Dr, KaushikMitra
Head, Department of Political Science, Lucknow Christian Degree
College, Lucknow..
MAHATMA GANDHI PART - II
SARVODAYA
OR NON-VIOLENT SOCIALISM
Ø Gandhji’s
concept of welfare state includes the idea of sarvodaya.
Ø Gandhi
brought the concept of sarvodaya from Gita.
Ø Sarvodaya
is based on the concept of the unity of existence.
Ø Meaning
of Sarvodaya – Sarva (all) + Uday (rising) i.e. Rising of all, welfare of all.
Ø According
to him individual labour creates capital, and capital has a social utility.
Ø Gandhi
reconstructed the concept of private property.
Ø One
can have private property but not for one’s use. It should be utilized for
social needs.
Ø Gandhiji
believed in the doctrine of limits.
Ø Self-regulation
of one’s needs helps oneself in creating a sarvodaya.
Ø One
should voluntarily limit one’s property and practice self-renunciation.
Ø Gandhiji
asked the rich to consider themselves as the trustees for the community and
spend their property in the interests of the community as a whole, because the
rich cannot accumulate wealth without the cooperation of the poor in society.
Ø It
is a type of distributive justice.
Ø Vinoba
Bhave developed an idea of sarvodaya in a practical sense. According to him
concentration of land in the hands of few creates a basis for rural violence.
Rural rich must participate in voluntary distribution of land.
Ø Thus,
sarvodaya aims to replace the politics of power by the politics of
co-operation.
DECENTRALIZATION
OF POLITICAL & ECONOMIC POWER
Ø
According to Gandhi
centralization of political power in a small group cannot help in creating
popular and participatory democracy.
Ø
Gandhji’s sarvodaya
centers around the small republic where the mass of people manage their affairs
without depending on the state.
Ø
In Gandhi’s scheme, village
panchayat plays a crucial role in policy making.
Ø
Gandhi was conscious of
the historical fact that colonization had destroyed the basic institutions of a
village society. Revival of these institutions in a true spirit may strengthen
democracy.
Ø
Political institutions
of the grass roots level may be able to restrict the power of state;
Ø
Gandhiji’s concept of
state is that of a limited state, which does not interfere in the day to day
activities of people.
Ø
An Indian society
consists of a large number of villages. Village republic can be a nucleus of a
democratic organization.
Ø
Once village panchayat
is formed, it is easy to create a sarvodaya economy. Village panchayat must
look after the economy of the village which will help the prosperity of village
people.
Ø
Panchayat will take
care of education, health, sanitation.
Ø
Gandhiji wanted India
to become a network of self-governing and self-sustaining village republics,
each one of them leading an autonomous existence.
Ø
In Gandhiji's sarvodaya
society there is space for industrialization and technological advancement.
Ø
But he said it should
not go beyond control. It should not destroy the ecological basis of a society
and should not lead to concentration of economic power.
Ø
Gandhiji was not
against the use of machines when it was for the good of the society.
Ø
Gandhiji wanted the
immense manpower and cattle power of India to be utilized first, before turning
to large-scale machinery.
Ø
He wanted the
indigenous industries to be developed. He gave emphasis to cottage industries
and hand spinning and hand-weaving.
Ø
He advocated the
revolutionary doctrine that “land belongs to him who tills it”.
Ø
The Charkha also
symbolized the dignity of labour.
Ø
Thus, Gandhiji's
economic thought is related largely to rural development.
Ø
According to him village
society is the soul of India.
Ø
He emphasized on self-sufficiency
of the village society.
Ø
In villages
agricultural economy and allied agro-industries must take care of the needs of
the village people.
Ø
For him, that government
is the best, which governs the least.
Ø
The state must follow
persuasive rather than coercive methods.
Ø
A sarvodaya social
order can be created by giving Nai-talim. Gandhiji stressed on
compulsory primary education. He called it basic education.
GANDHIJI
ON RELIGION IN POLITICS
Ø
Gandhiji never-separated
religion from politics. He said state and government have no links with
religions, but a politician must be a religious man.
Ø
The guiding principle
of a politician is to serve others in an ethical manner, otherwise political
power might be able to corrupt a politician.
Ø
Government must not be
allowed to interfere in the religious domain.
Ø
Thus, Gandhi's concept
of government is basically secular government.
Ø
According to Gandhi,
this disassociation of politics from morality enables the rich and the strong
to manipulate the politics and government to their advantage at the expense of
the poor and weak.
GANDHIJI’S
POPULARITY
Ø Mahatma
Gandhi appeared on the Indian political scene at a very crucial period of the
Indian national movement.
Ø The
people had lost faith in the principle of political moderation as imperialistic
exploitation and oppression had become extremely severe.
Ø The
moderate leaders had been rejected, but the extremists and terrorists were
equally frustrated and leaderless.
Ø In
Gandhi’s personality, there was the harmonious blending of the best elements of
political moderation and extremism.
Ø He
was a humanist and radical revivalist who fought not only against the
colonialism and imperialism of foreigners, but also against superstitious
practices religious hatred, casteism in India with equal vigour and dynamism.
Ø He
introduced the Spiritualization of Politics. He stressed
on purity of ends and means. He said the means must be ethically right. If not,
the end itself loses its value. The right and just means must be adopted to
achieve right and just ends e.g. to achieve Swaraj Gandhiji adopted non-violent
means.
Ø He
critiqued modern civilization, not because it was western or
scientific, but because it was materialistic and exploitative. He argued that
while modern civilization may have brought and increased bodily comforts
through better houses, cloths, travel and mechanized production etc, these have
failed to bring happiness of the people.
Ø It
made men slaves of many luxuries and divorced from ethics and morality.
Ø For
him progress of human civilization is to be measured in the scale of ethics,
and not in the scale of pure materialism. T
Ø For
him true civilization consists not in the accumulation of commodities but in a
deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants.
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