Globalisation: The Ghandhian way

GLOBALIZATION: THE GANDHIAN WAY

The most frequently used words in the daily newspapers nowadays are: human rights and globalization. Our own politicians often give long lectures on these topics, although their vision never goes beyond their own noses, and they have little respect for people.

As far as human rights arc concerned, there has been much progress in the world. Massacres and civil wars are common; authoritarian regimes are riding on the necks of timid or defenseless people in about half the world. However, so far as Globalization is concerned, there has been rapid progress. The reason is primarily economic. The industrialized world wants free access to world markets. Some people think that this is an unjust arrangement, while others think that it will help both the poor and the rich countries. The subject is very complicated and quite controversial and it is best to say that since this kind of globalization is comparatively recent, we have to wait and see.

What is however important is that hereafter globalization will inevitably occur in many ways-in ideas, cultural attitudes, political institutions, immigration of people, and educational systems. Consumerism is spreading. Loud western music is replacing indigenous classical systems of great aesthetic value. Democracy seems to have a more widespread appeal than before. This, of course, is good. Thousands of enterprising people move across continents for a better life. (Many unfortunate people however are compelled to flee as refugees). English is really becoming a world language, partly as a result of the computer culture.

There is however a contrary view. A well-known intellectual, Samuel Huntington, recently wrote a book called ‘The Clash of Civilizations’. He thinks that the world will be divided into separate cultures, based on religious or ethnic identity. There will be no important points of contact among these; they will be mutually exclusive and unreceptive to each other.

My own view is that globalization will occur over very wide areas. If we take that for granted, we have to give serious thought to some important questions. What problems are there before mankind today? Simply put, those problems can be summed up in the five Ps: Poverty Population, Peace, Pollution and People’s Power. Let us take a look at these.

Poverty: In India four out of ten go to bed hungry every night and wake up not knowing where the break-fast will come from. This is true of more than half the world. In some countries however, people overeat, put on fat round the tummy, then read books on how to slim down. In African countries, famines seem to be rather common, often due to political reasons.

Population: There are far too many people in the world more than earth can support. It is the growth of population which perpetuates poverty, and makes progress impossible. We cannot create a sustainable world where the pressure of population is relentless.

Peace: There are civil wars everywhere. Nations fight for ‘honour’ etc. These wars lead to incalculable economic and social dislocation, and leave deep emotional scars on people.

Pollution: We have polluted the earth, the waters and the air. One joke is that the rivers are so polluted that the acid rain improves the quality of water. Nuclear wastes are dumped everywhere. Industrial chimneys belch dirty smoke all the time.

People’s power: More than half the world is living under ruthless dictators. Pick up a world map and move your finger across the nations and ask yourself what kind of a government each country is having. If you have any doubt, presume that it is a dictatorship.

All these problems are man-made. The causes are stupidity, greed, timidity, shortsightedness, mindless imitation of others. Basically, it seems to me that the Gandhian method can answer most of the problems that plague mankind today. Poverty cannot be abolished through mass production; Gandhiji suggested production by the masses. That is what applies to India anyway. Let us think of India first, set an example, and see what happens. Population can be checked; only people showing social responsibility can check population. Once when Gandhiji was asked his views on human rights, he wrote simply, ‘Let us first think of our responsibilities’. Peace can be ensured by asking a simple Gandhian question, “If we have lost faith in violence, why not develop a new faith in nonviolence?” Peace within nations and between nations can be ensured only if it is combined with justice and Gandhiji stood all his life for justice. Pollution can destroy all of us. “Nature has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed”. This is exactly what Gandhiji said. People’s power can be effectively exercised only where small groups feel that they will have effective control over their own lives. This is essentially Gandhian decentralization.

Gandhiji taught us Satyagraha. Its simple meaning is ‘insistence upon Truth’. In a complex world, where tyranny is likely to occur, this is a weapon of universal applicability. It fights without hurting, and with out hatred, and wins in the long run. This is the weapon of the oppressed and there are many such people in the world. Sarvodaya was what Gandhiji learnt from the English thinker, Ruskin. The simple principle is-welfare of all. Gandhiji rejected the fashionable doctrine of ‘the greatest good of the greatest number’.

