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

Economy of Permanence
for it. Proper work will not wear out a nation but build it. The function of work
should be to reduce to practice our ideal of life. Pure religion, which begins
and ends with ceremonial worship, is superficial. If religion does not affect
every act of ours, every moment of our life, it is futile. We have seen by our
analysis of work, in the chapter on Work, the highly important role that work
plays in developing the individual and the race. If work can be so potent a force
in developing the adult we can well harness it to develop the child.
We have to concentrate our efforts on the villages. University education can go
overboard for a time without damaging the nation. As it is we are top-heavy,
we have many more graduates than we need. These have also created a
problem of unemployment as they are not products of the type of education we
need. Otherwise, there would be no difficulty in absorbing them. Our end must
be to make our villagers more useful and efficient. It is not necessary to load
them with much outside information. Radio and talkies though they may be
helpful, cannot be the main source of rural education. The amount spent on
them is disproportionately high. The work must be an evolution from within the
village and not an imposition from outside the community. Anything from
outside will require to be propped up by artificial means, but that which comes
from within will develop true culture which will bind man to man, village to
village and ultimately the country itself as one whole.
We need not place too much emphasis on the organization to be brought into
existence. When we pin our faith on organization, however important they may
be in themselves, we often lose sight of the personal influence, and the
organization tends to become expensive and wooden. Centralization of
education, as in other spheres, leads to too much control from those at a
distance. Centralization of education will lead to hide-bound methods and
standardization which are fatal to true education. It is much better for the
village teacher to work under the eyes of his neighbours. Therefore, it would
seem better if each village can be made to finance its own education by the old
method of endowing lands to a Mandir dedicated to education. If such a system
can have the advantage of inspection and advice from the centre, It ought to
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