In rejuvenating the human
spirit, in reestablishing confidence, great people have always left indelible
impression. And Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) was certainly one of
them. He was a gentle colossus. His life itself, was a message of eternal value
to humanity. Gandhi was born and raised in coastal Gujarat and was trained in
Law in London. Gandhi became famous by fighting for the civil rights of Muslim
and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using his new techniques of non-violent
civil disobedience that he developed during his stay in South Africa
(1893-1914). Returning to India in 1915, he struggled for India’s independence
from 1915 to 1947.
Gandhi, the name stands as the
most powerful synonym of non-violence and self-respect in this century, and is
often remembered on October 2, on his birthday anniversary, and on January 30,
on his death anniversary. The humane and progressive achievements of persons
like Gandhiji catalyse the collective efforts and help the lager aggregates to
work toward the progress of their immediate communities, the nation and the
humanity at large.
That Gandhi is a force to
reckon with has been occasionally acknowledged, but in practice a great deal is
left to be done in realizing the potential of his words had and in recognizing
ourselves as worthy human beings.
Empowerment of the people at
the grass-roots level, decentralization of power, conscientiousness in education,
and recognition of the imperatives of non-violence and Satyagraha are the
cardinal principles of Gandhiji’s philosophy.
Once Dr Martin Luther King,
Jr.(1929-1968) had stated: “……if humanity is to progress, Gandhi is
inescapable. He lived, thought, acted and inspired by vision of humanity
evolving towards a world of peace and harmony…….. .” More recently Mr Barack
Obama, the 44th and current President of the United States of America,
observed: “Gandhiji ended up changing the world by just the power of his ethics…………through
the force of (his) personality and ……….ethical and moral stances………Gandhiji has
inspired people across the world for past several generations. He is somebody
in whom I find lot of inspiration.”
January 30, 1948, was probably
the saddest day in modern history of India when the Mahatma was assassinated.
The honorific title ‘Mahatma’ was bestowed upon Gandhiji by Rabindrnath Tagore.
I will not dwell on a lengthy
article on Gandhiji, rather I prefer to limit myself briefly on Gandhian model
of development and his rural reconstruction programmes.
Gandhian Model of
Development
The Gandhian model of
development stands as a unique example of self-reliant, need oriented and
environmentally sound development aimed at the fullest realisation of human
personality. All other models of development are reductionist, which only serve
the purpose of narrowly conceived human being. For Gandhi, ethics and economics
cannot be separated. Gandhi always stood for self-reliant economy. For him any
kind of rapid economic growth out of indiscriminate industrialization and
modernization resulted in inequality and environmental degradation. Such models
result in the destruction of the very scarce resources to which the poor have
access. For Gandhi to treat poor as an instrument of one’s economic growth
should be thoroughly despised. The first and foremost aim of any development
should be to feed the common mass. To quote him: “A starving man thinks
first of satisfying his hunger before anything else. He will sell his liberty
and all for the sake of getting a morsel of food. Such is the position of
millions of the people of India. For them, liberty, God and all such words are
merely letters put together without the slightest meaning.”
For Gandhiji growing poverty
was not the result of backward economics but the direct result of an excessive
and indiscriminate industrialization. It was Gandhiji who realized the
importance of traditional labour- intensive activities for the economic
well-being of a poor man. Gandhiji drew our attention to three harmful effects
of modern day economy.
a) Replacement of traditional
labor-intensive activities by modern capital intensive activities.
b) Replacement of the limited
exchange systems of traditional village clusters by widespread market exchange
systems of the capitalist type.
c) The replacement of the
dispersed rural habitation pattern by concentrated urban patterns of
concentrated living.
According to Gandhiji these
three harmful effects of modern economy have led to various forms of
dislocation, displacement and misery. If we look into Gandhi’s theory of
economics we find it is highly linked with his concept of life and man. Gandhiji
rejected the economic growth model and favoured a model which stands for:
1. A need-based living, rather
than living in an unlimited affluence.
2. A life devoted to resource
saving and controlled consumption rather than indiscriminate exploitation of
resources.
3. A life devoted to the
promotion of clean environment and natural ways of living as against
materialist way of life.
4. A commitment to nature and
protect nature rather than an attitude to exploit nature.
Gandhiji’s Alternative
Gandhiji called for a
‘Sarvodaya’ order of the society meaning ‘welfare for all’. This is to be
coupled with development of villages by providing education, health and
employment opportunities. The idea of trusteeship is part of Sarvodaya. All
human beings are equally responsible for the welfare of all human beings.
Gandhi held all men and women could act as trustees, rather as owners of their
resources. He had no objection to a large measure of society’s wealth flowing
through hands of individuals, but he warned that this involved facing a moral temptation,
which require a spirit of possession
and deliberate adopting a trusteeship. In this context we recall Gandhiji’s
famous statement: “The world has enough resources for our needs, but not for
our greed.”
Though
Gandhiji’s writings in letters and articles are prolific, goings to several
hundreds, however he wrote only two small booklets with specific focus. One is Hind
Swaraj written in 1909 when he was in South Africa and the other Constructive
Programme published in 1942. Hind Swaraj is primarily a political
document, while Constructive Programme is on economic development.
