We live at a time that is characterized by growing discontent with the contemporary model of ruthless development and a search for alternatives that are more sustainable and equitable. Here the writer explores this question with special reference to the Gandhian framework.
I work in a university that tries to engage with questions of development. Our students come from different locations and experiences; they bring in diverse ideas and aspirations. Our courses deal with concepts and practices – which examine and criticize debates in and around popular and political notions of development, historically and in our everyday lives.
Few years back, I was trekking on Thadiyendamol, a hill in Coorg. The road was tough, weather pretty hot and humid and years of atrocious lifestyle was beginning to take its toll. Suddenly, we meet this old man at a steep uphill section. We engaged in small talk and he learnt that I am from a university with courses on development. And the person got quite excited: “Well, it’s just that I have been pondering over something for quite a while now, and I think you can help me solve it. After all, an old man like me is entitled to his answers.”
“Actually, the question is quite simple but it has always boggled me. Especially ever since I have come and settled in the hills.”
“My question is – what is ‘development’?”
The narrative of development is a complex one. That is why, the old man who settled in Thadiyendamol hill of Coorg was so perplexed by it. In a way, we all are. We know issues are interconnected and answers are not easy. It is interesting that many students in my workplace (and learners like us) always try to read Gandhi to understand if there may be alternatives to how we live. Alternatives to how we witness economy, education and political system. Gandhi he knew that a techno-industrial world with large scale and global production-consumption connections would be violent. Violent towards each other, towards nature and spiritually. That, an urban life will be more and more mechanized, polluted and majority of people will feel disconnected, lonely and lost. It is not very easy to read Gandhi. He was definitely not an organized writer or a systematic thinker. However, he was consistent on his understanding of labour and its problems in the post-industrial world. He devised his ideas on work around the notion of welfare for all. That comprised of being educated using head, heart and hand, learning how to live together as everyone will be physically contributing and that work will go beyond modes of production for profit. Many of our students are intrigued by these ideas of a good society as well as excited. The most fascinating fact is that they (we) need to grapple with ourselves as we are the product, witness and creator of what we have understood as development.
What comes to mind when we think of Gandhi?
- i) Peace and non-violence
- ii) Working towards a society that is not exploitative of nature and human being
iII) Everyday experiments with truth
Suppose we translate these ideas to current ‘development’ discourses?The discourses are generally about our
- economic activities — how do we produce what we consume ?
- political system and governance mechanism and public policies – who decides and how do they decide ?
- social as well as interpersonal relationships – how do we live as an individual, within family, within community and larger society ?
- technologies – how do we function in our daily lives, in workplace ?
There will be many more. However, we are simply trying to understand few In terms of creating an alternative development imagination. We bring Gandhi here and he would have said (some categorically and in his own words and few we can devise using the tool of his fundamental beliefs):
- We must have a proper balance between primary, secondary and tertiary economic (including cottage manufacturing) activities. That balance will be based on our needs and not on profit motives. Our rural life and creation of urban centers will be informed by that balance
This kind of development vision will require empowerment of rural communities in economic sense as they have to be self-sustainable in their needs. Agriculture and other allied primary activities have to be viable as better livelihood opportunities and that may not be only through market linkages or subsidies. Because, such interventions also imply that an unhealthy profit motive is still working and that will never allow communities to be sustainable within their own resources.
In recent times, many individuals and groups are working towards sustainable and integrated farming and the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) movement is one very good example. SRI is a rice cultivation method targeted towards small farmers to increase their food and water security as this technique has a capacity to produce more rice with less water. Increasingly water is becoming a scare resource and rice cultivation is competing with growing industrial and human demand.
One can read more about SRI in India and other parts of the world and many dedicated farmers groups, NGOs, Community based organizations and scientists/ social scientists are actively promoting this alternative for farmers. This movement, in ideological sense, is fighting against government’s focus on industry-promoted solutions for boosting rice yield and is about farmer’s search for sustainable livelihood and ecologically sound methods of farming
2. Based on the needs of a large society, we will need industrial production. However, truly developed community will find ways of better and egalitarian management of natural and productive resources. Gandhi proposed one mechanism of trusteeship where even if one earns large profit from private commercial enterprise, she is not entitled to spend that for their own benefit. Rather, the person will act as a trustee of the money earned and invest those in society.
