The Significance of Mahatma Gandhi s Idea of Village Self- Rule With Regard to Economic Globalization

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1 The Significance of Mahatma Gandhi s Idea of Village Self- Rule With Regard to Economic Globalization Dr. Arvind Adityaraj Lecturer Post Graduate Department of Political Science College of Commerce Patna , Bihar, India. (A Constituent Unit of Magadh University, Bodh Gaya)

2 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MAHATMA GANDHI S IDEA OF VILLAGE SELF-RULE WITH REGARD TO ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION Dr. Arvind Adityaraj Lecturer Post Graduate Department of Political Science College of Commerce Patna , Bihar, India. (A constituent unit of Magadh University, Bodh Gaya) (A Research Article submitted for presentation at the 21 st IPSA World Congress of Political Science, scheduled to be held at Santiago, Chile, from 12 July to 16 th July 2009) Mahatma Gandhi ( ) was not a methodical philosopher but a man of action and a leader who commanded considerable influence over men. Like Buddha and Socrates, Gandhi stressed only certain basic values and did not systematically elaborate the essential philosophical postulations and the sociological, political and economic implications of his theories at an advanced intellectual level. However, he certainly had emphatically put forward certain fundamental ideas for the regeneration of man and the reconstruction of society and politics and in this sense he could be regarded as a moral, social, economic and political thinker. His greatness laid in his towering character, his political moral leadership, his inner intuitive experiences and his messages of truth and non-violence. He was also a prolific writer of force and power. His writings touched almost all the social, educational, cultural, economic and political problems of the contemporary world. Although not a system-builder in the academic sense of term, Gandhi had expressed many ideas, which are highly relevant to the modern age. Contemporary World Scenario; The fast emerging global socio-political and scientific sequence of events is a convincing reminder of the speed with which the forces released by science and technology and aided by human greed has dismantled almost at one stroke all humanity hitherto believed invincible. The socio-economic and political set-up all over the world has undergone tremendous changes during the last two decades and a new culture has taken over. Traditional values and concerns seem to have been replaced by a new set of attitudes and life style, which are steeped in materialism and consumerism and are propagated by the champions of unlimited material progress in an organized manner. All of a sudden, economics has overshadowed all other branches of human endeavour. The most frightening aspect of the whole development is that man is nowhere in the reckoning now and has been pitiably reduced to the status of a consumer. Human, ethical and moral values have been seized by those who believe that economic growth is the real index of power. While the power of money was never underestimated anywhere, never before in human history every thing is being measured in terms of per capita income and G.N.P.(gross national product) or the relative purchasing power or such other material considerations. The rise in the materialistic and consumerist culture has led to the callous indifference shown to mother earth. There has been an over exploitation of nature as if there is inexhaustible wealth hidden beneath the surface. Environmental pollution has resulted in the rise in earth s temperature. The warnings and spirited campaigns undertaken by the various environmentalist groups to stop many of the harmful steps taken by the governments of affluent countries receive practically little attention. Hence, in a world increasingly enamoured with 2

3 technology and conspicuous consumption on the one hand and giving in to violence on the other, it is high time that the humanity should rediscover the Mahatma. The Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi; Gandhi did not receive any formal training in economics, nor did he study much economics on his own. He had probably read Adam Smith s classic Wealth of Nations and he turned to the serious study of Karl Marx only in his 75 th year. Since moral considerations weighed heavily with Gandhi in everything he did, his economic ideas were no exception. However, from his scattered writings and pronouncements a consistent body of knowledge in economics has been carved out which is named as Gandhian Economics and which has contemporary relevance, remarkable originality and the attributes of an analytical contribution of a high order. It is widely accepted that the core of the legacy Gandhi left for humanity, is that he taught the world that truth is greater than all worldly possessions and that slavery, violence, injustice and disparities are inconsistent with truth. What Gandhi left is a carefully evolved vision of an organically sound and naturally supportive and respecting independent world order. The six decades of Gandhi s public life in six continents, spearheading various movements for a social and political environment, demonstrated with convincing sincerity a revolutionary zeal for change; change with consent; hitherto unexplored in national and international politics. Hence, Gandhi was totally against the usual violent methods associated with revolutions. He offered a package of alternatives to humanity. By his insistence on non-violence to violence, persuasion and reconciliation to end hostilities, trusteeship to end economic injustices, improvement of the lot of the depressed sections by abolishing factors that perpetrate social inequities, ending man s tyranny on nature by respecting nature as the protector of human race, limiting one s wants and developing equal respect for all religions, Gandhi offered humanity the blue print for a holistic vision. Gandhi convincingly demonstrated through ashram experiments the use of alternative sources of energy, appropriate technology etc. In short, an ardent practitioner of truth that he was, Gandhi showed the humanity that there are workable alternatives which will be creative and sustainable. However, Gandhi on several occasion said that he was not trying to teach anything new. According to him truth and non-violence are as old as hill. Gandhi warned against a series of social and political turmoil, ecological devastations and other human miseries that might arise unless modern civilization takes care of nature and man tries to live in harmony with nature and tries to reduce his wants. He cautioned in strong words that consumerist tendencies and callous indifference to values will not help humanity to progress towards peace. Hatred of all forms, exploitations of all types are actually negation of humanity s basic right to exist. The Gandhian legacy of simple living in conformity with the basic rhythm of life, typifies the age-old wisdom of humanity. Gandhi tries to convince humanity that war never solved any problem. Thus in Gandhi we have a world leader, who dreamt of a warless world and promoter of a social order, where exploitation and injustice will not become the dominant tendencies. While talking about the relevance of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. ( ) expressed his opinion in these words; Gandhi was inevitable. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought and acted inspired by the vision of humanity evolving towards a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore Gandhi at our own risk 1. Mahatma Gandhi, as early as in 1908, in his landmark work Hind Swaraj pointed out that unprincipled growth will land humanity on the brink of disaster. The evil that we are to fight is within us and that we are ignorant of it is the basic problem. This can be possible only if we adopt a holistic vision of life and ensure equality and justice, which presupposes the simple truth 3

