A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

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Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com Appropriate scale also applies to organisation structures. They need to be as small as possible for the purpose to make them democratic and inclusive. Money Gandhi believed currencies should be created, not by banks, but by communities and government: Local National International Money is a means of exchange and should be subservient. Instead, it dominates and people are enslaved by debt. Speculation in money markets and the stock exchanges causes damaging instability for enterprises, their stakeholders, savings and retirement pensions. Free market capitalism obstructs long-term stewardship, which is seen as a constraint on the fullest short-term exploitation of people and capital for share growth, profit and dividends. Making a few people super rich damages the rest of humanity. The harm cannot be undone by setting up charitable foundations. James Robertson’s radical ideas on monetary reform, debt and taxation are in Gandhi’s tradition. Also, LETS - Local Exchange Trading Systems or Schemes, local community-based mutual aid networks in which people exchange all kinds of goods and services with one another, without the need for money. Our political system Gandhi advocated participative not representative democracy. Instead of a system in which parties fight elections, he favoured voting for people who contribute well and are highly thought of, have the required skills. A system like this would prevent the huge cost of election campaigns that corrupt democracy. Hence the importance of the UK Power to the People report under the chairmanship of Helena Kennedy and Unlock Democracy’s continuing campaigns to bring about a fairer and more participatory democracy. The Venerable Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, says that under their system for parliament there are no parties. Individuals do not propose themselves as candidates for election but are nominated on the basis of their contribution to society. Cohesion Gandhi’s philosophy is about synthesis and integration. The Indian idea is cohesion, bringing together polarities - outer and inner - matter and spirit. Western tradition analyses and separates. This explains the contemporary lack of joined up thinking, which constantly gets in the way of efforts to tackle climate change and the successful implementation of sustainable strategies. Another example is not recognising the importance of feeling at work. When feeling, intuition, joy and spirit are brought into work, everything fits together. Gandhi stood for integration and cohesion. 1. Yagna – meaning soil or the replenishment of nature. 2. Tapas – replenishment of soul. 3. Dana – replenishment of society. Western society is based on exploitation and indebtedness to nature. Replenishment means, we take wood; we replace it with a tree. We use soil; we replenish it. Industrial society does not believe in replenishment and waste is dumped. In Gandhian language, this is a sin against nature. Humans need to be part of nature’s system. Yagna is the responsibility of every living being. Tapas means silence, rest, meditation, walking, putting our feet in water, sitting in the forest and accepting ourselves for who we are, being ourselves. In silence we use our whole self – not just our voice and brain. Every morning and evening Gandhi would go into prayer. He gave himself one day a week for replenishment, to retreat, reflect, introspect and listen to his inner voice. Dana means giving back to society, taking care of society and its replenishment. 104
Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com Conclusions and Implications The biggest threats we face are violence and destruction of planet earth on which life depends. Gandhi provides insights and guiding principles to help us avoid these disasters and create a sustainable, fairer, less violent world and a new world order fit for our time. Acknowledgements This chapter first appeared as my Schumacher Society Challenge Paper, All Rise - How Gandhi’s thinking can help us in the 21st Century, slightly modified here. It owes much to talks and discussions on the course on Gandhi and Globalisation given by Satish Kumar, Vandana Shiva and the Venerable Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile held at Bija Vidyapeeth, Vandana Shiva's International College for Sustainable Living at Navdanya Farm near Dehra Dun, November 24th – 7th December 2006. Vandana’s farm and college embodies Gandhian principles,as does her field work in India and campaigns against the industrialisation of agriculture, commodification of food and water, patenting of seeds, plants and food and abuse of corporate power. I also draw on Gandhi’s eleven principles, or Eleven Vows as he called them, described in the last chapter of Satish Kumar’s autobiography “No Destination” and his “The Three Qualities of Life” and Gandhi’s “Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule.” Further reading: Gandhi, M K, 1938, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, Jitenda T Desai, Ahmehdabad, India. Gandhi, M K, Eleven Vows, National Gandhi Museum & Library, New Delhi. Kumar, S, 2000, No Destination, an autobiography, Green Books, Dartington, Devon, UK Kumar, S, 2006, The Three Qualities of Life – a compass to realign reality, The Viveka Foundation, New Delhi. 105
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