Yogakshema : The Indian Model of Welfare State

Contents: Preface. 1. Theory of the welfare state. 2. The British scene. 3. Diverse trends. 4. Fabian socialism and welfare-statism. 5. Laissez-faire foundation of the welfare state 1889-1914. 6. Panchayati Raj: the Indian model of local self-government. 7. Yogakshema: Indian model of welfare state. 8. Crises in welfare states—warning signals for developing societies. 9. Epilogue. Index.

"The welfare state is perhaps the most constructive innovation of modern times, open to continuous revision and keeps alive the spirit of reform by which it was originally prompted.

"It has been conveniently used to cover a complex of socio-economic-political changes, synonymous with ‘freedom from want’ ‘social security’, ‘social justice’, ‘national insurance’, ‘equality’, ‘social’ and ‘public’, services, ‘full employment’, ‘abolition of poverty’, and the like.

"Early classics and philosophical wisdom of ancient India provide us with enormous literature to formulate de novo Indian political theory, on the one hand and a rich concept of the welfare state, on the other.

"Kautilya over reached the modern concept that Yogakshema aims at an all-round development, material as well as spiritual, of the society as well of the individual. It ensured freedom, happiness, prosperity and full fledged development of human personality. Yogakshema demanded a higher moral consciousness both at the elites’ and common people’s levels.

"Yogakshema has all the ingredients of a modern welfare state. A new spiritual consciousness should inform the widespread material concerns in a manner that the essential liberty of man is secure in a system of obsessive democracy.

"The present book may be recommended to a very wide range of readers, not only those with a specialist in political science, but all who are concerned as citizens with the social conscience of the modern world." (jacket)