National and International Conditions of Under development in Myrdal's Asian Drama
| Author | Lars Rudebeck |
| DOI | 10.1177/001083676900400303 |
| Published date | 01 November 1969 |
| Date | 01 November 1969 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
National
and
International
Conditions
of
Under-
development
in
Myrdal’s
Asian
Drama
Gunnar
Myrdal:
Asian
Drama.
An
Inquiry
into
the
Poverty
of
Nations.
Vol.
I-III,
Pan-
theon,
Random
House,
New
York
1968,
2,284
pp.
Lars
Rudebeck
The
fact
of
a
widening
gap
between
the
levels
of
economic
development
of
the
highly
industrialized
countries
and
most
of
the
countries
of
Asia,
Africa,
and
Latin
America
has
become
de-
pressingly
familiar
during
the
nine-
teen-sixties.
Reading
Gunnar
Myr-
dal’s
huge
work
certainly
does
not
make
the
fact
of
the
gap
become
less
depres-
sing.
But
it
does
make
several
important
aspects
of
it
appear
more
comprehen-
sible,
as
we
follow
the
’intensive
anal-
ysis
of
the
reasons
for
this
dramatic
contrast
between
development
in
South
Asia
and
development
in
Western
and
East
European
countries,’
which
Myr-
dal
offers
as
a
’main
purpose’
of
his
mighty
three-volume
reservoir
of
facts,
insights,
and
analytical
comments.’
It
is
worth
noting,
however,
that
the
scope
of
the
work -
despite
2,284
compact
pages
-
is
less
comprehensive
than
the
quoted
statement
of
purpose
might
lead
the
reader
to
believe.
For
within
South
Asia,
India
dominates
the
analysis
heavily,
and
comparisons
with
the
rest
of
the
world
are
mainly
with
Western
Europe,
although
comparisons
with
socialist-communist
countries
and
with
Japan
would
often
have
been
considerably
more
relevant.2
But
the
limitations
are
not
only
geo-
graphical
and
rather
openly
acknowl-
edged
by
the
author.3
They
are
also
of
a
more
topical
and
less
openly
acknowl-
edged
kind,
as
there
is
a
clear
contra-
diction
-
amounting
to
a
theoretical
lacuna
-
in
the
work
between
the
num-
ber
of
pages
devoted
to
comments
on
international
economic
and
political
re-
lations
in
the
text
and
the
almost
total
absence
of
such
problematic
issues
in
the
important
appendix
where
Myrdal
sketches
his
theory
of
the
mechanism
of
underdevelopment
and
develop-
ment.4
This
limitation
and
some
of
its
consequences
constitute
the
main
sub-
ject
of
analysis
and
criticism
in
this
article,
both
because
the
problem
is
important
in
its
own
right,
and
because
it
has
not
-
to
my
knowledge -
been
discussed
in
other
review
articles
con-
cerning
Asian
Drama.5
Furthermore,
this
journal
is
a
suitable
forum
for
such
a
discussion.
Internal
Conditions
of
Underdevelopment
The
bulk
of
Asian
Drama
is
devoted
to
the
description
and
analysis
of
various
internal
political,
social,
and
economic
conditions
characterizing
underdevel-
opment
in
India
and
the
other
South
Asian
countries.
The
text
is
rich
with
information
and
insights,
and
although
it is
unwieldy
and
repetitious,
it
is
ob-
vious,
I
think,
that
Myrdal
has
given
us
a
major
and
lasting
contribution
to
the
better
understanding
of
the
internal
mechanism
of
underdevelopment
in
the
modern
age.
There
is
no
further
need,
in
this
article,
to
emphasize
the
im-
portance
of
such
an
achievement.
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