Anurag Gangal 1

GLOBALISATION
A GANDHIAN ANALYSIS
Dr Anurag Gangal,
Professor, Department of Political Science,
University of Jammu, Jammu – 180006,
(J&K), India.

I
GLOBALISATION

Mahatma Gandhi has seldom written about strictly

modern process of globalisation. He could not
because present-day globalisation was far away in
his own time. He has still reflected on related areas
of international federation, world peace, exploitation
of the weak by the stronger nation, freedom,
equality, dignity of the individual, primacy of the
individual in a socio-political system,
mechanisation, media and trade etcetera. As such,
Gandhi has a vision for unity of mankind, universal
brotherhood and “…living association of human
beings…” the world over.

Similarly, contemporary globalisation encompasses

phenomenological paradigmatic evolution of
technological trends from the late-nineteenth to
twenty-first century in the fields of information,
communication, multi-media, trade, commerce,
finance, international institutions / relations,
 Anurag Gangal 2

national development, political systems, and

ecological patterns etcetera.

A common special feature of these

predispositions anent globalisation is the
apparent unity of mankind found, among others,
in the “coming together” of even distant nations
through technology regulated regimes of
internet, satellites, supersonic jets,
multinational corporations and constantly
receding international trade barriers. The
modern surging ahead in multi-media technology
is bringing in its wake a global transformation.
Entire world has now become a “Global Village”.1
International organisations and kindred activity
towards common global ends of sharing, knowing
and coming together through mutual excellence
are manifest processes of “globalisation”.

The “Global Village” phenomenon is obviously an

integral part of globalisation. Marshall McLuhan
coined this term “Global Village” in 1960s to express
his belief that electronic communication would unite
the world by brining together diverse cultures and
distant people of the world. Therefore, global village
does not really represent the “shrinking of the
world” but widening of the electronic instantaneous
communication network for brining people into
togetherness.

Nearly, all information and communication rests

upon the click of a “mouse”! Globally established
 Anurag Gangal 3

really open society without any walls is in the

“offing”.

This Global Village is very different from the

decentralised village-based economy and polity
preferred by India’s Father of the Nation – Mohandas
Karmachand Gandhi. For him:

• It is the individual(s) who compose a village,

town, city, municipality, metropolis, cosmopolis,
megalopolis, necropolis, state, nation-state and
international society of nations.2

• It is their (individuals’) vows of satya (truth),

ahimsa (nonviolence), astaeya (non-stealing),
aparigraha (non-possession) and brahmcharya
(chastity) that characterise the foundation of the
larger socio-political and economic edifice. These
are also known as panch yama of Patanjali’s
Yogsutra.

• Gandhi begins with the individual in the village

and ends up with the individual in the comity of
nations.3

• Discipline, vows and values are accorded highest

place in Gandhi’s “experiments with truth”. If
these values and the individual are “intact” in
any system of technology and politics, Gandhi is
ready to embrace it fondly although he is
generally known to have written in his Hind
Swaraj, “ I cannot recall a single good point in
connection with machinery”.4
 Anurag Gangal 4

The current movement towards Globalisation also

appears to be having a number of APPARENT
Gandhian values such as:

1) global unity and integration,

2) fast growing antipathy to mass-violence (at least

in principle on a wider plain) specially in the
aftermath of the terrorist attack on New York’s
trade centre on 11 September 2001,

3) an evidently receding trend in ideological clashes

among nations (specially between liberalism and
socialism),

4) globally expanding mosaic of acceptance of the

Gandhian principle of nonviolence among nations
and their leaders (see specially India’s response
and patience to terrorist violence and attacks)
and

5) end of or doing away with “war as an

instrument of national policy” at least among
countries of the European Union.

In this age of Globalisation and increasing regional

cooperation, Canada appears to be functioning like
a great catalyst in the observance of Gandhi’s
principle of the fusion of precept and practice for
attaining higher aims of human welfare. Gandhi’s
“practical-idealism” is reflected in a number of
projects financed by the Canadian Government in
 Anurag Gangal 5

India and other developing and poorer countries.5

Canadians are also extending their hands of
friendship to Indian Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs). Canadians have helped
NGOs like Manav Kalyan Sansthan, and Conflict-
transformation and Peace Awareness Gandhian
Society of India (COPEAP) to deal with the menace of
landmines in border areas during 1999 to 2000.6

In this sense, at least, globalisation is certainly

adding to the solution of numerous challenges
facing the humanity at large.

