SWOT ANALYSIS OF PEOPLE OF WEST BENGAL

Can West Bengal perform to its potential ?
Or Is West Bengal a perpetual loser?
A SWOT Analysis
By
Ramesh N. Desai

In the recent debate about Tatas’ pull-out from Singur, it has been argued that if Mamta Bannerjee wins, W. Bengal will lose. Over the last 3 decades, the left has been winning and W. Bengal has been losing. What is the guarantee that after this problem is over, some Samata or Kamata or a Buddha or a Jawan will not insist on winning and thereby making W. Bengal lose once again.

It is perhaps necessary to go deeper in the matter. Is it only the ego of some or the other leader that comes in the way? Are the masses so gullible? Are they so easily led to satisfy the ego requirements of a set of leaders?

Before we blame the leaders alone, let us ask ourselves. Are the leaders exploiting the inherent weaknesses of the masses? We need to examine both the leaders and the masses from who they spring. A study in the mass psychology of the people of W. Bengal is necessary. I would propose a SWOT analysis of the people on a collective basis. SWOT analysis is an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats facing the people.

Let us first deal with the S- part of the SWOT.

Strengths of the people of W. Bengal.

1. They are an intelligent people.
2. They are very proud of being Bengalis.
3. They respect and idolize achievers.
4. Individually, they are achievers in as diverse fields as Economics, Sports, Military, Science, Politics, Literature, Arts, Crafts, Philosophy, Religion and so on. There is hardly any field where a Bengali has not achieved eminence. The ambience in the state supports these individual achievements.

5. They are competitive in nature.
6. They love festivals, good food, Literature, Arts, Dance, Drama, Films etc.
7. They are extremely chivalrous. The status of their women is one of the highest in the whole of India.
8. Casteism has been more or less abolished, among them.
9. They are very conscious of their rights.
10. Rate of literacy is high.
11. On many of the parameters of Human Development Index, they rate quite high.
12. They love values.
13. They are an idealistic people.
14. They are highly imaginative.
15. They are highly creative when motivated.
16. Extremely good debaters. Difficult to win an argument with a Bengali. It is another matter that Bengalis win arguments and Bengal loses.
17. Highly emotional people. Emotions can lead them to making great efforts.

Next, we come to W. part of the SWOT analysis. W stands for Weakness. Their Weaknesses are:-

1. Common perception outside is that they do not like to work hard. This is not correct. They work very hard at making Festivals a success. They work very hard, making many sacrifices in the bargain, when demanding their rights. What can perhaps be conceded is their dislike of Productive work – especially manual work. They do not work as hard for creating wealth and generating capital.
2. Mothers are deified to a disproportionate extent.
3. Larger no. of males among them remain children in psychological terms. If males among the rest of Indians are children, Bengali males are pampered children. Self-reliance on the part of male children is not encouraged.
4. Negative feedback is not easily accepted. This results in non-correction of any deficiency.
5. A sense of injury, of injustice done to Bengalis individually and collectively that is passed on from generation to generation resulting in its being accepted as a fact.
6. They are extremely good at the blame game.
7. They love tripping up any one going beyond his “Aukat” (station in life) in their perception. It is because of this tendency that the achievers have to pass an “Agni Pariksha” (trial by fire) of sorts. But once, a person is acknowledged as an achiever, he / she can do no wrong. Any drop in his performance is due to others’ machinations or adverse excusable circumstances. Pleading Saurav Ganguly’s case by any and every one is an example. Even the Lok Sabha speaker spoke out. Subhash Bose can never die. Emotional insecurity lies behind this. They feel that their collective backing is required otherwise the big bad world outside would devour their precious gem. The achiever’s performance alone is not enough. In this behaviour they exhibit their over-protective parental ego that does not allow their child to become self-reliant enough to face the world on his own.
8. The pride in being a Bengali is carried to a disproportionate extent. Non-Bengalis are many times considered to be on par with barbarians.
9. They lack the entrepreneurial spirit. This lack can perhaps be traced to bringing up of the male child as a non-self reliant one.

