Dubai: "The present global economic crisis is due to the fact that we have followed one road, and have taken the certainty of capitalism too far," said Sir Mark Tully, during the Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature (EAIFL).
In a discussion, he described how powerful market capitalism has become and linked it with ideas from his latest book, India's Unending Journey.
Tully served for more than 20 years as BBC Bureau Chief in New Delhi, India.
He has been acknowledged for his distinguished service with both an Order of the British Empire and the Padma Shree, a rare honour for a non-Indian. He was knighted in 2002.
Some of his previous works include The Heart of India and Divide and Quit.
When asked why he first started writing, he said he started when the attack in the Golden Temple occurred and was "deeply upset that religion was mixed with politics".
The attack in the Golden Temple in 1984 was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, to remove Sikh separatists from the temple in Amritsar.
Tully described his passion for India and the necessity to find the perfect balance in life.
"The most crucial thing in life is to follow the middle road and seek perpetually for a balance, and for that, you have to seek it all the time within yourselves," he said.
The reason why nations are suffering from the financial crisis is because people have chosen to follow one extreme path, that of market capitalism, and chosen to ignore and underplay non-economic issues, he said.
As an example, he noted that people living in the Middle Ages used to say that Christianity was the only religion to live by and anyone who thought differently would be persecuted.
"Theology has now been replaced by economics... We took socialism too far and now we went the other way completely. From the black of socialism we went into the white of capitalism," he said.
"We do not need to have an economic situation that is driven only by drastic consumerism. The market culture we've grown into has become grossly materialistic. But there's higher goals to life than buying a motor car," he said.
"If you take the spiritual or materialistic path and deny everything else, you will end up in shambles."
Your comments
Finally, capitalism also proved that it is not consistent and not acceptable for the people. The present economic crisis is also the gift from poor capitalism. Now this is the time to think about the real system. My sincere advise to think and study about Islamic System of Economics, where there is prosperity, peace and development.
Asif
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 13:31
We forget humanity in all 'isms'. That is the root cause of present crisis. Humanity is divided and killed by different thoughts like socialism, communism, capitalism etc. Religions compete one another. But the center of all these, humanity still stands at the centre as motionless and rotated and ruled by its subsidiaries.
Jaison Jacob
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 13:06
Materialistic approach is one of the root causes of our future sufffering we do not think over our source of income but follow others way of lavish life style as a reult we spend too much only to show that we can also have what others have prove that we are not.
Emdad
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 12:59
We have experienced different system of ruling in the world. There may be failures, however more sustainability in some. However, what we face now and future is the food security and environment issues. Without solving these issues, no further development will take place. I think some states which give more importance to these basic needs luxurious life will survive and we have to adopt such a system.
Noushad M
Al Ain,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 12:08
Capitalism will create a huge gap between the poor and wealthy and when the wealthy class of people fail, the whole system will be in a mess, which is what we see in today's life. The poor will become poorer and the wealthy class is joining them to create the mess.
Syed Qurban Hussain
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 11:38
When politicians talk of the world crisis they always try to conceal the main cause, pretending to solve it but they do nothing. They always blame it on the global recession, but what they don't say is that it is due to the criminal behaviour of the world's elite. We work hard and they give us a loan and become rich in the process.
Amirazd
Tehran,iran
Posted: March 01, 2009, 11:14
I believe we have been caught up in the race of being "The Best".
I wonder why we spend and long for materialistic things, when we can gain peace of mind, by simple measures/process of following the "Middle Path". One shall not have 'stress', be 'detached' and no 'Sufferings'
Jayant B. Rangari
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 10:57
I personally totally agree with him...fantastic
Pooja
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 10:47
I don't think there is a better statement made by anyone than this-
"If you take the spiritual or materialistic path and deny everything else, you will end up in shambles."
Furqan
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 10:04
He says that there's higher goals to life than buying a car. The mystery is lying in that 'goal' only. Is there any ultimate goal in life? if so, what is it? Simply saying: "To reduce consumeristic behaviour" is very easy. But a cultural reforma demands more than just reductionist, genaralised speeches.
Chindhu Ravindran
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 10:04
Perhaps, civilisation has yet to devise an ideological system that is to come close to a perfection for humankind. History has witnessed that Tribalism, theolgoy, socialism, capitalism and liberal globalisation have all failed to eradicate poverty, hardships and hapiness. Evertying we do or ask for in society is attached to a price tag and I believe that is where the problem lies. Nature has abundantly provided us with resources but the greed that is inherently ingrained into human nature has led the powerful and skillful people to possess most of the wealth depriving others of their right to ask for a share.
Or is it a just question of survival of the fittest as nature demands ?
Esmail Sageer
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 09:12
I totally agree - in a culture where you are judged by the mobile phone you carry..we are losing it if not completely lost it already.
Karimi Kithinji
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 08:38
Absolutely right observation. Yes, we might need to turn back to the values of life, modern world needs to divert towards the teaching of religion.
We did not compare even the roots of socialism which is man made, capitalism which Satan made, and the way of Islam which is creatorâ??s choice is man to live withâ?¦
Rasheed.
Mohammad Rasheed
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: March 01, 2009, 07:59
