Gandhian economics

Gandhian economics is a school of economic thought

based on the spiritual and socio-economic principles expounded by Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi. It is largely
characterised by rejection of the concept of the human
being as a rational actor always seeking to maximize material self-interest that underlies classical economic thinking. Where Western economic systems were (and are)
based on what he called the multiplication of wants,
Gandhi felt that this was both unsustainable and devastating to the human spirit. His model, by contrast,
aimed at the fulllment of needs including the need
for meaning and community. As a school of economics
the resulting model contained elements of protectionism,
nationalism, adherence to the principles and objectives of
nonviolence and a rejection of class war in favor of socioeconomic harmony. Gandhis economic ideas also aim to
promote spiritual development and harmony with a rejection of materialism. The term Gandhian economics
was coined by J. C. Kumarappa, a close supporter of
Gandhi.[1]

rights. A major part of this rebellion was a commitment from the farmers to end caste discrimination and oppressive social practices against women while launching
a co-operative eort to promote education, health care
and self-suciency by producing their own clothes and
food.[2]
Gandhi and his followers also founded numerous ashrams
in India (Gandhi had pioneered the ashram settlement
in South Africa). The concept of an ashram has been
compared with the commune, where its inhabitants would
seek to produce their own food, clothing and means of living, while promoting a lifestyle of self-suciency, personal and spiritual development and working for wider
social development. The ashrams included small farms
and houses constructed by the inhabitants themselves. All
inhabitants were expected to help in any task necessary,
promoting the values of equality. Gandhi also espoused
the notion of trusteeship, which centred on denying material pursuits and coveting of wealth, with practitioners acting as trustees of other individuals and the community in their management of economic resources and
property.[3]

Gandhis economic ideas

Contrary to many Indian socialists and communists,

Gandhi was averse to all notions of class warfare and concepts of class-based revolution, which he saw as causes
of social violence and disharmony. Gandhis concept
of egalitarianism was centred on the preservation of human dignity rather than material development. Some of
Gandhis closest supporters and admirers included industrialists such as Ghanshyamdas Birla, Ambalal Sarabhai,
Jamnalal Bajaj and J. R. D. Tata, who adopted several of
Gandhis progressive ideas in managing labour relations
while also personally participating in Gandhis ashrams
and socio-political work.[4]

Gandhis thinking on what we would consider sociasecular issues (he himself saw little distinction between
the sacred and its expression in the social world)was inuenced by John Ruskin and the American writer Henry
David Thoreau. Throughout his life, Gandhi sought
to develop ways to ght Indias extreme poverty, backwardness and socio-economic challenges as a part of
his wider involvement in the Indian independence movement. Gandhis championing of Swadeshi and noncooperation were centred on the principles of economic
self-suciency. Gandhi sought to target European-made
clothing and other products as not only a symbol of
British colonialism but also the source of mass unemployment and poverty, as European industrial goods had left 2 Swaraj, self-rule
many millions of Indias workers, craftsmen and women
Main article: Swaraj
without a livelihood.[2]
By championing homespun khadi clothing and Indianmade goods, Gandhi sought to incorporate peaceful
civil resistance as a means of promoting national selfsuciency. Gandhi led farmers of Champaran and
Kheda in a satyagraha (civil disobedience and tax resistance) against the mill owners and landlords supported
by the British government in an eort to end oppressive taxation and other policies that forced the farmers and workers into poverty and defend their economic

Rudolph argues that after a false start in trying to emulate the English in an attempt to overcome his timidity, Gandhi discovered the inner courage he was seeking by helping his countrymen in South Africa. The new
courage consisted of observing the traditional Bengali
way of self-suering and, in nding his own courage,
he was enabled also to point out the way of 'Satyagraha'
and 'ahimsa' to the whole of India.[5] Gandhis writings
1

NON-VIOLENT RURAL ECONOMY

expressed four meanings of freedom: as Indias national

independence; as individual political freedom; as group
freedom from poverty; and as the capacity for personal
self-rule.[6]

