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Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There in the Penguin
Complete Lewis Carroll (London: Penguin Books, 1982).
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are complex issues that not only involve trade-offs between outcomes but
differentially affect various segments of societywith the poorest usually
coming off worst. Globalization and the waning power of the state have also
resulted in the excessive marketization of what once were socially common
goods. The meaning of development has therefore become highly divisive;
there are some who swear by it, and others see in it the destruction of all
meaning in their lives.
Overall, this is an excellent work which amply justifies the expectations
earlier stated. Sundar has collected and organized the material logically and
convincingly. Though, what Business and Community needs, to round it off,
is a grand finale. And it is only at the very endin the last few pages of
bookthat Sundar approaches a likely solution to the conundrum she points
to in the last paragraph. She raises the question of a Gandhian trusteeship
model that will order a different alignment of forces, which could then lead
to more equitable outcomes. The author, though, cannot fully work through
this concept to indicate how India could design a new future. That is
understandable because, ultimately, this is a question of political economy
and so outside the scope of the present work. Still, it is a nettle that must be
grasped at some point by any writer on CSR. And with the edifice that Sundar
has already constructed, this reviewer would suggest that it be her next project.
It is only when there is a root-and-branch rethink of the meaning of
development that CSR is likely to be free of the contradictions pointed out
by Sundar. Here, therefore, lies fertile ground for her next work. She will do
our country a yeoman service by taking it up as the theme for another book.
By Ravi Bhoothalingam, Hon. Visiting Professor, ASCI; Founder and Chairman,
Manas Advisory (e-mail: sush.ravi@gmail.com).