The Bihari enlightenment
开化的比哈尔邦
India’s most notorious state is failing to live up to its reputation
臭名不再
Jan 28th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
ONE of the more unlikely case studies offered by Harvard Business School describes the turnaround of Indian Railways under Lalu Prasad Yadav, a shrewd, roguish politician who ruled Bihar, India’s most depressed and unruly state, for 15 years. His predecessor at the railways, Nitish Kumar, now leads Bihar. He may one day draw similar interest from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, for rarely has a failed state escaped political bankruptcy so fast (see article).
哈佛商学院的学习案例之一就是亚达夫手中印度铁路的逆转，这实在是令人跌破眼镜。印度现任铁道部长亚达夫(Lalu Prasad Yadav)是一位狡猾的流氓政客，他曾经治理印度最贫穷，无管制的比哈尔邦15年。而印度前任铁道部长，现在治理着比哈尔邦的尼蒂斯-库马尔（NITISH kumar）有一天可以会同样引起哈佛大学肯尼迪正政治学院的兴趣，因为时至如今象比哈尔邦这样一个失败的邦省能如此之快地逃脱政治破产的命运，实属罕见。
With a population bigger than Germany’s, Bihar still suffers from potholed roads, indolent teachers, apathetic officials, insurgent Maoists, devastating floods, shortages of power, skewed landholdings, caste resentments and an income per head that is only 40% of India’s as a whole. And yet, bad as that may sound, Bihar is far better today than it was in November 2005, when Mr kumar came to power.
比哈尔邦人口比德国多，面临的问题也不少：道路坑坑洼洼，老师懒于教学，官员得过且过。还有叛乱的毛主义分子，滔天的洪水，短缺的电力，歪斜的房屋，种姓制度（注1）引起的仇恨，这些都够比哈尔邦受的了。除此之外，比哈尔邦人均收入只有全印人均收入的40%。这些听起来是糟透了，可是今天的比哈尔邦可比库马尔刚刚接手时的2005年11月要好多了。
Today Bihar has pot-holes, where formerly it didn’t have roads. Businessmen grumble that they cannot raise money to invest in the state, whereas before they spirited their capital out of it. People complain that Mr kumar’s government has fallen short of its ambitious development plans. But at least it has ambitions. Mr Yadav did not offer development. At best, he promised izzat, or self-respect, to downtrodden castes, who once voted as their landlords demanded, and later enjoyed picking someone their “superiors” could not abide.
今天的比哈尔邦道路上有些小洞，可是以前是连路都没有的。商人们嘟囔着说他们筹不到钱到这里投资，然而以前他们只会从该地抽逃资本的。民众抱怨库马尔政府没能实现其雄心勃勃的发展计划，可是至少政府是有抱负的。而亚达夫连个发展计划都没有，他最多只承诺尊重饱受权势压迫的属于种姓制度下层的人民，这些人曾经只是按照主人的意思投票，而后他们也乐于投票给一些“上层人”受不了的候选人。
How has Mr Kumar pulled off this transformation? He first imposed law and order, restoring the state to its role as night-watchman rather than rogue. He has put several gangsters—the sort of people who in the past became heroes—behind bars. He demanded speedy trials, where formerly defendants could intimidate witnesses and drag out proceedings. He has ensured that convicted criminals no longer get lucrative licences for liquor stores and ration shops, which sell subsidised food and fuel. And just as police reformers in America fixed broken windows, Mr kumar’s police improved perceptions of safety by forcing Bihar’s many gun-owners to conceal their weapons, rather than brandishing them out of their cars.
那库马尔是怎样进行他的改革的呢？第一步，他确立了法律和秩序，让该邦重新回归其守夜人(注2)的角色而不再做个恶棍。一些曾经是英雄的的歹徒被他关进牢笼。他也要求加快案件处理速度，因为从前被告通常威胁证人拖延审判进程。此外，他还担保一旦定罪则不能再取得获利行业执照开设酒水商店和出售补助食品和燃料的配给商店。正如美国警察改革者修补破窗一样，库马尔的警察也提升了该地安全系数，他们要求比哈尔邦枪支所有者掩藏武器，而不能像以前一样开车举出武器炫耀。
People now feel confident enough to buy cars and go out after dark. The economy, always volatile, has grown at double-digit rates, on average, since he took power, partly thanks to funds from Delhi. He built over 2,400km of roads last year. In Bihar’s villages, posters advertising immunisation compete with adverts offering cheap mobile-phone calls.
