Villagism – Economic reconstruction of Bhaarat – The goal of an economy is spiritual
Posted by anhad on May 8, 2025
Villagism : Economic reconstruction of Bhaarat so that Bhaarat again becomes सोने की चिड़िया or Golden bird as it was before 18th century
A passage/excerpt from the book ‘Capitalism, Socialism or Villagism ?’ by Bharatan Kumarappa and Mahatma Gandhi
Intent of this Book :
- This book provides a subjective study of the policies of the various types of work industries operating in India along with their reality : Capitalism, Socialism
- This article proposes a new economic order named as ‘Villagism’, as suggested by Bharatan Kumarappa in his book written in 1946. This economic order can be adopted for villages as well as cities of India. This book was published by Sarva Sewa Sangh Prakashan, Varanasi.
- This book stands more relevant today because both Capitalism and Socialism in the accepted sense have been tried in some measure both at home and abroad and have been found wanting. They have not only been able to deliver goods anywhere but have also brought humanity to the brink of self-annihlation.
- Achieve Economic sustainability of India and well being of people of India by applying the economic system of Villagism.
- Discuss Role of Women in Villagism Economy.
- Go back to our Roots of Indigenous technologies, cultural values and practices that actually suits our requirements.
- Sample development plan for a unit of 10 Villages in Pohri village of Gwalior on the basis of Villagism.
What is Villagism ?
Villagism stands for the movement of Khadi (handspun, hand woven cloth) and village industries.
In contrast to Capitalism which centres around capital (money) and Socialism around society and its needs, this movement centres round the village and its welfare.
It seeks to build the economic life of the country by developing strong, self-reliant village units, the members of which will be bound togeheter by mutual obligations and
will cooperate with each other to make the unit prosperous and self-sufficient for all their essential needs. I have for the sake convenience spoken of the unit
under this new economy as the village. But this is not to be understood too literally. The unit may be, if necessary, even a group of adjacent villages.
Graphics of Earth covered with currency notes
The ideology of Capitalism was created by British rule, Nazi’s in Germany, and Mussolini in Italy.
If Socialism seeks for the prosperity of a whole nation in the mass, Villagism aims at the development of the smallest village and through it at the development of
every member of it. even the very lowest and the least. If tendency under Capitalism and Socialism is towards greater and greater centralisation, this village movement
distinguishes itself by looking to decentrlisation as the chief means of developing the individual. It was therefor necessary to mention about Capitalism and Socialism
in order to show why this new economy is being prosposed as against them.
- Introductory : What is the Goal of the economy in Villagism : Human Well-Being as goal Our study so far has revealed that neither Capitalism nor Socialism can be expected to promote the highest well-being of masses.
The mistake of both of them is that they are primarily interested in producing the greatest amount of material wealth, the capitalist for himself,
and the socialist for all the members of the community. Hence it is that both of them adopt centralised methods of produvtion. In addition to securing for the worker
an abundance of material wealth, the socialist tries hard to promote his self-development. But, with what possibility or degree of success, we have just seen. You cannot, it would seem, have both. You cannot serve God and mammon. If this is so, it is obvious that if the socialist’s goal of well being for all is to be realised,
it is such well-being and not mere abundance of goods that should be the basis on which we should build the economic order. Self-development at all costs, even if it
means less material wealth- that should be our slogan. Otherwise we are apt to sacrifice self-development for material wealth as the socialist appears to do. The point is so important and yet seems to be so little relaised today that it is well to develop it still further especially as it constitutes the basis of the new
type of economic order which we have called Villagism. The form which the idea, that the object of an economic system is to produce the greatest amount of material wealth,
assumes under Capitlaism is that the only consideration in regard to the efficiency or satisfactoriness of an econolic arrangement is whether under it goods can be produced
at the cheapest cost possible. The efficiency of a method of production is judged accordingly not by whether it helps or hinders human development, but by whether it is
capable of turning out cheap goods which can be sold at competitive prices in the open market.We have become so accustomed to regarding cheapness as the mark of efficiency that
it never occurs to us to ask whether we are right in doing so. Let us see. Is cheapness or acquisition of material wealth all that people want ? Normally would people have wealth that has been stolen or that has been obtained by murder ?
