Finance 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

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Finance and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

The Non-co-operation Resolution of the Congress requires a careful study by every lover of the country. Swaraj can be gained inside of one year if the people respond sufficiently by acting in accordance with their vote. It was not merely the delegates who emphasized the necessity of non-co-operation, but the many thousand visitors, too, showed in a variety of ways that they were in full sympathy with the programme. The days of merely passing resolutions during the Christmas week and sleeping over them till the next Christmas are gone. It will be more and more difficult for those to attend the Congress who do not act up to their profession. Everyone is called upon to withdraw his children from Government-managed or controlled schools. Everyone is called upon to use as few foreign articles as possible and to use only hand-woven cloth made from hand-spun yarn. Everyone is called upon to subscribe to the Tilak Memorial Swaraj Fund.

This movement of non-co-operation is a searching of the heart. Workers must constantly awaken people to a sense of their duty. The whole Congress organization must be utilized for the enforcement of the programme. The new constitution enables workers to organize the nation within one year for carrying out the programme in detail and if the vast body of the people of India makes a conscious effort, nothing can thwart its legitimate wish for self-determination. If we nationalize schools, boycott law courts and manufacture all the cloth we need, we will have asserted our right to govern ourselves and no army in the world can possibly defeat our purpose. With a few thousand selfless, honest and industrious workers, the three things mentioned by me can be organized without much difficulty. I propose however to devote this article to a consideration of the financial difficulty The All-India Tilak Memorial Swaraj Fund should be large enough to meet every requirement, not excluding that of national institutions. Welcome as the thousands of monied men must be to us, we must rely upon the pice of the masses. Every pice knowingly given will be a token of the determination of the giver to establish swaraj. I make bold to say that the movement can be financed by the nation abandoning its superfluities, its questionable habits, and its vices. If the women of India were to surrender their superfluous ornaments, if the wine-bibbers were to give up their drink and hand to the movement half their savings, if the smokers were to suspend their smoke pending attainment of swaraj and give to the cause half their savings, we would get all the money we need for bringing the movement to a successful close.

I was agreeably surprised to find that in the Central Provinces there has been a great campaign going on against the drink evil. I understand that the movement has resulted in thousands having given up this cursed habit. It would be a crowning triumph of non-co-operation if an organized effort were made to stamp out the drink evil. And I am sure that those who are weaned from it will gladly and thankfully part with a portion of their savings. We are a poor people, getting daily poorer; and if we are to make collections from the masses we shall do so only by acts of self-denial. There is certainly always something which we can deny ourselves for the sake of the country. I do not hesitate to suggest to the religiously-minded that they cannot better devote their charity than to the erection of the temple of swaraj. No doubt the Working Committee appointed by the All-India Congress Committee will present a scheme for collection. But I suggest to the volunteer workers that they can supplement the scheme by inculcating among the masses the lesson of self-denial. There should be a healthy competition among the different provinces in this direction. 1 

I have seen criticism in the Press regarding the collection and the administration of the Tilak Memorial Swaraj Fund. The public have certainly the right to know all about the Fund and other Congress collections. In my opinion the Congress finance has never been in a more satisfactory condition. It will be possible to speak with greater definiteness, when Mr. Sopariwala who has been appointed all-India auditor has inspected all the Congress branches and reported upon their condition. The announcement made on the 1st of July as to the collections stands. There was a mistake made by me in reading Mr. Das’s wire. My reading was that fifteen lakhs were collected and ten more were as good as collected. I learnt on meeting him, that fifteen lakhs were definitely promised, and he expected to bring up the figure to twenty-five lakhs. When I was last in Calcutta, Mr. Das had not succeeded in collecting fifteen lakhs that were definitely promised, but he certainly expected to collect that and the additional ten lakhs. In any case the crore was assured without the ten lakhs. The figures for all the other provinces were an understatement. Most of the monies have certainly been collected. Some debts fare still outstanding. Every province knows its finance. The accounts are kept by each province and they are open to the inspection of every member. In some provinces, I know, the accounts are published periodically and are also audited by local auditors. Most branches have prepared their budgets and are spending according to the budgets sanctioned. It is possible that some provinces have spent more extravagantly than others; it is equally possible that in every province extravagance in some department or other may be proved by an outsider.

But I do know that in the majority of cases monies have been and are being spent with the knowledge and sanction of the members of provincial bodies. In every province, in so far as I am aware, the chairmen are men of highest probity. In Messrs Jamnalal Bajaj and Umar Sobani the All-India Congress Committee has treasurers who command universal respect, and in Messrs Nehru and Ansari and Rajagopalachari it has secretaries whom it will be difficult to surpassin ability, industry or integrity. I have therefore no hesitation in assuring the busy reader who is solicitous about the Congress finance that all that is humanly possible has been done by the Congress authorities to ensure Proper collection and administration of all new Congress funds. 2 

Sjt. Kumarappa, M.A., B.Sc., is a Fellow of the Society of Incorporated Accountants. He has travelled abroad to gain practical experience and is now for the time being at any rate, if not permanently, in the Gujarat Vidyapith. He has written several informing chapters on public finance and our poverty. These being seasonable I propose to publish in installments in these pages. The reader will learn as he proceeds that according to Sjt. Kumarappa India spends 93.7 % on debts, military and administrative expenses as against 48.8 % spent by America. The money thus spent by India largely goes out of it; what is spent by America remains in it. Thus the richest country in the world spends about half of what India the poorest country in the world spends on administration. So long as this crushing burden is not removed there is no swaraj whether one knows it by the name Dominion Status or Independence. The reader should carefully study these chapters which contain facts rather than arguments. 3 The booklet is a reprint, revised where necessary by the author, of the chapters written by Professor Kumarappa and published in Young India. They examine the economic policy of the British Government and its effect upon the masses. They are therefore very seasonable. The value of the chapters is enhanced by the addition of a very careful and copious index prepared by the author himself. I commend the booklet both to the Indian as also the Western readers. 4

Correspondents sometimes ask why the public do not know what moneys are being received during the tour and how they are being spent. Those who thus ask or write in the columns of the Press evidently do not care to look at the Harijan. Accounts have been and are being published from time to time in these columns giving as full details as possible of the receipts. The reader will find therein all the purses, individual donations and prices realized for jewellery. Three account-keepers travel with the party and work day and night under the direct control of Thakkar Bapa, the ever vigilant secretary of the Central Board. More often than not, they have to burn midnight oil in order to cope with thousands of copper and silver pieces and to tally cash from day to day. These moneys are all sent to the Central Board at Delhi and there safely banked. Of course, an accurate system of account-keeping has been devised at Delhi and every pice received or spent is to be found in the account books. Accounts are audited and produced before the Board meetings from time to time.

All the transactions of the Board are public and duly recorded. In other words, the Board follows the accurate methods of banks and regards itself as a public institution responsible to the public regarding its financial and other management. The public will be interested to know that up to 2nd March Rs. 3, 52,130-9-7 had been received during the tour. As to expenses, they will be largely regulated by the provinces which have produced the moneys, subject to sanction by the Central Board. The draft rules for the disposal of the funds were published the week before last and criticism has been invited. More than this it is humanly impossible, and even unnecessary, to do. 5

 

References:

 

1. Young India, 12-1-1921
2. Young India, 20-10-1921 
3. Young India, 28-11-1929
4. Foreword to Public Finance and our poverty, April 20, 1930
5. Harijan, 16-3-1934