This hypothesis, however, needs to be systemically

analysed. Certain pointers arise. What else is
Globalisation? What are the ‘other’ major
characteristics of “globalisation”? Is globalisation
really necessary? Has it really become a part of our
lives? Are there any disparaging indicators of
globalisation? Does globalisation serve the cause of
billions of poor people in Afro-Asian and Latin
American (AALA) countries? What is the relationship
of globalisation with the five “Ps”, namely,
Population, Poverty, Pollution, Proliferation of
armaments and Peace of the world?

II
THE OTHER SIDE OF GLOBALISATION

Gobalisation has its other aspects too. This refers to

the primacy of technology in the process of
globalisation and its pejorative impact.
 Anurag Gangal 6

First, it is technology and ideology. Secondly, it is

obsolescence in technology. Thirdly, it is inherent
exploitation of poorer people through technology.
Fourthly, it is the environmental threats through
technology. Fifthly, modern technology is blind to
human values. Sixthly, this technology is leading to
social and political disruptions through utter
materialism and ever-growing quest for modern
armaments. Seventhly, modern technology is
creating several problems like population explosion,
poverty and unemployment etcetera for poorer
nations. Last but not least, it is believed that
globalisation is a continuous process towards a
“new and just world order”.7

Will it be a new world order or just a movement for

inception of a captive mind society and “think police
state” of George Orwell?.8 Indeed, these posers need
to be examined here, especially, on the basis of
Gandhi’s Indian Home Rule or Hind Swaraj first
published in 1908. Gandhi has provided a very
severe critique of industrialism, modernisation,
railways, allopathy and modern parliamentary
democracy etcetera.

1. Science of techniques or technology has entered

the realms of meta-rationality and meta-
materialism focussing on speed, comfort,
efficiency, accuracy, information, fusion and
fission leaving behind the philosophy of science
based on twin parameters of knowledge and
reason. Technology is racing ahead of “time” and
“space” in the twenty-first century after cutting
 Anurag Gangal 7

across the limits of “philosophy” and biases of

“ideology” from sixteenth to twentieth centuries.

There are countless examples with latent and

manifest interconnections. One invention and
concomitant development(s) lead(s) to a further
action, reaction and causal outcome(s).

• From the age of gunpowder, bullets and

bombs to imperialism.

• From the age of aeroplanes, atom bombs,

machine guns, radio, telephone and electricity
to colonialism, neo-colonialism and effective
“socialism of the vanguard of proletariat”.

• From the age of light machine guns, AK-47s,

AK-57s, nuclear arsenals, inter-continental
ballistic missiles, cyber-warfare, global
terrorist network, satellites, computers,
information explosion and information
dissemination multi-national regimes to
disintegration of erstwhile Soviet Union,
universalisation of technologies functioning
alike in every type of political system and
globalisation through World Trade
Organisation, United Nations, European
Union and multi-national corporations (MNCs)
etcetera.

2. Fast growing rate of obsolescence in modern

technology is generating a storehouse of
dumps upon dumps of waste material. It is
not only the storage aspect but also the
question of the need for keeping pace with
 Anurag Gangal 8

“technological convulsions”. It is very obvious

when ink cartridge of a desktop printer
bought today would not be available in
another two years time. Even if it would be
available, users of the latest DTP flash will
look down upon the earlier DTP model and its
cartridges.

• This trend is there in foreign trade and

international politics also. Whenever there
emerges – on an average, every second year
– a new version of an aircraft and warplane
in a developed country, the old one is
either sold cheaply or “gifted” to a
developing or poorer nation for its “state-
of-the-art” national security and defence
from a neighbouring regime.

• This craze for the “latest” is visible in

academics and in the modern “love life” as
well. Knowledge is becoming not so much
of virtue and wisdom but more of an
“amount, quantity and quality of
information”. This collectivity of
information is now being regarded as
knowledge! Older and classical
masterpieces of literature in almost every
subject or discipline are treated as
completely outdated.

