As the author of the Congress resolution on village industries¹ and as the sole guide of the Association that is being formed for their promotion, it is but meet that I should, as far as possible, share with the public the ideas that are uppermost in my mind regarding these industries and the moral and hygienic uplift that is intimately associated with them.

The idea of forming the Association took definite shape during the Harijan tour as early as when I entered Malabar. A causal talk as early as when I entered Malabar. A casual talk with a Khadi worker showed to me how necessary it was to have a body that would make an honest attempt to return to the villagers what has been cruelly and thoughtlessly snatched away from them by the city-dwellers. The hardest hit among the villagers are the Harijans. They have but a limited choice of the industries that are open to the villagers in general. Therefore, when their industries slip away from their hands, they become like the beasts of burden with whom their lot is cast.

Lifeless Life of Villagers

But the villagers in general are not much better off today. Bit by bit, they are being confined only to the hand–to-mouth business of scratching the earth. Few know today that agriculture in the small and irregular holdings of India is not a paying proposition. The villagers live a lifeless life. Their life is a process of slow starvation. They are burdened with debts. The money-lender lends, because he can do no otherwise. He will lose all if he does not. This system of village lending baffles investigation. Our knowledge of it is superficial, in spite of elaborate inquiries.

Extinction of village industries would complete the ruin of the 7,00, 000 villages in India.

I have seen in the daily Press, criticism of the proposals I have adumbrated. Advice has been given to me that I must look for salvation in the direction of using the powers of Nature that the inventive brain of man has brought under subjection. The critics say that water, air, oil and electricity should be fully utilized as they are being utilized in the go-ahead West. They say that control over these hidden powers of Nature enables every American to have 33 slaves.

Mechanization

Mechanization is good when the hands are too few for the work intended to be accomplished. It is an evil when then are more hands than required for the work, as is the case in India. I may not use a plough for digging a few square yards of a plot of land. The problem with us is not how to find leisure for the teeming millions inhabiting our villages. The problem is how to utilize their hours, which are equal to the working days of six months in the year. Strange as it may appear, every mill generally is a menace to the villagers. I have notworked out the figures, but I am quite safe in saying that every mill-hand does the work of at least ten laborers doing the same work in their villages. In other a words he earns more than he did in his village at the expense of ten fellow-villagers.

Mill Cloth v. Khadi

Thus spinning and weaving mills have deprived the villagers of a substantial means of livelihood. It is no answer in reply to say that they turn out cheaper, better cloth,if they do so at all. For, if they have displaced thousands of workers, the cheapest mill cloth is dearer than the dearest Khadiwoven in the villages. Coal is not dear for the coal miner who can use it there and then, nor is Khadi dear for the villager who manufactures his own Khadi. But if the cloth manufactured in mills displaces village-hands, rice mills and flour mills not only displace thousands of poor women workers, but damage the health of the whole population in the bargain. Where people have no objection to taking flesh diet and can afford it, white flour and polished rice may do no harm; but in India, where millions can get no flesh diet even when they have no objection to eating it if they can get it, it is sinful to deprive them of nutritious and vital elements contained in the whole wheat meal and unpolished rice. It is time medical men and others combined to instruct the people on the danger attendant upon the use of white flour and polished rice.

I have drawn attention to some broad glaring facts to show that the way to take work to the villagers is not through mechanization but that it lies through revival of the industries they have hitherto followed.

The critic objects that the ancient plan is purely individualistic and can never bring about corporate effort. This view appears to me to be very superficial. Though articles may be manufactured by villagers in their cottages, they can be pooled together and profits divided. The villagers may work under supervision and according to plan. The raw material may be supplied from common stock. If the co-operative effort is created, there is surely ample opportunity for co-operation, division of labor, saving of time and efficiency of work.

Village Solar System

But Khadi is the sun of the village solar system. The planets are the various industries which can support Khadi in return for the heat and the sustenance they derive from it. Without it, the other industries cannot grow. But during my last tour I discovered that, without the revival of the other industries, Khadi could not make further progress. For villagers to be able to occupy their spare time profitably, the village life must be touched at all points.

I know that there is a school of thought that does not regard Khadi as an economic proposition at all. I hope that they will not be scared by my having mentioned Khadi as the centre of village activities. I could not complete the picture of my mind without showing the inter-relation between Khadi and the other village industries. Those who do not see it are welcome only to concentrate their effort on the other industries.

Harijan: Nov.16, 1934

1. The following resolution was passed by the Congress of its session in Bombay on 27^th October 1934:

“Whereas organizations claiming to advance Swadeshi have sprung up all over the country with and without the assistance of Congressmen, and whereas much confusion has arisen in the public mind as to the true nature of Swadeshi, and whereas the aim of the Congress has been from its inception progressive identification with the masses, and whereas village reorganization and construction is one of the items of the constructive programme of the Congress, and whereas such reconstruction necessarily implies revival and encouragement of dead or dying village industries besides the central industry of hand-spinning, and whereas this work, like the reorganization of hand-spinning, is possible only through concentrated and special effort unaffected by and independent of the political activities of the Congress, Shri J.C. Kumarappa is hereby authorized to form, under the advice and guidance of Gandhiji, an association called The All India Village Industries Association as part of the activities of the Congress. The said Association shall work for the revival and encouragement of the said industries and for the moral and physical advancement of the villages, and shall have power to frame its own constitution, to raise funds, and perform such acts as may be necessary for the fulfillment of its object.”