Beyond Politics
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VOLUME XIV, NO. 27 JULY 5, 1961 BEYOND POLITICS LAST WEEK, the lead article spoke of "the sheer In MANAS for Jan. 25, 1961, you refer to the confusion introduced to any discussion by emergence of nations which are "more or less acceptance of the familiar political vocabulary." socialist states, yet committed to the constitutional process." We now have a letter from a reader which helps to focus this problem. Our correspondent writes out When 80 per cent of the electorate is illiterate, of a background of interest in contemporary as in India, it is meaningless to talk of commitment to the constitutional process. The facade of the politics in India, raising the question of Gandhi's process—legislature, elections, etc. —may exist, but political views: that is not the same as the process itself. These countries are "socialist" due to the ignorance of the From reading MANAS back issues since 1954, I electorate. gather that you consider Gandhiji to have been a socialist in his economic thinking. For instance, you When the electorate is enlightened, and hence state in Frontiers for April 6 1955: "The moral ideal the constitutional process truly present, there of socialism, moreover has been sufficient to make socialism has been summarily rejected—as in Gandhi and Nehru largely socialist in their approach Western Europe and Great Britain. to economic problems. ." Let us look at the question of Gandhi's While Mr. Nehru is quite definitely a "socialist" political and economic opinions. No one can (whatever he may mean by it), I would be interested in knowing why you think Gandhiji was a socialist; as explore Gandhi's writings without discovering that my reading has led me to the opinion that he was a he is a most unsatisfactory source for firm views free market economist, in his economic views. on political economy. The fact is that Gandhi Gandhiji has said: "Controls give rise to fraud, cared very little for political economy, as such. suppression of truth, intensification of the black He cared about man, and his regard for man market, and to artificial scarcity. Above all, it turned on profound religio-philosophical unmans the people and deprives them of initiative; it undoes the teaching of self-help they have been convictions about human destiny. He was, you learning for a generation. It makes them spoon-fed." could say, a complete opportunist in relation to all (Quoted in Swarajya, May 20, 1961.) lesser matters. He sought the regeneration of Colin Clark, in his I.E.A. pamphlet, human beings and the laboratory in which his Growthmanship, refers to a conversation he had with personal destiny placed him to work was India. Gandhiji, wherein the latter spoke strongly against Gandhi was no ideologist. It is evident that the rationing, preferring prices to rise so that the people first question that entered his mind in relation to might work harder. All this is nothing but free- any sort of proposal was: How will this affect the market economics. moral attitudes of men? For him, the criterion of I also note that you make frequent approving the good life was found in Upanishadic religion references to "socialism." Would you please give me and in the teachings of Buddha. your definition of the term? Here in India, socialism (or, as our ruling party calls it, "the socialistic pattern His interest in the reconstruction of the of society") has come to mean the robbing of the economic life of the Indian village was only entire community for the benefit of a few incidentally concerned with economic goals. He individuals—businessmen and corrupt functionaries of the state—via inflation, permits, licenses, saw that the extreme poverty of the villagers contracts, and other controls. It seems that this was brought the degradation of human dignity. He the pattern, too, under socialist regimes in Western was not after a "free market economy," but after Europe. the restoration of human dignity. The inactivity of MANAS Reprint - LEAD ARTICLE 2 the villagers was one root of the evil. So he What counts for Gandhi, here? Obviously, introduced spinning as a therapy for the soul. the detachment of the individual from possessions Gandhi's views of machinery and other aspects of and the sacrifice of oneself for the benefit of Western civilization are not in the least puzzling others. Socialism therefore has its high dream of or contradictory, once you recognize that what he the good and its self-sacrificing heroes. What is really cared about was the spiritual welfare of the dream of the free market economy and where mankind. His clear ideas on human destiny gave are its self-sacrificing champions? The question him great concentration concerning what to do answers itself. The free-market economy is the about the spiritual welfare of mankind. His receivership of all idealistic failures. It represents concentration or one-pointedness gave him power the law of self-interest and prudence. It is the and the gift of inspiring other men. regulated and rationalized law of the jungle, under It is not difficult to see why great teachers which the strong prosper and the weak suffer and such as Jesus and Buddha, and men who endure. It has its "natural" foundations in human successfully represent in their own time what selfishness and for this reason it works. It also these teachers stood for, are attracted by the gives play—or has in the past—to all the sturdy moral relationships to property of what we now virtues of the individualist enterprise. Voluntary call socialism. Political socialists rely upon the socialism is for transformed men who have no legal relationships, but this was not Gandhi's concern for possessions beyond their slight interest. In the volume, To the Students, first personal needs, and yet, we ought not to published by Hingorani in 1935, are some of dogmatize too much, one way or the other, about Gandhi's answers to questions about economics: what may be possible for the societies of the twentieth century. The best system is the system Q. What is your opinion about the social which suits the needs of the people, and these economics of Bolshevism, and how far do you think needs change from age to age. they are fit to be copied by our country? A. I must confess that I have not yet been able One thing seems certain: the failure on the fully to understand the meaning of Bolshevism. All part of the wealthy few to take account of the that I know is, that it aims at the abolition of the needs of the many invariably leads to social institution of private property. This is only an revolution and to socialistic experiment. And application of the ethical ideal of non-possession in then, if the socialists neglect the importance of the the realm of economics, and if the people adopted this ideal of their own accord, or could be made to accept individual, adding only social fervor to the it by means of peaceful persuasion, there would be materialistic goals of the capitalists, all the nothing like it. But, from what I know of troubles of the present socialist states come into Bolshevism, it not only does not preclude the use of prominence. force, but freely sanctions it for the expropriation of private property and maintaining the collective state In the volume, Selections from Gandhi, under ownership of the same. And if that is so I have no the heading, "Fundamental Beliefs and Ideas," are hesitation in saying that the Bolshevik regime, in its extracts which cover the problems and alternatives present form, cannot last for long. For, it is my firm of this situation. We quote about two pages of conviction that nothing enduring can be built on this book: violence. But be that as it may, there is no questioning the fact that the Bolshevik ideal has Every human being has a right to live, and behind it the purest sacrifice of countless men and therefore to find the wherewithal to feed himself and women who have given up their all for its sake, and where necessary, to clothe and house himself. an ideal that is sanctified by the sacrifices of such According to me, the economic constitution of master spirits as Lenin cannot go in vain: the noble India, and for the matter of that, of the world, should example of their renunciation will be emblazoned for be such that no one under it should suffer from want ever and quicken and purify the ideal as time passes. of food and clothing. In other words, everybody Volume XIV, No. 27 MANAS Reprint July 5, 1961 3 should be able to get sufficient work to enable him to hindrance to his neighbor. In the ideal state make the two ends meet. And this ideal can be therefore, there is no political power because there is universally realized only if the means of production of no State. But the ideal is never fully realized in life. the elementary necessities of life remain in the Hence the classical statement of Thoreau that that control of the masses. These should be freely government is best which governs the least. available to all as God's air and water are or ought to I look upon an increase in the power of the State be; they should not be made a vehicle of traffic for the with the greatest fear, because, although while exploitation of others. Their monopolization by any apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it country, nation or group of persons would be unjust.