2.8 ndian onom
of mind. Therefore, its idea might vary from one has the following parameters to attain happiness/
economy to the other. development:
Second, the period in which development was (i) Higher real per capita income
defined, it was considered that with the supply of (ii) Good governance
some selected material resources human life can be (iii) Environmental protection
improved. These resources were pin-pointed as, a
(iv) Cultural promotion (i.e., inculcation of
better level of income, proper level of nutrition,
ethical and spiritual values in life without
healthcare facilities, proper levels of literacy and
which, it says, progress may become a
education, etc.
curse rather than a blessing)
Happiness is a broader thing than development.
At the level of real per capita income, the
The so-called ‘development’ for which the world
GNH and the HDI are the same. Though the
has been striving hard for the last many decades HDI is silent on the issue of ‘good governance’,
is capable of delivering material happiness to today it should be considered as being promoted
mankind. Happiness has its non-material side around the world once the World Bank came
also. It means, while the world has been trying with its report on it in 1995 and enforced it upon
to maximise its prospects of development, i.e., the member states. On the issue of protecting
material happiness, it could not attend the non- environment, though the HDI didn’t say
material part of happiness. The non-material part anything directly, the World Bank and the UNO
of our life is rooted in ethics, religion, spiritualism had already accepted the immediacy of sustainable
and cultural values. As development or human development by then and by early 1990s there was
development was defined in material terms, it a seperate UN Convention on the matter (follow
could only deliver us material happiness which is up on this convention has been really very low till
visibly available in the developed world. Due to date which is a different issue).
partial definition of development, the developed
It means the basic difference between the GNH
world has been able to achieve development, i.e.,
and the HDI looks at the level of assimilating the
happiness, but only of material kind. For the non-
ethical and spiritual aspects into our (UNDP’s)
material part of happiness, we need to redefine our
idea of development.
‘ideas’ of development.
An impartial analysis sufficiently suggests that
Somehow a very small kingdom had been
material achievements are unable to deliver us
able to define development in its own way, which
happiness devoid of some ethics at its base. And
included material as well as non-material aspects ethics are rooted in the religious and spiritual texts.
of life and named it the Gross National Happiness But the new world is guided by its own scientific
(GNH). This country is Bhutan. and secular interpretation of life and the world
Gross National Happiness: Bhutan, a small has always been suspicious about recognising the
Himalayan kingdom and an economic non- spiritual factor in human life. Rather the western
entity, developed a new concept of assessing idea of secularism was defined after rejecting the very
development in the early 1970s—the Gross existence of anything like God and also rejecting
National Happiness (GNH). Without rejecting the whole traditional hypothesis of spiritualism as
the idea of human development propounded instances of ignorance and orthodoxy. And there
by UNDP, the kingdom has been officially should not be any doubt in accepting it that the
following the targets set by the GNH. Bhutan western ideology in the name of development has
has been following the GNH since 1972 which ultimately, dominated the modern world and its