4 that each individual is unique and we should respect his individuality and let him maintain his uniqueness and what applies to an individual, should apply to a nation or at a global level. He further wrote; I must confess that I do not draw a sharp line or any distinction between economics and ethics. Economics that hurts the moral well being of an individual or a nation is immoral and therefore, sinful 2. This indicates that sustainable development, the buzzword among the environmentalists these days, requires both biological and cultural diversity, which in turn is inescapably linked to justice and compassion, towards each other and to the nature. Gandhi on Capitalism; Gandhi was never reconciled to the capitalist system of production and technological growth. He criticized the inequities of capitalism at a time when the capitalist economy had not yet become the dominant aspect of the total economy of India and that indicates his foresight 3. The dominant factor for his opposition against capitalism was that it was based on the policy of exploitation of labourers. Gandhi regarded labour force as the most vital factor in the production. He in the 7 September 1947 edition of Harijan wrote; Labour is far superior to capital. Without labour, gold silver and copper were useless burden. It was labour which attracts precious ore from the bowels of the earth 4. Besides, Gandhi saw in capitalism the evils of social polarization between two opposed social classes the capitalists and the labourers. This results in strikes, lockouts, sabotage and hence there is a marked decline of social spirit. Gandhi felt that in his ideal state this social antagonism would be replaced by increasing cooperation and mutual reciprocity 5. Gandhi was a firm believer in the ideals of socialism, but was thoroughly opposed to socialism of Marxian type. Apart from the use of violence for the attainment of their goal, Gandhi was against the communistic notion of bringing all the means of production under public ownership. According to him by doing so, the socialists create enormous concentration of power and they have not evolved a satisfactory method of dealing with such situation. The theory of Trusteeship was Gandhi s answer to the problem on the one hand of concentration of wealth among the capitalist and on the other concentration of power in the state. In a nutshell, the theory of Trusteeship holds that all possessions including one s talent and mental excellence belong to the society and those who have these possessions should hold them in trust for society. His concept of Trusteeship is based on the Isha Upanishad, which asserts that God is the owner of the world and that we own nothing. In the words of Gandhi; the rich man will be left in possession of his wealth, of which he will use what he reasonably requires for his personal needs and act as a trustee for the remainder to be used for society. In this argument, honesty on part of the trustee is assumed 6. Gandhi s Idea of Village Republic vis-à-vis Globalization; Globalization is an umbrella term for a complex process, which is systematically restructuring the interactive phases among nations by breaking down barriers in the area of culture, commerce, communication and several other fields of endevour. The most likely fallout of this ongoing process of globalization is that its advantages move from top to bottom. As the real effects of economic globalization on any country s economy is yet to crystallize fully, on the basis of certain initial trends one can derive the conclusion that it may largely benefit the urban affluent and only marginally the rural or urban poor. But it may also happen that the benefits dry up before reaching the bottom. This is a universal phenomenon and no country is exception to it. This has led to a rise in the cases of poverty, hunger and unemployment throughout the globe. Besides the foregoing, ills of globalization include; 4

