverb, 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions.' The conclusion that can be drawn from his discussion is that the poor are poor only because the rich has not yet discovered a correct method of giving alms to them. He has refuted Francis Bacon's claim that 'in charity there is no excess, neither can angel or man come in danger by it.' In his opinion, Bacon's mistake is due to his lack of experience in Bangladesh and Somalia. In Bangladesh both Emperor Harshavardhana and Akbar Ali Khan have gained the bad experience of humiliation in their attempt to give charity to the poor. The poor in their rush to grab everything took away the garment of poor Harsha and tore away the shirt of poor Khan. Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, on the other hand, always gives emphasis on the need for strengthening and widening the social safety net in developing countries in order to have gains from the whirlwind of liberalizing global trade. However, there are some shining observations of Akbar Ali Khan in this book. For example, he has written 'Goribera olpei tushto hoy. Borolekder moto tader khudha sharbograsshi noy.' (The poor are satisfied with a little. Their hunger is not as overwhelming as the rich men's.) This reminds one of Rabindranath Tagore's poem Dui Bigha Jomi (A half-acre of land) in which the poet says, 'Alas, in this world those who have most want all/And even a king won't stop until he has grabbed everything--big or small!' (translated by Fakrul Alam in The Daily Star). In some way, Pararthoparatar Arthaniti is on the one hand this and on the other hand that, yet there are many important things to learn from it. His style and language has lifted this book about a dull subject like economics into the enchanting realm of literature. It gives readers alternative angles to judge familiar things in a new way. This short-length write-up cannot do much justice to this worthy book. The author believes in what Oscar Wilde said, 'The truth is rarely pure and never simple.' Yet to know this rarely-pure and never-simple truth can be pretty wonderful if told by an author like Akbar Ali Khan.
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