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

Economy of Permanence
NATURE
Transient-Destructive Permanent-Creative
Based on rights, with the Based on duties and altruistic
absence of Altruistic Values values
All creatures including man Caltured man
Parasitic Economy of Economy of Economy of Economy of Economy of
Economy Predition Enterprise Gregation Gregation Service
No contribu- No contribu- No contribu- Contribution in excess of Contribution
tion tion, or tion and share without any
share in share thought of
Harm to excess of benefit
source of contribution
benefaction
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VIII. SCALES OF VALUES
We appraise various things by comparing them with certain known or well
recognized standards. There are also different methods of measuring various
kinds of goods; we reckon some by number, others by weight, quantity or
length and so on., Solids like wheat, gur, iron are measured by weight-tons,
maunds, etc.; wood or timber as so many cubic feet; bamboos by their number,
cloth by the yard, paper by the ream; bidis or cigarettes by katas or packets,
while liquids like oil are measured by the seer and kerosene oil, ink etc. by the
number of containers, as so many bottles. Each standard has its unit accurately
defined and the articles to which they are applied are also well known and
accepted. Nobody will go into a shop and order a thousand grains of wheat!
Nature of Approach: In so far we judge things in relation to ourselves we say it
is self-centred and when measured against an external or abstract ideal and in
relation to others it is said to be altruistic. Most animals also judge for
themselves but their considerations are always self-centred i.e., in regard to
the immediate use of a thing for themselves. They do not have altruistic
valuations. Similarly, primitive man also has not much use for altruistic values.
It is the cultured or more advanced man that can take a detached view of
things. In fact, we may well say that a man is known by the standard of value
he uses.
INDIVIDUAL OR SELF-CENTRED VALUES
Types of Values: In all walks of life we are constantly called upon to judge men
and things. We state that the water from a well is fresh and pure; we may
declare a flower to be beautiful and we may pronounce a pertain person's
conduct as noble and good. These decisions all indicate certain standards
behind them. When a man is known to judge correctly always, we hold him to
be a man of discernment— that is, he uses appropriate and accurate standards
of value. We may group these standards as physical or material, mental or
cultural and spiritual standards.
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A merchant will value articles by the profit they will fetch in his trade. A
worker, living on the margin of subsistence, will look at things from the use to
which he can put them to satisfy his crying needs— food, clothing and shelter.
An artist will have an eye for beauty.
Valuation based on Time, Fame, Acquisitiveness etc.: The guide at the Cairo
Museum values everything from the point of view of time. He will tell the
tourist that this Mummy of Tutakhamen is so many thousands of years old, and
that of Ramseys belongs to a period so many millenia before Christ. He will
fondly expect his visitors to be highly impressed by the age of things.
At Rome or Florence, the guide will point out frescoes, mural paintings etc. by
the masters like Michael Angelo or Ruebons and the visitor will have to accept
that as a stamp of excellence.
The Parisians pride themselves as being fine connoisseurs of the beautiful
gardens, buildings, art and literature.
The visitor to the British Museum will be introduced to varieties of exhibits
brought from China, India, Persia or Peru and will have to be greatly impressed
by the world wide acquisitiveness of the British.
As one cranes up one's neck from the bottom of the streets of New York to see
the upper end of buildings touching the sky, the megaphone will declare the
cost of each building in terms of millions of dollars. The impecunious foreigner
will be struck dumb, not at the hoary past, nor at the renowned architect nor
at the beauty or rarity of the exhibit but at the display of colossal wealth.
No one standard is applied exclusively in any one case but the main emphasis is
shown by the special importance attached to the particular standard employed.
The pilgrim to the Taj Mahal does not wax eloquent over the quality of marble
used. Are there not better marbles at Carrara? The name of the architect may
not even be known to him. The age of the noble edifice is not awe- inspiring;
but it is the general effect, the sight of the building in its setting, which
creates on one an impression that is noteworthy, and calls forth spontaneous
admiration without anyone having to recite laboriously its various high points.
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Here we have given illustrations of many standards of values based on different
considerations other than the material instrinsic value, like that of a gold-ring
set with diamonds, exhibited for sale in the show case of a merchant. A picture
by notable artist does not owe its value to the cost of materials- canvass and
paint—which have gone into the making of it. Even an old, worn out shoe that
belonged to a father or mother may be treasured by a fond son or daughter.
This may not represent any marketable value but still it has a value all its own
to the particular person.
