The Economy of Permanence: A Quest for a Social Order Based on Non-violence (स्थायी अर्थतन्त्र)

Economy of Permanence
persons with long range view. If they talk in terms of money, 'will it pay'?, then
they are not people of the right sort to hold the present responsible posts. In
the long view 'will it pay?' will not be the criterion. 'Does it answer the purpose
of the people¹ is the question that should be asked. Government is not a
commercial institution; it is not on institution for making money or producing
bureaucrats. Government is there to serve the people. If it serves the needs of
the people it does not matter what such service costs. It has got to be
rendered. That is the fundamental principles that we have got to remember.
Here is a big difference between private economy and public finance in this
that public finance takes a long range view. While planning for democracy,
every citizen is to be made conscious of the part he has to play in the whole
scheme.
The Personnel: One of the primary necessities for doing this is that there should
be no 'self in those in charge. If 'self be there, they will exploit the labour of
the millions. That is the danger, and Congress Ministries we want to cut down
very many things. The last ministry went down to a salary of Rs. 500/- a month.
Now their standards have increased, and accordingly the salaries have been
increased. That means that 'self has come in. There is danger here. We have to
accept village standards. We are not to live in palaces. There are many palaces
in cities, where wealthy people are living but the villages have no palaces.
I had an occasion to meet a missionary in a village about five or six miles from a
town. He was living in a big palatial house, like the houses of some of our
ministers, beautifully furnished. In that jungle of a place he had electricity,
pumps for the well, flush out lavatories and so many other modern facilities.
He had a farm of about three hundred acres of land.
About half a mile from the house he had built small mud huts for model
families to establish themselves, with a poultry run and a little land attached
to each hut to cultivate. The missionary said to me, "We are spending a lot of
money here, but we feel that we are not very effective in the villages. We are
unable to get at them. Can you give me a mantra for it?", I said, "The mantra is
very simple. You set fire to this palatial house. That is the mantra. You are
www.mkgandhi.org Page 132