Bharatheeyam : ( 08/11/2012. )

Kashmir Issue By M. K. Gandhi Today there is talk of war everywhere. Everyone fears a war breaking out between the two countries. If that happens it will be a calamity both for India and for Pakistan. India has written to the U.N. because whenever there is a fear of conflict anywhere the U.N. is asked to promote a settlement and to stop fighting from breaking out. India therefore wrote to the U. N. O. however trivial the issue may appear to be, it could lead to a war between the two countries. It is a long memorandum and it has been cabled. Pakistan’s leaders Zafrullah Khan and Liaquat Ali Khan have since issued long statements. I would take leave to say that their argument does not appeal to me. You may ask if I approve of the Union Government approaching the UNO I may say that I both approve and do not approve of what they did. I approve of it, because after all what else are they to do? They are convinced that what they are doing is right.  If there are raids from ...

India of My Dreams : Everything in India attracts me. It has everything that a human being with the highest possible aspirations can want. Young India, 21-2-‘29 India is essentially karmabhumi (land of duty) in contradistinction to bhogabhumi (land of enjoyment). Young India, 5-2-‘25 India is one of the few nations on the earth which have retained some of their ancient institutions although they have been overlaid with superstition and error. But she has hitherto shown an inherent capacity for purging herself of error and superstition. My faith in her ability to solve the economic problems that face her millions has never been so it is today. Young India, 6-8-‘25 I feel that India’s mission is different from that of others. India it fitted for the religious supremacy of the world. There is no parallel in the world for the process of purification that this country has voluntarily undergone. India is less in need of steel weapons, it has fought with divine weapon...

Why Gandhiji fusses over the Cow? (By Bharatan Kumarappa) Once Smt. Aruna Asaf Ali raised a question which no doubt evoked sympathy in the minds of many. It was as to why we should trouble ourselves about the cow, when we have enough problems to tackle relating to man. Gandhiji’s brief reply was that if he bothered about the cow, it was because he saw that many problems relating to man in our country could not be solved except with reference to the cow. This answer deserve to be expanded and explained, if we are gain an understanding of the issue involve. India is an agricultural country, with about 300 millions of its population depending on agriculture for their livelihood. For them the cow is more than their right hand, since without the aid of bullocks which the cow provides, ploughing, irrigating, weeding, harvesting, threshing, carting and marketing will be next to impossible. Bullocks are necessary for carrying on village industries like oil-pressing, At present t...

The Cow and Peace It is in this respect that I would like you to view the cow and all it stands for Go Seva is a movement for world peace. From the mad rush to exhaust the reservoir resources of nature we want to bring humanity to realize its folly and take the help of the perennial motive power available to man in the form of our friends, the cattle. We should have a whole picture of the kind of world we want. Go Seva should help us to bring it about. I wish and hope that you will have this all round attitude and try to bring it into practice. You would do nothing which goes against ‘the cow’. The mills and all the economy which depends upon ‘reservoir economy’ are an enemy of the cow economy and Go Sevaks will realize that Gandhiji’s cow embraces all his constructive programmes. January, 1953. "Gram Udyog Patrika". II The Cow The Cow Conference, held at Amritsar, in 1946 laid great stress on the place the cow holds in our rural economy. Apart from the pr...

All-round Village Service THE REAL India lies in the 7,00,000 villages. If Indian civilization is to make its full contribution to the building up of a stable world order, it is this vast mass of humanity that has….to be made to live again. We have to tackle the triple malady which holds our villages fast in its grip : (I) want of corporate sanitation ; (ii) deficient diet; (iii) inertia . . . They [villagers] are not interested in their own welfare. They don't appreciate modern sanitary methods. They don't want to exert themselves beyond scratching their farms or doing such labour as they are used to. These difficulties are real and serious. But they must not baffle us… We must have an unquenchable faith in our mission. We must be patient with the people. We are ourselves novices in village work. We have to deal with a chronic disease. Patience and perseverance, if we have them, overcome mountains of difficulties. We are like nurses who may not leave their patients...

I would say that if the village perishes India will perish too. India will be no more India. Her own mission in the world will get lost. The revival of the village is possible only when it is no more exploited. Industrialization on a mass scale will necessarily lead to passive or active exploitation of the villagers as the problems of competition and marketing come in. Therefore we have to concentrate on the village being self-contained, manufacturing mainly for use. Provided this character of the village industry is maintained, there would be no objection to villagers using even the modern machines and tools that they can make and can afford to use. Only they should not be used as a means of exploitation of others. New Innovations based on Gandhian Village Economy : Village Development : India does not need to be industrialized in the modern sense of the term. It has 7,50,000 villages scattered over the vast area 1900 miles long 1500 broad. The people are rooted to the ...

By Dr. Moushumi Datta Nagindas Khandwala College, Mumbai.  Thoughts of Gandhi Reinforced into the Current Economic Scenario: Gram Swaraj (Village Republic) Gandhi laid emphasis on the fact that India lived in villages and that only through their salvation India could regain her glory and prosperity. His concept of Gram Swaraj or Gram Raj (Village Republic) can be interpreted from his idea of Soul-force. He used to say that India's soul lives in villages. To Gandhi, villages were the basic units of social organisation. The villages should therefore be self-sufficient in the matters of their vital requirements. He felt that in the villages, the means of production of elementary necessities of life must be as easily available to all as air and water and were not to be a vehicle of traffic for exploitation of others. Gandhi was against the idea of massive and indiscriminate industrialisation of the Western variety because that would be harmful to society, as all persons co...