In individual or self-centred values there may be no uniformity of intensity with
which a thing may be desired. The value of a thing may differ between persons.
Even a universal article, standardized like money, will not necessarily represent
equality in satisfaction. A rupee in the hands of a farmer may represent one
day's food for his family. The same rupee, with a clerk in a city, may be the
satisfaction of seeing a cinema show. While in the hands of a richman it may
only mean a tip to a waiter or to a taxi driver. From this it may be inferred that
the mere transfer of a rupee from a rich man to a farmer or poorer person will
of itself enhance the satisfaction it is capable of affording. And conversely, a
rupee taken from a poor man and passed on to a richer man reduces the
satisfaction it can give.
Even in the hands of the same individual a thing does not always represent the
same value. A boy may have seven jilabis. Each jilabi may be equal in weight
and contents, yet the satisfaction one jilabi will bring will not be the same as
another. He will eat the first jilabi with much relish. The next one or two he
will still enjoy. Then with each additional jilabi eaten, the desire for more will
diminish until it reaches a point where it will be nauseating to think of having
any more. So the value of a jilabi to the boy goes on decreasing as the number
consumed increases. This is the same phenomenon we noticed with the rich
man's rupee. The more he has the less value a unit will represent.
Now, when a boy has eaten say 6 jilabi and his desire for more has decreased
while his thirst for water has increased, he would gladly swop the seventh jilabi
for a glass of water with another boy who may have a profit of it. That glass of
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water will represent greater satisfaction to him than the seventh jilabi, while
to the second boy that jilabi, which is first to him and seventh to the other,
will bring much relish. The exchange of goods — the seventh jilabi for a glass of
water— brings more satisfaction, profit or gain to both the boys, and if we can
measure the happiness the two boys had before and after the transaction, we
shall find that though the sum total of goods with both the boys remains the
same, yet the aggregate happiness after the exchange is much greater than
before it. This is the basis of all trade. Both the buyer and seller gain mutually.
Nobody's loss should be another's gain.
ALTRUISTIC AND OBJECTIVE STANDARDS
Human Values: Because of the confusion money exchange causes we find
ourselves in many anomalous situations. Our economic system gets a lopsided
development. Our lands are being shifted from food cultivation to the
production of raw materials for mills. People are starving due to the shortage
of rice, while rice lands are made to produce oil for soap-making. In several
Malabar villages paddy lands acreage has been reduced by 20 per cent and
coconut groves have been planted in those fields. These coconuts are sent to
the mills for soap-making. Virtually therefore, rice lands have been turned into
'Soap-producing lands' while the poor people are facing starvation and
malnutrition. The existence of such a state of affairs proves that money values
are not dependable scales of human need.
An economy that is based purely on monetary or material standards of value,
does not take in a realisitc perspective in Time and Space. This shortcoming
leads to a blind alley of violence and destruction from which there is no
escape. The more advanced in culture a person becomes, the less will he be
guided by such short-sighted perishable standards of value. To lead to any de-
gree of permanence, the standard of value itself must be based on something
apart from the person valuing, who is after all perishable. Such a basis,
detached and independent of personal feelings, controlled by ideals which have
their roots in the permanent order of things, are objective and so are true and
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reliable guides. An economy, based on such values, will be a prerequisite to the
achievement of permanence.
Moral Values: An individual, who follows a moral code, applies standards which
have no material basis. A robber murders a child, takes away its necklace and
offers it for sale. Who will care to buy that necklace knowing the history behind
it that ornament represents, not merely so many tolas of gold, but the blood of
the innocent child. No one who abhors the murder of a child would wish to
possess that article, however cheaply it may be offered.
Similarly, moral values are always attached to every article exposed for sale in
the market. We cannot ignore such values and say 'business is business'. Goods
produced under conditions of slavery or exploited labour, are stained with the
guilt of oppression. Those of us who purchase such goods become parties to the
existence of the evil conditions under which those goods were made. Hence,
there is a grave responsibility resting on every one who enters into commercial
transactions, even though it may be only to the extent of a pice, to see to it
that he does not become party to circumstances that he would not consciously
advocate nor would care to stand by.
Ignoring moral considerations and giving free play to greed, selfishness and
jealousy have been fruitful sources of global upheavals. After the first world
war the 'Conquerors' unburdened Germany of her colonies and claimed
separations to compensate for the war damages.
