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Since March 24, 2020, we have been shaken by the images and stories of fellow Indians rendered jobless, hungry, separated from their families, cut off from access to services, and subjected to the most deplorable human conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdown. In a market society, basic aspects of social life would be treated as pure market commodities (fictitious commodities) and humans redefined as purely economically rational (i.e., profit-maximising) actors. The rise of capitalism, however, involved political efforts to de-link the economy from this social environment. Polanyi argued that before the 19th century, the economic system had been conceived of as a part of the broader society governed by social customs and norms as much as by market principles of profit and exchange. Let us underline, right at the outset, that it is only in the post – The Great Transformation period (à la Karl Polanyi) that one can even begin to fathom the possibility of India’s top billionaires increasing their wealth by 35 per cent while India’s poor population more than doubled from 6 Crore to 13.4 Crore after the first wave of the pandemic. A public health parable (adapted from the original, which is commonly attributed to Irving Zola) Your friend answers, “I’m going upstream to tackle the guy who’s throwing all these kids in the water.” Suddenly, you see your friend wading out of the water, seeming to leave you alone. Then another struggling child drifts into sight… and another… and another. You and your friend jump back in the river to rescue her as well. Before you can recover, you hear another child cry for help. Without thinking, you both dive in, grab the child, and swim to shore. Suddenly you hear a shout from the direction of the water-a child is drowning.
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You and a friend are having a picnic by the side of a river.