All over the world, many communities are also deliberately looking for non-private modes of managing their economic activities and cooperatives are one of those. Economically, cooperatives can produce various types of goods locally, they can provide necessary local services to all within the community and create employment. Money is circulated within and make the community economically self-reliant. One example is Maleny which is a small town in Australia with about 8,000 people. The town has a long history of cooperative enterprise, beginning on 3 May 1903, when settlers started the first dairy cooperative in the region. Today Maleny has 17 cooperatives that work in all areas of community life including a consumer’s coop, a cooperative bank, a cooperative club, a worker’s coop, a cashless trading coop, a cooperative radio station, a cooperative film society, four environmental coops, and several community settlement coops. Our quest for an alternative development path may need to examine similar sharing initiatives and see if we can shift to those.
3. Decentralized and local decision making is a mechanism built on the foundation of truth and non-violence as centralization means concentration of power and decision making in the hands of few. Rural construction and development are based on self-supporting, self-ruling and self-reliant village communities in which individual lives are not aggressive but humble and sharing the concerns of all.
In India, many innovative village panchayats are a demonstration of the above vision where resources are managed locally and the whole village acts like one unit. Of course, questions of homogeneity-heterogeneity, dominant social groups and power distribution are there. However, any alternative development discourse must examine some of those live models which are like radars in an ocean of hopelessness. {One very prominent example is the Mendha (Lekha) village in Maharashtra. “We have our govt. in Delhi/Mumbai but in our village we ourselves are the government” – this is how the 105 families of Mendha (Lekha) are negotiating and balancing between the two streams of ‘governance’: representative government in Delhi/ Mumbai and participatory in their village (through gram sabha). Here decisions are not taken by majority but by consensus in the gram sabha (every adult villager is a member of the sabha and attendance is mandatory when some key decision has to be taken) and even if one villager does not agree, the sabha meets again and again.} Decision making is enabled by extensive discussions in their ‘study circle’ (abhyas got) and constantly debated and deliberated. Forest resources are owned collectively and every decision regarding their consumption or use is taken together. Such “collectives” in any form must be a framework of our development goals.
4. We need new technologies – but contrary to industrial, profit-oriented technological innovations, our technology must be environment friendly, employment friendly and yet viable in market.
Many would argue that Gandhi was against the use of machines. However, definitely he (or anyone else among us) was not against reducing the complications of our daily life by the use of technologies which would be simple, managed by communities (and families) and benefits would be with little ecological price. All over the world, people who are engaged in alternatives promote Appropriate Technology (AT). The goal of Appropriate Technology is to increase the standard of living for communities without condescension, complication, or environmental damage. Typical such technologies are more labor intensive (compared to industrial technologies as the later wants to replace human with machines), require fewer resources (so that easily affordable by even the poor), and use low cost or readily available materials (thus can be managed by everyone) wherever possible. The social, cultural, and ethical aspects of the communities is always regarded for. There are many examples of AT type inventions and they are growing, fortunately. One such is: Society for Development Alternatives, in partnership with Antenna Technologies, Switzerland used WATA technology to productize sodium Hypochlorite solution under the brand name of Aqua+. It uses a simple, manageable process of electrolysis to convert a mixture of salt and water into sodium hypochlorite. The resulting solution can be used for purifying water and make it safe for drinking. This affordable solution can provide safe drinking water to a family of 5 for 1 month for only Rs 35 (source Department of Science and Technology, Technological Advancement for Rural Areas)
5. Living within limits and against consumerism
According to me, this would be the core of Gandhian alternatives to development. We can talk about humane, ecologically sound, climate friendly, sustainable growth but that would be oxymoronic. Any growth will aim towards increasing consumption by us and that is inherently harmful to nature, dangerous in the long run as more consumption would mean more greed, more competition and a more violent world. There is no escape from the negativities of our development path even though we talk about inclusivity and sustainability. Gandhi had a simple solution: live according to your needs, and not according to your greed. Globally, there are initiatives which experiment on reducing consumption and creating a more sharing world. The concepts behind Gift economy, local currency, barter system, the idea of abundance are all indicating the same.
We live in an interesting time. There are materialism and abundances all around. Yet, there is extreme deprivation. There are too many debates that we have become more and more progressive and yet, everywhere, we can witness meaningless violence. Individuals are becoming morally hollow and bankrupt and also depressed, unhappy, uncaring and uncared for. We need smart cities (or we feel we need) and our heart still cries for community bonding and those personal relationships we have sacrificed in the name of development. We want things which we may not actually need. Gandhi still sells. Gandhi is read. As if the frail man with a stick was right, he knew and he would give us the path.
Nazrul Haque works at Azim Premji University and is generally interested in Gandhi and development alternatives.
This article is published in The New Leam, March Issue( Vol.2 No.10) and available in print version.To buy contact us or write at thenewleam@gmail.com
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