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Drawing upon the writings, speeches, experiments, adumbrations and explanations of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, one can construct the ideal typology that emerges out of the Gandhian vision of the ideal political society. But Gandhi was a "practical idealist." As such he also put forth ideas on what we may call the "transitional state," the polity that could evolve into the "ideal political society." In my other writings, I discussed how Gandhism views the modern industrial state and rejects all its fundamental premises. In this article I shall discuss the Gandhian ideal typologies of economy (in terms of industry, technology and agriculture), of polity (in terms of structures and techniques of democracy) and of society (in terms of cultural value and social behaviour).
The Ideal Industry
Gandhism rejects massive industrialization. The ideal industry it proposes is the "basic industry" that is small scale and depending upon indigenous technology, resources, investments, labour and consumers. Such "cottage industries" would be labour-intensive but not capital and technology intensive. The productivity of basic industries, symbolically called khadi industries (literally, khadi is home-spun handloom cloth), would be marginal and limited, not necessitating huge supplies of raw materials, not generating enormous surpluses, not depending upon millions of consumers, and not built upon the acquisition of colonies and empires, and military power and wars. The special problems of mass transportation, mass communications and massive markets would not arise.
Because "simple living and high thinking" is the basic orientation of Gandhism, Gandhian view of industries is not aimed at generating unlimited economic abundance, consumerism and materialism for higher "standards of living;" instead, Gandhism emphasizes reduced materialism, controlled consumerism and increased spiritualism, for higher "standards of life." So the attainment of the Gandhian ideal of the khadi industry would entail a certain amount of deindustrialization in highly industrialized states, and a redesigning of economic planning in the developing countries in order to avoid the mistakes of massive industrialization.
The Ideal Technology
Gandhian opposition to dehumanized science-technology is consistent with its opposition to massive industrialization. Instead of being the "slave" of humanity, modem technology has gained dictatorial power over the citizens of the modem state. Dehumanized technology dictates what is to be produced, of what quality, of what quantity, and most important of all, for what...