• The materialistic process of globalisation

looks askance at the science of
spiritualism. Even the modern “love” is
increasingly becoming a “quick fix” affair.
“Time” and “space” are needed and time
 Anurag Gangal 9

and space are scarce!9 What a dichotomy?

Man is turning subservient to technology.
An unseen Frankenstein is hovering over
us and we do not want to recognise its
shadows sapping our reflexes!

• George Orwell’s 1984 and its “think police”

appears to be in the offing.10 He shows in
this novel that a time would come when
the entire world will be integrated into
three continents with the withering away of
modern States. This will be a situation of
continental sovereignty and not the
sovereignty of nations or States. The
network of information dissemination will
be so penetrating that it will be able to
detect what citizens of a continent would
be thinking. As such, whenever there will
be a digression in the prescribed standards
of thinking the rulers will send their Think
Police to arrest the violator of thinking-
codes! Is globalisation moving in that
direction?

3. “Technology” originates from two Greek words

“tekhne” and “logos” i.e. “craft” or “art” and
“science” of craft and art for practical
purposes. Concise Oxford Dictionary brands it
as “the application of scientific knowledge for
practical purposes”.11 Clearly “science” is
away from “good” or “bad”. Does it mean that
“little thinking” goes into scientific use of a
technology? How dangerous such technology
can be!
 Anurag Gangal 10

That is why technology is generally silent

about the needs of an individual due to
implicit vested interests of “technological
sustenance” and incessant expansion. Modern
technology, otherwise, cannot work profitably.
As such, individual needs and comforts are
converted into a requirement of masses. Only
then technology works wonders through
mass-production, mass media, mass-
democracy, mass-education, mass-culture,
massive-warfare and destruction etcetera.
This massive and top-heavy technology is very
sweetly spreading automotive glamour,
comfort and efficiency across an international
network of poor nations via multinational
corporations and “needy” governments.

4. Despite widespread governmental and

international organisational environmental
protection machinery, rationality of human
ingenuity is perspiring to reach even the
“space” environs to bring viruses like
Respiratory Virus (SARS) and Acquired
Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) etcetera.
All these viruses are lately known to have
travelled from Space through satellites and
space shuttles.

Technology is, therefore, polluting not only

this spaceship earth but also Space with
“rebound impact”. One wonders what type of
rationality is this?

It is known in the vernacular that modern

transport system and air conditioning
 Anurag Gangal 11

equipments are breaking the ozone layer time

and again as a result of adding
chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) to atmosphere. It is
causing several skin diseases and ultra violet
radiation. Still the world is continuing with
what is really not required in the present
technological form.

The need of the time is to realise the “end or

limits of rationality” where human beings can
live safely.

The Gandhian thought has a ready-made

prescription for these ills of modernity. What
we require is simply to evolve a bridge between
materialism of the West and “moralism” of the
Orient.12

5. Modern technology is generally blind to

human values since “science” is “value-
free”. One instance relating to prevention of
AIDS may suffice in this matter. Most of
the governments use mass media to drive
home a message that it is “necessary to
use condoms to prevent AIDS” today. None
of them stress the need to enhance power
of self-restraint! Why? Clearly if they do so
then who will buy condoms? People are,
thus, being encouraged towards ever-
greater “indulgence” in favour of
technological and related vested interests!

The essence of social cohesiveness is being

forgotten. Indulgence in social immorality
is becoming a fashionable act and a social
 Anurag Gangal 12

norm for everyone to follow and cherish. Is

this a sign of “modernity and technological
advancement”?

6. Social disruption and promiscuousness is

transforming into a global phenomenon in
the name of technological
“professionalism”! Human relationships are
being projected into biological and
emotional needs through Internet and
mass media. Does this signify a feather in
the development of civilisation? This
author has experimented with Internet and
mass media for about five years to pose
this pointer now.

Familial fragmentation, especially, in the

developed world is so apparent that it is
leading to mercurious dimensions. This
trend is infectious. In the name of
technology, this inclination is widening
with the pace of human thought and
imagination. Dissatisfied men and women
are seeking solace in momentary
information dissemination and exchange of
ideas.

Is it really “modernisation”?

