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Transcript

Hello friends. In our last class we discussed about Gurgaon experiment and Marthandam attempt, wherein we tried to gather the important input that coming together is beginning and working together leads to the progress. And adoption of group approach is inevitable for success in Indian conditions. With that take home message, now in today’s class we will be discussing about the Gandhian constructive programs. I am sure all of you must be aware of the constructive activities planned and implemented by Mahatma Gandhiji. When we look at his movement, apart from his political movement, and his contribution towards the independent India. That is not the point of our discussion today, but the programs that he planned and implemented from the point of view of development and helping the rural masses. So that are the focus of today’s discussion.

So want to discuss them. The principles of Gandhian economy, or the principles of Gandhiji was. First one was to achieve the decentralized production. How to achieve this decentralized production? For which he gave a simple formula that India lives in villages. This was a simplest message. But it is addressing good number of problems that the country is facing. And this was the major point of contention between the first Prime-Minister of country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehruji and Mahatma Gandhiji. Nehruji was advocating establishment of the larger industries, so that we can achieve the mass production but Gandhiji said India lives in villages. There are good number of primary producers. Let us go for production by the masses instead of mass production. The mechanization yields to loss of the job of the rural people. So that was the major concern what Gandhiji had. And that is why he emphasized on the decentralized production. The second principle of Gandhian economy include, equitable distribution of resources. So what the capacity that you have, and you will be getting your output accordingly. You put your efforts, then you harvest the profits of that. And the resources are available to each one of us in an equal manner. And it depends on us and our abilities to harvest, to harness the benefits out of the existing resources.

Then the third point of the principle of Gandhian economy includes the self sufficiency of Indian villages. Repeatedly he made us to convince about the fact that India lives in villages. And achievement of the self sufficiency of Indian villages was the major point of concern for the national economy, because it is making use of the available natural resources. And minimum dependency on external resources. That was the point that he emphasized. Though as long as we are depending less on the external resources, automatically we will be developing our own economy. So that was the point that he tried to emphasize upon, and accordingly he was motivating people for planning and implementation of the program. The objectives with which that he tried to plan and implement the program include, service to the underprivilege, because of which that he has established good number of institutions that we will be discussing after this.

Then achieving self-dependency. He himself was the practitioner of that. He used to take up all the activities on his own. He did not depend on anybody else. But and he was also advocating the same for his followers also. Then providing education to the people. Because education has the potential of solving all the problems what we are facing today. What type of education that you are in need of. It may be informal, non-formal, formal, or it may be vocational education, the need based education. All these things were the emphasis of Mahatma Gandhiji. Organization of the training centers for cottage industries. So this is what is the point, wherein he was emphasizing on the production by the masses. The production by masses by establishing the cottage industries or the small scale industries.

So in Indian context, that is part of our culture. If we look at the agricultural operations itself. Agriculture operations require good number of implements. So there are communities which are providing the support to the farmer by preparation of the implements and various other needs of the community. And accordingly Gandhiji was emphasizing on promotion of these community based, the professions that are prevailing in the village. And development of some technological aspects to promote those professions in the village. So that their income levels will be increased, their skills will be enhanced. And they have better marketing opportunities making use of the locally available resources. So that was the idea behind promotion of cottage industries. Emphasis on women education. For one or the other reasons, the literacy levels of women were very very low during those periods, but now the situation has changed with deliberate interventions because if the women is educated, the entire family is automatically getting education. And the implications of education in the form of the better health, better nutrition, better environment in the family, and ultimately leading to the changes in the social as well as the economic fronts of the rural economy.

The Gandhian movement of development was for the people, by the people and of the people. So this was another keyword that Gandhiji tried to give us. So all these developmental efforts should be for the people, by the people and of the people. It means it is the ultimate beneficiary who is required to be part of the development that he want to visualize. It means you be part of the change that you want to be. This is what is the message that he tried to provide us. With these his experiments for which he has established a range of institutions in different part of the country. A small list is being presented before you. That is the institutions like, All India Spinners Association, All India Village Industries Association, Gou Seva Sangh, Khadi Vidyalaya, Khadi Ashram, Gandhi Niketan, Gandhigram, Gandhi Seva Sadan, Kasturba Ashram, so on and so forth.

The basic idea behind establishment of these institution in different parts of the country. It is only an indicative list. There are good number of other institutions are also. So why we are giving the examples of these is. So in these institutions he practiced the things what he used to preach. And the things that we discussed so far were in practice in these institutions. Some of them are still available for us in Wardha, in different parts of the country, wherein we can see the models of change. For one or the other reasons so they are not getting that prominence. But in those days the things were practiced and that became an instrument for introduction of change in the rural area.

Then coming to the conclusion. Gandhiji was the force behind the motivation of the people. Because he himself was the source of motivation. Then he redefined the basic needs of the grassroots communities as the national priorities, which is evident even today by giving the priorities, the changes that what we witness today are because of the efforts of that individual in those days. Then he developed a holistic model of patriotism and empowerment by involving the people. And all these things were interwoven with each other. So none of the things that introduction of the change or the development or the patriotism could not be seen in isolation, because all the things were going hand in hand. Then he convinced the country that India lives in villages. The priority has to be given to the village people, village communities. The major income generating sector that is agriculture by the development institutions or the people who are advocating development. This is in a nutshell about the Gandhian constructive programs. In the next class we will be discussing about the developmental initiatives like India Village Services and Adarsh Seva Sangh.

Thank You.