Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Book Review Ajit K. Dasgupta, Gandhi's Economic Thought, London, Routledge, 1996; ix + 208 pp. Dasgupta covers a wide range of topics on Gandhian economics. The chapters on Gandhi's views on preferences, utility and welfare, industrialization, economic inequality, education, and his theory of trusteeship are of particular interest to economists. Other topics such as Gandhi's belief that rights follow from duties performed, his opposition to the caste system and untouchability, his practice of absolute equality between men and women, and his views on population policy offer the reader a sense of the coherence which underlies all Gandhian thought and a glimpse into some of the political and social causes in which Gandhi was actively engaged. In accordance with perhaps any social scientist, the set of (economic) questions which occupied Gandhi and the particular viewpoints he formulated can be at least partially understood from the times and circumstances (most notably, India under British rule) in which he lived. Dasgupta repeatedly illustrates Gandhi's pragmatism towards social and economic issues combined with his lucid, timeless and ideal ethical code. His theory of trusteeship, in which the wealthy retain ownership of their assets but use them for the benefit of society as a whole rather than solely for private profit, developed in response to the violent confiscation of property and the denial of the importance of individual abilities which followed the Russian Revolution. His faith in the notion of bread-labour arose out of opposition to the soul-destroying properties of leisure and its erosion of human faculties he observed in rural India. In the modern age of television and video games, Gandhi would have undoubtedly criticized even more tenaciously the use of leisure in the West and its impact on human character. Dasgupta points out on more than one occasion Gandhi's insistence that ethical preferences and actions be sound economically. Still, as Dasgupta writes (p.7), "Gandhi's approach to economics was explicitly based on ethical considerations." Gandhi held non-violence, truth and the value and dignity of all life to be supreme. It is these principles which unify and distinguish Gandhi's (economic) thought. He therefore cannot, persistent attempts notwithstanding, be easily pigeonholed into any traditional economic or political school of thought. Dasgupta provides a service by dispelling some of the false notions and oversimplifications concerning Gandhi's economic views. He was not a socialist. While he shared with socialists similar viewpoints on income distribution and the right to a minimum standard of living including a job, he opposed centralization and publicly-funded charities and education. It is perhaps Gandhi's views on industrialization and large-scale production which have been most oversimplified and poorly understood. Gandhi was not unequivocally opposed to industrialization. Dasgupta notes that Gandhi regarded the elasticity of factor substitution as product specific and therefore permitted many exceptions including heavy industry which clearly requires power-driven machinery. Dasgupta divides Gandhi's general economic argument against the industrialization of India into three components and provides a critical evaluation of each. First, India suffered from mass unemployment, Gandhi therefore argued that India needed to think of creative ways to put to use the idle labour power instead of mechanical power. Gandhi's second main economic argument against large-scale production was that it concentrated economic and political power in the hands of an urban elite. Consequently, the villages became increasingly dependent on cities. His solution was production by the masses through self-employment in village industries. Thirdly, Gandhi argued that sustained growth in output a country involved the pursuit of preferential access to foreign markets. This quest for markets, Gandhi feared, leads to economic imperialism in the form of exploitation, colonization, armed conflicts and attempts to encourage the adoption of a Western lifestyle in order to stimulate the demand for foreign goods. Gandhi also developed a set of moral arguments against industrialization and large-scale production. Dasgupta does not do justice to Gandhi's moral opposition to industrialization when he writes (p.80), "Gandhi does not really tell us why machines, or mills using them, are such a great moral evil but appears to suggest that it is the low wages and poor working conditions of workers that he finds unacceptable." This is actually only a part of Gandhi's moral plea against the `craze for machinery'. In fact, Dasgupta's section on trusteeship and industrial relations in chapter 6 contains Gandhi's principal moral objection to industrialization and large-scale production. In Gandhi's view, mechanization and (foreign-owned) mills do much damage to the dignity of labour and his ideal of labour-capital relations. According to Gandhi, small-scale local industry permits greater contact and cooperation between labour and management. He sought that "mill owners, no less than other business and commercial firms, ought to take a parental interest in the welfare of their employees. The relations between the employer and the employee have been up to now merely those of master and servant, they should be of father and children" (Young India, 03.05.1928, p.139). Furthermore, mechanization and large-scale production in factories and mills serve to centralize production and decision-making. Centralization, in Gandhi's view, leads to corruption, concentration of wealth and power and a deterioration of labour-capital relations. In brief, Gandhi considered centralization "inconsistent with [a] non-violent structure of society" (Harijan, 18.01.1942, p.5). Dasgupta devotes the final chapter to an assessment of Gandhi's legacy to the realm of economics. Although his impact on policy was short-lived and very limited, a few of his methodological points endure. Gandhi's factor proportions argument (that a labour-abundant society should try to adopt labour-intensive techniques) is today a part of the received wisdom in development economics. However, a neglected goal of economic development which Gandhi emphasized is self-respect through production and consumption activities. Self-respect can be attained through self-reliance, education adapted to local needs, and improved sanitation rather than charity or centralized regulation. The recent recognition that preferences may be dynamically inconsistent or habitforming and the inclusion of non-monetary arguments, such as other-regarding behavior, in utility are movements in the direction of Gandhi's moral consequentialist reasoning and notion of preference. By incorporating ethics into economics, Gandhi helped to enrich the quality and relevance of economic analysis and expand its scope. As a critic of neo-classical economic theory, he did not fail to appreciate its methodological strengths including analytical reasoning based on abstraction and its focus on the individual. The problem as Gandhi saw it was that the ethical considerations from which economic theory abstracted were central, not peripheral, to the phenomenon under study. Dasgupta concludes by hinting that he views Gandhi's most valuable methodological contribution as his insistence on individualism as the basic unit of account combined with -- in contrast to modern economic theory -- his commitment to resolving injustice and inequality. Dasgupta's book is superbly researched and documented. He draws heavily upon Gandhi's journalistic writings from Young India, Harijan, and Navajivan, sources still not widely available in the West. His book thus serves as a valuable resource for anyone interested in Gandhi's unique brand of economics or the relationship between economics and ethics more generally. Bradley J. Ruffle Ben-Gurion University