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Kamla Chowdhary
Gandhi's greatest
ambition in life was ‘to wipe every tear from every eye’.
Describing his passion for serving the poor he said “God is found
more often in the lowliest of his creatures than in the high and
mighty... I am struggling to reach the status of these hence my
passion for the service of the suppressed (and oppressed) classes.”
Over a period of
time Gandhi gave up all privileges. He began to live a Spartan life
in ashrams like a
sanyasi.
As he explained
“whatever cannot be shared with the masses is taboo for me”. He
wanted to reduce himself to zero for he believed that so long as man
does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow
creatures there is no salvation for him. And Gandhi wanted salvation
not only for himself but for the oppressed in all of mankind.
Gandhi believed
service to others was ‘moksha’
and service to the
poorest the highest form of ‘moksha’,
that is, liberation,
self-realisation. For Gandhi the practice of service to others was
not just one possible route to ‘moksha’,
it was the only
possible way. ‘Moksha’
therefore meant public service for the poorest, and this inevitably
led Gandhi to politics.
The life of
millions was Gandhi's religion as well as his politics, as also his
economics. He wanted to see that the poor have the basic necessities
of life, even though we may have to sacrifice the ‘toys of
civilization’. And we have since realised that the ‘toys of
civilization’ we have pursued have led us to a culture of
inequality, violence, the destruction of the Earth's resources and
of Earth itself.
Economic
development has a different meaning for each age and for each
culture. And it has a different meaning at the center and at the
periphery. Gandhi's concerns of economic development were more with
the ‘periphery’, that is, with the villages than with large scale
industries promoted at the center.
There has been
economic and spiritual violence at the way ‘economic development’
has been pursued—violence not only against the poor, with large
scale projects of mining, forestry, building dams, in the kind of
agriculture pursued, but also against the Earth itself.
‘Development’ seems to have created a milieu from which subsistence
workers and subsistence activities have been eliminated. Gandhi's ‘charkha’
and ‘khadi’ were an expression of economic
development which focused on the poor and on the subsistence
worker.
Gandhi advocated
‘khadi’ as the beginning of economic freedom and equality for all.
“Many people think
that in advocating khadi I am sailing against a headwind and
am sure to sink the ship of swaraj and that I am taking the
country to the dark ages. I do not propose to argue the case for
khadi in this brief survey. I have argued it sufficiently
elsewhere. Here I want to show what every Congressman, and for that
matter every Indian, can do to advance the cause of khadi. It
connotes the beginning of economic freedom and equality of all in
the country. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Let everyone
try, and he or she will find out for himself or herself the truth of
what I am saying. Khadi must be taken with all its
implications. It means a wholesale swadeshi mentality, a
determination to find all the necessaries of life in India and that
too through the labor and intellect of the villagers. That means the
reversal of the existing process. That is to say that, instead of
half a dozen cities of India and Great Britain living on the
exploitation and the ruin of the 700,000 villages of India, the
latter will be largely self-contained, and will voluntarily serve
the cities of India and even the outside world in so far as it
benefits both parties. This needs a revolutionary change in the
mentality and tastes of many.”1
“I think of the
poor of India every time that I draw a thread on the wheel...what
they (the poor) need is some kind of occupation, and the occupation
that will give employment to millions can only be hand
spinning”......
"It is the
charkha that enabled the seven hundred thousand villages to
become self contained. With the exit of the charkha went the
other village industries such as the oil press. Nothing took place
of the industries. Therefore the villagers were drained of their
varied occupation and their creative talent and what little wealth
these brought them..... Hence if the villages are to come into their
own the most natural thing that suggests itself is the revival of
charkha and all
it means.”
“When I say that I
want Independence for the millions, I mean to say not only that the
millions may have something to eat and to cover themselves with, but
that they will be free from the exploitation of people here and
outside”.....
"I.....claim for
the charkha the honor of being able to solve the problem of
economic distress in a most natural, simple, inexpensive and
business manner.... It is the symbol of the nations prosperity, and
therefore, freedom...” “The spinning wheel rules out exclusiveness.
It stands for all including the poorest.”2
Further, Gandhi
also advocated the charkha as an instrument of service and
love for the poor, as a symbol of peace and non-violence, and as a
path of inner and spiritual awakening.
“The message of
the spinning wheel is really to replace the spirit of exploitation
by the spirit of service”......
“The charkha
is the symbol of non-violence on which all life, if it is to be
real life, must be based”.....
“Since I believe
that where there is pure and active love for the poor, there is God
also, I see God in every thread that I draw on the spinning
wheel”......
“I have often said
that if the seven lakhs of the villages of India were to be kept
alive and if peace that is at the root of all civilization is to be
achieved, we have to make the spinning wheel the center of all
handicrafts”.2
Gandhi's hope was
that the charkha would solve economic and poverty problems of
India's villages. He also hoped that khadi would end India’s
exploitation. But we ignored Gandhi, and chose the path of
industrialisation, because we wanted ‘speedy’ development. A return
to charkha and khadi economy, said our elites and
economists, would mean a return to primitiveness, a lowering of our
standards of living. “Not so”, said Gandhi, “if by a high standard
of living we mean that those who have not enough to eat should have
plenty of fresh and wholesome diet, those who are naked should have
durable clothes, those who have no shelter should have cosy
dwellings.” Gandhi's development philosophy focused on providing
the basic necessities of life for the masses, as his first priority
and ignored what he called the ‘toys of civilization’.
