Gandhiji had deep insights and plans to bring about a positive change to Bharat as it existed during his time; he had indeed spelt out the framework with which to achieve true Swaraj, or self-rule, and empowerment to India and its citizens. India, an traditional agrarian economy, adept in the skill of the hand and passed down knowledge for generations earlier, was to transform into a cohesive nation, a global economy growing on its deep rooted wisdom, by learning new tricks of trade and above all, inclusive societal development, without barriers. In his magazine the Harijan he write about how an Ideal Village could take shape and dovetail the growth, but also laments about what could have been and how to be redeemed.
An ideal Indian village will be so constructed as to lend itself to perfect sanitation. It will have cottages with sufficient light and ventilation built of a material obtainable within a radius of five miles of it. The cottages will have courtyards enabling householders to plant vegetables for domestic use and to house their cattle. The village lanes and streets will be free of all avoidable dust. It will have wells according to its needs and accessible to all. It will have houses of worship for all, also a common meeting place, a village common for grazing its cattle, a co-operative dairy, primary and secondary schools in which industrial education will be the central fact, and it will have Panchayats for settling disputes. It will produce its own grains, vegetables and fruit, and its own Khadi. This is roughly my idea of a model village…I am convinced that the villagers can, under intelligent guidance, double the village income as distinguished from individual income. There are in our villages inexhaustible resources not for commercial purposes in every case but certainly for local purposes in almost every case. The greatest tragedy is the hopeless unwillingness of the villagers to better their lot.
My ideal village will contain intelligent human beings. They will not live in dirt and darkness as animals. Men and women will be free and able to hold their own against anyone in the world. There will be neither plague, nor cholera, nor smallpox; no one will be idle, no one will wallow in luxury. Everyone will have to contribute his quota of manual labour…. It is possible to envisage railways, post and telegraph…and the like…
Khadi and Spinning
Khadi to me is
the symbol of unity of Indian humanity, of its economic freedom and equality
and, therefore, ultimately in the poetic expression of Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘the
livery of India’s freedom’.
Moreover, Khadi mentality means decentralization of the production and
distribution of the necessaries of life. Therefore, the formula so far evolved
is, every village to produce all its necessaries and a certain percentage in
addition for the requirements of the cities.
Production of Khadi includes cotton growing, picking, ginning, cleaning, carding, slivering, spinning, sizing, dyeing, preparing the warp and the woof, weaving, and washing. These, with the exception of dyeing, are essential processes. Every one of them can be effectively handled in the villages and is being so handled in many villages throughout India which the A. I. S. A. (All India Spinners Association) is covering. Imagine the unifying and educative effect of the whole nation simultaneously taking part in the processes up to spinning! Consider the levelling effect of the bond of common labour between the rich and the poor!
The message of the spinning wheel is much wider than its circumference. Its message is one of simplicity, service of mankind, living so as not to hurt others, creating an indissoluble bond between the rich and the poor, capital and labour, the prince and the peasant.
I stand by what is implied in the phrase, ‘unto this last’. We must do even unto this last as we would have the world do by us. All must have equal opportunity. Given the opportunity, every human being has the same possibility for spiritual growth. That is what the spinning wheel symbolizes.
The disease of the masses is not want of money so much as it is want of work. Labour is money. He, who provides dignified labour for the millions in their cottages, provides food and clothing, or which is the same thing, money. The Charkha provides such labour. Till a better substitute is found, it must, therefore, hold the field. Idleness is the great cause, the root of all evil, and if that root can be destroyed, most of the evils can be remedied without further effort. A nation that is starving has little hope or initiative left in it. It becomes indifferent to filth and disease. It says of all reforms, ‘to what good?’ That winter of despair can only be turned into the ‘sun-shine of hope’ for the millions only through the life-giving wheel, the Charkha.
The spinning wheel is an attempt to produce something out of nothing. If we save sixty crores of rupees to the nation through the spinning wheel, as we certainly can, we add that vast amount to the national income. In the process we automatically organize our villages.
It is my claim that (by reviving Khadi and other village industries) we shall have evolved so far that we shall remodel national life in keeping with the ideal of simplicity and domesticity implanted in the bosom of the masses. We will not then be dragged into an imperialism which is built upon exploitation of the weaker races of the earth, and the acceptance of a giddy materialistic civilization protected by naval and air forces that have made peaceful living almost impossible. When once we have revived the one industry (Khadi), all the other industries will follow. I would make the spinning wheel the foundation on which to build a sound village life; I would make the wheel the centre round which all other activities will revolve.
The ideal of Khadi has always been as a means, par excellence, for the resuscitation of villages and therethrough the generation of real strength among the masses—the strength that will ipso facto bring Swaraj.
Our work had a very humble beginning. When I started Khadi I had with me, apart from Maganlalbhai and others who had elected to live and die with me, Vitthaldasbhai and a few sisters. We have travelled a long way since then and today about two crores of people have come under the influence of the Charkha. By its help we have been able to provide the village people with a large amount of money. But can we still hold, as we have always maintained, that Swaraj is impossible without the Charkha? So long as we do not substantiate this claim the Charkha is really no more than a measure of relief, to which we turn because we can do nothing else about it. It would not then be the means of our salvation.
Secondly, we have failed to carry our message to the crores of our people. They have neither any knowledge of what the Charkha can do for them nor even the necessary curiosity for it.”
Well, I am no Gandhian, nor a scholar with deep insights into his thoughts. I feel, the great man was both practical and futuristic at the same time and that is his greatness, to be relevant even after a hundred-odd-years. We as a nation have failed as followers of the Mahatma. It is very easy to be dismissive and become pessimistic, given the state of the affairs today. But, there is still scope for espousing the cause, rekindling the dream of Swaraj and bring about a positive change in the society. It is not for the government/s to drive the change, but we, as patriotic individuals have the power and the responsibility to re-ignite the nationalism in our own homes, little community silos, starting in simple ways, which could dovetail and spread to the society, state, and the nation. Notes to follow will dwell on such thoughts.
Comments are most welcome. Dialogues enhance knowledge.
– Excerpts from Gandhiji’s writings in Harijan, Young India, 1926~42; mkgandhi.org
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