These views may appear rather technical, oversimplified and too general. What I am emphasizing is the Basic Gandhian approach. It is the humane approach. It is the ethical approach. It is that which needs to be understood. In 1949, Jawaharlal Nehru was asked to speak on Sri Ramakrishna. What he then said is worth quoting at length. He said: ‘Men like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, men like Swami Vivekananda, and men like Mahatma Gandhi are great unifying forces, great constructive geniuses of the world who had not only regard to the particular teachings that they taught, but their approach to the world. You may or you may not accept some particular advice of Mahatmaji on economic or other grounds, but his fundamental approach to life, his constructive unifying approach...is of vital importance...It is that broad approach that we must learn from those great men and if we learn it and act upon it, then we shall serve our country with some advantage and possibly also serve humanity’.

I will conclude with a quotation from the Mahatma: ‘So long as we do not feel sympathy and love for everyone of our fellow beings, we cannot be said to have understood the Moral Law. The highest morality is universal. We should render devoted service to the world in every possible way, remembering that everyone of our brethren has a claim upon us.’

Entering a new age of globalisation for and against

The state of the world provides an interesting picture of the century and the challenges ahead for the human race. There has been an acceleration of history, with the production of a millennium being compressed within this century. The world population of 1.6 billion in 1900 has escalated to some six billion by the turn of the century. The global economy has expanded from an annual output of $2,300 billion in 1900 to $39,000 billion in 1998, a seventeen fold increase. The growth in 1977 alone exceeded that of the seventeenth century. Average grain yield per hectare has increased from 1.06 tons per hectare in 1950 to 2.7 tons per hectare in 1998. Global ownership of cars grew tenfold between 1950 and today. The construction boom promoted an eight fold increase in global cement production since 1957 and tripling of asphalt production. Production increases in synthetic chemicals (1000-fold in the last 60 years in the U.S.) and in aluminium (3000-fold increase this century) are truly mind-boggling. From a few thousand barrels of fossil fuels per day in 1900, oil use has exploded to 72 million barrels a day in 1997. And the phenomenal growth in computers – from 3, 76,000 in 1990 to over 30 million in 1981. Life expectancy, perhaps the sentinel indicator of human well being registered a healthy growth from 35 years in 1900 to 66 years to day. The century witnessed great strides in medicine and biotechnology, with man trying to ‘play God’ by successful cloning exercises.

It is not all rosy, there is the evil side of these achievements. There is a growing disparity in income among countries and within countries. An estimated 841 million people arc undernourished and under weight; 1.2 billion do not have access to safe water; 1.6 billion do not have access to electricity. The lure of neon lights has triggered massive migration to the cities of the world resulting in urban congestion and blight. The profligate use of fuel; oil and other material resources and the pressures of the ‘throw-away economy’ are fouling the environment and converting increasing areas of the earth into waste dumps. The increasing pressures on the earth’s ecosystems usher in among other things, a new period of climate instability, with indeterminate adverse consequences. The weapon technologies have taken ‘quantum leaps’ with unimaginable lethal potential. The two world wars killed 26 millions and 53 millions respectively, surpassing the war casualty figure from the beginning of civilization until 1900.

The Road to Wisdom: Now the greatest user of non-violence in the world was Mahatma Gandhi. And in his life you find a wonderful example: Some policemen went and attacked a village. And they did a lot of havoc during the Satyagraha days. They mishandled the women of the village. No one even protested. When Gandhiji sent an investigation team this is the reply they gave: “Gandhiji taught us non-violence. So, we kept quiet. We didn’t resist”. Gandhiji said, I was ashamed to hear that statement. You couldn’t protect the honour of your women! in the name of non-violence you behaved like a coward! Is that non-violence? I preach a non-violence of the courageous person, not of a coward. There are situations in life therefore where you will have to resist evil, ifyou want to survive. That is why, in the whole of the Hindu Sanstana Dharam tradition, there is no place for pacifism as we call it in modern times: “Under any circumstance, I shall not resist”. That pacifism has no place in our thinking. It is meant for a handful of persons who can stand it. To all others there are occasions when you have to resist either peacefully or using some force. There is no aggression in it. It is a sheer need of human life.

- Courtesy ‘SUVICHAR’