The Government Schemes

Q. The government has been introducing schemes of industrializing the country for the maximum utilization of her raw materials, not of her abundant and un-used man-power which is left to rot in idleness. Can such schemes be considered Swadeshi?

A. The question has been well put. I do not exactly know what the government plan is. But I heartily endorse the proposition that any plan, which exploits the raw materials of country and neglects the potentially more powerful man-power, is lopsided and can never tend to establish human equality.

America is the most industrialized country in the world, and yet it has not banished poverty and degradation. That is because it neglects the universal manpower and concentrates power in the hands of the few, who amass fortunes at the expense of the many. The result is that its industrialization has become a menace to its own poor and to the rest of the world.

If India is to escape such disaster, it has to imitate what is best in America and the other Western countries, and leave aside its attractive looking but destructive economic policies. Therefore, real planning consists in the best utilization of the whole man-power of India, and the distribution of the raw products of India in her numerous villages instead of sending them outside and reburying finished articles at fabulous prices.

Harijan: Mar. 23, 1947.