10. Their love of values is such that one or the other value held dear by them comes in the way of progress. The reason perhaps is in not being able to prioritize their values. All values in life are not equally important at every stage in life. It some value is ignored or sacrificed to achieve the greater good of a much larger no. of people, it has to be done. Mother Nature does compensate at a later date an earlier sufferer. The left ignored this well established principle in pressing the demands of only one section of the people viz Urban labour to the detriment of not only the other stakeholders of Industry but also West Bengal as a whole. Priority should have been given to generation of wealth and capital before distribution of wealth to only one stakeholder. Even this should have been subject to and in proportion to the increase in productivity. This was not done. As a result thereof, de-industrialization started taking place. While they seem to have understood this after 4 decades, it is now the turn of Mamta Bannerjee to press the demands of 1200-1500 farmers to the detriment of not only the Nano plant but to the whole of W. Bengal whose industrial future is likely to be bleak. The worst part is that the Civil Society is unable to prevent such happenings and there is no guarantee that the future would be any different.
11. Whatever the slogans mouthed by the people, their mindset and behaviour are feudal in nature. Just as Zamindars exploit the tenant farmers, workers exploit Industry. Once a job is given, it becomes a sinecure one. Salary is treated like rent. For work, something extra is to be given. This behaviour is not only condoned but also sanctioned by powers that be The civil society also appears to be the view that such behaviour is justified. The Zamindari mindset is evident also in the fact that the govt. has acquired the land from the farmers and leased it out to Nano, thus creating a permanent source of income for the powers that be as well as a hold on Tatas. The same is the position in Haldia where Calcutta Port Trust had acquired the land and leased it out to the various industries including Public sector Undertakings. P.S.Us underwent the same sufferings as Tatas are doing now, though to a lesser extent. They have since stopped investing significantly in W. Bengal.
12. At the drop of a hat, work comes to a standstill. This is not as much due to the hold that the political parties have on the people as the desire for a paid holiday on the part of the people. For all the values espoused, the value of the work ethic is absent. People love holidays on one pretext or the other.
13. To rebel comes naturally. Half the population converted to Islam in rebellion to the Brahminical strait jacket. However when it came to politics, Bengal was hardly conquered by the Mughals, even though they were Islamists, as were the Nawabs of Bengal. The British might have begun the conquest of India from Bengal but Bengal was the first to rebel, however furtive and unsuccessful, the attempts were. The opposition to U.S.A. is more psychological than ideological. U.S.A. is today the dominant power in the world and also prosperous. They hate domination of others over them. The only domination acceptable is their own domination over others. The anti- Bengali riots in Assam is a case in point. Tolerance is not a virtue with them. Tolerance and improvement from within a given system gradually is neither acceptable nor possible for them. They must overthrow a system; allow creation of a new one, only to overthrow it yet again. Permanent feeling of hurt and injustice are their sources of motivation. The only discipline that is exhibited is when there is a mass indisciplined behaviour. They tend to gloat in miseries.
14. A highly politicized people. Politics does not remain confined to politics. Whether it is Corporates, social, religious or any organization, people love playing politics, the goals of the organization be damned.
15. Resistant to change. This is a normal human trait. It is however more accentuated here. While in other places, people grumble but try to adjust to the changes. Here; obstacles are first put in the path of the change. When that does not work, organized resistance starts. The principle that there is no gain without pain is simply not understood.

16. Given to exaggerating pain. Even Mahatma Gandhi had, in his partition days’ travels remarked that truth was difficult to get at in view of the exaggerated claims of atrocities by both the communities. Pain is perhaps exaggerated in expectation of sympathy – the trait of a child. Just as a child expects the parents to do everything for it, otherwise it would cry, throw a tantrum, and break a few things. The people expect the government / capitalists to do everything for them or else strikes, bandhs, bus burning, and damage to public property and so on. Poverty, it appears, gives the right to a person to steal, to rob, to damage things. This behaviour is condoned by even the educated. That poverty could be caused by idleness or not taking the opportunities available is not acceptable. It would be a blasphemy here to quote George Bernard Shaw who said “Poverty is a sin”. Instead, all virtues are associated with Poverty and all sins with affluence.

17. Being too imaginative, whenever any change is mooted, they imagine the worst and are only happy when their self-fulfilling prophecy comes true. They work hard to make their worst fears happen.
18. High Intelligence Quotient but low Emotional Quotient resulting in an eternally unbalanced behavior.
19. Not as conscious of their responsibilities as of their rights. Appear to be slaves in eternal search of emancipation. Not aware of what they are trying to free themselves of. Could it be their own attitudes and habits?

