Gandhian perspective on Indian Nation State

Gandhis political and moral thought is based upon a simple metaphysics. For him
the universe is regulated by a supreme intelligence or the principle which he called
TRUTH or GOD. It is embodied in all living beings and above all in Man, in the
form of as self conscious soul or spirit. The spirit constitutes mans essence. Since
all men have a share in the divine essence, they are ultimately one. They are not
merely equal but also identical. Since they have a spark of divinity in them, man is
inherently good and the discovery and cultivation of this goodness is mans
purpose in this earthly life a realization of true self through self discipline and
ahimsa. In other words there is not only the perfectibility of the human self, but
also an inherent urge in man to achieve it. The social and political life of man
ought to be guided by the knowledge and the light of that goodness or virtue. In
search of this goodness and truth, the knowledge and acceptance of evils
whether social, economic or political and correcting and curing them were the
challenges to the creative best of man. It is this context that his view on Indian
social structure, religion, untouchability, property, industrialization, politics or
state can be understood.

Criticism of the Modern State Like many other Indian leaders, Gandhi had great
difficulty in accepting the modern and liberal capitalist state. He took great pains to
point out the imperfections and dangers of modern state and sought to cut it to size
by propounding a social theory where the state largely loses its deceptive luster and
turns into a necessity. He did not consider the state more than a mechanical
arrangement superimposed on the nation. It was impersonal, ruling by rules,
functioning more or less like a machine with no human beings apparently in charge
of it or accepting responsibility for its action. He viewed the power of the state not
as an end in itself but as one of the means enabling the people to better their
condition in every department o life.

He was critical of the state which emerged out of the industrial revolution because
it is based upon coercion. The state represents an organization based upon force. It
manifests its coercive power through impulsion and exploitation of the individual
in the society. For him, state was nothing but institutionalized violence. It can
never be weaned away from violence to which it owes its existence.

Another objection to the state according to Gandhi was its all-pervasive controlling
authority arising from the fact that it has become an inevitable ally of
industrialization about which he had moral reservations.

According to Gandhi, all individual has a soul but the state is a soulless machine. It
demoralizes and dehumanizes man. Rather than allowing themselves to run their
lives, it encourages them to let it take all decisions. Thus the state stood above and
lorded over society.
He looked upon any increase in power of the state with fear and believed in the
freedom of the individual. Thus for these and other reasons Gandhi concluded that
state by its very nature was incompatible with mans moral and spiritual nature.
Since man is Atman or Soul and the state is a soulless machine, the two simply
cannot coexist. And if man is really concerned with his moral nature, he must find
an alternative way of structuring his organized life.

POSITIVE VIEWS However, despite of the modern state being imperfect Gandhi
did not reject state action when it advanced the welfare of the people. While
believing that the less the state governs the better, he knew that there are certain
things that cannot be done without political power. Gandhi rejected neither state
nor politics per se. it meant both activities by the state and against the state. As it
is, the state, its authority and apparatus are a necessary part of mans civilized life.
Hence, obedience to authority and respect for law is a necessary civic virtue. But
the grounds for obedience must be continually examined. That state and its
commands have validity if they conform to an accepted set of moral standards. If
the state violates the dignity of man as a moral being or obstructs the free
development of the personality of the individual, the individual has a right and
duty to disobey. But the resistance must be non violent and the resister must be non
violent and must be spiritually prepared to pay the penalty for disobedience. The
means must be consistent with the ends. Moral ends require moral means.

VISION OF AN IDEAL STATE Since state in its present form represents
violence, speaks in the language of compulsion, saps initiative and self help, it
dehumanizes man. Gandhi was interested in bringing down the existing structure
of the political system based upon violence and exploitation and replace it with a
system based upon willing cooperation of each individual working for the good of
man through non violent methods. As an alternative view of state, Gandhi talks of
a non-state polity. Ideally, he preferred an enlightened anarchy under which
socially responsible and morally disciplined men and women never harm one
another and do not need polity. But since this was not possible, Gandhi opted for
an ordered anarchy in which citizens enjoy maximum freedom consistent with
minimum necessary order. It will be a state in which sovereignty belongs to
everyone who is his own ruler.

ORDERED ANARCHY Such an ordered anarchy has three elements non
violent state through village republics, Swaraj and Ramraj. A truly non violent
state is composed of small self governing and relatively self-sufficient village
communities relying largely on moral and social pressure. Such communities will
have their own political structures in the form of a panchayat. The panchayat
would have legislative, executive and judicial powers and largely rely on its moral
authority and pressure of public opinion to ensure order and harmony.

EXPANDING CIRCLES Beyond the self sufficient villages, the community would
be organized in terms of expanding circles. The villages would be grouped into
talukas, the latter into districts, these into provinces and so on, each governed by
representatives elected by its constituent units. Each tier of government would
enjoy considerable autonomy and a strong sense of community. Each province
would be free to draw up its own constitution to suit local requirements and in
conformity with that of the country as a whole. The central government would
have enough authority to hold them together but not enough power to dominate
them. Such a polity would not need a vast bureaucracy because much of the
decision making would be decentralized.

ECONOMIC DECENTRALIZATION The political decentralization is combined
with economic decentralization. Gandhi strongly believed that concentration of
economic power created the capitalist class which was exploiting the talent and
resources available in the society. And exploitation being the root of all evil,
Gandhi built his economic ideas in such a manner that avoided exploitation of man
by man. At village level, economic decentralization meant the establishment of
cottage and small scale industries and universal use of khadi. Side by side, Gandhi
was against large scale or mass production. He was not against the use of machines
per se but he was against the use of machines to exploit the individual. He did not
oppose mass scale production as such but he did oppose mass scale production by
factories and not by the individuals. Here he introduced his theory of trusteeship.
The theme of trusteeship rested on the belief that capitalists and landlords would
transfer the accumulated wealth into a trust for the common use of society. He put
forth his theory on the assumption that economic power should be in the hands of
the community wherein each member is responsible to produce his needs and his
own wealth and property of the community for the welfare of the society. In this
connection, non possession and bread labour were the other features of his
economic theory. non possession meant not having food or anything beyond
immediate needs and bread labour meant that every man would labour with his
body for his food and clothing. Thus the crux of his economic ideas was that every
person in the society should lead a simple life and limit himself to the basic
necessities of life, everybody should work with his own body to fulfill hid own
needs and the economic power should be decentralized so as to become a means of
greater welfare of the people.

SWARAJ By Swaraj, Gandhi meant self-rule or true democracy. He insisted that
only a polity based upon the principle of small village communities was a true
democracy. Democracy was based on the recognition of the fundamental fact that
men are fully capable of regulating personal and common affairs and are the source
of all political power. True Democracy means organizing the polity in such a
manner that people remain in full charge of them and are never dominated by or at
the mercy of their government. Democracy is not only the organization of offices
or institutions, rules or procedure but a way of life, developing and actualizing the
power of the people.

RAMRAJYA It is only when there is political, economic and moral swaraj or self
rule that ramrajya can emerge. Ramrajya symbolized for Gandhi the victory of the
forces of good over the forces of evil. As stated in the beginning, his concern was
for the life of the individual and the Ramrajya was a kind of state which gave full
scope to the creative and fraternal best in man. It is a state based on the denial of
power and renunciation of the use of force, which involves love and goodwill, and
which is guided by the moral sense of its members.