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Self Sufficient Villages in Today's Global Village : 5.

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By Dr. Moushumi Datta Nagindas Khandwala College, Mumbai. Education and Healthcare for the Underprivileged : Gandhi was always concerned about the plight of the poor and the needy.  He believed that special reservations and resources need to be allocated to take care of these people.  In today's parlance it means that special aids from government, World Bank loans and huge NGO funds need to be diverted into the poorer countries of the world so as to give them the impetus of faster growth.  This will not only enable creation of jobs at the local level but also creation of demand which can then be fulfilled from supplies coming from the developed world.  Gandhi believed that all citizens are entitled to proper education and this, he believed, was the ultimate solution for removal of poverty, superstition and blind faith.  He believed that no man or woman is superior or inferior and that no job is small or big.  If expenditures are diverted towards educati

Self Sufficient Villages in Today's Global Village :4.

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By Dr. Moushumi Datta Nagindas Khandwala College, Mumbai. Thoughts of Gandhi Reinforced into the Current Economic Scenario:  Reverse Migration : Gandhi believed that villages need to be developed so that there is less pressure of people moving into cities in, search of jobs and thus putting enormous pressure on the cities infrastructure.  He believed not only that it led to overpopulated cities but that it also destroyed the balance and the social fabric of, both, the villages and the cities.  He believed that development of villages through creation of infrastructure will create demand for jobs in villages and thereby movements reverse of population from cities back to villages.  If this is taken on a global scale, it is relevant. Countries like India and Brazil in their quest for development are actually experiencing reverse migration of their own people from the developed countries and also people from developed countries into these countries in search of jo

Self Sufficient Villages in Today's Global Village :3.

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The relevance of Gandhian economics : By Dr. Moushumi Datta Nagindas Khandwala College, Mumbai. 3. Discussion Today the world is divided into two halves, the developed and the underdeveloped, the privileged and the underprivileged, the rich and the poor. In the global village of today two distant worlds exist. However, the global village is still linked in a very complicated manner wherein if USA sneezes, China catches a cold. It means that no country is isolated from another and every country's fate is dependent on the world at large. The world today is struggling to come out of recession which is essentially driven by mismatch of demand and supply. As borders come down the threat from lower priced products entering the developed countries and eating into high product cost and thus eroding the demand base for local industries is very real. This is where Gandhi's thoughts on economic development of India in the 1950's, have become relevant. If the world as

Self Sufficient Villages in Today's Global Village :2.

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The relevance of Gandhian economics : 2.Background of the Study : Gandhi's walks through the villages of rural India endeared him with a profound love of the land and respect for the people who toiled in it. He came to believe that it was impractical for India's cities to accommodate the burgeoning population in a dignified way. He romanticised village life as self-sufficient, simple, free, non violent, and truthful. To Gandhi, the qualities of village and rural life far surpassed that of the city, but he recognised that the playing field had to be levelled with both landscapes providing opportunities for personal growth and lifelong learning. Dhiru Thadani (2011) said that Gandhi idealised diverse self-governing communities in both the rural and urban landscapes. A robust community life is essential in the rural village as it is in any urban neighbourhood, the building block of a successful city.   From the time of his return to India in 1915, Gandhi combi

Self Sufficient Villages in Today's Global Village :

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The relevance of Gandhian economics : Introduction- The relevance of Gandhian economics in today's world seems to be paradoxical.  Gandhi believed that India lives in villages and that development of the villages will mean development of India as a whole.  If we are to increase the scope on a bigger scale and look at the world as a unified country and countries as villages, the relevance is clear.  Today, we live in a global village and, as they say, it has indeed become a small place to live in.  With recession affecting the world like never before, it is time to go back to the drawing board.  Gandhi saw the problems associated with industrialisation and modernisation.  He believed that unless villages are developed and made self sufficient, it will lead to mass migration, overcrowded cities and the vicious circle of poverty and under-development cannot be extinguished.  Gandhi's economic ideas were closely linked to the upliftment of weaker an

Discussion on Dharma ends here:

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Can a person play two roles at the same time, in a given situation? : You cannot play two roles at the same time.  You can play only one role at a time.  You can play the other role the next moment.  At each moment, however, you can play only one role.  Therefore, you should use your judgment. Are you saying that dharma is relative and not absolute? : Following dharma always requires us to take into account the particular conditions of time, place and situation.  Therefore, there cannot be an absolute rule.  Satyam or truthfulness is an absolute dharma.  But what truthfulness is, will be determined by the situation.  Non-violence is a universal value.  But what non-violence is, in a given situation, will have to be determined by the situation. Was Robin Hood practicing kauÅ›alam in his actions? Is robbing the rich to help the poor kausalam? : Dharma is kauÅ›alam.  Following what is right and fair is kauÅ›alam.  It is possible that some peculia

But Rama could have gone out and explained to his subjects!

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More on Dharma : Yes, he did that. It seems that he sent all his people around.  Nobody is fond of abandoning his wife!  Do not think that Rama abandoned his wife.  He abandoned himself.  Nobody sees that.  He never lived in the palace again.  From that point on, he lived the life of an ascetic.  If Sita lived the life of an ascetic, so did Rama.  He never enjoyed the pleasures of a king from that point on.  The point here is that there are always conflicting demands upon a person. Next : Can a person play two roles at the same time, in a given situation? Satsang with Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati Arsha Vidya Gurukulam

Is dharma absolute or does it need interpretation?

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On Dharma : In any given situation we should do what we need to do.  Let us take the example of Lord Rama.  He is severely criticized for his abandonment of Sita.  How do we explain this?  After all “Ramo vigrahavan dharmaha’, he is the embodiment of dharma or righteousness.  How could he justify doing that?  Rama had many roles to play, such as those of a king and husband.  On the one hand, his subjects were criticizing him for keeping Sita in his home.  Whether the criticism was right or wrong, this is how it was.  On the other hand he had his duty as husband to his wife.  If he played the role of a husband knowing that his wife is chaste, and ignored what his subjects said, then he would not be pleasing them.  “Ranjanath rajaha’, or the one who pleases his people, is called raja or king.  Thus, if he wanted to make his wife happy, he had to make his subjects unhappy, and if he wanted to make them happy instead, he had to make his wife unhappy.  S