7. Modern technology is also creating several

problems like population explosion, poverty
and unemployment etcetera for poorer
nations.13 Increasing birth rates,
 Anurag Gangal 13

decreasing death rates, illiteracy and

mass-deprivation of education and
displacement of labour and people -- as a
result of technological efficiency syndrome
-- leading to widespread unemployment
etcetera are factors responsible for
multiplying population among poorer
nations of the world. The world population
is about 6.6 billion today. Nearly 70%
population of the world is living in the so-
called third world developing and “under-
developed” nations. These nations have
also about 70% natural resources of the
world as well!

Wide spread poverty and gross starvation

among poorer nations requires their poor
population to go for God-given fertility to
empower their economic prospects and
enlighten their sources of easily available
natural entertainment or relaxation. Any
other type of “development” is beyond their
perception until “development” affects their
lives in any “meaningful” terms.

More than one billion population in the

world is starving today.14 Not more than
one billion dollars are required for this
purpose. If the entire world goes fully
vegetarian then this problem can be solved
almost “instantly”, as it were.15 Such a
 Anurag Gangal 14

“sojourn” needs commitment, devotion,

sense of conviction and massive media-
attention. Who will bell the cat? This is,
indeed, a difficult question.

8. Technology requiring globalisation for its

mere sustenance, as such, has become a
gargantuan bird of prey leading to moral
degradation and uncalled for exploitation
of natural resources including manpower.
This is disturbing a natural order of things,
human beings and inherent system
engulfing even the rule of law. One of the
most glaring stances of such fundamental
failure can be seen in wide spread
professionalisation of terrorism in the
world.16

III

GANDHI ON GLOBALISATION

The prospects of present-day globalisation in the

Gandhian traditions of thought and practice are not
very difficult to see today. A few quotations from
Gandhi’s writings may help open Platonic “shadows
of the cave” as it were. Writings and sayings of
Mahatma Gandhi and majority of commentators
and critics of Gandhian philosophy have shown not
only inherent but also explicit significance of the
idea of oneness of humanity, individual’s dignity
and self-reliance for Swaraj in Gandhi’s practical-
idealist perspective of politics. Gandhi has never
 Anurag Gangal 15

regarded himself as a system builder. His

experiments, however, have led him to evolve – for
several commentators and analysts like S. C.
Gangal, Mahendra Kumar, Raghavan Iyer, Savita
Singh, Ramjee Singh, Johan Galtung and others –
a Predominantly Nonviolent State as his second best
Ideal and a Nonviolent Society as his ultimate Ideal
for establishing a vibrantly creative global and just
political ethos where cooperation, equality and
nonviolence has replaced exploitation, inequality
and bloody warfare and mutual hatred.

Similar ideas are currently being propagated and

discussed by internationally acclaimed authors and
statesmen alike even if they are apparently not so
much directly influenced by Gandhi.17

What is Gandhi’s concept of holistic process of

globalisation? It is a practical-idealist concept.
Gandhi called himself a practical-idealist. Gandhi
has never written or said much about globalisation
in particular as a term with specific meaning that is
being attached to it currently. Yet he had foreseen
almost all major trends and strands of globalisation
today in a positive and creative mould. For him:

It is impossible for one to be

an internationalist without
being a nationalist… Our
nationalism can be no peril
to other nations inasmuch
as we will exploit none just
as we will allow none to
exploit us.18
 Anurag Gangal 16

The satyagrahi must

maintain personal contact
with people of his locality.
This living association of
human beings is essential
to a genuine democracy.19

I have no doubt that unless

big nations shed their
desire for exploitation and
the spirit of violence of
which war is the natural
expression and the atom
bomb the inevitable
consequence, there is no
hope for peace in the
world.20

Mechanisation is good
when hands are too few for
the work intended to be
accomplished. It is evil
where there are more hands
than acquired…21

I entertain no fads in this

regard [i.e., his avowed
opposition to
mechanisation and capital-
intensive technology]. All
that I desire is that every
able-bodied citizen should
be provided with gainful
employment. If electricity
and even automatic energy
 Anurag Gangal 17

could be used
without…creating
unemployment, I will not
raise my little finger against
it…. If the Government
could provide full
employment to our people
without the help of Khadi
hand-spinning and hand-
weaving industries, I shall
be prepared to wind up my
constructive programme in
this regard.22

