October - 2015 Odisha Review
Relevance of Gandhian Economy in Twenty First Century
Dr. Abhijit Sahoo Dr. Tusarkanta Pattnaik
³According to me, the economic Constitution of India and for the matter of the World should be such that no one under it should suffer from want of food and clothing.´
-Mahatma Gandhi.
After becoming the President of United States of America for the first time, Mr. Barak Obama was once asked by a journalist whom will you invite to accompany dinner with you? He immediately retorted one is Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi from India and other one is Gandhi with the ideas of modern world will create Martin Luther King of USA. Verily both are a more holistic and integrated society. It will incredible and their achievement was staggering. deliver more happiness, generate more altruistic Such was the infectious as well as ubiquitous economic surplus and being about a more charm of Bapu which completely mesmerised egalitarian society than what is now available to posterity. Showering encomium on Bapu, the us. Gandhi never created a body of literature most venerated as well as greatest scientist of the known by the name of Gandhian economics. He world Albert Einstein remarked ³scarcely will neither claimed to be an economist nor was trained future generations believe that such a man in flesh in economics. He was not a voracious reader of and blood walked upon this earth´. While economic literature. Nevertheless he expressed Gandhiji's philosophy had wide acceptance to his views on economics at various points of time deal with political and social issues, it had not many in his life. Students of Gandhian thought and followers in the arena of economics. For instance writings collated his reflections on economics and the concept of trusteeship as inundated by Gandhi created a body of literature known as ³Gandhian demands non-possession. It is a utopia because Economics´. Gandhian economics is a school of individuals are immensely attached to their wealth economic thought based on the spiritual and socio- in the ordinary cause of life. It should be economic principles expounded by Mohandas remembered that the synthesis of the ideas of Gandhi.
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Gandhian Economic Philosophy: economic power was concentrated in the hands It should be remembered that Gandhiji of a few and inherently exploitative. Gandhiji propounded a total philosophy of life from which declared himself to be a socialist and repudiated economics cannot be divorced. His philosophy the concept of private ownership of property. But was based on truth, ahmisa and service to he was opposed to the use of violence or hatred society, particularly the poor and downtrodden. to bring about social change. He wanted to do it The basis of his economic philosophy was by moral force and persuasion. The objective is individual dignity and welfare of the poorest of to create a non-violent, non-exploitative property the poor. He felt that a man earns his dignity by relationship. Gandhiji proclaimed his profound working and earning his bread and livelihood. belief in the rightness of economic equality. He Therefore the economic system should be did not visualise a world where there will be no organised to provide employment for everyone. property but he would restrict the right of private He was against mass production and property to what was necessary to yield an industrialisation which destroyed local industry, honorable livelihood. impoverished villages and reduced man to a cog Gandhian economics direct draw a in the machine. His opposition to machine was distinction between economics and ethics, particularly in the context of India as it has a huge economics that hurts moral wellbeing of an population and unemployment. individual or a nation is immoral and therefore He was against India copying the west sinful. In essence the supreme consideration is to and carbon-centric civilisation and pleaded for be given to man rather than to money. The first Gram-Swarajya, as he said ³I have believed and basic principle of Gandhian economic thought is repeated times without number that India is to be a special emphasis on ³Plain Living´ which helps found not in its cities but in its 700000 villages. in cutting down your wants and being self-reliant. But we town-dwellers have believed that India is Accordingly increasing consumer appetite is to be found in its town and villagers were created likened to animal appetite which gives the end of to minister our needs. The cities with their insolent earth in search of their satisfaction. tort are constant menaces to the life and liberty of The Gandhian ideology, whose main focus the villages´. Gandhi rejected a pure economic is on welfare and dignity of the individual, provides man. The modern economic theory is based on us a broad framework into the new philosophy wants and not on need and this is the source of of economic development that we need today. rat race that debases the human beings by keeping We may first summarise the Gandhian principles. them subject to their animal spirit. Want oriented economics create a psychology of scarcity and — The economic system should be so poverty, as all wants can never be satisfied. organised that every individual has an opportunity of getting gainful employment, so that he can buy Gandhiji criticised the capitalist system his own bread and essential means of living. because it is based on ownership of the means of production and other property. Gandhi advanced — Gandhiji was opposed to mindless a theory of trusteeship as an organizational industrialisation as it displaces labour and causes structure under which production could be unemployment and is the main reason for rural organised instead of large industrial houses where poverty.
