Economic Freedom and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- [e-mail];

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Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

 

Economic Freedom and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

This is a question, rather, of the economic freedom of peasants and of the poor. The farmer is the father of the world. Take the example of America or Japan. They help the cultivator there. Our Governor, too, is anxious to know how the cultivator may be helped. The problem can be solved in accordance with the principle of economics. 1 These are but a few of my aspirations. To summarize what I have said, I shall state that Navajivan will be so run as to see that the animosity between the ruler and the ruled is replaced by friendship and the distrust between them by trust, that there is unity of heart between Hindus and Muslims, that India achieves economic freedom and that, all over the country, there is nothing but love. The universe exists in love. Even destruction is a preparation for creation. 2 Why did Panditji say this? He knows that India’s economic freedom depends on the spinning-wheel and the hand-loom, and that, without economic freedom, the very hope of freedom of any other kind is futile or, in the alternative, we should follow England in her round-about methods in order to achieve such freedom. 3

Religious sentiment is being stifled; so there is no spiritual freedom. Tens of millions here have neither food nor clothing; so economic freedom is impossible. Under the circumstances we should give up the little gains we enjoy. We are offered many temptations. Advantages are dangled before us. There are a number of facilities in this University. There is instruction in engineering and various other facilities. For the good of India these things must be sacrificed. If we fall for every little benefit that comes our way this Government will go on forever. 4 It will help us to achieve the economic freedom of the country. Until we have won this, we shall not truly enjoy swaraj. We can go without soap, or needles, or pins, but not without cloth. At present, we are not able to export as much as we import. This leads to increased economic loss every year. There is the heavy military expenditure which we must bear, whether we choose or not. We part with 60 crores for cloth, besides what is thrown away on in essential articles. If this is true, we must achieve economic freedom. Let us save the 60 crores which we are in a position to save. If we can save this amount, we shall by and by find it possible to save other amounts, too, or will then be able to afford the imports of those other items. If we do not have in the country a factory for pins or watches, it will not be reduced to utter helplessness; without cloth, however, India’s condition is much like a widow’s.  Swaraj means the control of the military in our hands, our control over income and expenditure, over land revenue and over courts. When we have such swaraj, we shall be able to prevent all misdeeds. Apart from the other things, economic freedom can be ours this very day. We can achieve it with the help of the spinning-wheel. The country may not, of course, take up the idea today. 5

I want that all you children should realize that it is as much your duty to ply the spinning-wheel for a few hours, two or four or six, for the sake of India, as it is your duty to practise truthfulness and other virtues. I want every child to ply the spinning-wheel for six hours daily for this one year. I pray to God that He may make this easy and light work for us, for through it we shall win religious and economic freedom. 6 You will not gain your economic freedom, as the Congress has told you, until India becomes self-contained so far as her food and clothing are concerned. We can do without all things but we cannot be without food and clothing. A vast country like India, 1,900 miles long and 1,500 miles broad, cannot possibly become self-contained by any other means than the means of old. If you want to do penance for what Bengal did and what the whole of India did during the East India Company’s regime, even then you have no other remedy no other penance open to you but to revive those noble arts and industries and to present India with sufficient yarn, so that the prices of cloth and clothing may both go down and so that India may not have to depend upon foreigners for her special needs. 7  I was talking to a friend the other day. I asked him why he gave the first importance to the spinning-wheel. His reply was that, though it would certainly bring us economic freedom and make the people self-reliant, its greatest service would be that it would give men and women time for quiet reflection and help people to be calm and pure. The spinning-wheel will have, on those who work it regularly, an effect which nothing else can produce. 8 

Even if we develop strength to endure any amount of suffering, the gates of swaraj will never open to us if we do not know the key to India’s economic freedom and use it. We should learn to suffer with an intelligent purpose. We should know why we should go to jail. As long, therefore, as we have not become honest about swadeshi and have not realized its importance, we should entertain no hope of winning swaraj, we have no right to get neither it nor the capacity to manage it. The most important item on our programme, I am convinced, is spinning and making others spin. 9 You can establish panchayats this very day and settle your disputes among yourselves. You can improve your schools and give all-round education to your children there. You can add to your income and secure economic freedom by introducing the spinning wheel in every home and training up weavers and carders in each village, and with only the profits from these activities you can run your courts and your schools, carry on propaganda against drinking and promote swadeshi. 10 