Under Swaraj (self-rule) of

my dream, there is no
necessity of arms at all.23

To reject foreign
manufactures merely
because they are foreign,
and to go on wasting
national time and money on
the promotion in one’s own
country of manufactures for
which it is not suited would
be criminal folly, and a
negation of the Swadeshi
spirit.24

Decentralisation of political
and economic power,
reduction in the functions
and importance of State,
growth of voluntary
 Anurag Gangal 18

associations, removal of
dehumanising poverty and
resistance to injustice …
will bring life within the
understanding of man and
make society and the State
democratic….. The
nonviolent State will
cooperate with an
international organisation
based on nonviolence.
Peace will come not merely
by changing the
institutional forms but by
regenerating those attitudes
and ideals of which war,
imperialism, capitalism and
other forms of exploitation
are the inevitable
expressions.25

[I am not against all

international trade, though
imports should be limited
to things that are necessary
for our growth but which
India -- and for that matter
any poorer country --
cannot herself produce and
export of things of real
benefit to foreigners.]26
 Anurag Gangal 19

IV

GANDHIAN PROSPECTS OF
GLOBALISATION

On the basis of the above-mentioned parts of this

research article, an attempt is being made here to
evolve a Gandhian strategy for prospective road to
globalisation especially in the light of quite a few
existing relatively harmful trends and patterns.
Gandhi is one with former United States (US)
President Bill Clinton’s statement: “ the central
reality of our time is that the advent of globalisation
and the revolution in information technology have
magnified both the creative and destructive
potential of every individual, tribe and nation on our
planet.” 27

Gandhi has a holistic approach to human problems,

in which reform or reconstruction should
concentrate, more or less at the same time, at all
levels of human existence and activity, i. e,
individual, local, national and international levels.

Globalisation is an ever-accelerating trend of

modern “civilisation”. Gandhi, going much beyond
Bill Clinton, finds in this civilisation:

I. “…. people living in it make bodily

welfare the object of life.

II. “…. If people of a certain country, who

have hitherto not been in the habit of
 Anurag Gangal 20

wearing much clothing, boots etc.,

adopt European clothing, they are
supposed to have become civilised out
of savagery.

III. “…. [Ever increasing mechanisation] is

called a sign of civilisation.

IV. “Formerly, only a few men wrote

valuable books. Now, anybody writes
and prints anything he likes and
poisons people’s minds.

V. “…. As men progress,… [they] will not

need the use of their hands and feet….
Everything will be done by machinery.

VI. “…. Formerly, when people wanted to

fight…they measured between them
their bodily strength; now it is possible
to take away thousands of lives by one
man…. This is civilisation.

VII. “….. [Earlier] men were made slaves

under physical compulsion. Now they
are enslaved by the temptation of
money and of the luxuries that money
can buy.

VIII. “ There are now diseases of which

people never dreamt before, and an
army of doctors is engaged in finding
out theirs, and so hospitals have
increased. This is a test of civilisation.
 Anurag Gangal 21

IX. “…. Today [not earlier when special

messengers were needed to send a
letter], anyone can abuse his fellow by
means of a letter [of email] for one
penny. True, at the same cost, one can
send one’s thanks also.

X. “…now, [people] require something to

eat every two hours so that they have
hardly leisure for anything else [more
meaningful].

XI. “….. This civilisation is such that one

has only to be patient and it will be self-
destroyed.” 28

Gandhi has said and written anent vast areas

of life and human concerns. In this context,
he has made a very bold exposition in his
Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule. On 24 April
1933, he says – on page 04 in the beginning of
this booklet, “I would like to say the diligent
reader of my writings and to others who are
interested in them that I am not at all
concerned with appearing to be consistent. In
my search after Truth I have discarded many
ideas and learnt many new things. Old as I
am in age, I have no feeling that I have ceased
to grow inwardly or that my growth will stop at
the dissolution of the flesh. What I am
concerned with is my readiness to obey the
call of truth, my God, from moment to
moment, and, therefore, when anybody finds
any inconsistency between any two writings of
mine, if he still has faith in my sanity, he
 Anurag Gangal 22

would do well to choose the later of the two on

the same subject.”29

Real globalisation for Gandhi is possible only

through Panch yama of Patanjali, i.e.,
nonviolence, non-stealing, Truth, non-
possession and chastity. Global though
sectoral reformation programme for
regeneration of every individual is needed for
balancing the negative effects of the process of
globalisation.

