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VASANT NARGOLKAR
(Continue from Last Issue……)
Deendayal used to wear khaddar occasionally, but like Lohia, he would not endorse Gandhi’s insistence on the promotion of khadi and village industries. And yet his views on the western type of industrial civilization or the Marxist pattern of industrialization resembled those of Gandhi, Said he:
“Not only absence of material prosperity, but its excess leads to the end of Dharma… The west has not thought of the evils resulting from such material prosperity…
Our planners have become prisoners of a belief that only large-scale centralized industry is economic,…
We are short of capital . (Therefore), when we think of the means of production in India, we arrive at the firm conclusion that our production process must be labour-intensive.”
Capitalism and Communism, No Good
Gandhi, Lohia and Deendayal—all three were against capitalism as well as communism, Gandhi had placed the ideal of a non-exploitative, egalitarian social order before the world as many had done before. But the uniqueness of his ideal was that the new social order was to be established through non-violent means. “By the non-violent method,” he said, “we seek not to destroy the capitalist, we seek to destroy capitalism… Similarly, though he admired the Communist ideals of economic equality and social justice, he rejected bad means for achieving those good ideals. Man is not all animal. The spirit in him responds to a call for giving up selfishness. Socialism, according to Gandhi, begins with the first convert. And he claimed that he learnt his lessons in socialism and communism, not from Marxist books, but from the first verse of the Ishavasyopanishad- –’Do not covet other person’s wealth.’
bZ”kkokL;fena loZa
;fRdap txR;ka txr~A
rsu R;Drsu HkqathFkk(
ek x`/k% dL;fLon~ /kue~A bZ’kkokL;ksifu’kn~AA1AA
Lohia, as was to be expected, had attacked capitalism and Western imperialism in harsh language. But it was his genuine concern for the abject condition of the poor and oppressed not only in India but elsewhere also, which used to rouse his its against colonialism and ell kinds of exploi¬tation. His study of Marxism and Communism was deep his knowledge of world history, vast. He has boldly pointed out many shortcomings of Marxism. His criticism of the Russian economic system is also penetrating. (To be continued)…
(Source: Gandhi, Lohia and Deendayal, Edited by- P. Parameswaran,
Pub. by Deendayal Research Institute, New Delhi)