CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM OR VILLAGISM ? By BHAHATAN KUMARAPPA With • forswDid by MAHATMA GANDHI SHAKTI KARYALAYAM ROYAPETTAH MADRAS FIRST EDITION: MAY li)46 ALL BIGHTS RESERVED pn«mD ON nAN»-lU*>" PAM* RUPEES FIVE Printed By Shakti PreBB Ltd., U5-E. Mowbray's Road, Royapettih, Mftdraa. For Sh»kti Karyalayam, PublUherB. Madr«. India FOEEWORD Dr. Bharatan Kumarappa has, in his pages on * * Villagism '', a new word coined by him, furnished the lay reader and the village worker, not conversant with books on economics, a comparative and historical study of the modern movements known as Capitalism and Socialism, not excluding Marxism and Commun^ism, and has earnestly, and I think convincingly shown, amongst other reasons advanced by hira, that the past two wars of our generation have proved the utter bankruptcy of such economic orders. Incidentally, the wars seem to me to have proved the bankruptcy of war, meaning in forcible and naked language violence, which is not less because it is organised by states reputed to be civilized. Whether non• violence will effectively replace violence for keeping the peace of the world remains to be seen. Certain it is that mankind, if it continues along its mad career of exploitation of the weak by the strong, must rush to annihilation foretold in all iieligions. Dr. Bharatan Kumarappa shows that **Villagism'' as it is being attempted in India, based as it is on truth and non-violence, is well calculated to avert the doom. If the reader is interested in the life- saving process, he must turn to the instructive pages written by Dr. Bharatan Kumarappa during his recent imprisonment. Poena, 1-9-194:5 " Men hare seen the absurdity of today's ciriliaatioa which is based...ou economics and pohticB and its consequent militarism. Men have been losing their freedom and their humanity in order to fit them• selves for vast mechanical organiiations. So the next civilisation, it is hoped, will be based not merely upon economic and political competition and exploitation but upon world-wide aooial co-operation , upon spiritual ideals of reciprocity, and not upon economic ideals of efficiency ... These human beingn who have been boastful of their power, and aggressive in their exploitation, who have lost faith in the real meaning of the teaching of their Master that the meek shall inherit the earth, will be defeated in the next generation of life. It is the same thing that happened in the ancient days, in the prehiatOTic times, to those great monsters Uke the mammoths and dinosaurs. They have lost their inheriLance of the earth. They had the gigantic muacle;^ for mighty erforts but tltey had to give up to creatures who were much feebler in their muscles and who took up much less space with their dimensions." RABINDRANATH TAQORE in Personality, pp. 182-4 PREFACE The aim of this book is to show for what exactly the movement for khadi (handspun, hand woven cloth) and village industries stands. I have called it Villagism, as in contrast with Capitaham which centres round capital, and Socialism round society and its needs, this movement centres Tound the village and its welfare. It seeks to build the economic life of the country by- developing strong, self-reliant village units, the members of which will be bound together by mutual obligations and will co-operate with each other to make the unit prosperous and self-sufficient for all their essential needs. In the book, I have for the sake of convenience spoken of the unit under this new economy as the village. But this is not to bo understood too literally. The unit tnay be, if necessary, even a group of adjacent villages. If Socialism seeks for the prosperity of a whole nation in the mass, ViUagism aims at the development of the smallest village unit and through it at the development of every member of it, even the very lowest and the least. If the tendency under Capitalism and under Socialism is towards greater and greater centralisation, this village movement distinguishes itself by turning away as far as pos• sible from centralisation and looking to decentralisation as the chief means of developing the individual. It was therefore necessary to consider Capitalism and Socialism in order to show why this new economy is being proposed as against them. A chapter has been devoted to ImperiaHsm, Fascism and Nazism which are the forms in which Capitalism haa found expression in our day. As this book has been written chiefly for village workers and other young men and women anxious to understand the main principles undei-lying this movement, it has seemed best to assume no knowledge of economic problems on the part of the reader, to include a description of what may bo regarded as well-known facts, and to explain terms ordinarily in use in connection with the topics