For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Economic Independence and Mahatma Gandhi

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- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

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

Economic Independence and Mahatma Gandhi

Swadeshi restricts all Indians to the exclusive use of articles made in India. It contains our economic independence; swadeshi therefore means fiscal autonomy. Without fiscal autonomy swaraj has no meaning; swadeshi therefore may be called swaraj also. 1 If you cannot do that much, if you do not believe in your capacity for persuading your other sisters or have no heart for it, you can at least learn spinning for yourself and, by doing that work for a fixed period every day, you can set an example to your other sisters and, if you spin your yarn free of charge, you can to the extent help your poor sisters by making it possible to pay them a higher rate. You will see in Navajivan from time to time examples of sisters who have already begun such work. It is my hope that you would all take part in such a movement according to your capacity a movement which nourishes the life of the nation, which helps its poor, which protects the chastity of its women and which is calculated to bring economic independence to India in a simple and easy manner. 2

The cleanest and the most popular form of swadeshi, therefore, is to stimulate hand-spinning and hand-weaving and to arrange for a judicious distribution of yarn and cloth so manufactured. With a little talent and a little industry this thing is easy. Even as each home cooks its own food without difficulty, so may each home weave its own yarn? And just as in spite of every home having its own kitchen, restaurants continue to flourish, so will mills continue to supply our additional wants. But even as because of our private kitchens we would not starve if every restaurant was through some accident closed, so would we, by reason of domestic spinning, not have to go naked even if every mill, by a blockade from the West, had to stop work. Not long ago, we knew this secret of our own economic independence and it is possible for us to regain that independence by a little effort, a little organizing agency and a little sacrifice. 3

In “The Secret of Swaraj” I have endeavoured to show what home-spinning means for our country. In any curriculum of the future, spinning must be a compulsory subject. Just as we cannot live without breathing and without eating, so is it impossible for us to attain economic independence and banish pauperism from this ancient land without reviving home-spinning. I hold the spinning wheel to be as much a necessity in every household as the hearth. No other scheme that can be devised will ever solve the problem of the deepening poverty of the people. How then can spinning be introduced in every home? I have already suggested the introduction of spinning and systematic production of yarn in every national school. Once our boys and girls have learnt the art they can easily carry it to their homes. 4 The Bezwada programme, I admit, is not in itself enough to establish swaraj. But I do hold that it is a very substantial step towards it. The fulfillment of the programme will inspire the nation with self-confidence, and enable it to take the other steps, if necessary. One crore electors for, to become Congress members is to become electors for national representatives, for various bodies is to find the nucleus for a real electorate under swaraj. To have twenty lacs of spinning-wheels in working order is to know that India is determined to drive out poverty, to become self-reliant and to achieve her economic independence. The collection of one crore of rupees is a tangible token of the nation's determination to achieve her destiny. 5

Mr. Dharamadas Udharam of Karachi writes, saying that he was cashiered by his employers Messrs Forbes Campbell and Co., for having dared to wear the khadi cap. I congratulate him upon his courage in accepting dismissal rather than giving up his cap. If he were not demoralized, every clerk serving no matter where would invite dismissal by a simultaneous adoption of the khadi cap. This would really have the effect of the firms recognizing the inevitable and seeing the folly of warring against harmless dress. Indeed this war is being waged to strike awe among employees and keep them submissive and even unmanly. In Madras the Director of Public Instruction will not allow the inspectors of schools to introduce spinning-wheels if only because, the Director says, they are given a political significance. On the same reasoning even a lecture on abstinence should be taboo because it has for non-co-operators a political significance. This war against swadeshi in a variety of ways shows that it is distasteful to the Government. In other words the Government cannot tolerate the economic independence of India. Should these indications not make us resolute in the prosecution of the swadeshi programme? 6

A fair amount of orderliness has been achieved in Gujarat. Yet, much remains to be done. This task of spinning is not for a day or for a year. It is related to the very existence of India. Without it, swaraj can be neither won nor defended. Anyone who chooses may consider swaraj in this context as meaning economic independence. This restricted meaning is sufficient for our purpose. It is my firm conviction that if we gain economic independence, all else will automatically follow. 7 I hold that we committed a crime against Indian humanity when we parted with the spinning-wheel and sold the economic independence of India for a pottage of foreign cloth. And today acted upon by inertia we are repeating that crime. I have therefore felt it to be my bounden duty to awaken India from her torpor. You do not need to have a knowledge of economics to understand the simple truth that if we could distribute among the starving millions of India 60 crores of rupees that go to the purchase of foreign cloth none of them need starve, nor do you need to have an extraordinary knowledge of arithmetic in order to appreciate the fact that if we could produce all the cloth that is needed in India it is possible to prevent these 60 crores from going out of the country. This is a thing that we were doing only 100 years ago. We have got ready-made power in the arms and hands of millions of able-bodied men and women that are today rusting in idleness in the cottages of India.