Who will be willing, for example, to buy a bracelet which he knows to have been torn from the arm of an innocent child who has been murdered in the process and thrown
in the jungle ? Wealth he would have no doubt, but not when it is so obtained. Moral considerations outweight economic values. If the bracelet were sought to be sold
to those who knew how it was obtained, there would be hardly anybody who could be tempted to buy it, however cheap it might be sold. Or consider what weights with us when we buy cloth. One is plain and coarse and is priced at 6 as a yard, another fine and with beautiful design at 12 as a yard.
Do we buy the cheaper cloth just because we cheap ? Do we not often buy the more expensive even at a little sacrifice ? Why ? Because we care for something else besides
cheapness. We want beauty, or the esteem of our neighbours.
Or take the scientist, the philosopher, and the saint, who in their passionate search of Truth spurn delights and live laborious days. No amount of economic inducement
will tempt them to swerve for their path. On the other hand, they are prepared to face persecution, marttyrdom and death for what they believe to be true.
Or in regard to wage. Will a man give his services to any one who will pay him the highest wage, no matter what work he is called upon to do, even if it be of a thief,
a hangman or a murderer ? Or if a servant is attached to his master, will he leave him if owing to adverse circumstances, the master is unable to pay him as well as
he might be paid by others ? Or if the Master is ill-tempered, does it not happen that no one wishes to serve him, however high a wage he may offer ?
Have not many in our country chosen the path of poverty and suffering rather than serve a foreigh government and earn a decent salary ?
Further, will not a father or a mother give everything in order to rescue their child from the jaws of death, and are not parents willing to spend their all on the
education of their children ? Or will a man betray his friend for monetary gain, or be willing to sell the homour of his daughter, sister or wife for a price ?
No, the more you reflect on the matter, the more it is obvious that for Human beings material wealth is not all. A man will feel insulted if you tell him that he cares nothing
beyond money. And yet economists have dealth with Human beings as though there was no other motive in human affairs than avarice – the grim law of suppy and demand
working like a soulless machine determining every detail of man’s economic life. Once these laws are framed by the economist, they are considered eternal and fixed as
any law of Nature ; and what is worse, men begin to believe in them and shape their economic policies in their light. What may have been but a distorted view of Human
nature, harmless if confined to textbooks, is unfortunately taken seriously and put into effect, and makes men behave like monsters which economists have imagined them
to be- money-making machines engaged solely in accumalting wealth, so many pigs glutting themselves without looking beyond their snouts.
Villagism starts by seeking to rectfy this initial error underlying the prevailing economic schools of thought. It takes man as he is, a complex being, actuated by hopes, ideals and aspirations and not merely dominated by desire for economic gain. And it seeks to outline an economic order which can ultimately satisfy him. Obviously
such an individual cannot be content with mere economic goods. Cheapness obtained at the cost of these, which he inclines to regard as higher values, he rejects when he
knows how it has been obtained.What he wants therefore is not mere material wealth or an abundance of economic goods, but wealth or the well-ness suited to a human being,
or what we may call human well-being. This is what an economic organisation which aims to be adequate, permanent and abiding, must seek above all to secure. However much
an economic system may succeed in bringing riches it will be unsatble and prove a failure if it in the process it causes Human suffering, or in any way hinders people
from a full life. And conversely, even if an economic system secures only a subsistence, it will prove stable and adequate if it tends to promote the well being of all.
Considered thus, it may even be said that an economic system which seeks the well being of all is in the end also the cheapest for the community, as it will save
expenditure on elaborate organisation and machinery for quelling disruptive forces against its interests. We have found that under Capitalism, civil strife and war were
inevitable, while under Socialism they were still a possibility. Thus a system which concerns itself primarily with Human well being may be found in the end to be the
one which also cosnserves the material wealth of the community.
Here then is a fundamental principle on which Villagism rests- that human well-being and not mere material wealth constitutes the basis on which alone any sound and
stable economic edifice can be built. Or, as per Gandhi ji, the sole criterion to be used in testing an economic system is non-violence. If a system leads to suppression
of the individual, exploiatation or prevention of her/his developing to the fullest- all of which are cases of doing violence or injury to her/him- it stands self-condemmed
however much material wealth it may bring. The goal of such an economy is spiritual, the goodness or badness of an economic system being tested, not by the amount of
material wealth it brings, but by whether it promotes the greatest amount of non-violence i.e self-development, cooperation, unselfishness and brotherliness amongst men and women working in shops, manufacturing factories, government services, army and police, softwares, hair salons, sweepers and garbage pickers etc.