It was Gandhi’s conviction that individuals –

of whom the nations and global communities
are constituted – must have priority in any
scheme of reform or reconstruction.

Yet another idea in Gandhi’s scheme is that

any durable programme of reconstruction
must be marked by a measure of coordination
and integration at various levels of social
action through voluntary effort. Press and
media have a very significant role in this
sphere. Media, for Gandhi, must be having
unmistakable autonomy and self-reliance with
little dependence on advertisement revenue.

The cultivation of nonviolence by the

individual and the establishment of non-
exploitative economy at different levels will
lead eventually to the emergence of what he
calls nonviolent nationalism. Ultimately, these
nonviolent nations will function under a world
federation or international organisation on the
basis of:
 Anurag Gangal 23

• Political and economic independence

without any type of colonialism or
imperialism and exploitation.

• Voluntary effort with dedication and

commitment.

• Goals and means not imposed from

above but developed from within.

• Equality for all. As such every nation

must feel as tall as the tallest.

• Decentralisation at political and

economic spheres.

• General disarmament.

• Unilateral disarmament.

• International society as a voluntary

organisation.

• Common good of all.

• Bigger nations ready to “give” to the

smaller nations.

• Amicable and peaceful settlement of

all disputes.

• Small international police as long as

the world is able to develop a general
belief in nonviolence.
 Anurag Gangal 24

• Free, open, alert and impartial

Media.

• Preponderance to mutual sense of

service.30

Such a blue print should be the guiding spirit of

present-day globalisation. In this pattern of
globalisation, the individual has specially a two-
fold significance for Gandhi.

First, proper education and training to the

individual for understanding and imbibing the
values of a normal society. A normal fraternity,
for Gandhi, is one where development does not
pose diverse types of threats to the individual
and humanity.

For evolving such a normal course of life for true

globalisation, a Global Education Order must be
established through value-related and need
based education. Nearly all aspects of human life
are to be covered in this programme ranging from
material, moral, emotional and cultural to spiritual
needs of the individual. The individuality,
creativity, identity and voluntary efforts have to
be the fundamental terms of reference in the
launching of such a global education order.

Secondly, Gandhi emphasises the role of the

individual in decision-making and in sharing the
national and international responsibilities. There
is no place for undemocratic or authoritarian
regimes in Gandhi’s agenda for globalisation. To
 Anurag Gangal 25

steer clear of undemocratic or authoritarian

tendencies, Gandhi suggests two more
correctives of (i) limited State power and (ii) socio-
economic decentralisation. As regards the former,
Gandhi is one with Thoureau’s principle that
“that government is best which governs the
least.”31 To quote Gandhi:

I look upon an increase in

the power of the state with
the greatest fear
because…it does the
greatest harm to mankind
by destroying individuality
which lies at the root of all
progress.32

In order to curb emergence of authoritarianism, the

size and role of police and military, for Gandhi, has
to be limited to dealing with thieves, robbers, raiders
from without and a few emergencies only. It would
be better if police and military perform largely the
role of a body of reformers.33 Gandhi looks forward
to the emergence of a world where “no state has its
military.”34

Socio-economic decentralisation is yet another

corrective measure to curb undemocratic
tendencies. Gandhi’s global vision moves upward
from the individual and a federation of village
republics to an international federation of nations in
a society marked by voluntary cooperation and
decentralisation. Aldous Huxley, while supporting
Gandhi, says, “…democratic principles cannot be
effectively put into practice unless authority in a
 Anurag Gangal 26

community has been decentralised to the utmost

extent possible.”35

The modern inter-linking of people and economies

under contemporary globalisation must give careful
attention to the Gandhian pointers in this age of
technology for keeping away from the pejorative
aspects of concurrent science and development
patterns. Otherwise, globalisation will prove to be a
“nine days wonder” only.
 Anurag Gangal 27

