Self Sufficient Villages in Today's Global Village
By Dr. Moushumi Datta
The relevance of Gandhian economics in today's world seems to be
paradoxical. Gandhi believed that India lives in villages and that development
of the villages will mean development of India as a whole. If we are to
increase the scope on a bigger scale and look at the world as a unified country
and countries as villages, the relevance is clear. Today, we live in a global
village and, as they say, it has indeed become a small place to live in. With
recession affecting the world like never before, it is time to go back to the
drawing board. Gandhi saw the problems associated with industrialisation and
modernisation. He believed that unless villages are developed and made self
sufficient, it will lead to mass migration, overcrowded cities and the vicious
circle of poverty and under-development cannot be extinguished. Gandhi's
economic ideas were closely linked to the upliftment of weaker and
underprivileged sections of the society and overall development of the village
economy as a whole. Along with the freedom struggle, vigorous efforts were made
by Gandhi for the development of villages by making them financially
independent through establishment of small and cottage industries. He believed
that political independence without economic independence was hollow. He was sure
that the progress of the country lies in the development of majority of its
rural villages. Gandhi said that the only way of bringing hope of good living
to the rural people was by making the village the central place in the economic
programme.
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