creasing consumer appetite is likened to animal appetite

which goes the end of earth in search of their satisfaction. Thus a distinction is to be made between 'Standard
of Living' and 'Standard of Life', where the former merely
[7] states the material and physical standard of food, cloth
Gandhi was a self-described philosophical anarchist,
and his vision of India meant an India without an under- and housing. A higher standard of life, on the other hand
lying government.[8] He once said that the ideally non- could be attained only if, along with material advanceviolent state would be an ordered anarchy.[9] While po- ment, there was a serious attempt to imbibe cultural and
spiritual values and qualities.
litical systems are largely hierarchical, with each layer of
authority from the individual to the central government
have increasing levels of authority over the layer below,
Gandhi believed that society should be the exact oppo- 4 Underlying principles
site, where nothing is done without the consent of anyone,
down to the individual. His idea was that true self-rule Gandhian economics has the following underlying prinin a country means that every person rules his or herself ciples:
and that there is no state which enforces laws upon the
people.[10]
1. Satya (truth)
This would be achieved over time with nonviolent conict
mediation, as power is divested from layers of hierarchical authorities, ultimately to the individual, which would
come to embody the ethic of nonviolence. Rather than
a system where rights are enforced by a higher authority,
people are self-governed by mutual responsibilities. On
returning from South Africa, when Gandhi received a letter asking for his participation in writing a world charter
for human rights, he responded saying, in my experience, it is far more important to have a charter for human
duties.[11]
An independent India did not mean merely transferring
the established British administrative structure into Indian hands. He warned, you would make India English.
And when it becomes English, it will be called not Hindustan but Englishtan. This is not the Swaraj I want.[12]
Tewari argues that Gandhi saw democracy as more than a
system of government; it meant promoting both individuality and the self-discipline of the community. Democracy was a moral system that distributed power and assisted the development of every social class, especially
the lowest. It meant settling disputes in a nonviolent manner; it required freedom of thought and expression. For
Gandhi, democracy was a way of life.[13]

Gandhian economics and ethics

Gandhian economics do not draw a distinction between

economics and ethics. Economics that hurts the moral
well-being of an individual or a nation is immoral, and
therefore sinful. The value of an industry should be
gauged less by the dividends it pays to shareholders than
by its eect on the bodies, soul and spirits of the people
employed in it. In essence, supreme consideration is to
be given to man rather than to money.

2. Ahimsa (non-violence)
3. Aparigraha (non-possession)
While satya and ahimsa, he said were 'as old as the hills,
based on these two, he derived the principle of nonpossession. Possession would lead to violence (to protect ones possessions and to acquire others possessions).
Hence he was clear that each one would need to limit ones
needs to the basic minimums. He himself was an embodiment of this idea, as his worldy possessions were just a
pair of clothes, watch, stick and few utensils. He advocated this principle for all, especially for the rich and for
industrialists, arguing that they should see their wealth as
something they held in trust for society - hence not as
owners but as trustees.

5 Social justice and equality

Gandhi has often quoted that if mankind was to progress
and to realize the ideals of equality and brotherhood, it
must act on the principle of paying the highest attention
to the prime needs of the weakest sections of the population. Therefore any exercise on economic planning on a
national scale would be futile without uplifting these most
vulnerable sections of the society in a direct manner.
In the ultimate analysis, it is the quality of the human being that has to be raised, rened and consolidated. In
other words, economic planning is for the citizen, and
not the citizen for national planning. Everybody should
be given the right to earn according to his capacity using
just means.

6 Non-violent rural economy

The rst basic principle of Gandhis economic thought is

a special emphasis on plain living which helps in cutting Gandhian economics places importance to means of
down your wants and being self-reliant. Accordingly, in- achieving the aim of development and this means must be

3
non-violent, ethical and truthful in all economic spheres.
In order to achieve this means he advocated trusteeship,
decentralization of economic activities, labour-intensive
technology and priority to weaker sections. Gandhi
claims that to be non-violent an Individual needs to have
a rural mindedness. It also helps in thinking of our necessities of our household in terms of rural mindedness.
The revival of the economy is made possible only when
it is free from exploitation, so according to Gandhi
industrialization on a mass-scale will lead to passive or
active exploitation of the people as the problem of competition and marketing comes in. Gandhi believes that
for an economy to be self-contained, it should manufacture mainly for its use even if that necessitates the use of
modern machines and tools, provided it is not used as a
means of exploitation of others.

Environmentalism

Several of Gandhis followers developed a theory of environmentalism. J. C. Kumarappa was the rst, writing a number of relevant books in the 1930s and 1940s.
He and Mira Behan argued against large-scale dam-andirrigation projects, saying that small projects were more
ecacious, that organic manure was better and less dangerous than man-made chemicals, and that forests should
be managed with the goal of water conservation rather
than revenue maximization. The Raj and the Nehru
governments paid them little attention. Guha calls Kumarappa, The Green Gandhian, portraying him as the
founder of modern environmentalism in India.[14]

Concept of socialism

nationalism and patriotism. Indias rst prime minister,

Jawaharlal Nehru totally diered with Gandhi, even before independence and partition of India. Gandhi did not
participate in celebration of Indian independence, he was
busy controlling the post partition communal violence.
Gandhian activists such as Vinoba Bhave and Jayaprakash
Narayan were involved in the Sarvodaya movement,
which sought to promote self-suciency amidst Indias rural population by encouraging land redistribution,
socio-economic reforms and promoting cottage industries. The movement sought to combat the problems of
class conict, unemployment and poverty while attempting to preserve the lifestyle and values of rural Indians,
which were eroding with industrialisation and modernisation. Sarvodaya also included Bhoodan, or the gifting
of land and agricultural resources by the landlords (called
zamindars) to their tenant farmers in a bid to end the medieval system of zamindari.
Bhave and others promoted Bhoodan as a just and peaceful method of land redistribution in order to create economic equality, land ownership and opportunity without
creating class-based conicts. Bhoodan and Sarvodaya
enjoyed notable successes in many parts of India, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
Bhave would become a major exponent of discipline
and productivity amongst Indias farmers, labourers and
working classes, which was a major reason for his support of the controversial Indian Emergency (19751977).
Jayaprakash Narayan also sought to use Gandhian methods to combat organised crime, alcoholism and other social problems.