References
1
V. A. Patil and D. Gopal, Politics of Globalisation, (Authors Press, Delhi: 2002),
pp. 01 – 11. “The term ‘globalisation’ was first coined in the 1980s, but the concept
stretches back decades, and even centuries, if you count the trading empires by Spain,
Portugal, Britain and Holland. The resolve of Western states to build and strengthen
international ties in the aftermath of World War II laid the groundwork for today’s
globalisation. It has brought diminishing national borders and the fusing of individual
national markets. The fall of protectionist barriers has stimulated free movement of
capital and paved the way for companies to set up several bases around the world. ….
Supporters of globalisation say it has promoted information exchange, led to greater
understanding of other cultures and allowed democracy to triumph over autocracy.
Critics say that even in developed world, not everyone has been a winner. The
freedoms granted by globalisation are leading to increased insecurity in
workplace….. Many see globalisation as a primarily economic phenomenon,
involving the increasing interaction, or integration, of national economic systems
through the growth in international trade, investment and capital flows…, one can
also point to rapid increase in cross-border social, cultural and technological
exchange as part of the phenomenon of globalisation. The sociologist, Anthony
Giddens, defines globalisation as a decoupling of space and time, emphasising …
instantaneous communication, knowledge and culture … shared around the world
simultaneously.” See pp 01 – 02. World Trade Organisation (WTO), International
Monetary Fund (IMF), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
IBRD) or World Bank, United Nations (UN) and Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) etcetera are a few major international
organisations regulating the process of globalisation.

2
Mahatma Gandhi places an individual at a prime spot in the social, political and
economic setup in society. There is a widespread misconception that Gandhi stresses
“de-emphasis of individual self in pursuit of higher goals.” David P. Brash and
Charles P. Webel, Peace and Conflict Studies (Sage, California: 2002), p. 05.
Individual’s self-knowledge is the highest goal and the best instrument to bring inner,
national and global peace and development for Gandhi. G. N. Dhawan, The Political
Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi (Navajivan, Ahmedabad: 1957), Chapters 03 – 07
and pp. 312 – 351.

3
Ibid.

4
Young India, 17 June 1926; Harijan, 22 June 1935 and 15 September 1946; M. K.
Gandhi, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, Navajivan, Ahmedabad: 1938), p. 08,
Preface by Mahadev Desai. See also Raghavan Iyer (ed.), The Moral and Political
writings of Mahatma Gandhi: Truth and Non-violence, Volume – II, (Oxford,
London: 1986), p. 181. Gandhi is against “destructive” and “exploitative”
mechanisation only.
 Anurag Gangal 28

5
See Business Times, April 1998.

6
Kashmir Times, Daily Excelsior, (both daily newspapers from Jammu, J&K, India),
Hindustan Times, files concerning such programmes in Jammu, Samba, R. S. Pura
and Akhnoor border areas alongwith a few seminars in Udhampur in J&K and also in
Nagpur in Maharashtra in India during 1995 to 2000.

7
Robert Jackson and Georg Sorensen, Introduction to International Relations (OUP,
Oxford: 1999), pp. 206 – 212. See Nicholas Crafts, “Globalisation and Growth in the
Twentieth Century” , IMF Working Paper, WP/0044, Washington DC, April 2000;
However, for Gandhi, globalisation “ is SWARAJ when we learn to rule ourselves
….. But such swaraj has to be experienced by each one for himself.” G. N. Dhawan,
op. cit. n. 2, p. 281. The three pillars of this one and integrated global world are: (i) It
should be nonviolent, (ii) It should be non-exploitative and cooperative and (iii) It
should be based on the reform, regeneration or education of the individual, and work
its way up to the international and global level. See M. K. Gandhi, Nonviolence in
Peace and War, (Navajivan, Ahmedabad: 1948), Volume – I, pp. 28, 308 – 310. See
also The Hindu (New Delhi), 05, 06 and 07 January 2003.

8
The famous novel 1984 by George Orwell, noted writer of political fiction whose
relevant work was published in 1948.

9
One wonders whether a “moral doctor” is needed today? This is suggested by
Kimberly Hutchings, International Political Theory: Rethinking Ethics in a Global
Era (Sage, London: 1999), pp. 182 –184, see p. 183 particularly.

