Gandhian Economic Thought and its Relevance to New Economic Policy

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi was not conventional economist like Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, J.M. Keynes, etc., He did not compose voluminous treaties on economic idealogy. Gandhi was universally accepted as a great political leader and the Father of the Nation. He was primarily interested in India and its problems and he was aware of the socio-economic consequences of the British rule in India. He made references to the kind of economic system and he advocated certain policies with regard to the development of Indian agriculture, industries, Swadeshi, etc. Gandhi considered economics as a practical science as it suggested measures for maximizing human welfare. He laid great emphasis on human values and condemned the monetary basis of human relations. Gandhi advocated non-violence and hence his economics may be called economics of non-violence. Gandhi became more practical ad he gave a constructive programme for village regeneration and put forward the ideal of Sarvodaya. Gandhiji has been critic of modern civilization but he agreed with everything which was not against humanity. He was against the concept of centralized mode of production based on economy of scale utilizing modern industrial technologies in the form of centralized factories and industries as he felt that this would deprive a large number of people of the decentralized method of production.