E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

76 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughtboth ‘self-rule’ at the individual level and the nationalindependence. Besides, it also encompasses freedom of thepeople in social, political and economic terms. One couldsummarise his contributions in this regard on several counts.A major contribution of Gandhi lies in his successfulattempt to strike a fine balance between sacred and secularneeds of the individuals with those of society. This has beenviewed in the context of the emerging crisis in the realm ofpolitical theory, as reflected in its failure to reconcile thefreedom of individuals with that of collectivity. The institutionof state in any garb has failed to acquit itself with any brightrecord in this arena. In economic field, a big challenge has beenthrown up–how to reconcile the market forces with those of thestate. This has led to the emergence of a number of theoriesboth in liberal-democratic and Marxian perspective. Theliberals have been talking of ‘participatory democracy’ andMarxist of people’s democracy. The emergence ofliberalisation and globalisation is an attempt at convergence ofthese conflicting perspectives in the economic field. However,the problem of striking a fine balance between the liberty ofcitizens with their commonweal has turned out to be elusive tilldate. The real strength of the Gandhian ideas in this respect liesin virtually making a successful attempt in this regard. He triesto reconcile the conflicting demands of the individual, civilsociety and state by basing all this on the solid of ‘self-rulingindividuals. What is more, he gives it a concrete form bylinking it with swadeshi. In the process, he connects individualswith his immediate surrounding making them responsible andaccountable to his immediate neighbourhood. It has also to beremembered that Gandhi’s individuals are radically differentfrom self-seeking self-defining individuals of the liberaldemocraticsystem on the one hand and soulless cog in thecollectivity like those in Marxism, Fascism and Nazism. Theyare fired by the idea of their divinity, on the one hand, and their