现在，人们对买车和夜间外出都有足够的信心了。一直波动的经济，自库马尔执政以来也以平均两位数的速度增长了，当然还是要感谢来自德里的贷款。 去年比哈尔邦修建了2400公里长的公路，在村落，宣传免疫服务的广告和宣传提供便宜手机电话服务的广告一样随处可见了。
Thanks. Now what?
多谢了，可是现在怎么样呢？
The policies MrKumarhas pursued so far have broad appeal. After the national elections in May 2009, a survey found that 88% of people were at least somewhat satisfied with the state government’s work. His second act will be trickier. He has shied away from land reform, which is both fiendishly complex and deeply unnerving to the upper-caste landowners included in his coalition. And to overcome what one minister describes as a “crisis of implementation”—teachers who don’t teach, nurses who don’t nurse, roads built but not maintained, funds received but not spent—he will have to overcome the most obdurate caste of all: the local bureaucracy.
库马尔实行的这些政策受到了大众的欢迎。2009年5月的全国大选过后，一项调查显示88%的人民都对邦政府的工作至多至少的表示满意。他另一项行动要赢得人们的满意就困难多了。他避开了土地改革。因为对于处于上层种姓的土地所有者（其中包括库马尔联盟中人士），土地改革既招人怨，十分复杂又让改革者身心疲惫。而库马尔必须要克服种姓制度中最顽固的一关，即克服当地官僚阶级的反抗。只有这样，他才能克服一位官员所提的“实施危机”，即克服教师不教，护士不护，道路修好了却没人维护，各种基金筹集好了却花不了种种情况。
More than the floods that frequently test Bihar’s embankments, local officials fear the rising expectations of people who no longer meekly accept their lot in life. Their instinct is to contain the waters by discouraging such self-assertion. But it is only by giving people their say, by turning unmet need into a political demand, that the state apparatus will begin to do its job. Mr Kumar must win re-election before the year is out. The biggest risk to him may be the rising expectations of his constituents. But that is also the measure of his success.
洪水时常检验着比哈尔邦的大堤，当地政府官员担心的是人们已不再仅仅接受命运安排，对生活的期望值越来越高。color=Red]直觉上他们要做的就是堵住洪水，打消人们的这种笃信。但是只有给人民说话的权利，满足他们政治上的要求，政府各机构才算开始其工作。在今年结束前库马尔一定要在再次选举中获胜。现在面临的最大威胁也许是来自选民高涨的期望，但这也许是他获胜的法宝。
注1：种姓制度：印度人口众多，百分之八十二为印度教徒，其中分为不同等级的社会集团。种姓制度主要存在于印度教中，对伊斯兰教和锡克教都有不同程度的影响。
印度的种姓制度将人分为四个不同等级：婆罗门、刹帝利、吠舍和首陀罗。婆罗门即僧侣，为第一种姓，地位最高，从事文化教育和祭祀；刹帝利即武士、王公、贵族等，为第二种姓，从事行政管理和打仗；吠舍即商人，为第三种姓，从事商业贸易；首陀罗即农民，为第四种姓，地位最低，从事农业和各种体力及手工业劳动等。后来随着生产的发展，各种姓又派生出许多等级。除四大种姓外，还有一种被排除在种姓外的人，即“不可接触者”或“贱民”。他们的社会地位最低，最受歧视，绝大部分为农村贫雇农和城市清洁工、苦力等。
种姓制度已经有三千多年的历史，早在原始社会的末期就开始萌芽。后来在阶级分化和奴隶制度形成过程中，原始的社会分工形成等级化和固定化，逐渐形成严格的种姓制度。
种姓是世袭的。几千年来，种姓制度对人们的日常生活和风俗习惯方面影响很深，种族歧视至今仍未消除，尤其广大农村情况还比较严重。
独立后，印度政府采取了很多措施来消除种姓歧视。首先是制定了有关法律规定。1948年国会通过了废除种姓制度的议案。后来宪法和各邦法律也都做出相应规定，保护低级种姓利益。政府还在教育、就业、福利等方面对低级种姓者提供大量帮助。
随着社会的进步，印度的种姓制度也在发生变化。如种姓制度中的内部通婚制受到冲击，如高种姓的女子现在也同低种姓的男子通婚了。人们对职业的看法也有所改变，衡量职业高低不再以宗教思想为基础，而以金钱、权力为基础。在城市里，各种姓人们之间加强了来往与交流。
注2：守夜人：在18世紀有公民權的時候，國家就是一個night watchman，一個夜警，只是在提醒大家不要去侵犯別人，不要去影響別人的宗教信仰自由，不要去影響別人的言論自由，不要去干涉別人的經濟自由。
译者：hellorainylin
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