10 Modern interpretations

Gandhian economics brings a socialist perspective of

overall development and tries to redene the outlook of
socialism. Gandhi espoused the notion of trusteeship
which centered on denying material pursuits and coveting of wealth, with practitioners acting as trustees of
other individuals and the community in their management of economic resources and property. Under the
Gandhian economic order, the character of production
will be determined by social necessity and not by personal greed. The path of socialism should only be through
non-violence and democratic method and any recourse to
class-war and mutual hatred would prove to be suicidal.

The proximity of Gandhian economic thought to socialism has also evoked criticism from the advocates of freemarket economics. To many, Gandhian economics represent an alternative to mainstream economic ideologies
as a way to promote economic self-suciency without an
emphasis on material pursuits or compromising human
development. Gandhis emphasis on peace, trusteeship
and co-operation has been touted as an alternative to competition as well as conict between dierent economic
and income classes in societies. Gandhian focus on human development is also seen as an eective emphasis on
the eradication of poverty, social conict and backwardness in developing nations.

11 Notes

Implementation in India

During Indias independence struggle as well as after Indias independence in 1947, Gandhis advocacy of homespun khadi clothing, the khadi attire (which included
the Gandhi cap) developed into popular symbols of

[1] Kumarappa, Joseph Cornelius (1951). Gandhian economic thought. Library of Indian economics (1st ed.).
Bombay, India: Vora. OCLC 3529600. Retrieved 7 August 2009.

13

[2] B. N. Ghosh, Gandhian political economy: principles,

practice and policy (2007) p. 17
[3] Jagannath Swaroop Mathur, Industrial civilization &
Gandhian economics (1971) p 165
[4] Romesh K. Diwan and Mark A. Lutz, Essays in Gandhian
economics (1987) p. 25
[5] Susanne Hoeber, Rudolph (1963). The New Courage:
An Essay on Gandhis Psychology. World Politics 16 (1):
98117. JSTOR 2009253.
[6] Anthony Parel, ed., Gandhi, Freedom, and Self-Rule
(2000) p 166
[7] Snow, Edgar. The Message of Gandhi. 27 September
March 1948. Like Marx, Gandhi hated the state and
wished to eliminate it, and he told me he considered himself 'a philosophical anarchist.'"
[8] Jesudasan, Ignatius. A Gandhian theology of liberation.
Gujarat Sahitya Prakash: Ananda India, 1987, pp. 236
237
[9] Bidyut Chakrabarty (2006). Social and political thought
of Mahatma Gandhi. Routledge. p. 138. ISBN 978-0415-36096-8. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
[10] Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand; Tolstoy, Leo (September 1987). B. Srinivasa Murthy, ed. Mahatma Gandhi
and Leo Tolstoy letters. Long Beach Publications.
[11] Easwaran, Eknath. Gandhi the Man. Nilgiri Press, 2011.
p. 49.
[12] Paul Gillen; Devleena Ghosh (2007). Colonialism and
Modernity. UNSW Press. p. 130.
[13] Tewari, S. M. (1971). The Concept of Democracy in the
Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi. Indian Political
Science Review 6 (2): 225251.
[14] Ramachndra Guha (2004). Anthropologist Among the
Marxists: And Other Essays. Orient Blackswan. pp. 816.

12

References

Gonsalves, Peter (2012). Khadi: Gandhis Mega

Symbol of Subversion. SAGE Publications. ISBN
978-81-321-0735-4.
Narayan, Shriman (1970). Relevance of Gandhian
economics. Navajivan Publishing House. ASIN
B0006CDLA8.
Narayan, Shriman (1978). Towards the Gandhian
Plan. S. Chand and Company Limited.
Pani, Narendar (2002). Inclusive Economics: Gandhian Method and Contemporary Policy. Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7619-9580-7.
Schroyer, Trent (2009). Beyond Western Economics:
Remembering Other Economic Culture. Routledge.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Sharma, Rashmi (1997). Gandhian economics: a

humane approach. Deep and Deep Publications Pvt.
Ltd. ISBN 978-81-7100-986-2.

13 External links
Gandhian Trusteeship as an Instrument of Human
Dignity
Review of Gandhian economics
Gandhian economics is relevant
Abhay Ghiaras Gandhian Economics blog

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