1076 PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARVM SCRIPTA VAR'A -
pK
his labour and enterprise. This is one of the most important
consequences of the social transformation and is particularly
helpful in promoting rapid economic growth. Appropriate legal
and institutional changes must be made to achieve this.
6. NATIONAL INTEGRATION
6.1. Sectional interests and barriers: A characteristic fea-
ture of underdevelopment is the segmentation of the country
into innumerable regions, castes, tribes, languages, religious
communities, occupational and other groups which focus atten-
tion on the welfare of small sections of the people without any
awareness of the best interests of the country as a whole. It
has to be recognized that rapid progress is impossible without
painful adjustments and damage to sections of the people whose
interests are based on special privileges or old techniques; and
that old beliefs, customs, and social institutions have to be
discarded, and all barriers of caste, customs, creed, colour,
language and sectional interests must be ruthlessly eliminated.
The greater the prevalence of such social barriers in the coun-
try, the greater are the sectional rigidities within government
administration, and the fiercer are the inter-agency jealousies
and fights which continually delay decisions and hamper speedy
action.
6. . Integration: The removal of social and economic bar-
riers is an indispensable condition for the -emergence of the
sense of national solidarity without which national develop-
ment is impossible. It is not possible to isolate the scientific, or
the social, or the industrial aspects of the transformation from
one another. Advance must be made at the same time on all
fronts. This creates difficulties but also has its advantages.
Progress in one direction stimulates and promotes progress in
another direction. It is the task of leadership to maintain a
proper balance between the different aspects and phases of the
14] Mahalanobis I - pag. 8