5 (a) Violation of human rights of the developing countries, (b) In the name of bringing prosperity, resorting to plundering and profiteering, (c) Going for cultural assimilation via cultural imperialism, (d) Export of artificial wants, and (e) Little care for nature, ecology and environment. Mahatma Gandhi s economic thought is the polar opposite of what today s consumerist society stand for. The foundation of all his social and economic solutions was based on the concept of Sarvadaya, the welfare of all. Gandhi s philosophy is religious and spiritual, economic and political questions are seen from the moral and humanistic perspective. The welfare of the human beings and not of systems or institutions is the ultimate consideration. In fact, economics should not be separated from the deep spiritual foundations of life. This can be best achieved, according to Gandhi, when every individual is an integral part of the community; when the production of goods is on a small scale; when the economy is local; and when homemade (Swadeshi) handicrafts are given preference. These conditions are conducive to a holistic, spiritual, ecological and communitarian pattern of society. The Gandhian Concept of Village Republic ; As Gandhi was against the massive concentration of economic power among a handful of individuals, in his economic model he favours economic decentralization and hence villages become the basic economic units. His idea of Gram Swaraj (village self rule) aims at developing villages in a manner which retains and strengthens those components of the village ethos, which deserve to be retained and strengthened 7. According to the idea of Gram Swaraj, each village should be basically selfreliant, making provisions for all the necessities of life- food, clothing, clean water, sanitation, housing, education and so on, including government and self defence and all socially useful amenities required by a community. His vision of independent India was not that of a nation state, but a confederation of self-governing, self-reliant, self-employed people living in village communities, deriving their right livelihood from the products of their homesteads. Maximum economic and political power- including the power to decide what could be imported into or exported from the village- would remain in the hands of the village assemblies 8. According to the principle of swadeshi, as propounded by Gandhi, economic dependence on external market forces could make the village communities vulnerable. A village must build a strong economic base to satisfy most of its needs and all members of the village community should give priority to local goods and services. In other words, each village should be a microcosm of India- a web of loosely interconnected communities. Gandhi considered such villages so important that he thought they should be given the status of Village Republics 9. Gandhi believed that the village community should embody the spirit of the home- an extension of the family rather than a collection of competing individuals. Gandhi s dream was not of personal self-sufficiency, not even family self-sufficiency, but the self sufficiency of the village community. The British believed in centralized, industrialized and mechanized modes of production. Gandhi turned this principle on its head and envisioned a decentralized, homegrown, hand crafted mode of production. By adopting the principle of production by the masses, village communities would be able to restore dignity to the work done by hands. In Gandhi s words; not mass production but production by the masses 10. In fact, mass production is only concerned with the product, whereas production by the masses is concerned with the product, the producers and the process. 5

6 Gandhi on Industrialization and the Use of Heavy Machinery; Global industrial society, as opposed to society made up of largely autonomous communities committed to the principle of swadeshi, is unsustainable. Dr. E.F. Schumacher, author of the classic critique on modern economics, Small is Beautiful, who called Gandhi the greatest People s Economist, says; Gandhi abhorred the industrial civilization because it was based on callous exploitation of nonrenewable resources. It made bodily welfare the sole object of life, which reduced man to nothing but a clever animal 11. Gandhi s experiences in self-control and disinterestedness led him to pronounce; Civilization consists not in the multiplication of wants but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants. His alternative to the massive industrialization was the formation of village industries and crafts, primarily spinning and weaving of Khadi. Spinning would be a way of supplementing the meager income of a villager. It also gave self determination to one of life s necessities- clothing. Today Khadi makes only one percent of the textile industry of India, it however employs nearly two million people. The driving force behind mass production is the cult of the individual. In contrast, a locally based economy enhances community spirit, community relationships and community well being. Mass production leads people to leave their villages, their land, their crafts and their homesteads and go to work in the factories. Instead of dignified human beings and members of the self respecting village communities, people become cogs in the machines, standing at the conveyor belt, living in the shanty towns and depending on the mercy of the bosses. Then fewer and fewer people are needed to work, because the industrialists want greater productivity. The masters of money economy want more and more efficient machines working faster and faster and the result would be that men and women would be thrown on the scrap heap of unemployment. Such a society generates rootless and jobless millions living as dependants of the state. On the other hand in the Gandhian idea of production by the masses, the machine would be subordinated to the worker; it would not be allowed to become the master, dictating the pace of human activity. Gandhi s attitude towards machinery changed considerably with the passage of time. In 1908, he writes in his classic Hind Swaraj (Chapter XIX); Machinery is the chief symbol of modern civilization, it represents a great sin. I cannot recall a single good point in connection with the machinery..it is necessary to realize that machinery is bad, we shall then be able to gradually do away with it. Increasingly he began to realize that it is not machinery as such that is evil but the social condition under which it is used. In the 12 February 1938 issue of Harijan he wrote; If I could produce all my country s wants by means of people instead of 30 million? I should not mind it, provided that the 30 million are not rendered idle and unemployed. Gradually Gandhi began to see that under proper condition of social control, even large scale machinery could be used in such a way as to serve the villages and their crafts and not destroy them as they did in the past in the absence of social control. He wrote in the 27 January 1940 issue of Harijan; I do visualize electricity, ship building, iron works, machine making and the like existing side by side with village handicrafts. Hitherto, industrialization has been so planned as to destroy the village crafts. In the state of future it will sub serve the villages and their crafts. The position that Gandhi came to hold on machinery was quite close that of Marx. In the absence of social control machinery causes unemployment and leads to exploitation of labour and the destruction of artisan. Hence, the indiscriminate proliferation of machinery is harmful, however, under proper social control; machinery could confer many benefits on society. In other words, instead of the use of the large scale technology in an arbitrary manner, Gandhi was in 6