I do believe that the vow of khadi is intended to be observed in foreign countries. In some cases, it may be altogether impossible to keep it. Moreover, the object of this vow is to secure economic freedom for India; it is, therefore, not necessary to observe it outside India. But it has never been my view, nor is it today, that khadi should not be used outside India even if it can be used conveniently. I feel, too, that Shrimati Naidu would never express such a view. In countries like East Africa or a place like Aden, khadi can be used without any inconvenience. In South Africa, too, it can be used in summer. That is, there will be no difficulty in wearing it in hot countries. Further, most of the articles for use in the home should be of khadi. 11 For me personally, non-violent non-co-operation is creed. I heartily endorse the Sardar i’s statement that Non-co-operation is cooperation in essence and stronger than the might of armies. And if I could convert but the major part of educated India to my view, swaraj can be had without further effort. The conviction is daily growing stronger that there is no peace for India, and indeed for the world, saves through non-violence. For me, therefore, the spinning-wheel is not merely a symbol of simplicity and economic freedom but it is also a symbol of peace. For if we, Hindus, Mussalmans, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jews unite in achieving the universalization of the wheel in India, we shall not only have arrived at real unity and exclusion of foreign cloth, but we shall also have acquired self-confidence and organizing ability which render violence wholly unnecessary for regaining our freedom. Success of the charkha to me, therefore, means victory of non-violence, such as to serve as an object-lesson for the whole world. 12 

I do indeed seek to perpetuate khadi because it is the only means of saving the peasantry from extinction. I claim for it the ability to gain political freedom because it has the ability to give the peasantry its economic freedom, what is more, to enable the peasantry to keep the wolf from the door. The correspondent is obviously ignorant of the past history of his own country and the present evolution of khadi. When the other parts of the globe did not know the use of cotton, India set the aesthetic standard and supplied the rich nations of the West with the finest fabrics in a variety of colours. And the present evolution of khadi shows that slowly but surely it is day by day reaching the aesthetically inclined people. After all, true art can only be expressed not through inanimate power-driven machinery designed for mass production but only through the delicate living touch of the hands of men and women. I commend the correspondent to Acharya Kripalani’s pupils and associates who are making extensive experiments in beautifying khadi. 13

This Congress is of opinion that to enable the masses to appreciate what swaraj, as conceived by the Congress, will mean to them, it is desirable to state the position of the Congress in a manner easily understood by them. In order to end the exploitation of the masses, political freedom must include real economic freedom of the starving millions. The Congress, therefore, declare that any constitution which may be agreed to on its behalf should provide, or enable the Swaraj Government to provide, for the following : 1. Fundamental rights of the people, including : (a) freedom of association and combination; (b) freedom of speech and of the Press; (c) freedom of conscience and the free profession and practice of religion, subject to public order and morality; (d) protection of the culture, language and scripts of the minorities; (e) equal rights and obligations of all citizens, without any bar on account of sex; (f) no disability to attach to any citizen by reason of his or her religions, caste or creed or sex in regard to public employment, office of power or honour and in the exercise of any trade or calling; (g) equal rights to all citizens in regard to public roads, wells, schools and other places of public resort; (h) right to keep and bear arms in accordance with regulations and reservations made in that behalf; (i) no person shall be deprived of his liberty nor shall his dwelling or property be entered, sequestered or confiscated, save in accordance with law. 2. Religious neutrality on the part of the State. 3. Adult suffrage. 4. Free primary education. 5. A living wage for industrial workers, limited hours of labour, healthy conditions of work, protection against the economic consequences of old age, sickness and unemployment. 6. Labour to be freed from serfdom or conditions bordering on serfdom. 7. Protection of women workers, and especially adequate provisions for leave during maternity period. 8. Prohibition against employment of children of school going age in factories. 9. Rights of labour to form unions to protect their interests with suitable machinery for settlement of disputes by arbitration. 10. Substantial reduction in agricultural rent or revenue paid by the peasantry, and in case of uneconomic holdings exemption from rent for such period as may be necessary, relief being given to small zamindars wherever necessary by reason of such reduction. 11. Imposition of a progressive income tax on agricultural incomes above a fixed minimum. 12. A graduated inheritance tax. 13. Military expenditure to be reduced by at least one half of the present scale. 14. Expenditure and salaries in civil departments to be largely reduced. No servant of the State, other than specially employed experts and the like, to be paid above a certain fixed figure which should not ordinarily exceed Rs. 500 per month. 15. Protection of indigenous cloth by exclusion of foreign cloth and foreign yarn from the country. 16. Total prohibition of intoxicating drinks and drugs. 17. No duty on salt manufactured in India. 18. Control over exchange and currency policy so as to help Indian industries and bring relief to the masses. 19. Control by the State of key industries and ownership of mineral resources. 20. Control of usury direct or indirect. It shall be open to the A.I.C.C. to revise, amend or add to the foregoing so far as such revision, amendment or addition is not inconsistent with the policy and principles thereof. 14