Employers should not make their employees over-work so that their health is not badly affected. Employers should provide good salaries to their employees. All employers and employees should respect each-other’s faith in God i.e religion and spirituality.
- Basic Principles of Villagism :
A) Decentralisation in Production –
This means that as far as possible all enterprise should be left in the hands of individuals who carry it on, not in huge factories, but each under his own roof, so far
as he has the capacity to run his own business. Those pursuing the same occupation may of course join together and work co-operatively. But, the unit for which they
will produce will be strictly limited. It will be the village to which they belong, or a small group of adjacent villages, which will form a corporate and aim to be
self sufficient for its primary requirement. In regard to some artciles, of course, the unit of self sufficiency will vary, and may be as large as a taluka, a district
or even a whole province. There need be therefore no rigidity in maintaining the principle of self-sufficiency. Only it should be borne in mind that, as far as
possible, whatever can be produced in the village for the needs of its inhabitants should be produced there, especially in respect of essential requirements like food
and clothing.For the rest, the village may depend on industries run by itself in cooperation with neighbouring villages or where this is not possible, they may be run
by the State for the needs of the regions concerned.
B) Swadeshi in Consumption –
One of the best ways of preventing manufacture of goods without limit, then dumping them on other people upsetting economic equilibrium and producing unemployment among
them, is to inculcate in people the ideal of Swadeshi i.e their duty to purchase goods produced by their immediate neighbours rather than goods imported from elsewhere.
This means that in economic reconstruction, the aim should be to make the village, or a group of four or five villages, self-sufficient for their primary requirements,
so that all the wants of the people can be adequately met by the group itself. Each unit will then be using the goods produced by itself in preference to goods from
outside; and so if a person wishes to increase his business so as to supply also the needs of others than those who belong to his unit, he will find that no one else
will buy his goods. If the articles produced elsewhere are more attractive than those produced locally, they will not be allowed to flood out the local product, but the
local artisan will be requiered to improve his production to come up to the standard of the foreign product. In this way consumers will limit themselves to, and help to
improve local production.
True Swadeshi is not thus exclusive. What it means is conveyed by the saying ‘Charity begins at home’. Our first duty is towards our immediate neighbours, and then it expands
in wider and wider circles to embrace all Humanity. Take, for instance, the family. A man is bound closer to the memebers of his family than to anyone else. It is her/his
duty to feed and clothe them rather than the duty of anyone else. In fulfilling his love for her/his family, she/he is fulfilling her/his duty to society and Humanity.
The circles are not mutually exclusive but concentric. There is no necessary opposition between the smaller and larger circles, and we serve the larger circles even when
we serve the smaller. Swadeshi is then to be understood in the sense of fulfilling our obligation to those immediately around us. But that does not mean that we confine
orselves to our group and not recognise our obligations to anyone else. In this respect, the saying ‘Charity begins at Home’ is helpful, for it only asserts that charity
begings at Home, not that it ends there. The relationship is like a person’s duty to her/his family as compared with her/his duty to society. For in no case may a person
allow love for the family become so exclusive as to seek to serve it by causing injury to society. If family obligation is right, so is Swadeshi, as here understood.
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Role of Women in Family Life and Economy :
Women have a fundamental part to play in the work of reconstruction for establishment of the economic order of Villagism. This new economic order will appeal specially to them because of its non-violent basis. Moreover, it is only in a non-violent society that women can create their identity and have opportunities of utilizing their qualities and skills. It is in a non-violent society that women will become the equal of man. Women have qualities like high levels of patience, sacrifice, human kindness, devotion to spiritual guru, all qualities which are indispensable for life in a non-violent social order.
Women play an all-important part in shaping the mind of the child, as she plays a vital part during the most impressionable stage of life. It is what a child learns from the mother in regard to spirituality, art, rules of behaviour and conduct, that in essence remains with it through life.
