ECONOMIC growth and development is transforming South Asia, particularly India, which is rapidly growing into a major global economic power. Meanwhile China has been experiencing one of the fastest economic growth years in world history. Such a trend is, in many ways, a culmination of half a century of world economic growth that represents what may be called a distinctly ‘GDP’ era.

But the pursuit of GDP has resulted in problems of disastrous proportion, as the world witnessed in the past two years. Human development, measured purely in economic terms, has been found to be inadequate, thus rendering the expectations from GDP growth a broken promise. Many agree that the world is ‘developing’ but something is missing.

In March 2010, a group of ‘influential minds’ from India and Bhutan gathered together in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, to engage, as the Indian ambassador to Bhutan described it, ‘in a realm of ideas.’ Academics, conservationists, environmentalists, media professionals, members of civil society, thinkers and writers, as well as students conducted the first Bhutan-India dialogue on what may be the most viable answer to the woes of a GDP-driven world – Gross National Happiness (GNH).

 

The concept of GNH, first initiated by the fourth king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1979, has been picked up around the world. Politicians, scholars, journalists, and civil society leaders in more than 20 countries, and even renowned thinkers like Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, proposed GNH as a healthier approach to development and change. With Bhutan and India grounding their unique friendship on a mode of economic cooperation that has been described as a shining example of bilateral relations, this first discussion on GNH has historical significance.

The concept of GNH is not new for Bhutan where it has been a system of values that kept society together for centuries. Today, this concept becomes more relevant as GNH challenges mainstream development thinking and suggests higher ideals for human development. The current government has decided to mainstream GNH into Bhutan’s efforts to move forward into the 21st century. For example, the country’s economic development policy states that there will be no room in a GNH economy for mass tourism, for fast food chains like McDonald’s, and all the trappings of a GDP society.

GNH is not a promise or a guarantee of happiness. True happiness is not the momentary, physical pleasure or the Disneyland happiness that global media tend to perpetuate. It is the deeper sense of contentment that lies within us and that is where we need to look to find happiness. GNH in Bhutan is, therefore, the role of the government to create conditions and an environment in which its citizens can pursue happiness.

GNH encapsulates all the intuitive goodness of traditional societies where food was home grown or home cooked, where breast-feeding was a norm, where a strong, healthy and compassionate person is beautiful no matter what his or her shape and size. GNH requires that economic development does not result in spiritual poverty.

In an attempt to base all its development on priorities of GNH, the government has identified four ‘pillars’ of GNH that form the basis of national planning and budgeting. The pillars are: (i) equitable and sustainable socio-economic development; (ii) conservation of the environment; (iii) preservation and promotion of culture; and (iv) promotion of good governance. These pillars have been expanded into nine ‘domains’ and GNH surveys were conducted using 72 indicators to measure the success of GNH-inspired development.

 

The Bhutan-India dialogue in Thimphu raised several concerns and issues that are central to the ongoing discourse on GNH. The participants sounded some alarm bells. Is GNH a prescriptive vision forced on a population? Is it some sort of a social engineering ploy that could potentially lead to totalitarian outcomes? Are measurements of GNH possible? The modern world places emphasis on individualism and the marketplace. Bhutan’s GNH, on the other hand, focuses on the strength of communities and families. Where does this tension take us?

All these questions are relevant and necessary to the understanding of Gross National Happiness because GNH is not just an idea whose time has come, it is an idea which richly deserves more attention, debate and discourse.

As Bhutan moves from a guided enlightened leadership to a more competitive political environment, individuals are now expected to chart their own future. Bhutan must encourage a greater public engagement in exploring the notion of GNH and to assess its relevance to public policy, social life, and economic and political transformation. Discourse on GNH must now move into the public domain, into the business sector, into schools,¹ and be debated among the youth.

 

The government, civil society and citizens have a grave responsibility in the discourse on GNH. They must open up the space for public discourse and debate on GNH so that society can deepen its understanding, acceptance, and ownership of GNH. Discourse and research in educational institutions and within broader society will encourage thinkers, the media and philosophers so that the GNH concept matures.

Economy and happiness cannot be separated; so GNH must reach the business community whose role and responsibility in a GNH environment has to be discussed. Bhutan needs to learn from the new economics that is emerging, and the new social and political order that is now forming.

In Bhutan’s current environment, there is immediate need to create new communities, especially urban, middle class communities who understand the concept of GNH. In Bhutan’s urgency to create a modern and urban environment, it now faces one of the largest rural-urban migrations in recent decades. GNH principles must be infused into town planning and the development of new social environments.

The Thimphu dialogue pointed out that one of the greatest challenges today is to make GNH appealing to the next generation and to make it an inclusive concept. Children in Bhutan are growing up in a modern world that is very different from that of their parents and grandparents. The all-pervasive influence of the global media today has taken away the family’s ability to share values and children are, in fact, being brought up by the media.

 

Bhutan must also redefine modern education to ensure that GNH values become the essence of the education system and education becomes the foundation of the GNH pillars. Children must grow up with the skills of critical thinking to deal with a commercially driven media that purvey the seductive materialist values that preach greed.

GNH, a pun on Gross National Product, was conceived as a response to a GDP-driven world. Our challenge is to ensure that our children grow up understanding that economic development must not come at the cost of the environment, culture, and traditional social systems. Our next generation needs to learn to weigh the future and consider the greater social good in all their actions. Thus GNH is very relevant to the future generation because it is not a fixed goal but a path to change.

Finally, how does democracy fit into the GNH paradigm? Bhutanese society is experiencing the tensions of change as a ‘trusted’ political system gives way to a whole new culture – the culture of party politics. What are the implications as a small society is subjected to an open confrontation that pits individuals and families against each other, resulting in ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in the new political game? Can multiparty democracy be introduced without dividing a small society?

It is important to understand that democracy does not contradict GNH. In fact, GNH provides a perspective on democracy. Democracy is not a goal but a path to good governance, one of the pillars of GNH. Democracy and GNH resonate because they both place people at the centre of the equation. As the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y. Thinley said in his address to more than 100 South Asian journalists in Paro on 26 April 2010: ‘GNH requires that every citizen, to achieve happiness, must be empowered to make the right decisions and this resonates with democracy because democracy, in its purest form, is the empowerment of the people.’

 

In a democracy conference in April 2009, a UN representative warned participants of the presence of ‘predator elites’ who could use democracy to create oligarchies or to further their own interests. Bhutan needs to create ‘enlightened elites’ who will carry on the discourse and to create a GNH society. And, in this context, it is significant that GNH was propounded as a goal by both the political parties in Bhutan’s general election in 2008.

To quote Bhutan’s prime minister: ‘The challenge for our first democratically elected government is to ensure that democracy becomes an instrument of peace, stability and harmony, and serves to inspire good governance and progress; that democracy takes firm roots and becomes an irreversible process; that elected leaders do not serve the vested interests of the few, and do not undermine the rule of law.’

 

Footnote:

1. The government’s education ministry adopted a GNH in education in school initiative in the winter of 2009/2010. Schools throughout the country are encouraged to adopt a checklist of guidelines expected to infuse GNH ideals into the education system.