Gandhiji cautioned us on seven sins:1) Politics without principle; 2) Wealth
without work; 3) Pleasure without conscience; 4) Knowledge without character;
5) Commerce without morality; 6) Science without humanity; and 7) Worship
without sacrifice.
Village as
the Basis of Development
Gandhiji
insisted on ‘Gram Swaraj’ visualising self-government of the village community
as the basis Indian democracy. His idea of village swaraj is a “complete
republic independent of its neighbours for its own vital wants, and yet
interdependent on many other in which dependence is necessary”. Gandhiji wanted
to revive the Panchayati Raj (Rule of the Councils of Five), which were
mentioned in ancient Hindu writings. Panchayat has an ancient root in India. It
represents a system by which innumerable village republics of India were
governed in ancient India. The attempt was first made in 1921, but it failed. It
is being made again. Gandhiji said ‘in the true democracy of India, the unit is
the village.’ Gandhiji had said on January 18, 1948, in Harijan, “True
democracy could not be worked by twenty men sitting at the centre. It had to be
worked from below by the people of every village.” Gandhiji suggested in the
year 1931 (Young India, 28.05.1931) “Every Panchayat will be expected to
attend to: (a) the education of the boys and girls in the village; (b) its
sanitation; (c) its medical needs; (d) the upkeep and cleanliness of village
wells or ponds; (e) the uplift of and the daily wants of the so-called
untouchables.”
According to
Gandhiji the Panchayat should serve as a settlement body for local disputes to
ensure speedy justice without any expenditure, need of the police or military.
Gandhiji’s
‘Constructive Programme’ is his prescription for economic uplift — again from
village level. Though he dealt with subjects such as communal harmony,
education, health, sanitation, women, untouchables, etc. however, his main
thrust was on khadi and village industries which according to him could also
provide jobs for millions of rural people and check migration. Village
industries and a system of local markets linked with them could ultimately
bring economic uplift of rural poor of India. The most important work of Gandhi
had been in the field of social reform and on economic side, where he made
people to know that India was living in villages and common man’s uplift was
the uplift of the country. He wrote once, “If the village perishes India
will perish too. India will be no more India, her own mission in the world willgo lost.”
The key-words of his economy
are: (i) Decentralised production and equal distribution of wealth; and (ii)
Self-sufficiency of Indian villages. He sought to make villagers
self-sufficient and develop in them the moral stamina which was essential to
stand up against oppression and injustice.
The important Gandhian
institutions are All India Spinners Association, All India Village Industries
Association, Go-Seva Sangh, Khadi Vidyalaya at Sevagram, Gandhi Ashram,
Gandhi Niketan, Gandhi Gram, Gandhi Sewa Sadan, KasturbaAshram, and many other
such institutions in many parts of India.
Gandhian constructive programme
was a movement of the people, by the people and for the people.
Sevagram and Wardha Plan
. Shegaon is a small village
near Wardha town (8 km from Wardha). Mahatma Gandhi had reached the village in the morning of 30th April
1936. He remained there for 5/6 days. He called the villagers and explained the
purpose of his visit and sought the permission of the villagers to settle down
there with his wife Kasturba. He was 67 years when he came to Shegaon. In those
days the village was surrounded by forests on all sides. Snakes and scorpions
were a common features. There was only one footpath or cart track to Wardha. No
post-office or telegraph office existed. In 1940 Gandhiji decided to name the place
of his settlement near Shegaon village as Sevagram (village of service) as his
letters from Wardha often got misplaced in Shegaon. At that time there was not
even an approach road for the village. A metalled road was constructed by the
Government, when a Congress ministry was formed in the Central Provinces in
1937 under scheme of Provincial Autonomy.
Sevagram in
Wardha of Maharashtra had been the headquarters of Gandhiji for a number of
years in his later part of life. The constructive programme of Gandhiji spread
from Wardha. People from different parts of the country used to visit this
place, hold meetings and deliberate on ideological and practical problems faced
by them. After Independence various public groups showed interest in Wardha
district (a small district) for implementing Gandhian principles of economic
reconstruction to establish its validity and to replicate the model in other
parts of the country.
Objectives
of the Wardha Plan:
This was an experiment in planning from below.
i) Conservation
of the existing resources of the district, for example, maintenance of grazing
land and protection of forest trees.
ii)
Activisation of existing resources for productive purposes, for example,
re-excavation of tanks for fish farming and irrigation.
iii)
Development of potential resources, for example, water conservation in barren
land.
iv) Employment
of labour as far as possible directly in own trade.
v)
Establishment of new trades and professions based on the resources of the
district.
vi) Rationalization
of road transport network.
These
objectives though not in conflict with the Gandhian ideas, are not framed
strictly on Gandhian lines. Gandhians have shown their broadness by framing
policy, plans and activities for elimination of poverty within the existing
framework of the constitution instead of insisting strictly on Gandhiji’s
lines.
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P. Dash
Sharma. Guest Faculty, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Faculty
Centre IRTDM, Morabadi, Ranchi-834008
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