Among the giants of the twentieth century, Mao Zedong (1893–1978) and Mao’s famous dictum that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” places him squarely in the tradi-tion of military might and physical force as the best methods to achieve social change, while Gandhi clung, all the while he engaged in his “Experiments With Truth,” to the value of Ahisma, or non-violence to any living thing.
Ironically Mao, the man of might, died a natural death at age 85; while Gandhi, the man of personal and political peace, died by an assassin’s bullet at age 79.
Both chose to identify with the poor villagers and farmers who made up a vast majority of both India and China during the first half of this century. Both men mobilized mass movements of common people, each faced a form of western imperial and colonial rule, both espoused not only political independence but insisted on changing the hearts and minds of people, not only in their own nations but around the world. Each man left lasting legacies in India and China as well as large ideological follow-ings around the globe.
Both leaders were challenged to expand their nationalist movements beyond the small middle class educated elite to the broad stream of mass support and participation. Each man sought in his own way. In that sense both hoped to resocialize their people to become a new “Maoist man,” and “Gandhian man.”
In the wake of the increasing irrelevancy of Mao an Gandhi, their own nations have drifted into a moral vacuum where self-interest and materialism largely shape cultural values.
Each had differing ideas about the place of industry and agriculture, the values and symbols needed to mobilize people, the place of violence and force in effecting social change, and the role of personal morality in the larger arena of public morality.
Self-sufficient village economy of Gandhi
Gandhi is of the view that full employment of human resources is the basic need of a country. It is true that national income will increase if each and every persons (whether skilled or unskilled) is employed fully. This cannot be possible only with the development of large-scale industries because of their labour-saving nature. Agricultural sector too cannot solve the problem of unemployment or underemployment due to its seasonal nature. Therefore mechanization and large scale production cannot provide the solution to the problem of poverty and unemployment. Self-sufficient village economy is an alternative solution and in this context the role of institutions in the rural sector like the village panchayat and rural multipurpose co-operative can play a vital role. We cite here an example of multipurpose co-operative society located at Sridharpur village of Burdwan district of West Bengal. The society is formed with the unlimited liability. It perform multipurpose activities All the welfare activities are so designed, identified and implemented that nobody is a loser and that everybody living in the villages emerges gainer. The society is able to create a benign atmosphere all around and members legitimately feel that it is their society upon which their development depends.
We therefore plead for Sridharpur type society which is free from political interference. This can fulfill Gandhi’s dream of self-sufficient village economy.
By Premendra Agrawal
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of Lal Bahadur Shastri’
Written by Premendra
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