Gandhi’s view on khadi present the key to his views on economics, or to what some scholars have called Gandhian Economics. He made it clear that his economic ideas were in some way the opposite of the views which were widely prevalent then.

He wrote in 1934 : “In reorganising your khadi production you should not forget that the science of khadi in some respects works on lines diametrically opposite to that of ordinary business. You know how Adam Smith in his ‘Wealth of Nations’, after laying down certain principles according to which economic phenomena are governed, went on to describe certain other things which constituted the ‘disturbing factor’ and prevented economic laws from having free play. Chief among these was the ‘human element.’ Now it is this ‘human element’ on which the entire economics of khadi rests; and human selfishness, Adam Smith’s pure economic motive constitutes the ‘disturbing factor’ that has got to be overcome. What applies to the production of mill cloth, therefore, does not apply to khadi. Debasing of quality, adulteration, pandering to the baser tastes of humanity, are current staples in commercialised production; they have no place in khadi, nor has the principle of highest profit and lowest wages any place in khadi. On the contrary there is no such thing as pure profit in khadi.”

Next year he explained at a wider level, “What we seek to do is substitute false and non-human economics by true and human. Not killing competition but life giving co-operation is the law of the human being.”

Cooperation of human beings is of crucial importance and this alone can reduce the dependence on oppressive machinery.

In 1945 Gandhi wrote : “When dependence becomes necessary in order to keep society in good order it is no longer dependence, but becomes co-operation. There is sweetness in co-operation; there is no one weak or strong among those who co-operate. Each is equal to the other.”

Much earlier he made it clear that he linked economics closely to moral and ethical principles. In 1924 he wrote : “That economics is untrue which ignores or disregards moral values. The extension of the law of non-violence in the domain of economics means nothing less than the introduction of moral values as a factor to be considered in regulating international commerce.”

(Bharat Dogra is a freelance journalist, author, researcher, activist.)