VIJAYWADA: Kanakasabhapati, noted economist and BJP Tamil Nadu Vice President, delivered an extensive address at Vijayawada on January 24, 2025, during the commemorative seminar marking 60 years of Integral Humanism, organised by BJP Andhra Pradesh.
In his speech, Kanakasabhapati traced India’s economic journey from the 1950s onwards and emphasised that despite policy mistakes, ideological misadventures, and unsuitable economic models adopted over the decades, India has continued to grow. He underlined that this growth was not accidental but rooted in India’s unique civilisational, cultural, and social foundations.
He noted that during the growth phase between the 1950s and the 1990s, India frequently compared itself with Europe and America. Later, when socialism spread globally, India’s establishment adopted globalisation in a manner unsuitable to the country. As a result, development outcomes fell short of expectations. However, he stressed that India still progressed despite these wrong approaches and policy errors committed over the last 50-plus years.
Kanakasabhapati explained that India’s resilience stems from its fundamentally different economic and business systems. Unlike Western models, India’s economy is built on family structures, community networks, social capital, high savings, entrepreneurship, and an intergenerational outlook. These strengths, he said, arise from India’s civilisational and cultural background.
Drawing from over three decades of field studies across the country, he observed that even in the 21st century, India’s economic and business systems do not function according to textbook theories. Instead, they are shaped by family, community, and cultural values. He pointed out that India has historically maintained high savings rates, including immediately after Independence, when the savings rate stood at 9.1 per cent despite widespread poverty. He contrasted this with present-day Western economies, where such savings rates are unimaginable.
He emphasised that saving has always been considered a moral value in Indian society, where spending beyond one’s means was seen as a sin. Over the past 15 years, India’s savings have averaged more than 30 per cent of GDP, among the highest in the world. According to him, families save not only for themselves but also for future generations, and this intergenerational commitment has driven India’s economic progress for generations.
Kanakasabhapati highlighted the central role of families—especially mothers, sisters, grandmothers, and wives—in India’s economic ecosystem. He stated that Indian entrepreneurs consistently acknowledge the contribution of women in enabling businesses to start, survive, and grow. Citing examples from the hospitality and textile industry in Tamil Nadu, he explained how married sisters often provided seed capital, a contribution rarely acknowledged in conventional economic textbooks.
Through a series of detailed case studies—from Tiruppur’s textile exporters and Surat’s diamond and textile industries to Sivakasi’s fireworks and printing clusters—he demonstrated how ordinary individuals from rural and agricultural backgrounds built globally competitive industries without elite education or corporate backing. These successes, he said, were powered by indigenous business sense, community trust, decentralised finance, and cultural solidarity.
He further noted that India’s economic systems have historically been decentralised, a principle echoed in Integral Humanism. Referring to post-2014 governance reforms, he cited the abolition of the Planning Commission and the establishment of NITI Aayog as recognition that no single foreign model can be transplanted into India. He pointed out that NITI Aayog’s official mandate calls for a Bharatiya approach to development rooted in Indian realities.
Kanakasabhapati also referred to recent developmental outcomes, including infrastructure expansion, sanitation coverage, and poverty reduction, describing them as unprecedented in independent India. He stressed that these achievements reaffirm the relevance of decentralised, culture-based development models.
Quoting American economist and former US Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith, he recalled the observation that India’s progress is attributable to the “energy and genius of the Indian people.”
He argued that India must decolonise its mindset and recognise its own indigenous economic wisdom rather than blindly follow Western ideologies, which have failed even in their countries of origin.
Concluding his address, Kanakasabhapati asserted that only decentralised and culturally rooted economic systems can ensure sustainable prosperity. He urged policymakers, intellectuals, and citizens to recognise India’s native economic strengths and strengthen them further in the spirit of Integral Humanism.