discussed. For the same reason in Chapter IV in the section entitled Village Economy in the Making, an attempt has been made chiefly to guide the village worker in his task keeping in mind the limited resources available to him, rather than to suggest plans which can be put into effect only by the Government which is still not in our hands. Further, recommendations from the point of view of this new village economy, as to what the Government may do to revive economic life in our villages, have been made in the Report of the Industrial Survey Committee of the Government of the Central Provinces and Berar, Parts I and II, and A Plan for the Economic Development of the North West Frontier Province by J. C. Kumarappa (obtainable from the A, I. v. i. A., Wardha), and The Gandhian Plan by S.N. Agarwal, Padma Publi• cations, Bombay. Readers interested in this aide of the subject may turn to them with profit. The philosophy underlying this village muvement has found practical expression in the work of the All - India Spinners' Association which deals with textile production in village^ the work of the All - India Village Industries Association which concerns itself with some of the othev main village industries, and that of the Hindustani Talimi Sangh which is concerned with education based on village crafts. Detailed information about these Associations may be had from their Headquarters at Wardha C. P. Amongst books which will be found useful for obtaining a knowledge of the principles discussed here are The Economics of Kkadi, and Cent per cent Swadeshi (both collections iu the main of Gandhiji's articles in Ms journals, the Young India and the Harijan), to be had from the Navajivan, Publishing House, Alimedabad; and Why the village movement? by J. C. Kumarappa, obtainable from the A. I. v. I. A., Wardha, C. P. I am thankful to Gandhiji for his foreword and to my fellow political prisoners in jail, especially Sri Vinoba Bhave, Sri Kaka Kalelkar and Sri H. V. Kamat, who helped me with their criticisms and suggestions. This book was written in 1944, but could not be published then owing to my being in detention. Since my release in 1945, 1 have touched it up in a few places to make the matter up to date. But essentially it remains as written in 1944. May, 1946 BHARATAN KUMARAPPA CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORB ... m PREFACE ... V CHAPTBB I CAPITALISM ^ 1. Its operation ... 1 2i Its merits ... 3 3. Its evils ... 7 4. Its end ... '30 n THE IMPERIALISTIC DEMOCRACIES, FASCISM AND NAZISM 1. Tlie Imperialistic Demoeraciee ... 32 2. Fascism ... 46 3. Nazism ... 62 III SOCIALISM 1. Historical ... 58 2. Marxism ... 64 3. The essence of Socialism ... 74 4. The case for Socialism ... 76 5. The case against Socialism ... 84 IV VILLAGISM 1. Introduction: Human well-being as goal ... 109 2. Basic principles of Villagism ... 119 3. The Village Economy in operation and in the making ... 134 A. The Economic Aspect ... 134 B. The Political Aspect ... 180 C. The Cultural Aspect ... W2 APPENDIX Sample plan of development for a unit often villages ... 207 INDEX ... 230 C if AFTER 1 CAPITALISM Definition:—It will suifice for our purposes to define Capitalism as q,n economin arrangement, where production and distribution of goods is carried on by individuals or groups of individuals, who use their stock of accumulated wealth for making more wealth for themselves. Two things are therefore essential for Capitalism—private capital and private profit. 1. Its Operation : -fi)- Centralisation : —The way Capitalism operates is by pipana of huge sums of money, which it invests on machinery and raw materials, to produce on such a large scale that the costs of production being spread over a great number of goods, it can sell the, articles r^uch cheaper than if they were produced on a smaller scale. The larger the enterprise, it can compete more successfully and sell cheaper than its rivals. So the tendency is always towards further and further expansion of business, till today enterprise Jias become so huge that, it is practically impossible for any one man to be its sole proprietor,, however fabulously wealthy he may be, and, it is passing more and more into the hands of combines, trusts, corporations, and cartels, which aie powerful amalgamations of firms, which through such amalgamation gain control of well nigli the whole trade in that particular line in the country aiid even in the whole world. This is the same as saying that the movement under Capitalism is towards greater and greater centralisation, that is, towards bringing under some one central control what would otherwise have been disjointed efforts of independent producers. These several producers cease to exiht, and theii- place is taken by a central body which then, monopolises the entire production for itself.