India, yes, can be held by the sword! I do not for one moment doubt the ability of Britain to hold India under subjection through the sword. But what will conduce to the prosperity of Great Britain, the economic freedom of Great Britain an enslaved but rebellious India, or an India an esteemed partner with Britain to share her sorrows to take part side by side with Britain in her misfortunes? Yes! if need be, but at her own will, to fight side by side with Britain–not for the exploitation of a single race or a single human being on earth, but it may be conceivably for the good of the whole world! If I want freedom for my country, believe me, if I can possibly help it, I do not want that freedom in order that I, belonging to a nation which counts one-fifth of the human race, may exploit any other race upon earth or any single individual. If I want that freedom for my country, I would not be deserving of that freedom if I did not cherish and treasure the equal right of every other race, weak or strong, to the same freedom. 15

The Congress Parliamentary Party will miss no opportunity of rendering such national service, be it small or great, as is possible through the legislatures. We are fully aware that the powers of the legislatures, provincial and central, are too small for the effort which the nation must make for the realization of its goal of complete independence. The constructive programme of the Congress, the successful prosecution of which alone can make our demand irresistible, can be most effectively carried on only outside the legislature. But there are matters which can be dealt with only through the legislatures and which will engage the attention of the Congress Party. In order to end the exploitation of the masses, political freedom must include real economic freedom of the starving millions. The economic policy of the Party will, therefore, be in accordance with the fundamental rights and the economic programme contained in the Karachi resolution of the All-India Congress Committee. 16 

Now we have to find out what our work should be. Of the crores of women, how many of you are going to become B. A. s and M. A. s? But let me inform you that crores of women in India enjoy economic freedom. I have to find out how many in Ahmadabad do so. It is difficult for the Jyoti Sangh to remove their financial dependence. For peasant women it is not so. We do not enjoy the right which they enjoy. It is the Brahmins and Banias who have to fight for the right of divorce. Other communities have long been enjoying this right. Hence, I ask you not to pity them unnecessarily. Only you city dwellers are dependent. 17 Let there be no mistake about my conception of swaraj. It is complete independence of alien control and complete economic independence. So at one end you have political independence, at the other the economic. It has two other ends. One of them is moral and social; the corresponding end is dharma, i.e., religion in the highest sense of the term. It includes Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc., but is superior to them all. You may recognize it by the name of Truth, not the honesty of expedience but the living Truth that pervades everything and will survive all destruction and all transformation. Moral and social uplift may be recognized by the term we are used the term we are used to, i.e., non-violence. Let us call this the square of swaraj, which will be out of shape if any of its angles is untrue. In the language of the Congress we cannot achieve this political and economic freedom without truth and non-violence, in concrete terms without a living faith in God and hence moral and social elevation. 18

Khadi is a controversial subject. 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 labour and intellect of the villagers. That means a 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 7,00,000 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 the parties.  This needs a revolutionary change in the mentality and tastes of many. Easy though the non-violent way is in many respects, it is very difficult in many others. It vitally touches the life of every single Indian, makes him feel aglow with the possession of a power that has lain hidden within him, and makes him proud of his identity with every drop of the ocean of Indian humanity. This non-violence is not the inanity for which we have mistaken it through all these long ages; it is the most potent force as yet known to mankind and on which its very existence is dependent. It is that force which I have tried to present to the Congress and through it to the world. 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. 19 Indian National Congress which is the oldest national political organization and which has after many battles fought her non-violent way to freedom cannot be allowed to die. It can only die with the nation. A living organism ever grows or it dies. The Congress has won political freedom, but it has yet to win economic freedom, social and moral freedom. These freedoms are harder than the political, if only because they are constructive, less exciting and not spectacular. All-embracing constructive work evokes the energy of all the units of the millions. 20

 

References:

 

1. Indian Opinion, 10-10-1919
2. Navajivan, 7-9-1919
3. Navajivan, 18-7-1920
4. Aaj, 30-11-1920
5. Navajivan, 20-1-1921
6. Navajivan, 23-1-1921  
7. Young India, 2-2-1921
8. Navajivan, 22-5-1921
9. Navajivan, 12-2-1922
10. Navajivan, 19-2-1922
11. Navajivan, 6-4-1924
12. Young India, 25-6-1925
13. Young India, 14-3-1929
14. Resolution on Fundamental Right, March 31, 1931
15. Indian Round Table Conference (Second Session) : Proceedings of Federal Structure Committee and Minorities Committee, Vol. I , pp. 41
16. The Leader, 1-8-1934
17. Gujarati, 16-6-1935
18. Harijanbandhu, 3-1-1937
19. Constructive Programme: Its Meaning and Place
20. Harijan, 1-2-1948