3 Review(s)

The City of Hope is a riveting and incisive description of India's first major experiment in rehabilitation through self-help at Faridabad. The year was 1947, a time when millions of refugees from Pakistan marched into India. Of that exodus, nearly 50,000 men, women and children form the North-West Frontier Province were given shelter at the Faridabad resettlement cap. 20 kilometers from Delhi. In 1949, barely two years after the cap was set up, the Rehabilitation Ministry withdrew relief to its inhabitants without first creating gainful jobs, pushing them towards the brink of destitution. This book is a first hand account of how that challenge was met through a unique experiment ,Nehru saw the Faridabad project as a laboratory to test his plans for building Modern India of his dreams; Nehru and (Dr.) Rajendra Prasad were active members of the Faridabad Development Board. Faridabad soon grew not only into fledgling industrial township, the cooperative movement also registered its earliest successes including in building the township through labour cooperatives. It developed a unique system of social health, a non-colonial system of basic education and workers held the ownership of industrial enterprises. But its successes autonomy drew the resentment of an establishment riddled with colonial mentality, which pulled it apart. Though 50 years have now lapsed, the story of Faridabad, told in these pages, is still lively and relevant, Of particular interest for readers today are the lessons emerging from Faridabad's experiment. The most important lesson is the recognition of the role people play in investing development with dynamism and hope. No less important, both now as in the past, is the danger we face from narrow politicians and administrators dressed in brief authority who can unbuild such endeavours. About the Author L.C. Jain Born 13 December 1925. Joined the Quit India movement during the freedom struggle, was invited by the Central Relief Committee of All-India Congress Committee to look after the post-partition refugee camps; later joined Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya in founding the Indian Cooperative Union (ICU) to build rural cooperatives and revive the traditional handicrafts and handlooms of India . Starting as a Village cooperative organizer in 1948, was later elected General Secretary of ICU. Apart from rural cooperatives he was actively involved with major Indeavours of ICU: building of the Faridabad industrial township by refugees on self-help basis, development of the Central Cottage Industries Emporium and the setting up of the first Super Bazaar, as a cooperative store, and research studies. He was also non-official Chairman of the All India Handicrafts Board. Over the past five decades he has been active in advocacy of democratic decentralisation and just and equitable economic policies whether as a member of the State Planning Boards of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam and Tamil Nadu; and the National Planning Commission, or as a writer in newspapers and journals. He received the Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1989. Currently, he is Chairman of Industrial Development Services a techno-economic consultancy organisation, and of the institute of Social Change and Development, an ICSSR-sponsored institute for the north-east region. He is coauthor of Grass Without Roots, Rural Development under Government Auspices.