Fifty years and
more after Independence the ‘speedy’ development strategy has left
India with 135 million people who have no access to basic health
facilities; 226 million lack access to safe drinking water (this
figure has increased exponentially with drought and floods in many
parts of India); half of India's adult population is illiterate; 70%
lack basic sanitation facilities; 40% survive in absolute poverty (Mehbub-ul-Haq,
1997).
Should our
development agenda not focus on fulfilling basic needs of everyone
first rather than building an economy based on more and more goods
and services used largely by the rich and the growing middle class?
It is time we
realised that economic growth without concern for the poor, and
without concern for our environment and natural resources, is
pushing us to the brink. It is time that we realised that the rich
must learn to live more simply so that the poor may simply live.
Spirituality and Sustainability:
Khadi
represents a spiritual and a sustainable way of life.
Khadi
is an
expression of the concern for the poor, of replacing greed by love
and compassion.
Khadi
expresses dharma, that is, that mode of conduct which points
out to man the path of duty.
If degrading
mindless poverty has to be eliminated from this world, we will have
to return to the spinning wheel and all that it represents, as our
moral compass. Gandhi's advice as to the use of his moral compass
was “Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may
have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to
be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore
him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will
it lead to self-reliance for the hungry and spiritually starving
millions? Then you will find your doubts and yourself melting
away”.
Gandhi's moral
compass inevitably leads us to the spinning wheel and to khadi –
and it also leads us to simplicity, sustainability and
spirituality.
To live more
simply voluntarily is to live more deliberately, intentionally and
purposefully. It also means that we pay attention not only to the
outer world, but also to our inner world, that we are more concerned
with ‘being’ than ‘on having’. Voluntary simplicity therefore leads
us to a life that is outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich.
Simple living also
leads to ecological living and to sustainability. With an emphasis
on conservation and frugality , we use resources only as much as
needed. To live sustainably means to live in peace and in close
relationship with nature.
At the heart of
voluntary simplicity is a harmonious and purposeful living. Richard
Gregg, a follower of Gandhi, wrote the following about a life of
voluntary simplicity.
“Voluntary
simplicity involves both inner and outer condition. It means
singleness of purpose, sincerity and honesty within, as well as
avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the
chief purpose of life. It means an ordering and guiding of our
energy and our desires, a partial restraint in some directions in
order to secure greater abundance of life in other directions. It
involves a deliberate organisation of life for a purpose.”3
Voluntary
simplicity acknowledges the underlying philosophy of
khadi.
Slowly but
increasingly scientists and economists are recognising that
development is a process that encompasses both the spiritual and the
material aspects of life; that personal transformation must go hand
in hand with spiritual change, and that values and culture of
countries must be woven in the fabric of development and
sustainability.
There is a growing
body of enlightened opinion which distrusts a civilization which has
insatiable material ambition at one end and consequent war at the
other end.
Mathew Fox
agreeing with Gandhi writes “The addiction to avarice and greed is
deep within our civilization. It is built in the very structure of
capitalism; this quest for more. Avarice is not a problem of
materialism, it is a soul issue, it is our quest for the infinite
but it has been misplaced......” And, like Gandhi, he emphasises
the spirit within. “If we want to remake our civilization we must
remake it around what is the spirit in us.... It is because we are
violent inside that our environment is dying all around us. The nest
in which we live
we are fouling".4
The addiction to
greed and avarice is deep within us, this quest for more. Gandhi
used the spinning wheel to awaken us and the masses, to help put our
inner houses in order, to teach us ways to live non-violently with
ourselves and therefore with others.
With the
charkha and khadi we can rediscover sustainability and
spirituality.
We are at the
crossroads of history. It is becoming increasingly clear that if
humanity is to survive we will have to reexamine our concepts of
progress and development, and our addiction to having more and
more.
Gandhi turned
around the idea of modern civilization, of economic growth, of
unlimited consumerism to timeless principles of Truth and
Non-Violence, of love for fellowmen as the only basis of
establishing the right relationship between human beings and the
divine.
Gandhi's life and
teachings are essentially the awakening of a moral force in people,
in awakening the conscience of mankind, in the awakening of one's
spirituality, and in the pursuit of one's dharma. And he used
the language of the charkha, khadi and salt to reach
the soul of the people—especially people at the periphery.
If humanity is to
survive khadi or the way of life it represents, is
inevitable. It represents the awakening of the self, and it
represents the future of sustainability and spirituality.
As Sir
Radakrishnan pointed out “A people are saved not by their military
leaders or industrial magnates or by their priests and politicians
but by their saints of impeccable integrity”5
Gandhi was a saint of implacable integrity, a self denying
tapasvi. The life of millions was his religion as well as his
politics and khadi expressed his politics, his economics, and
his spirituality.
References
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Anthony
J.Parel (ed) Gandhi:Hind Swaraj and Other Writings Cambridge
University Press, 1997
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R K Prabhu and
U R Rao (editors) The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi Navjivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad , 1967
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Duane Elgin,
Voluntary Simplicity: Towards a Way of Life that is Outwardly
Simple, Inwardly Rich William Morrow & Co., New York, 1993
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Selected by
John Lane and Maya Kumar Mitchell, Only Connect: Soil, Soul,
Society. The Best of Resurgence 1990-1999, Green Books, Devon,
2000
-
S.
Radhakrishnan (Ed.), Mahatma Gandhi 100 Years Gandhi Peace
Foundation, New Delhi, 1968
Source: Vikram
Sarabhai Foundation, January 2002 |
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