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— Gandhiji supported rural-centric estimated at 7.1 per cent (Economic Survey development with agriculture and small scale 2011-12). Going back, in the Year of 1947, when industries getting pride of place as this is the only India achieved independence from British rule, it way the unemployment problem can be solved in had faced stagnation in economy and was caught a labour abundant country like India. up in a vicious circle of poverty. Then Indian — Gandhiji believed in the decentralised government took a policy of µlaissez fair¶, which development model as this helps the fruits of was articulated by Jawaharlal Nehru. India development reach everyone and promotes focused on the import substitution policy. Due to equality and social harmony. this ongoing process India has given stress on expansion of industrialisation on large scale. As a — Gandhiji was opposed to conspicuous result new and foreign industries are coming to consumption and luxurious living. He wanted Indian market which enhances India¶s growth. But people to have minimum needs and lead a simple this type of progress is one sided because the life. profits goes to only entrepreneurs and people who — While Gandhiji was not opposed to are benefitted from these reforms and globalisation private ownership of industries and business, he are entrepreneurs and belonging to business class. advocated social control of business so that the Therefore the gap between the rich and poor has profits generated are equitably distributed so as increased. Most of the private enterprise is to prevent concentration of wealth in the hands established in urban and big cities so that villages of a few people, which lead to exploitation. are totally ignored by the industrialist who would lead them demoralize. On the other hand, India is Relevance of Gandhian Economic Thought: a country of villages where most of the people We should not look forward Gandhian lives. However, the production on large scale economics as a rigid doctrinaire framework and would create conflicts between labour and view with skepticism. Gandhiji was pragmatic and capital. Here capital takes upper hand over labour. expressed views in the context of Indian condition Such conflicts may not occur in the case of rural at the time of prevailing during the British Raj. If industries. Rural industries are the symbols of unity we properly understand Gandhian philosophy, we and equality. In India large-scale industries have will find that it is very much relevant today, when been concentrated in a few big cities and in rural the world is facing severe crisis due to mass areas there is no big industry like khadi, poverty and unemployment, side by side with handlooms, sericulture and handicrafts. The conspicuous consumption and exploitation of small-scale and cottage industries would give a natural resources. The economy of India is deliberate place in our planned economy towards currently the world¶s fourth largest in terms of real the fulfillment of the socio-economic objectives GDP (Gross Domestic Product) after the USA, of Gandhi particularly in achieving equitable and China and Japan. It has registered ninth position sustainable growth. So there is need to move back in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and to Gandhian economic ideology which was fourth position in terms of PPP (Purchasing Power always in favour of Swadesi and self- reliance Parity) and recorded highest constant growth of villages. If all the land and resources that is rates in the 21st century. It has accounted for a available was fully utilised, it would definitely fulfill remarkable rate of growth in 2011-12, which is the needs of all human beings. We should try to
24 Odisha Review October - 2015 improve villagers workmanship and buy their References : products in spite of imported products or even — B. P. Mathur,´Gandhian Alternate to Economic articles produced in big cities, big factories. In Development-Relevance for India Today´, Ph, other words, we should induce the creative talent Mainstream, October, 2011. of the villager and develop their indigenous market — Arvind Bhandari, ³Reflections on January 30´, in the present 21st century. Gandhi¶s term true Mainstream, January-26, 2008. µSwadeshi¶ consists in enhancing and stimulating — Shriman Narayan,(1970),´Relevance of Gandhian cottage and small industries. It also provides Economics´, Navajiban Publishing House. opportunities to the original talent and imagination — Rashmi Sharma, (1997), ³Gandhian Economics-a of the people. It can generate employment for heaven approach´Deep Publication Pvt. Ltd. Indian youth in the country that is in search of — S. Chavan, (2013). ³Economic Ideas of Mahatma job. So India should adopt the economic mode Gandhi´ Indian Streams Research Journal. Vol and idea of Gandhiji which is totally favourable in 3(9): pp 1. today¶s Indian economy and India¶s balance of — N. Pani, (2002). ³Inclusive Economics: Gandhian payment is unfavourable because India export Method and Contemporary Policy´. Sage more from other countries rather than produce in Publications, New Delhi. our country by using labour intensive technology. — K. Ishii, (1994).´ Socio-Economic Philosophy of The products which are imported by India is of Mahatma Gandhi: with a Particular Focus on high technology based. On the other hand, if India his Theory of Trusteeship´. The Economic Review. 154(1).pp: 72-91. follow his ideas of self sufficiency and µSwadesi¶ India will never face these types of problems. So, — A. Bhuimali, (2014). ³Relevance of M.K. Gandhi¶s Ideal of Self-Sufficient Village Economy in the India must need to go back Gandhian economic 21st Century´. Articles on Gandhi. Sarvodaya. ideology. Vol(5). Finding the way-out: — Gandhian Alternative to Economic Development Relevance for India Today. Mainstream, VOL What we need today is to devise a new XLIX (41). mode of economic development based on — Amandeep Kaur, Bhupinder Singh, ³Relevance Gandhian ideology. This in practice would mean of Gandhian economic thought: an appraisal´ that public policy should give massive support to International Journal of Advanced Research in agriculture on which more than half of the Management and Social Sciences Vol. 4 | No. 1 | population of the country depends for their January 2015 .pp-115-123. livelihood and make it a remunerative occupation — Economic Survey. (2012). See at
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