E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Five Fallacies … 145the system.We believe that lofty and socially desirable goals can beachieved only through non-violent means. But the desire forimmediate personal gain and unconcern for the socialconsequences of one's action have led to the jettisoning ofvalues. Gandhi wanted to 'spiritualise' politics. The last fortyyears have seen its relentless criminalisation.We wanted to build a non-violent economic order whicheschewed exploitation and the evils of industrialism. Webelieved that the poverty of our villages could not be abolishedwithout generating employment in the villages; thatemployment could not be generated except through villageindustries and a technology that is modern, yet appropriate tothe needs of massive employment generation. Yet, we haveseen Seven Five Year Plans take us in the direction of Westernor Soviet industrialism. Unemployment has increased.Disparities have increased, - between individual and individual,urban and rural India, and one state and another. We have notbeen effective in stemming this trend; or even in forcing acountrywide debate on the pattern of 'development' that wewant, and the kind of plan that is needed to achieve our patternof development.We have been ineffective in preventing or reversingthese trends. Yet the world is witnessing great changes.Exhilarating winds of change are blowing in the Soviet Union,Eastern Europe and other areas of the world. The old systemsof capitalism and communalism seem to have failed.Unprecedented uprisings have shown what can be achieved bythe power of the people. Humanity seems to be looking for newforms of self-government, new forms of ownership, new formsof management and technology that can combine material