Let us now turn to the O part of the SWOT analysis. O stands for opportunities.

We have to scout for opportunities taking into account the collective traits of the people. These are:-

1. Service Industry like I.T., Banking, Financial Institutions, Advertising, Marketing, Human Resource Development, Business Process Outsourcing etc. where not much investment is required. Even for these, help of Venture Capital can be taken.

2. Research & Development. Their imaginativeness and creativity could be taken advantage of. Larger firms could sponsor research work done by small R&D establishments. Zamindari mindset would also motivate them to hold patents and earn royalties on them.

3. Entrepreneurship Development Institutes. If every Tehsil in every district has such Institutes. Job givers rather than Job seekers can be created. From the mass psychology point of view also entrepreneurship helps people to get over many of the weaknesses mentioned above. Dependence on Sarkar Mai – Baap can be drastically reduced. People would realize how difficult it is to build and how easy to destroy. This (Entrepreneurship) may not be considered to be an opportunity by some. To them I would only quote the off-repeated case of two Market Researchers being sent to an island to look for opportunities for selling footwear. One Co.’s representative reported that there was no market as no body in the island used any footwear. The other one however saw it as a tremendous opportunity since no one had as yet realized the benefits that footwear confers on people.

4. The idea that Capital is nothing but fruits of labour minus consumption (accumulated over a period) has to gain ground. The labour may be physical or mental. It may consist of sensing opportunities and seizing them. Once formed, Capital can create some more capital, if used imaginatively. Hatred of capital and capitalists would be converted to love for it and bask in its after glow, if the above idea gains ground. Productivity has to get the upper hand over demands for rights.

5. Risk-taking. Tremendous risks were taken by Mihir Sen or Arati Saha while crossing oceans or by Bachendri Pal in reaching Mount Everest. What is required is to learn how to take ordinary, calculated, small, day to day risks. Risks that might at the worst do some damage but not devastate one to such an extent that one never takes a risk again. This trait could help create entrepreneurs.

6. There is a lot of opportunity for the media. Like APJ Abdul Kalam said, the media should highlight achievements rather than glorify miseries. They can greatly help in reversing negative trends.

7. Ditto for politicians. Here, they are not leaders but they are the led. If they are leaders, they would explain the peoples’ weaknesses to them and help them to get over them, open their eyes to the opportunities available, and encourage them to grab their opportunities. Instead of leading the people to positive and affirmative action, the leaders are led by the negative traits of the people and accentuate them to their common detriment. There is a vast opportunity to reverse this trend and lead Bengal to a positive and balanced behaviour where both the leaders and Bengal win. Before independence there were leaders. Now they are the led – followers of the people. Contrast Vivekanand with Mamta. Subhash Bose had said “Give me blood and I will give you Independence”. Had he been alive, he would have said today “Give me productivity, patience and tolerance and I shall give you prosperity.” As against this today’s leaders say “Stop everything.” They encourage the hedonistic tendencies which are anti-productivity.

8. There is a lot of intellectual capital in W. Bengal. There is no reason why it cannot be monetized or converted to capital in money terms. We have the example of Bangalore where Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and so on have already done it.

9. On the agriculture front, ancillary activities like dairying, horticulture, pisciculture, poultry etc. could be developed in an organized co-orperative manner, on the lines of Amul and other dairies in Gujarat.

10. Given their dislike for hard work as also their imaginativeness, creativity and intelligence, there is a vast opportunity for inventing labour saving devices.

11. The desire for changing others has to give way to changing oneself. After all, it is much easier to change oneself than change others. If it is true that what Bengal thinks to-day, India does to-morrow, then the future of India is bleak. Before independence, when revolt against a foreign power was relevant, Bengali penchant for rebellious thought was relevant. Now the time has come to gird our loins and develop on our own. For a change pride has to be swallowed and lead given by more developed states of India, followed. Marxism is passe’. Let us look ahead, not behind.
12. Dance, drama, music troupes on the lines of the late Uday Shankar or the “Unforgettables” tour of Amitabh Bachhan can go about in India and abroad to cater to the Indian diaspora and the Indophiles.
13. More emigration. When the N.R.B.s ( Non-Resident Bengalis ) come back eventually, they would bring back with them money, ideas and most importantly the zeal to transform Bengal.

