Officers of the ‘steel frame’ are mostly self-effacing and reluctant to record their experiences. Quite a few have come out with memoirs, but mostly in Delhi. The memoir bug is biting the reticent TN civil servants too and provides a welcome narration to glimpse five decades of unquestioned rule.
Several members of the ICS and IAS, who headed administrative departments in Delhi, have been writing memoirs. A few years ago G Ramachandran, who worked under Rajaji, Kamaraj and C N Annadurai in Tamil Nadu and prime ministers – Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai and Charan Singh – recorded his experience of Walking with Giants.
The insights of an insider
There have been several books, reports and analyses on the evolution of social reforms in Tamil Nadu. Starting in the early 20th century as an anti-Brahmin movement, it unified other castes and succeeded in ending the dominance of Brahmins. It empowered several other castes. The social movement transformed into a political movement capturing power and using that power to bring about the desired changes. The welfare plank helped place the two major Dravidian political parties- DMK and AIADMK – in power for 51 years now.
The several books were mostly written by academics and social scientists. For the first time a retired civil servant, who had the opportunity to observe the evolution of the Tamil polity through the last 50 years is offering his insights.
Narayan is the son of an illustrious technocrat K N Subbaraman, the early builder of Neyveli Lignite Corporation. He had his school days in Kolkata which flourished as an industrial metro in the 1950s and the 1960s; had collegiate education in the Madras Christian College where he was active as a leader of the college and university unions and entered the Tamil Nadu IAS cadre, right at the start of the Dravidian rule.
Narayan got his doctorate from Harvard on a sabbatical. He set up the Athena Infonomics, “a policy research and development analytics firm, with focus on strengthening the use of data and social science research to solve development and inclusive growth issues around the world,” and continues to work as a research fellow in Singapore University. Married to Rane Group’s LL Narayan’s daughter, he also has first-hand knowledge of private business. Can one ask for better credentials?
DMK Acquired political power for social reform
The book describes the social reform movement (SRM) of the Justice Party intensified under the leadership of E V Ramaswamy Naicker. EVR worked for social change through the Dravidar Kazhagam; the DMK, that split from DK, morphed the approach to acquiring political power for social reform. The author describes in detail the initial years of the DMK effectively using political power to empower the backward classes through reservation in education and government employment and a plethora of welfare schemes. Apart from drawing on his personal experience of administration at the district and state levels, Narayan has made use of material available at the state archives and also through discussions with his peers and several political leaders.
The book deals in detail with several of the flagship schemes like the three measures of rice a rupee, which evolved into an extensive and prized public distribution system.
Narayan sings paeans on the committed administration implementing the mid-day meal and nutrition schemes with dedication. MGR’s opening up higher education for private investments is analysed for its pluses and minuses. He points to the well-timed mushrooming of engineering colleges : it provided educated manpower in large numbers to manufacturing, IT and other service industries from the 1990s. Narayan also points to the business opportunities grabbed by alert politicians.
More innovative projects…
Narayan points to the instance of innovative projects that proved to be great successes. One was by Health Minister S Muthuswamy, who took the initiative to introduce the scheme to rationalise the procurement and distribution of medicines to hundreds of hospitals and public health centres; to the brilliant technocrat official, R Poornalingam, imaginatively taking the help of technology and IT to implement the scheme effectively. Alongside this appreciation, the author also points to the decline of administration indulging in corrupt practices and to extensive leakages.
The early years of the zeal for ideology and Tamil development were lost in the 1970s. MGR focused on benefits reaching children, women and the youth, building on the image he carefully cultivated in films. Under Jayalalithaa, the approach metamorphed fully to the winnability in elections with policies focused on garnering votes. Narayan also refers to archival material pointing to policies directed by the leader, orally conveyed and implemented without discussion.
The book contains a good deal of insider information. But the narration is repetitive. Several of the concepts have been told over and over again. Two long chapters on MGR’s Mid-day Meal Programme and the World Bank-aided Integrated Nutrition Programme for children, pregnant and lactating mothers and the Integrated Child Development Programme with lot of data and administrative jargon impede the narration. Tighter editing would have enhanced readability and value; yet a welcome addition to this important subject from an insider.