Once again Germany has been vanquished along with Japan. Their patents,
dismantled industrial equipments etc., are being pooled by the allied countries.
Our country also has been dragged into this sharing of the booty. Thus are our
hands stained with the blood of this war and we are guilty sharers of the injus-
tice and cruelty attendant on the doings of imperialist nations. Can such
transactions ever form the basis of an 'Economy of Permanence'?
Social Standards: Society itself can value the benefit it receives. It
acknowledges such values in the form of the status it confers on different
services rendered to it by individuals or classes.
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For instance, the respect attached of old to the four castes is based on
considerations of services to society. A Sudra, who thinks of no one but himself
and works to satisfy his own personal needs, is given hardly any public
recognition. The Vaishya also, who ventures out to accumulate material wealth
for himself, but in the course of doing so does render some service incidentally,
fares little better, though he is allotted a slightly higher position. The
Kshatriya, who is much concerned with the protection of the people committed
to his charge and values his life less than the honour of duty done, is assigned a
noble status. While at the feet of the Brahmin, who pursues an ideal for itself,
regardless of the cost to his physical existence, all including even royal princes
prostrate themselves. This is a cultural standard of values attained in our land
thousands of years ago; unfortunately, at present, these standards have been
eclipsed by the glare of material wealth which is blinding but transient. We
have to strain every nerve to get back to the noble ideals bequeathed to us and
the following of which alone will lead to permanence.
Spiritual Appraisal: There is an incident recorded of how once King David, one
of the greatest rulers of the Jews, was arrayed against his formidable enemies,
the Philistines— whose armies had encamped between him and city,
Bethlehem. From his camp the King could see the well outside Bethlehem
beyond the enemy camp. The King in a sentimental mood exclaimed "Oh, for a
drink of cold water from that well." Some of the valiant soldiers, who heard
this wish of the King, set out to fulfill the royal desire literally. They risked
their lives through the enemy camp, reached the well, and brought back to the
King a pot of water from that well and placed it before him. The king was much
touched by the devotion and loyalty of the soldiers who placed such little value
on their own lives and ventured forth to satisfy the passing wish of their King.
The spiritual eye of the King saw in that pot* not pure cold water, but the life
blood of the men who had gone to procure it. He picked up the pot and being
much moved said, "How can I drink this? It contains not water but the blood of
my beloved soldiers? If I drink it, it will be a curse to me. I pour it out to God as
their sacrifice and noble offering."
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The more our actions are based on such spiritual appraisal, which values
objects in their true setting and perspective, the purer our lives will be and
surer will be the foundations of the road to an economy of permanence, leading
humanity to happiness and peace through the medium of non-violence.
VALUES
Self-centred Altruistic
Physical Material Emotional Moral Social Spiritual
Satisfies Satisfies Satisfies
primary artificial mental
needs wants desires
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IX. VALUATION
The standard of value applied and the method of valuation used impress their
characteristic trait on their users. The spirit of the most predominant value
that prevails amongst a people will colour a whole civilization for centuries.
Hence the great importance of choosing our standard consciously and
deliberately.
The old civilization of Egypt. Babylon, Greece and Rome are no more to tell
their tale. They have vanished after a few centuries of brief, glamorous
splendour because as the standards on which they were built were
predominantly self-centered and transient, their whole organization and system
were poisoned by the institution of slavery and extortion of tributes from
subject races, as we noted in passing in the last chapter. No doubt, the Greeks
and the Romans have left indelible marks of their emotional and self-centred
outlook and values in their sculpture, art and literature. These are but
heirlooms for their descendents to hug and cherish a dead past. Their
civilization is no longer a living force.
In striking contrast to these, the equally old, or even older civilizations of China
and India, which were founded on altruistic and objective values, testify even
to this day, their vitality and other attributes of permanence and non-violence
in their organization. Modern worldly wiseacres may throw cheap gibes at the
other worldliness and the religious trends of the orient. There is nothing to be
apologetic in this, which after all distinguished a progressive human being from
a prowling beast. The enduring qualities of these civilization are pointers to the
great farsighted standards of value our forefathers had made use of, in laying
the foundations of a lasting society. If we are to continue to build on their lines
of permanence and non-violence, our standards too must be altruistic and
objective and not those that serve merely the needs of the moment. Especially
at the present juncture, while political organizations are in the melting pot and
so much thought is being put into the plans for the future, we have to be on our
guard.
