Economics of Mulla Nasruddin
13 October 2013, 18:03 PM
UPDATED
14 October 2013, 18:51 PM
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.
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 earlier! '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 advice the IMF and WB officials deliver 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 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. The author believes in what Oscar Wilde said, 'The truth is rarely pure and never simple.'
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