How to Improve Village Industries- 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

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How to Improve Village Industries- Mahatma Gandhi  

 

I have distinguished other village industries from khadi and called them planets and the charkha or the spinning-wheel the sun. As a matter of fact there is no real reason for such a distinction, for khadi is also a village industry. But it has acquired a special position, and it is because of this special position which it has acquired that we can now talk about the other village industries. Today we are not required to demonstrate the special position acquired by khadi but we are required to discover ways and means of putting it and other village industries on a firm footing. One of the ways is to resort to centralized production of necessities through machinery worked by power and requiring the minimum of human labour. This results in increasing the number of the rich few and making it a dharma to multiply the people’s wants. Even if all such centralized industries were to be State-owned, it would make no difference to me. For the obligation to increase wants will not only not decrease, but may be strengthened where such industries are owned by the State. Only the task of increasing wants will pass from the hands of small capitalists to the bigger capitalists, or the State, whose action will secure the seal of public support. This is how things are going in England and America.

I am purposely leaving out Russia; because their work is still continuing, I shall not at this stage dare to assess the result. I hope that Russia will produce something unique. But I must confess that I have my doubts whether it will truly succeed. I shall consider it a great success if, through it, all the wealth really goes into the hands of the poor, and intellectual and personal freedom is at the same time secured. In that case I will have to revise my present concept of ahimsa. Now I come to the main point. In England and America, machinery rules supreme. On the contrary, in India we have village industries, symbolizing the resurgence of human labour. In the West, a handful of persons with the aid of mechanical power rule over others. In India, on the other hand, the great task of bringing out what is best in every individual is being attempted by the A. I. S. A., A. I. V. I. A. and other allied institutions. From this point of view the growth of Western civilization seems to be an easy thing, but to develop organize the latent capacities of individuals through village industries appears to be a very difficult task. Looking at it from another point of view, it may be said that, for a handful of men to rule over other men with the aid of steam and other power will be harmful in the end, as it is bound to multiply injustice. By using the human power available to us by the million, injustice is reduced. And there is no room for failure. For here, along with human power, we rely on divine Power. In the other method, no value is attached to divine Power. In short, if in the case of village industries we do not truly obtain God’s help, we are bound to fail. The Western method only appears to be successful, but in truth there is nothing but failure in it. For it destroys the will to work.  

 

Reference:

Udyog Patrika, June, 1945, Part-I, pp. 344-5