There is no reason why these millions of idle hands should not be turning millions of spindles in the cottages of the 7, 00,000 villages of India. England does not grow cotton and yet she finds it possible for her to carry cotton grown in India all the way over to Lancashire and to return it to India in the form of cloth. How much more easy should it be then for us to carry cotton that we ourselves grow from place to place in India were it may be needed, and get it woven into cloth? In spite of apathy and in spite of passive and even active opposition the thing is being done today in two thousand villages in this country. And our needy sisters do not mind walking several miles from day to day or week to week to get money or cotton in exchange for the yarn that their delicate fingers have spun. If therefore we have the slightest feeling for these needy sisters and for the starving millions of India, one tenth of whom according to English administrators themselves hardly get a square meal from year’s end to year’s end, you will discard and consign to the flames every inch of foreign cloth as the least penance, the least expiation that India expect her sons to do. 8

There is no need to seek clarification now on the point of economic independence. But if the Conference is held, that clarification will have to be sought. Why do you assume that the Congress resolution about the debts passed in 19221 stands cancelled? If we are going to have a genuine Dominion Status, there can be no question of our having to bear the entire burden of the debts. We cannot ask for a guarantee for such things right now. But persons like you should keep the people alive to such problems, so that the delegates at the Conference do not go to sleep over the issue and forget it. On what ground do you believe that the Haji Bill will be withdrawn or that all the illegitimate rights usurped by the foreign banks will remain untouched? All these points cannot be included in a letter to Irwin. But they must be included in the draft of the Swaraj Act. What the leaders, however, purposely or under pressure or out of ignorance may omit, God alone can say. It is for you to remove the ignorance. It is my duty to contribute something to create the atmosphere which would prevent the leaders from giving up anything under pressure. 9

The fact that the Act of 1919 has been stressed gives rise to fear. And even if there is nothing to fear in it, it certainly is an ambiguous statement. It is for this very reason that the leaders who have signed it have been asked to clarify its meaning. I am not unhappy because the economic independence of India has not been mentioned in the official communication issued by Lord Irwin. Anything that does not include economic independence cannot be regarded as swaraj at all. The Congress resolution of 1922 regarding the debt has not been nullified; it still holds good and its consideration is essential in the scheme of swaraj. The same may be said of the Haji Bill and the banks. We cannot expect to find the plan for swaraj to be given in the official communication of the Viceroy. However, it should certainly be made clear that the Congress Party can attend a conference only on condition that each and every question relating to swaraj can be freely discussed there. This has not been clarified in Lord Irwin’s communication and in my opinion it is the dharma not only of the Congress Party but of all other parties also to have this point clarified before attending the Conference. 10

The exhibition that I have referred to in my resolution regarding the Reception Committee contemplates the exhibition of the result of the activities of the All-India Village Industries Association as now contemplated. The two together will bring before the public the marvellous result that can be produced through the industries of villagers in their own homes. It is my certain conviction that if the so-called higher classes will but identify themselves with the so-called lower classes and lend them the support of their intelligence and ability, India can become a land flowing with milk and honey and can also achieve her economic independence without deadly war, either with the Government or with the capitalists. Political independence will follow as a matter of course, without the intervention of civil disobedience. 11 I can point out many ways of removing the economic dependence of women. The easiest way to this is for every woman to take up some form of work. It is not as if the educated women of today were independent. They are equally dependent. But this is a problem that concerns only the city women and high-caste women. I have travelled in villages and have seen numerous women enjoying economic independence. These women do more work than men. But women get less wages. Truly speaking, both men and women should get equal wages. That is women’s right. It is only fair. If Jyoti Sangh could achieve this, one could say it had brought forth a new principle in the world. 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. All of us have to work in the way bricks are put together one upon another. You should work within the scope set for your work and bring credit to it. You can invite those who wish to take an active part in national and social activities. I bless you that you may succeed in your endeavours. But for this many women will have to become martyrs to this cause and become ascetics.

