38 SOCIAL SCIENTIST the fact that the new round of industrial expansion would be capital-intensive per se, but in that it would be capital-intensive within a liberal import regime and therefore will necessarily be import intensive. The recessionary implications of this strategy should be obvious.17 The Political Consequences At various points in the foregoing discussions we have already drawn attention to the various "political* consequences of this new strategy, that it would imply an attack on the living standards of the poor, their employment prospects and that it would imply an opening up of our economy to foreign capital and to neo-colonial dependency. We may add here that other consequences follow as well. If the government is forced to maintain a certain level of expenditure with reduced revenue prospects it would be forced to maintain a sizeable deficit in its transacdpns. Any such large deficit which is not balanced by an active public distribution system would be inflationary. Inflation is a catalyst for social unrest! To quell such inflation-led social unrest government commitment to such non-productive expenditure as military and civil security would increase and make the inflationary potential of the deficit only worse. Such social unrest would normally invite demands from the property-owning classes for disciplining of the working class and for curbing of democratic rights. Such demands would become only stronger and perhaps be made even earlier if foreign capital and the Fund-Bank conglomerate have acquired an important stake in the economy. Rising prices, mounting unemployment and widening social disparities have always followed Fund-Bank adjustment and stabilisation programmes in such diverse countries as Sudan, Jamaica and Philippines. Almost always extreme social destabilisa-don in a Fund-Bank debtor nation is associated with the emergence of authoritarian regimes. Further, it is under such circumstances of an economic collapse and political instability that imperialism secures a foothold in the Third World nation. Is it simply a coincidence that the first round of liberalisation in this country was introduced during the 1975*77 Emergency while the second round of liberalisation is being introduced with dire warnings of a *second coming ? Further, one may add, economic crisis reflects itself in a variety of forms of protest and social unrest. In a backward capitalist society under the pervasive influence of pre-capitalist ideology economic distress can often reflect itself in the growth of obscurantist and reactionary movements. These take the form of regionalism, separatism, religious and linguistic chauvinism and fundamentalism, tribal and caste conflicts and so on, all of which then become a fertile ground for foreign intervention. It is therefore important that we begin to analyse such attempts at destablisising India in the recent past and see if all this is not linked to the enveloping economic crisis and to the Fund-Bank strategy of securing India into the imperialist camp and weakening its status as a leader of the non-aligned nations. India is passing through momentous times. Do we have it in us as a nation to rededicate our-