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Unfortunately for the present age, the parties that are playing the star roles on
the world are wielding mainly, if not solely monetary standards, which are
fleeting in their effect and influence. Everywhere, we hear talk of 'High
standards of living,¹ 'Raising the national income/ 'Increasing productive power
and efficiency', 'Making it pay in the modern world of competition' and a score
of such arresting slogans. The prevailing school of economic thought is built on
the quicks ands of Profit, Price, Purchasing Power and Foreign Trade. There is
no thought lost on the deeper things of life that mark our man from the other
orders. If anything there is even a dangerous tendency to treat with contempt
any mention of human or spiritual values. Hence the need for caution.
A few specimen applications of modern methods of measurement to some of
the treasures that have been handed down to us will disclose how absurd these
so-called up-to-date methods are in that setting.
The Director of the Pottery Works, after examining a rare specimen of Chinese
hand-painted vase, will exclaim "What! this article took so long to make. Why I
can produce a thousand pairs of such vases in a month."
The Lithograph expert visiting the Ajanta caves, which contain some of the
most wonderful mural paintings and frescoes in the world and which must have
taken decades or even centuries to produce, would promise to turn out
thousands of copies of these masterpieces in a matter of few weeks !
The oil seeds merchant will bewail the waste of acres of fertile land at
Shalimar Gardens, which, if placed under cultivation, might produce thousands
of maunds of groundnuts every year!
Seeing the ancient manuscripts, styled on palm leaves, which have inspired
many schools of Philosophy and have helped to mould lasting civilization, the
publishing genius will wonder at the inferior material used and will go on to
quote estimates to bring out an edition of it printed on 'Bond' paper at Rs 5/-
per copy !
A contractor, who supplies tea table to Irani restaurants, will conden the waste
of good marble on a tomb at Agra. He will compute how many thousands of
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table tops could have been made out of the tons of serviceable marble used up
in building the Taj Mahal.
An expert cement concrete architect from New York will stand aghast at the
valuable time lost at Ellora in carving out three storeyed temples out of living
rock with elaborately chiselled figures adorning the pillars etc. He will be quite
unable to appreciate the great knowledge of geology which enabled the
ancients to select those rocks as flawless for such masterpieces of sculpture,
and the deep devotion that has gone into the making of them.
He will pride himself on the 60 oddstoreyed structures at New York, built like
so many kerosene tin packing cases, heaped one on top of another to reach up
to the heavens, at a fraction of the time it took to carve out these 'primitive'
temples. He may even promise to reproduce, within three months, the Kailash
temple of Ellora in good reinforced concrete from plaster cast taken from the
ancient monument, at a fraction of the cost of the original.
A race-horse dealer walking into Sevagram will forthwith proceed to evaluate
Gandhiji by looking into his mouth examining his teeth (which do not exist). He
will assign him to the Pinjrapole as being superannuated and useless.
The absurdity of the above valuations is on a par with that of the goldsmith
who walks into a rose garden and begins examining the flowers with a
touchstone— the only method of appraisal known to him.
All these ludicrous situations originate from applying the criteria of one
economy to another. For example the race-horse dealer, who belongs to the
Parasitic Economy, misapplies the only standard he is familiar with to one who
must be judged by canons that prevail in the Economy of Service.
As presented above these appear too ridiculous to be true, yet in actual life
such valuations are being insisted on, not by ignorant trades people but by
great scholars issuing forth from the renowned universities of the world. The
universities are used as hotbeds for raising theorists who will rationalize and
support the modern industrialist belonging to the first three economies— of
Parasitism, of Predation and of Enterprise.
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Every solution of a problem will be tested by them on the universal touchstone
of 'Will it pay'? If a mother makes halva at the house, for her children, with the
purest of ghee, Prof. Dr. Wiseacre will ask the mother imposingly "If you do not
adulterate the ghee with some vegetable fat how can you compete in world
markets?" He will advise the mother to compute her cost of material adding to
it a certain amount indicating the cost of the time the mother spends in the
preparation of the sweet. This addition, he will insist, is in the interests of
scientific accuracy. Then he will want her to compare her cost so arrived at
with the 'market price' per seer. The simple mother will reply, "What are world
markets? Where are they held? I am only making this for my children to eat.
They must have the cleanest and purest of things. I am not interested in the
market price or in the scientifically computed cost per seer. How can I charge
up my time? Is not my whole life dedicated to the welfare of my family?" Dr.