Nor is her influence over man insignificant, as mother and wife. How many men owe their greatness to the inspiration derived from their mothers and how many have been inspired by their wives ? Being in charge of food, clothing and other necessities of the family, woman holds the reins also in the economic sphere, as a consumer. She should prefer to buy khadi cloth and other village industry products instead of British cloth, Japanese toys, Italian potatoes, Burmese rice, Australian apples, Czechoslavakian bangles, American trinklets for jewelry and Indian capitalist-driven factory products like soap, mill-oil, sugar and vegetable ghee. We cannot sustain the village economy unless woman is allowed to fulfill the duty to her neighbours and limits family consumption as far as possible to what is produced in the village.
You may educate the child, you may educate the man, but so long as woman is neglected, things will remain much as they are. A society cannot rise above the level of its women folk. It has been rightly said that if you educate both man and woman, you educate a whole new generation. This is because children learn more from actions of their parents than anything else. Hence it is equally important to concentrate on education of both boys and men, girls and women. It is necessary for us fully to realize this fact and to start intensive work among women. They have to be taught Ayurevda, Eco-friendly sanitation, Vedic Mathematics, Rural economics subsidiary industries, Art in the same way as was taught in Traditional Gurukuls of India. Above all, Yoga or Martial arts that can free their minds of superstition, caste, and communal prejudice and fill them with zeal for bringing about better conditions of living.
Women are custodians of the culture of the race, and once our culture has been re-interpreted to them in terms of this new village economy, they may not only be trusted to transmit it to the coming generation, but also, with all our special aptitude for things of the things of the spirit, to join men in striving for the establishment of this new order.
Women have been pursuing professions of their choice in Village industries of Pre-British era. It is important that more women work towards upliftment of village people by understanding their needs, problems faced and devise solutions to the problems faced.
Based on the economic system of Villagism, if more women establish Village industries or join their offices in cities or villages, it will provide a dual solution to achieve economically prosperity of India and provide well being of our people.
Also, if home-maker women or women teachers study the indigenous Gurukul education system of India and help in creating reforms in modern education system accordingly.. it can help in preventing Brain Drain of Youth.
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Brain-Drain of Youth of India:
Brain drain is a large immigration of individuals with technical skills or knowledge from developing nations to developed nations (they became developed after invading and stealing from developing nations). Other than immigration, working for foreign companies that have a work policy based on Capitalism is also a new form of Brain Drain.
Brain drain is usually regarded as an economic loss, since immigrants usually take with them the whole value of their education cost to another nation by serving a foreign Government. Brain drain can be stopped by implementing the economic system of Villagism which can provide Youth who have expertise in their field with career opportunities or encourage them to set up small scale businesses in India.
Lets understand the reasons for Brain Drain of our Youth :
Grass always looks more greener on the other side. The mindset of majority of people is that living in a developed nation is considered more valuable as an achievement. They get lured by the artificial standard of living there which offers comforts of life. They choose the lucrative technical jobs opportunities, physical labour work opportunities or setting up of business there.
People around the world have blindly believed that whats good for England, Germany and Italy is also good for the whole world. This is somewhat surprising because all through history societies have created their own ways and carved out their own identities often struggling through internal and external strifes, through collective conscious introspection and innovation. But within a matter of five to eight decades we have been persuaded into thinking that we should “develop” and “modernise” more or less in the same way-in form and content as these three nations, the voices of dissent notwithstanding. So, we have had and continue to have “development projects”, by which we have imported on a massive scale technologies and institutions and values. In the process, indigenous technologies and institutions, norms and cultural values which have been developed through centuries to suit our requirements have been dumped into the garbage bins of history.
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News article on the topic :
Defying capitalism and socialism, Kumarappa and Gandhi had imagined a decentralised Indian economy in 1930’s Bhaarat :
https://scroll.in/article/826426/defying-capitalism-and-socialism-kumarappa-and-gandhi-had-imagined-a-decentralised-indian-economy
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For reading this complete book, you can purchase this book from Gandhi Bhawan, Rajghat, Delhi. Please click on website of Gandhi Bhawan below to purchase this book :
http://www.gandhismriti.gov.in/
Web-address for buying printed books from Sarva Sewa Sangh, Varanasi :
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