Quest for self-reliance: Mixed signs of sustainable development

The term 'self-reliance' was first coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) in a similarly titled essay published in 1841. The essay stressed trust in one's present thoughts, skills, originality, beliefs in own capabilities and genius and living from within. A famous quote from this essay is: "Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide". Translated to communities, this philosophical concept takes a slightly different path emphasising the power of independence, creativity, originality and belief in strength and resilience. It also rejects the need for external support and glorifies the importance of self-application, e.g. tilling of the land to get the 'kernel of nourishing corn' (Emerson, 1841).
Mahatma Gandhi (1859-1948) expanded this concept to incorporate a simple lifestyle asserting that nature produces enough for our wants and if only everybody took enough for him/herself and nothing more, there would be no people dying of starvation in this world (Kripalani, 1965). The contribution of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1942)  as a social thinker was his pioneering experiments to promote collective grassroots initiatives in rural Bengal in the mid-20th century and his philosophy of the 'human being', and of national independence and development that anticipated later-day thinking on self-reliant and participatory development.
As the economy is the material basis of social life, economic self-sufficiency enables a nation  to consolidate not only the independence of the  country and live independently, but also provides a sure guarantee in self-esteem, ideology, independence in politics, self-reliance in defence and ensure rich material and cultural lives for the people. Nevertheless, in order to implement the principle of economic self-sufficiency, one must build an independent national economy. Building an independent national economy means building an economy which is free from dependence on others and which stands on its own feet, an economy which serves one's own people and develops on the strength of the resources of one's own country and by the efforts of one's own people. Such an economy makes it possible to develop productive forces quickly by utilising the country's natural resources in a rational and integrated way. It also helps improve the people's living standard continuously by strengthening material and technical foundations to ensure exercise of complete sovereignty and equality in political and economic affairs in international relations and to strengthen anti-imperialist, independent and democratic  forces.
It is imperative to build an independent national economy, particularly in those countries which were backward economically and technically because of imperialist domination and plunder in the past. Only when they build an independent national economy in these countries, will they be able to repel the new colonial policy of the imperialists, free themselves completely from their domination and exploitation, wipe out national inequality, and vigorously advance on the road of economic development. In order to build an independent national economy, it is essential to adhere to the principle of self-reliance in economic construction.
Bangladesh was born out of a war for freedom , democracy, social justice  and  self-reliance,  which Andre Malraux once called 'the last noble cause.' Since independence in 1971, our densely-populated country at the head of the Bay of Bengal has swung between hope and despair, between mass apathy and violence on the streets. Many economic growth-oriented development models, which create both gross and net happiness for the national elites, are yet to bring genuine and lasting happiness for the broad national majority. That is why it appears necessary to formulate and build the premise of a self-reliant social development model for Bangladesh, a country whose population always maintains the spirit of rejuvenation for political, economic and social emancipation. A self-reliant development must be measured and indicated on the basis of social proficiency and happiness, not only on  economic efficiency and productivity.   
Among development prerequisites and aspects and prospects of development, problems of population and resources, present and desired development structure, what value Bangladesh needs and the status of Bangladesh within the New International Economic Order are very crucial for studies.  Bangladesh has sufficient or abundant human resources, both skilled and unskilled, good soil for agricultural raw materials, but not always favourable climatic conditions, no important minerals like ore and coal but natural gas and probably oil in the Bay of Bengal; primitive tools, farming and agriculture system,  second-grade technology and equipment in a few industries; worn-out railways, insufficient road, inland and sea-borne transport system, still an infant airways system and indecisive and inconclusive mixed relations of public and private ownership in industry. These prerequisites, both positive and negative, adequate and inadequate, form the basis of territorial or decentralised planning, in which territorial needs are to form the goals of planning and the course of action.
What Bangladesh needs is a combination of self-help development process and coordinating development means. By self-help development is meant development by and for the people. Without a horizontal model and process of development with vertical complementation of necessary means, Bangladesh cannot realise a much-needed balanced and equitable social development. Dependence of the population on land in Bangladesh has increased more than dependence on other economic sectors due to a higher rate of population growth in the rural than in the urban sector, a lower rate of growth in land reclamation and addition of new land to agriculture and a relatively lower rate of increase in agricultural and industrial  productivity than in the population growth rate.
In 1971, Bangladesh had 75 million people and its per capita annual income was $100. In 45 years, its population has increased to 159 million and per capita income to $1,347. Since 1991, its average annual growth rate has improved at the rate to 5.4 per cent. Irrespectively of this achievement, the average income still remains at $1.95 per day. Bangladesh was a self-reliant country in the past in the sense that it depended entirely on the efforts of its own people but introduction of Green revolution in the 1960s caused a sharp change in its self-reliance stance. It introduced dependence on outside aid which is a well-known phenomenon that slows down the path to sustainability. Schumacher (1973), for example, stressed that foreign aid and foreign direct investment are able to play only a limited role in bringing about sustained economic development.
A country that makes development plans, which utterly depend on substantial foreign aid and FDI, may do much damage to the spirit of self-respect and self-reliance of its people. Even in the narrowest economic terms, its loss is greater than its gains. Resources, particularly money, are not value-free. They bring certain baggage with them, depending on their origin and culture. They will not be available to you in the future. They have significant disadvantages that outweigh their advantages.  Carmen (1996) also notes that development aid is tied to the power of money and the power of money is identified with the right of interventions. Such interventions generally impact negatively on traditional systems within the society causing a breakdown of its integrity. While foreign funding becomes precarious, there are  a few situations where the opposite may happen. Foreign funding does not build local support and supporters and is in sharp contrast to promotion of self-reliance.
The concept of living in a state of self-reliant sustainability involves a natural simple lifestyle with enough for basic needs. It does not encourage ill health, famine, illiteracy or inadequate living standards. Self-reliant living is a viable means of caring for nature and other human beings, and hence, for sustainability. The examples from Bangladesh show that there is opportunity for making changes and creating culturally appreciated alternatives. The diverse development endeavours of the current era have shown mixed signs of sustainable development so far; in some cases, they have contributed to the depletion of natural resources. The current 159 million population of Bangladesh has a much smaller impact compared to countries such as Australia or the USA whose populations consume and waste per capita more than 10 times the natural resources used by Bangladeshi people.
The writer, a former Secretary and Chairman  of NBR, is Chairman of Chittagong Stock Exchange  [email protected]