Wiseacre will be astounded at the colossal ignorance of the rudiments of
economic science displayed by this 'Primitive, uncultured woman.' The
principles of the economy of service pervade the home, and the mother being
imbued with it, judges her own action accordingly; while the professor is
misapplying the methods prevalent in the Economy of Predation to one on
service basis. He has been familiarized in such methods, under laboratory
conditions of isolating all disturbing factors, to think in terms of one particular
principle only, regardless of the environment. However excellent such
processes may be as mental gymnastics, they ill qualify him to judge in the
outside world, where such simplified and artificial conditions do not exist.
A Professor of Physics, who has verified every principle of Dynamics by
experiments conducted in his elaborately equipped laboratory, may well state
that pieces of paper fall to the earth at the same rate — 32 ft. per second—as
bits of lead or other heavy metals. Any school boy will challenge this
statement. He will say, "Well, old man, you do not know what you are talking
about. I throw pebbles into our village well and watch them strike the water at
the bottom. I have also let pieces of paper fall into the well. The pebbles go
down to the water straight, while the bits of paper keep flying in the air and
sometimes even get blown right outside the well. I have been flying paper kites
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which rise so that you can hardly see them. I bet you cannot fly lead kites". No
doubt, the learned professor is correct in his own simple laboratory under
artificial conditions, with vacuum tubes where there is no air resistance; but
the boy's simple words are wisdom in the outside complex world as it is found.
There are a hundred and one condition that enter into the consideration of any
problem. For a proper valuation, all those prevalent factors have to be taken
into account before deciding. Often values in least evidence are the more
lasting, while those that are most obvious-like money values-are the least
important from other considerations.

A Professor of Economics will say that price mechanism controls supply and
demand, the cheaper the article the greater the demand and so on. Is this
always true? In the outside world 'the economic man' does not exist. A woman,
who wishes to buy a saree, does not call for the cheapest article. She has her
own ideas of colour-combination, texture etc., and she would purchase that
which fulfils most of her notions. Similarly, a prince who prides on being
exclusive, may buy up a whole stock of ties of the same pattern that a dealer
may have, so that no one else may be seen wearing a tie like his. Again, a
petroleum company may buy up a patent of a vegetable oil burning lamp paying
a fabulous price for it, and leave the patent unexploited in a pigeon hole in its
office, to prevent anyone else bringing out a lamp that may adversely affect
the sales of its kerosene oil by creating a demand for a substitute. Such and
many other deviation from the academic standards of economics there are that
vitiate our unconditional acceptance of them.

The criterion used will have to suit, not only the particular case but should also
fit into the economy as a whole. A person garbed in the western style may hold
that Khadi at Re. I a yard is expensive while mill cloth sells at As. 12 a yard.
Here the criterion ignores the setting. The Khadi lover, if a villager, will have
grown his own cotton, gathered it, cleaned and spun it in his leisure time and
had it woven by his neighbour-the village weaver. He will wash his own clothes,
sit on the floor and have such other habits as fit into the village economy as a
whole. While the critic may have to pay heavily for tailoring charges of his suit

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by a competent tailor and for laundering his clothes by a professional dhobie as
he cannot afford to ruin the crease of his suits by sitting on the floor, he needs
a chair to sit on and that calls for a table to work on and other chairs to offer
to his visitors. His whole method of living becomes complicated and expensive.
Taken in this setting who can say that a few annas extra per yard makes the
Khadi way of life expensive, even apart from other social considerations ? We
cannot isolate one item of cost and compare it with another figure separated
from its setting. Often the value of a gem lies more in its setting in the jewel
than in itself. We have to consider the whole background of an economy under
each type. So far we have dealt with valuation from the point of view of the
user or the consumer.
"Can cottage industries exist in a machine age?" is a question one often hears
raised. The full consideration of this question may have to be deferred for a
later occasion but it may be pointed out here that 'cottage industries' is not
merely a method of production but stands for a type of economy of which it is
an integral part just as 'Large scale production' forms part of another type of
economy. The question posed above resolves itself into asking, which form of
economy is preferable, which again will depend on what our objectives are and
this will finally mean what our standards of value in life are. Therefore, values
and valuation are the pair that draw the chariot of Human Progress. They, in
the final analysis, determine the direction be taken-either towards permanence
and non-violence or towards transience and violence. Hence it is imperative to
be absolutely clear on these two factors, confusion in our standards and aim
leads to ruin.