This is no play and if it is that at all, it is like that of the tight-rope-walker who is able to keep himself straight like a stick only when he concentrates fully, keeps his eyes fixed on a particular point and is fully attuned to the tunes of the shehnai and the drum. You shall be able to achieve something only if you work with such concentration. With reference to the duties of women, Gandhiji said: The duty of a woman is to look after what in English is called the hearth and home. Man has never performed this task. He has been content to build forts and ramparts for protection. Will he come forward to protect the home? And even if he does so, what sort of protection will he offer? Even in a home he will build fortresses and walls. He will make holes within these to fire bullets from and put glass and nails on walls. In the end, the children of the house will meet their death by climbing upon these. But we have to bring credit to the home. Hence it is my confirmed opinion that women should get a distinct kind of education. The two have separate spheres of activity and their training, therefore, should also be different. This does not imply that the work of the one is inferior while that of the other is superior; the spheres of the two are complementary. 12

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. Then take economic independence. It is not a product of industrialization of the modern or the Western type. Indian economic independence means to me the economic uplift of every individual, male and female, by his or her own conscious effort. Under that system all men and women will have enough clothing not the mere loin-cloth, but what we understand by the term necessary articles of clothing and enough food including milk and butter which are today denied to millions.

Let us now see how India came to be utterly impoverished. History tells us that the East India Company ruined the cotton manufacture and by all kinds of means made her dependent upon upon Lancashire for her cloth, the next great necessity of man. It is still the largest item of import. It thus created a huge army of partially unemployed men and women counted in millions and gave them no other employment in return. With the destruction of hand-ginning, carding, spinning and weaving to a certain extent, perished the other industries of India’s villages. Continuous unemployment has induced in the people a kind of laziness which is most depressing. Thus whilst the alien rule is undoubtedly responsible for the growing pauperism of the people, we are more responsible for it. If the middle-class people, who betrayed their trust and bartered away the economic independence of India for a mess of pottage, would now realize their error and take the message of the wheel to the villagers and induce them to shed their laziness and work at the wheel, we can ameliorate the condition of the people to a great extent. It would be a terrible thing if laziness replaces industry and despair triumphs over hope. 13

I would answer the question by a counter question: Has not independence of man and his holding property led to the spread of immorality among men, If you answer ‘yes’, then let it be so also with women. And when women have rights of ownership and the rest like men, it would be found that the enjoyment of such rights is not responsible for their vices or their virtues. Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts. 14 My position was different. With the Congress non-violence was always a policy. It was open to it to reject it if it failed. If it could not bring political and economic independence, it was of no use. For me non-violence is a creed. I must act up to it whether I am alone or have companions. Since propagation of non-violence is the mission of my life, I must pursue it in all weathers. I felt that now was the time for me to prove my faith before God and man. And so I asked for absolution from the Committee. Hitherto I have been responsible for funding the general policy of the Congress. I could no longer do so when fundamental differences were discovered between them and me. They readily recognized the correctness of my attitude. And they gave me the absolution. One more they have justified the trust imposed in them. They have been true to themselves. They had not the confidence, in themselves of those whom they represented, that they could express in their actions the required measure of non-violence and so they made the only choice they could honestly make. It was a tremendous sacrifice they made-the sacrifice of the prestige that the Congress had gained in the world for unadulterated non-violence, and the dissolution of the unwritten and unspoken bond between them and me. But though it is a break in the common practice of a common ideal or policy, there is no break in the friendship of over twenty years’ standing. 15

Though split into two, India having attained political independence through means devised by the Indian National Congress, the Congress in its present shape and form, i. e., as a propaganda vehicle and parliamentary machine, has outlived its use. India has still to attain social, moral and economic independence in terms of its seven hundred thousand villages as distinguished from its cities and towns. The struggle for the ascendency of civil over military power is bound to take place in India’s progress towards its democratic goal. It must be kept out of unhealthy competition with political parties and communal bodies. For these and other similar reasons, the A. I. C. C. resolves to disband the existing Congress organization and flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh under the following rules with power to alter them as occasion may demand. 16

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