Let us now look at the threats – the T part of SWOT Analysis.

Threats are of 2 kinds. One internal and the other external. The internal threats mainly arise from the inherent weaknesses described above. They are more menacing than external ones in the case of Bengal. The threats faced by W. Bengal are:-

1. If leftism is continued to be followed in the form practiced in the last three decades, capital would shy away forever. For left to succeed, the people have to work hard, create wealth, postpone consumption and generate their own capital. (Outside capital comes with its own conditions.)These are not ‘W. Bengal peoples’ strong points. Even where one succeeds by the leftist path, there comes a stage when one has to change over to a free enterprise system, as seen in the Soviet Union as mass motivation levels decrease at some stage and stagnancy results. China has been following the free enterprise path in the field of Economics, even if politically they are leftists. I am of the opinion that at some stage, even politically the Chinese will abandon leftism. The reason is that Mother Nature is a big democracy where free enterprise is rampant. It has a habit of restoring balance whenever it becomes necessary. Just as dinosaurs perished on account of over eating and becoming over sized, any excesses caused by man-made theories and consequent physical and social engineering are bound to find retribution sooner or later.
Leftists are Neo-Brahmins – as doctrinaire as ever. Brahmins caused Mughal and British invasions by their doctrinaire approach. The left will do no better. Both tend to ignore nature. For people who are prepared to work hard, postpone consumption, generate their own capital, are amenable to changes, rapid changes, as may be required, leftism can be advocated. In the case of W. Bengal, it simply would not work.

2. Threat of the left deciding on postponing industrial progress in W. Bengal till such a time as the whole of India becomes leftist.

3. Threat of a 2nd de-industrialization after a 2nd re-industrialization following Buddhadev Bhattacharya’s policies. Looking to the CPM’s censure of the W. Bengal Chief Minister’s remarks on futility of Bandhs and strikes, this seems a real possibility even if the left succeeds in hoodwinking the capitalists to re-invest in W. Bengal.

4. A bigger threat than leftism is that of a tug-of-war between the left and others, leading to zero-sum games being played. This is a phenomenon in which a lot of activity takes place but it is of such conflicting nature that in the end no progress takes place. This tug-of-war may induce the left to postpone progress in W. Bengal till they overthrow the prevailing order at the centre and in other states so that they are then free to liquidate the class enemies.

5. Maoist revolution in Nepal could travel to contiguous areas in Bihar and W. Bengal and till the dust settles down, there would be no progress. Already the Kosi calamity has prepared a fertile ground for this to happen. The left’s plans to over run the cow belt may take precedence over W. Bengal’s progress.

Threat of Secession from India. The example of Bangladesh is there. Once again, if this happens, till the dust settles down, there would be no progress.
Bangladesh was once known as the international bread basket. Does W. Bengal want to become the national bread basket? Carrying on as at present, could lead to that.

Given the above SWOT analysis the people of West Bengal need to decide on a strategy for progress that will suit their genius. This SWOT analysis is merely an attempt by an outsider with experience of trying to put up an industry in W, Bengal – not even his own! It is now for the people of W. Bengal to decide whether it is prosperity or ego satjsfaction that is more important to them. No outsider should even suggest the course of action to them, given their exclusivity and touch – me – not stance.
At the end I would like to mention that the weaknesses in this SWOT Analysis are exaggerated with a view to spur some action to remedy them. The strengths merely help one self to pat one’s own back and can lead to complacence. If this article hurts Bengali pride so much that to prove me wrong, if not for any other reason, they make a collective effort to make Bengal prosperous, I shall be only too happy to be proved wrong.
SO HOW ABOUT IT?

Acc. to an old Sanskrit saying, ‘Yathaa raja, tathaa prajaa” ( As is the king, so are the people ). Today people are the rulers in a democracy. The saying therefore becomes “Yathaa prajaa, tathaa raja” ( As are the people, so are the rulers ) This is in consonance with an English adage “The people get the government they deserve” As a corollary,
“Yathaa prajaa, tathaa raajya” ( As are the peope, so is the governance )
Yathaa prajaa, tathaa Vikaas” ( As are the people, so is the development )
Yathaa prajaa, tathaa aatank” ( As are the people, so is the terrorism ) of the Al qaida, L.E.T. or the J.E.M. kind or the bus burning, road-blocking, public property destroying variety.