The Gandhian vision of Industry, Design and Industrial Design

The Gandhian vision of Industry, Design and Industrial Design Submitted by: Jayasree K G (2nd Yr. / Industrial Design)

Introduction Gandhi the father of our nation who played a crucial role in attaining the independence of our country has enlightened us with valuable thoughts and ideas which are essential as well as applicable to everything and everyone.

Philosophy and ideas Gandhi believed in his own philosophies in his life. Gandhi propagated the ideas of swadesi, Ahimsa (Non violence), which was very difficult to follow in the time when our country was under the British rule. Similarly Gandhijis’ political views were greatly influenced by religious ideas, truth and non violence.

The most important philosophy of his life was that he was so particular about practicing what he preached and believed in.

He always gave himself the liberty to accept and understand all kinds of cultures, traditions, beliefs and gave respect to all of them.

Gandhiji believed that self-sufficiency of villages, promotion of small and cottage industries, control on the import of consumption goods, improved agriculture etc are the key aspects for a country and society to achieve the right kind of development.

Analysis Gandhiji the father of our nation has propagated the ideas on various aspects; the need of our country being self sufficient.

This is possible only if we are able to uplift the living conditions of the villages and villagers. Throughout his life Gandhiji has given importance to the development of villages.

One of the most important reasons for this was his ideology that India being basically an agrarian nation, villages play crucial role in the contribution of income to the Gross national product of our country.

Similarly in the case of education, Gandhi points out that the importance should be given to the kind of education and not on the language of instruction. If we take in to account the history of our nation, we can find that we have always been versatile in the field of education: be it Vedas, the language of instruction, Sanskrit‌everything was deeply rooted in the 1

culture and traditions of India. But the British influence has completely changed our outlook towards education. English language which is totally foreign to us is used as the media of instruction. The fact is that we are considering the western education only as the right kind of education and only those who are educated in western way of education are considered to be “well educated” which is totally wrong.

English as a language should be taught and to be studied and respected but treating English as the only language through which knowledge /education can be attained is not the right way. We should know that the purpose of education should be about attaining the knowledge. If we are able to give importance to our regional languages in education we can certainly improve the lives of people of rural India and at the same time helps to value our traditional arts, crafts and culture.

Swadesi principles which are devised by Gandhi talks about accepting and following our own remote surroundings .We are always blindly following everything which are not actually meant for us which makes us very shallow in our thoughts and deeds. Instead we have such a strong cultural social and religious background and we should take advantage of our immediate things whether it be our thoughts or ways of living. We have to be swadesi in all aspects.

Ahimsa and its definition have been derived by Gandhi which makes us understand that we have to practice what has been preached. It is more important to understand and practice ahimsa in all sense: not just only in its literary sense. Through this we will be able to enjoy the true meaning of life.

Throughout his life Gandhi has stressed the fact that we have to be deeply rooted in our culture before imitating and following the alien ways of living and life style. There is nothing wrong in following the western/foreign ideas .But blindly following the west is not the right choice of living which won’t remain in the long run. At some point of our life we would have to look back to our own roots. Nothing exists without a context and we should be aware of our own strengths and limitations.

Gandhi with spinning wheel (Margaret Bourke-White, LIFE)

A Charkha at the Gandhi Museum in New Delhi

The improved version of charkha was built at Kirloskarvadi by Charkha specialist Ganesh Bhaskar Kale (right) and placed at Gandhi's Wardha ashram.

Though he believed in ahimsa, there are sources that states that he recruited soldiers for Anglo-Boer War of 1899 and he offered his services for the wounded when he was in South Africa. There are several instances where we can find that he had not been a coward in fighting against the odds. Similar in the case of the introduction of machines in industrial revolution. He always raised his protest against the machine made goods in an agrarian country like India were it is required have more employment and opportunities for the people to earn. The introduction of machines decreased the requirement of the number of workers and affected the life of poor craftsmen. Only by the even distribution of wealth 2

among the people, development could be achieved.

Our country has huge population who are struggling to afford themselves for the minimum standards of living .It is our duty and responsibility to provide employment to all the needy.

Introduction of machines will reduce the demand for the labourers and hence a large section of the society wont’ be able to survive.

Gandhiji’s views are always been relevant in every context.

He was never against the foreign/future technologies, education, culture but he was keen on questioning the relevance of adopting them blindly in our context. The introduction of textile industries and spinning mills has converted the localised crafts and designs to an international design because of which the uniqueness of the techniques and design had to be compromised for global market. In the whole process of mass production, export and trade the originality and the real character of the product has been lost.

Throughout his life Gandhiji has stressed the importance of truth in ones life. In a broader sense we should be true to ourselves. Only if we are able to be loyal to our culture traditions and design then only we will be able to achieve the true satisfaction. We can relate these thoughts to the industrial and design field where everyone is trying to imitate the “popular”.

Conclusion Gandhiji’s ideas and thoughts were always subjected to criticism since they were always ahead of times. Most often the people are not having enough intellectual knowledge to understand the true meaning of his words. Sometimes our minds are too narrow that his thoughts are often misunderstood in a wrong way.

A design should reflect and respond to the way in which the users are going to deal with the product. The fact that our nation has a strong cultural and traditional background which has already created such unique designs in products and architecture should not be neglected. Imitations of the western culture and designs will be fascinating only for a small period of time which does not mean that we should be against the kind of designs produced in the west :they will be the outcome of their perception of aesthetics and lifestyle.

But merely copying the west is not going to become sustainable in the long run. Western ideas and products should be an inspiration for the designers here to come up with designs which itself has its own signature and identity of the region for which it has been designed. A design should be able to communicate itself about the context and the kind of 3

users.

Most of his ideas, if we consider, has been gone through severe criticism; but later we can find that they have been adopted by the same critics after a certain period of time.

Gandhi’s thought on industrialisation is one such major subject which has been highly misunderstood. But going through the entire thought process and reasoning we can find that Gandhi has always wanted to stress the fact that anything which is out of context has no existence and if we are blindly following the ideas which is totally different in terms of context they are not going to improve or make achieve what we had intended.

The views of Gandhi on decentralization of industries were not well received by the developed countries at the time of industrialisation; but eventually the developed countries are following his views on decentralization of industries for their own well being. The materialistic world offers certain luxuries to the common man, whom is hard to deny; but no one is bothered to think and analyse its ill effects which eventually affects the humankind itself. Introduction of machines, factories, mechanised production should be utilised in a wiser way. Development does not merely means being exposed and introduced to the big machines, industries, vehicles; but intelligent utilisation of these facilities.

References: Gandhi, M.K., 1917, Third class in Indian railways, R. P. Soni for Gandhi Publications League, Lahore.

Dr. Vishwanath Tandon, Is Gandhi out of date, Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal – Gandhi Book Centre Mumbai in 1969.

Gandhiji and war , S. Kulandhaisamy, The Hindu, Saturday, February 02,2002 Interview of Sri.Sahdev, Harijan Sevek Sangh, September 10,2012 Talk by Urzama, The National Archives of India, Kadhi and Malkha exhibition, October 09,2012 http://gandhiphilosophy.blogspot.in/ http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/echoes-of-gandhi-in-electricity-generatingspinning-wheel-a-micro-power-plant-for-the-poor.html http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/courting-the-cotton-culture/article3945916.ece http://pagdandiway.blogspot.com/2011/10/gandhi-dreamer-and-optimist.html

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