10
George Orwell, 1984 (Penguin: 1948), see especially the Appendix of the novel
where characteristics of the “think police” are explained in great detail.

11
Judy Pearsall (Ed), The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Oxford University Press, New
York: 1999).

12
There is need for set global standards and well-established norms under the
dynamics of globalisation. Global Education Pattern (GEP), Global Ethics and Justice
(GEJ), Global Values (GV) etcetera are required to be evolved at regional and global
levels despite evident diversity of society, language and culture in the world. Only
then globalisation can really lead to the Gandhian oneness of humanity and the world.
This will be a distinct move towards justice and dignity of the individual away from
dominance and exploitation. Even the current agenda of research in international
 Anurag Gangal 29

politics is moving towards studies on establishing “justice” in global society. This is

how a movement to bridge the gap between ethics and material development appears
to have already begun. See Robert Jackson and Georg Sorensen, Introduction to
International Relations (OUP, Oxford: 1999), pp. 171 – 174.

13 Anurag Gangal, New International Economic Order: A Gandhian Perspective

(Chanakya, Delhi: 1985), Chapter – II, pp. 34 – 64. Also V. T. Patil and D. Gopal,
op. cit., n. 1. pp. 07 – 21.

14 Jan Tinbergen, Reshaping the International Order (London: 1977), p. 30, 46. This
figure has currently doubled to nearly 02 billion people starving in the world today.
See Brash and Webel, op. cit. n. 2, p. 498.

15 Jan Tinbergen, Ibid.

16 Anurag Gangal, "Forms of Terrorism", B.P. Singh Sehgal (ed.), Global

Terrorism: Political and Legal Dimensions (Deep and Deep, New Delhi: 1995). See
also Peter Wallensteen, Understanding Conflict Resolution (Sage, London: 2002), pp.
228 – 230.

17 Bill Clinton, Amartya Sen, Kofi Annan, George Bush, Atal Behari Vajpayee,
Tony Blair, Dalai Lama and so many others. In this age of gross and massive
conventional / non-conventional violence, Gandhi’s nonviolence is becoming highly
relevant although it is not being put to meaningful practice. Gandhi has had little to
say about globalisation. He had certainly written anent international federation of
nations of the world.

18 S. C. Gangal, The Gandhian Way to World Peace (Vora, Bombay: 1960), p. 90.

19 G. N. Dhawan, op. cit., n. 2, p. 284. Emphasis added.

20 M. K. Gandhi, op. cit. , n. 7, Volume – II, pp. 163 – 164. Emphasis added.

21 Harijan, 16 November 1939.

22 Quoted in Ram K. Vepa, New Technology: A Gandhian Concept (New Delhi:

1975), p. 170.
 Anurag Gangal 30

23 S. C. Gangal, “Gandhian Approach to Disarmament” paper presented at a seminar

on “ Perspectives on Disarmament” held under the auspices of Gandhi Peace
Forum(GPF), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 11 April 1978.

24 From Yervada Mandir ( Navajivan, Ahmedabad: 1933), p. 96 – 97.

25 G. N. Dhawan, The Political Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi (Ahmedabad: 1957),

p. 341.

26 G. N. Dhawan, op. cit., n. 25, p. 96.

27 Brash and Webel, op. cit., n. p. 113. Emphasis added.

28 Raghavan Iyer, op. cit., n. 4., pp. 212 – 214. Parentheses and Emphasis added.

29 Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule (Navajivan, Ahmedabad: 1938), p. 04.

30 Anurag Gangal, op. cit., n. 13, pp. 29 – 30.

31 Young India, 02 July 1931.

32 N. K. Bose, Selections from Gandhi (Ahmedabad: 1948), p. 42.

33 M. K. Gandhi, Nonviolence in Peace and War (Ahmedabad: 1948), Volume – I,

Chapter – II and pp. 145, 324. See also S. C. Gangal, The Gandhian Way to World
Peace (Vora, Bombay: 1960), pp. 100 – 101.

34 S. C. Gangal, Ibid. , p. 100.

35 Encyclopaedia of Pacifism, (London: 1937), p. 100.