I remember my childhood village in Sindh, a place woven together by skills and shared resources, not just cash. My father, the village tailor, rarely saw stacks of rupees change hands for his expertly stitched garments. Instead, his payment often arrived in sacks – wheat, rice, lentils.
These were lifeblood not just commodities. They filled our ‘bharola’ or ‘gundi’, ingenious storage bins crafted from mud mixed with straw, their thick walls naturally regulating temperature and keeping pests at bay.
Meat and eggs came from the chickens scratching in our courtyard. When fish was desired, my brothers and I would grab simple lines and hooks and head to the local jheel or wetland, returning with dinner free of charge. Clothing, too, was often a local affair; many families would weave their own, or barter for affordable garments crafted by village weavers from locally sourced cotton.
Shelter wasn’t a crippling monthly expense dictated by landlords. Neighbours banded together, using locally sourced mud, thatch and timber, contributing labour in a system of mutual support called ‘aabat’ (in Sindhi) or ‘Hashir’ (in Pashto), to build sturdy homes for each other. Life wasn’t without its hardships, but it had a fundamental sense of security. There were no bills, no rent draining meagre earnings and a profound independence from the distant markets.
Fast forward 40 years, and this picture of resilient self-sufficiency feels like a fading photograph. A seismic shift has occurred: the erosion of indigenous knowledge and local economies, replaced by an ever-tightening dependence on the cash-based consumer market. This transition, often framed as inevitable progress under a globalised capitalist system, driven by corporate expansion, has paradoxically become a powerful engine driving food insecurity and deepening poverty for millions, creating an alarming imbalance at a colossal human cost.
The bharola lies empty in many homes, replaced by the need to buy expensive packets of flour. The commons – once sources of free resources – have shrunk, privatised or degraded, often due to corporate interests. Traditional bartering has faded, and the communal spirit of homebuilding has weakened amid migration, market-driven aspirations and the rise of concrete structures that require purchased materials and paid labour.
This shift forces many into exploitative rental markets or debt. One recalls Mahatma Gandhi’s call for swadeshi, opposing the commercial influx that undermined self-sufficiency.
The data shows a dangerous trend: prioritising profit over people carries a high human cost. Despite overall food production growth, up to 828 million people faced hunger in 2021 (FAO), critically linked to market dependence. Treating food as a commodity within capitalism makes populations highly vulnerable to price shocks, often amplified by corporate speculation. Increased price volatility devastates low-income households, spending 60-80 per cent on food, leading to hunger and debt.
Simultaneously, corporate agribusiness promotes profit-driven monoculture, displacing diverse local crops and causing massive agrobiodiversity loss (75 per cent plant genetic diversity lost since the 1900s – FAO). This market logic erodes resilience and dietary diversity, benefiting corporations while undermining food security.
The constant need for cash traps families in cycles of debt. The World Bank notes that, while extreme poverty rates have declined, progress has slowed and vulnerability remains immense. This is starkly visible among millions of poor urban dwellers, crammed into sprawling settlements often constructed with modern materials ill-suited to the climate, lacking energy efficiency and basic insulation.
These populations endure ever-rising temperatures with little respite, often living without reliable power for fans or cooling. For these hustling daily wage earners, already struggling to afford food and rent, the market’s failure extends to the most basic necessities.
In countless areas, like Karachi’s vast squatter settlements, families lack access to municipal infrastructure and are forced to purchase even drinking water daily. The shift away from subsistence and mutual support systems, actively encouraged by the expansion of market economies, means fewer non-monetary safety nets exist when cash runs out, leaving people exposed to the often harsh realities of capitalist competition.
Aggressive corporate marketing significantly drives harmful consumerism, pushing aspirations tied to branded goods and diverting resources from essential needs. This core strategy of consumer capitalism continually demands and integrates even the poorest into global markets, often at their disadvantage, while devaluing traditional lifestyles.
In contrast, older systems based on resilience, community, barter and shared resources offered crucial buffers against shocks amplified by profit-driven global capitalism. Addressing this requires fundamentally rethinking development beyond corporate interests and GDP growth. Supporting local food systems, protecting resources, valuing indigenous knowledge, promoting agroecology and fostering cooperatives are vital.
The current path of market dependence, fueled by a capitalist system indifferent to its colossal human cost, leads not to prosperity, but to precarity and an ever-deepening, alarming global imbalance.
The writer is an expert on climate change and sustainable development and the founder of the Clifton Urban Forest. He tweets/posts @masoodlohar and can be reached at: [email protected]
