Manjulika Koshal and Rajinder K Koshal (Unit –III)

In Hind Swaraj written in 1908, Gandhiji Declared that by Patriotism he meant the welfare of the
whole people. Later he called it Sarvodaya, the welfare of all people.

Sarvodaya to be true democracy as it regards the humblest and lowest Indians as equally with the
ruler…

What do you think of the concept of Sarvodaya in Contemporary India?

1. SARVODAYA
Economic values cannot be divorced from the cultural and spiritual values of life and
hence a plan devoid of these values is merely a capitalist plan, a bureaucracy or a
dictator's plan.

A country's planning should be based entirely on the problems of the country concerned.
It should never be a copy of either the capitalist, socialist, or fascist plan

Indigenous Plans.

Economics and Standard of living should include Cultural and spiritual values

Economy and Social Structured should be interrelated and should aimed for a Classless
society

2. PLANNING WITH HUMAN VALUES

Goal of economic Development was Self Sufficiency

Khadi economics
Swadeshi
Full employment
Village Republics
De-centralization
Sanctity of Labour
Trusteeship concept
Evils of Machinery
Land Reforms
Untouchability

Satyagraha and Non-Violence are the means for attaining these goals

3. SOCIALIST PATTERN OF SOCIETY AND ECONOMIC EQUALITY:

National Planning Committee in the initial stage specified that "the principal objective of
their plan was to attain, as far as possible, national self-sufficiency”

(a) the improvement of nutrition-a balanced diet having calorific value of 2400 to 2800 units for an
adult worker,

(b) improvement in clothing from the then consumption of about 15 yards to at least 30 yards per
capita per annum, and

(c) housing standards to reach at least 100 square feet per capita"

First, Second and Third Five year Plans reflects the promise

NATIONAL PLANNING COMMITTEE: SELF-SUFFICIENCY SHOULD

EXIST IN THE PRODUCTION OF FOOD, CLOTHING, AND HOUSING
GANDHIAN CONCEPT OF A SOCIALISTIC PATTERN OF SOCIETY.

All three Five Year Plans use this word and define it as a system where social gains and not private
profit is the end in itself or as a society without caste, class or privilege thus offering to every
section of the community and to all parts of the country the fullest opportunity to grow and to
contribute to the national well being.

PROGRESS MADE:

Co-Operative Movement
Land Reforms i.e Land Ceilings
Democratic-Decentralization through Panchayat Raj
Agriculture and small, village and cottage industry

4. CASTELESS, CLASSLESS SOCIETY AND OF A SOCIETY WITH

ECONOMIC EQUALITY
"Not only must the State assume the responsibility for providing basic
services like irrigation, power, roads, and communication, but it must also
undertake direct promotional work by providing financial, marketing,
technical advice and other assistance through appropriate agencies.

To accomplish these aims efficiently, appropriate local, regional and

functional organizations have to be built up and strengthened.

This is what Gandhi also believed in strengthening the local agencies and
organizations and Swaraj .

5. SWARAJ
(E.g. PANCHAYAT RAJ WAS A REPLICA OF SWARAJ)
The Five Year Plan's resolutions also aimed at maximum national self-
sufficiency and stated, ". . too much dependence on foreign markets and
financial assistance is not desirable both economically and politically. We
must try to depend on the inherent potentialities of our own domestic
markets for accelerating the pace of industrial development. Import of
only those goods which are absolutely necessary for internal consumption
should be there. The spirit of 'Swedeshi' should pervade our national
policy

6. SWADESHI
Gandhi believed that education should be founded on a "Basic System" which
emphasized "the principle of learning by doing or teaching various academic subjects
through productive or creative activities. Basic education is not teaching plus craft work
but teaching through work .

This basic education is the only practical solution of integrating our developmental
schemes with the educational system“ .

At the same time Gandhi was not against learning any foreign languages including
English

7. EDUCATION IS TEACHING THROUGH WORK

 Abolishing the untouchable status under the 1950 Constitution and
thereby reinforcing this move by the enactment of the Untouchability
Offences Act in 1955 was influenced by Gandhi.

8. SOCIAL JUSTICE AS BASIS FOR NATIONAL LIFE

 Gandhi sanctity of labor was one of the basic foundations for attaining equality of income and wealth, social
justice, "Swaraj," and self-sufficiency.

On the other hand, the dignity of physical labor has been emphasized in the First Five Year Plan through
proposing "some manual work as a daily routine for the students at some stage during their course of
education".

In the Second Plan, Gandhi's concept seems to have received full attention and realization as evident from the
following words: "In the light of the socialistic pattern of society within which setting the Second Five Year
Plan has been framed, suitable altera- tions in labor policy requires to be made".

The Third Five Year Plan appears to have enhanced this goal by putting greater emphasis on labor policies in
various directions and defining in more detailed manner the meaning of "the socialistic pattern of society".

9. GANDHI, SANCTITY OF LABOR AND FIVE YEAR PLANS

1. Equal Pay for Equal Work.

The principle of equal pay for equal work as advocated by Gandhi was incorporated in the Second Plan. That Plan clearly
declared that "the principle of equal pay for equal work needs to be more vigorously implemented and the tendency to scale
down the job traditionally handled by women has to be guarded against.

