Industrialism is, I am Afraid, going to be a curse for mankind. Industrialism depends entirely on your capacity to exploit, on foreign markets being open to you, and on the absence of competitors, it is because these factors are getting less and less every day for England that its number of unemployed is mounting up daily. The Indian boycott was but flea-bite. And if that is the state of England, a vast country like India cannot expect to benefit by Industrialization. In fact, India, when it begins to exploit other nations- as it must do if it becomes industrialized- will be a curse for other nations, a menace to the world.
And why should I think of industrializing India to exploit other nations? Don't you see the tragedy of the situation viz. that we can find work for our 300 millions unemployed, but England can find none for its three millions and is faced with a problem that baffles the greatest intellects of English? The future of industrialism is dark. England has got successful competitors in America, Japan, France, and Germany. It has Competitors in the handful of mills in India, and as there has been an awakening in India, even so there will be an awakening in South Africa with its vastly richer resources – natural, mineral and human. The mighty English look like pigmies before the mighty races of Africa. They are noble savages after all, you will say. They are certainly noble, but no savages; and in the course of a few years the western nations may cease to find in Africa a dumping ground for their wares. And if the future of industrialism is dark for the west, would it not be darker still in India?
Depends on Capacity to Exploit?
'What is the cause of the present chaos?' it is exploitation, I will not say, of the weaker nations by the stronger, but of sister nations by sister nations. And my fundamental objection to machinery rests on the fact that it is machinery that has enabled these nations to exploit others. In itself it is wooden thing and can be turned to good purpose or bad. But it is easily turned to a bad purpose as we know.
Indeed, the west has had a surfeit of industrialism and exploitation. The fact is that this industrial civilization is a disease because it is all evil. Let us not be deceived by catchwords and phrases. I have no quarrel with steamships and telegraphs. They may stay, if they can, without the support of industrialism and all it connotes. They are not an end. They are in no way indispensable, for the permanent welfare of the human race. Now that we know the use of steam and electricity, we should be able to use them on due occasion and after we have learnt to avoid industrialism. Our concern is therefore to destroy industrialism at any cost.
Why copy the Western Model?
There is a growing body of enlightened opinion which distrusts this civilization which has insatiable material ambition at one end and consequent war at the other. But whether good or bad, why must India become industrial in the western sense? The western civilization is urban. Small countries like England or Italy may afford to urbanize their systems. A big country like America with a very sparse population, perhaps, cannot do otherwise. A big country, with a teeming population and an ancient rural tradition which has hitherto answered its purpose, need not and must not, copy the western model. What is good for one nation situated in one condition is not necessarily good enough for another differently situated. One man's food is often another man's poison. Physical geography of a country has a predominant share in determining its culture. A fur coat may be a necessity for the dweller in the Polar Regions; it will smother those living in the equatorial regions.
Industrialism is no Remedy!
The present distress is undoubtedly insufferable. Pauperism must go. But industrialism is no remedy. The evil doesn't lie in the use of bullock carts. It lies in our selfishness and want of consideration for our neighbors. If we have no love for our neighbors, no change, however revolutionary, can do us any good.
I would destroy that system today, if I had the power. I would use the most deadly weapons, if I believed that they would destroy it. I refrain only because the use of such weapons would only perpetuate the system though it may destroy its present administrators. Those who seek to destroy men rather than manners adopt the latter and become worse than those the manners will die with the men. They do not know the root of the evil.
Industrialism on a mass scale will necessarily lead to passive or active exploitation of the villagers as the problems of competition and marketing come in. Therefore, we have to concentrate on the village being self-contained, manufacturing mainly for use, Provided this character of the industry is maintained, there would be no objection to villagers using even the modern machines and tools that they can make and afford to use. Only they should not be used as a means of exploitation of others.
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