7 favour of large scale technology in few sectors co-existing with small scale technology and handicraft. Gandhi knew that with the globalization of economy, every nation would wish to export more and import less to keep the balance of payment in its favour. As a result there would be perpetual economic crisis, perpetual unemployment and perpetually discontented, disgruntled human beings. In communities practicing swadeshi, economics would not dominate society. Beyond a certain limit, economic growth becomes detrimental to human well-being. Contrary to the modern world view that the more material goods you have, the better your life would be, Gandhi said; A certain degree of physical comfort is necessary but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help; therefore the ideal of creating an unlimited number of wants and satisfying them seems to be a delusion and a trap. The satisfaction of one s physical needs must come at a certain point to a dead stop before it degenerates into physical decadence 12. Besides, in this age of globalization, the economists and industrialists fail to see when enough is enough. Even when countries reach a very high material standard of living, they are still caught up with the idea of economic growth. The global economy drives people towards high performance, high achievement and high ambition for materialistic success. This results in stress, loss of space for personal and family relationships and loss of spiritual life. Gandhi realized that in the past life in India was not only prosperous but also conducive to philosophical and spiritual development. Swadeshi for Gandhi was the spiritual imperative. In order to protect their economic interest, countries go to war- military war as well as economic war. There cannot be real peace in the world if countries would look at each other as sources of raw materials or as markets for finished industrial goods. The seeds of war are sown with economic greed. Throughout history one finds that the pursuit of economic expansion consistently leads to military adventures. In the words of Gandhi; There is enough for everybody s need, but not for anybody s greed. Swadeshi is thus a prerequisite for peace. Conclusion; Though set in the Indian socio-economic context, Gandhian philosophy is certainly considered as a universal and timeless philosophy. It is regarded that the ideals of truth and non-violence, which underpin the whole philosophy, are relevant to all mankind. It embodies numerous Western influences to which Gandhi was exposed at different points of time in his life. His philosophy upholds the ideal of a just and equitable society. His social order has been described as communism minus violence. However, Marxists traditionally do not accept the Gandhian model because of what they regarded as his bourgeois outlook. Gandhi rejected the Marxian concept of violent class conflict and regarded the centralization of political and economic power in the hands of the state as counter productive to the development of a non-violent society. Nevertheless, Gandhian philosophy, particularly the concept of Sarvodaya does contain many i socialist sentiments. His thoughts have been likened also to the concepts of Utopian Socialism and Philosophical Anarchism. In the fast emerging global scenario moral values, ethics, spirituality, family values, religious insights have all seemed to have lost their place and values. Ethics and morality appear to be out of tune with the ethos of the global village. Globalization has thrust to the forefront. Deterioration of the nation state, leading to global integration mostly on the strength of economic prosperity of the industrially rich and developed nations have led to a situation where vast iniquities that divided the small minority of haves from the huge majority of have-nots. The economic liberalization and the technological automation threaten to widen further the existing 7

8 economic, social, political and cultural disparities. Global justice will be far cry unless bold initiatives are undertaken to overcome these disparities. Robert Hart in his famous essay Gandhi and the Greens: Road to Survival writes; At the critical period in the history of the world, humanity s only ultimate hope for survival lies in the worldwide movement for grass root reconstruction on Gandhian lines. 8

9 References; 1. Suma Varughese; Looking for Gandhi; Life Positive, Available at 2. N. Radhakrishnan; Gandhi in the Globalized Context; The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, Available at 3. V.P.Varma; Political Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and Sarvodaya, 1994, Bharati Bhawan, Patna, p Ibid. p Ibid. 6. M.K.Gandhi; Harijan, 25 August M.K.Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, Navjeevan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, Reprint of Satish Kumar; Gandhi s Swadeshi- the Economics of Permanence. Available at 9. Ibid. 10. Ibid. 11. Suma Varughese; op.cit. 12. Satish Kumar; op. cit. 9