2. Productivity Increase through improvement in working conditions

One finds that the Second Plan firmly believes that increasing productivity de- pends not only on rationalization but better
working condition

e.g. Indian Factories Act of 1948, the Mines Act of 1952, and the Plantation Labor Act of 1951 provide detailed provisions on
"health, safety, and welfare" (52) of the worker.

3. Labor vs Machinery
The Third Plan gave a new approach and meaning to rationalization and productivity because both these issues are directly
dependent upon labor's pride in the work which means making the labor most suitable for production rather than machinery
(53) and it was this approach which Gandhi indicated in 1945.
4. Authorized Strikes
Gandhi's distinction be- tween the purposes and the motives of a political strike and a strike for workers' welfare is seen in
section 16 of the Act, which provides for "a separate fund for political purposes (Indian Trades Union Act of 1926)

5. Industrial Relations:
"lock-outs" and "retrenchment" carry out Gandhi's concept about the proper treatment of workers by their employers and also
protect the workers in times of "lock- outs." Again, provisions for Work Committees, Work Councils, and Tribunals under the
Act carry the Gandhian spirit of mutual settlement and peaceful arbitration of industrial disputes. The Industrial Disputes Act of
1947 was enacted mainly because, as predicted by Gandhi, strikes had be- come too rampant. The years of 1946 and 1947 were
the peak period when 3,440 work stoppages occurred involving 3.8 million workers and resulting in 29.3 million man-days
lost.
Second Five Year Plan was prepared and the principal objectives listed were:

(a) a sizeable increase in national income so as to raise the level of living in the country,
(b) rapid industrialization with particular emphasis on the development of basic and heavy industries,
(c) a large expansion of employment opportunities, and
(d) reduction of inequalities in income and wealth and a more even distribution of economic power (59).

All objectives, except the second, were consistent with Gandhi's thinking. According to Gandhi, the people
should be provided with food and clothing first and then industrialization may be emphasized

GANDHI PHILOSOPHY AND THE SECOND FIVE YEAR PLANS

In the Third Plan, basically, there were no sharp changes in plan out- lays. The Third Plan outlines
the following principal aims:

(a) to secure an increase in national income of over 5 per cent per annum, the pattern of investment
being designed also to sustain this rate of growth during subsequent plan periods.
(b) to achieve self-sufficiency in food grains and increase agricultural production to meet the
requirements of industry and exports,
(c) to expand basic industries like steel, chemicals, fuel and power and establish machine-building
capacity, so that the requirements of further industrialization can be met within a period of ten years
or so, mainly from the country's own resources,
(d) to utilize to the fullest possible extent the manpower resources of the country and to ensure a
substantial expansion in employment opportunities, and
(e) to establish progressively greater equality of opportunity and to bring about reduction in
disparities in income and wealth and a more even distribution of economic power.

THIRD FIVE YEAR PLAN

shifted emphasis to agriculture and employment
Is Indian planning consistent with Gandhian thought?

whatever India has been doing is strictly on the basis of Gandhian ideals?
 India and Gandhian ideals:

Where are then the application of ahimsa and non-violence as

principles?
Where are the booming village industries on the basis of which
India was supposed to build her economy over the last twenty
years?
Is Mahatma's doctrine of Satyagraha still an effective weapon in
politics?
Is it not that some opportunist political leaders are degrading it
by invoking its name to cover every kind of ridiculous agitation?
Also, is it not that the sanctity behind fasting a technique of
Satyagraha as evolved by Gandhi has been misused to secure
some political point and without any moral issues whatsoever?
Is it the true Gandhian Satyagraha
"that government is best which governs the least."

This definitely means that Gandhi was in fact a determined opponent of the Leviathan State. His
idea of a State was that of an individualist who considered State action out- side a limited sphere to
be interference with his liberties. On the other hand, the major characteristic of India's
development after independence is the growth of State functions in all directions; that is, economic
planning, social legislation, community development and educational policies.

10. GANDHI AND STATE

The same can be said about industrialization and urban development. India's independence has
witnessed the planning and development of many townships such as Nilokheri and Faridabad to
accommodate refugees from Pakistan, capital cities like Chandigarh and Bhubanswar, growth of
cities such as Delhi, many satellite towns, emergence of great ports such as Kandla from the
marshes, and industrial complexes such as Durgapur, Bhilai, Rourkela, Ranchi and Chittaranjan.
Thus, "India has rejected totally and utterly Gandhiji's objection to the growth of cities".

To Gandhi, the "growth of cities is evil, unfortunate for mankind and the world." "The blood of the
villages," in his opinion, "is the cement with which the edifice of the cities are built" and he wanted
"the blood that is today inflating the arteries of the cities to run once again in the blood vessels of
the villages . .

11. VILLAGE-CITIES AND GANDHI

There are, however, cooperative societies, irrigational facilities through large river valley projects,
community projects and village extension service blocks. But are these the true examples of
Gandhi's Sarvodaya or welfare State?

Is that section of society which deserves the most help cared for under these schemes?

What about those laborers who do not possess any land at all?

How about the supply of electricity to the villages first?

All these are partial fulfillment of Gandhi's dreams. The same can be said of the "village
republics," khadi economics, prohibition and education. All these projects have found their places
in the paper of the plans and although the planners have felt and realized the significance of their
values, in reality they have been trying a mixture of ideas

12. EVALUATING GANDHI PHILOSOPHY

1. Family Planning
2. Untouchabilty

Not just a legislative revolution but a mental revolution

Not just a change of the heart rather than any legal force.