E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 'Theory of Trusteeship… 196One need not assume that modernisation orindustrialisation is impossible without centralisation andconcentration. The progress of science and technology haveshown that there are alternatives that can minimiseconcentration without impairing efficiency. Gandhi was notagainst scientific inventions or improvements in technology,but he wanted such inventions or improvements in technologyto subserve the interests of the masses, and not the owningclasses or the State. 12 Gandhi identified an acid test. The motiveforce that propels one to seek or adopt improvements intechnology or machinery should not be greed, or profit, butlove and the interest of the whole of society, and not one part orthe other.Gandhi formulated six criteria that the nonviolent, nonexploitativesociety should use to assess machinery andtechnology: they should subserve the interests of all; should notlead to concentration of ownership; should not lead tounemployment; should not result in distance between centres ofproduction and centres of distribution; should not result inalienation and dehumanisation; should not result in the atrophyof the creative and participatory element in work, and reduceman to a robot. 13In India science and technology, and industry itselfshould serve the masses in the rural areas, and not and to thedisparity between the conditions of life in the rural and urbanareas. This cannot be done without decentralisation.Decentrlisation would facilitate the fulfillment of the sixcriteria that Gandhi formulated for machinery and technology;and would also promote real democracy reduce regionaldisparities in development, and facilitate the growth of economicself-government.Gandhi's first preference was therefore for a technologythat promoted self-employment. Where the demands of