In Travancore they make beautiful soft, white, mats out of split screwpine
leaves. In that part of the country each hut stands on its own land and is
surrounded and protected by low mud compound walls on which these
screwpine plants are grown. Once while no tour in that locality we halted to
inspect the making of these mats. The head mat-weaver of the village-a
mussalman came to explain to us the various processes in which men, women
and even children of the families took part. Then he led us to three or four
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other houses to see others also at work. All the time he was with us he was
chanting but one chorus, 'Why is it that our industry does not flourish at present
as it did in the times of our father who, following this very occupation, became
wealthy enough to build these two storeyed houses while we, their
descendants, cannot even afford to repair?" After we had seen all that there
was to be seen, as it was midday, this man entreated us to accept his
hospitality. I asked my two Brahmin companions what they felt about it, They
said they would have no objection if the food was strictly vegetarian. Our
guide, on being told of this condition said that although he would like to have
meat, his poverty would not allow of it and, so perforce, he was obliged to be a
vegetarian. Beside, as our visit was not previously arranged or announced, we
had to take pot-luck and he would place before us whatever had been prepared
for the family. He warned us that food would be just plain rice and dhal and
pickles, but he assured us he would be highly pleased if we would partake at his
house even this frugal fare. We accepted his invitation more because of his
importunity and to see for ourselves his way of living at his house than because
of our need, and so we repaired to his home. While we were having a wash he
got the varandah prepared for us to sit down to our repast and all the while he
was reciting the same old query about the cause of the decay of the industry. I
was raking my mind as to what answer to give him. Just then he called us in to
take our seats. I was shown to the middle seat, being considered the chief
guest, and my two companions were assigned seats on either side of me. For
these two screwpine asans were placed and as I glanced at the seat meant for
my august personage, I exclaimed, "I now know why your industry is languishing
and you are facing ruin. The fault lies in your scale of values." He implored me
to explain how that was. I asked him, "Where did to get these asans spread of
my companions?" He replied, "Sir, they are specimens of the humble labour of
my hands. I made them." Then I enquired, "Where did you .get this mat that has
been spread for me with this tiger printed on it?" He said "That is a Japanese
mat I bought in the bazaar." I then explained, "Considering me the principal
guest you thought of honouring me by seating me on this Japanese mat while
you provided my friend with your own handiwork. This shows you valued the

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Japanese mat more than your own product. If you yourself do so, can you
blame others doing likewise? If many others follow your method of valuing
foreign articles they will also cease buying locally made screwpine mats. How
can your industry flourish with all your old customers gone? Are you not the
chief culprit to destroy your own trade?" With folded hands he accepted the
reasoning and forthwith replaced the Japanese mat by one of his own make.
The use of foreign articles deprives
our people of employment
Here is a picture in miniature of what is happening all over our country. The
standards by which we judge are not comprehensive enough. We are often led
away by low money prices ignoring the great gashes in our economic and social
organization made by such short-sighted choice of ours. The goods produced by
our own neighbours have values which are not represented in the money price.
The money value is most often the least important of all considerations,
although frequently, it is the sole factor that affects our decision. Such pure
monetary considerations may lead to the blasting of the ramifications of our
social order and spell ruin and distress all round. Money value blinds the vision
to a long range social view, so that the wielder of the axe fells the branch on
which he is standing. He is the contributing party to his own destruction and
fall. Hence an unfettered long term policy, which will ensure permanence, calls
for the application of objective criteria, taking into consideration not merely
the immediate solution of a problem but also the more lasting after effects
which may follow in the wake. No act of a single individual ends with an
isolated transaction. It has its repercussions right through society, though many
of us do not have our sight trained to perceive what follows in its train.

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A secretary of a co-operative society was enumerating the benefits his
organization had conferred on its members by marketing the honey produced by
them. Proudly, he took me to show me a farm where the owner had
domesticated about 30 colonies of honey-bees in simple hives constructed out
of old mud pots. The bees seemed very active. Hundreds of pounds of honey
were being sent by this farmer to the society for marketing. I was much
impressed by the recounting of all this achievement and how much money it
had brought in. Just then a little girl, a child of the owner, came in running. I
asked her if she also knew what these honey bees were so busy about. She said
they were making honey. I next enquired if she liked honey. She looked blank.
Thinking she did not understand my question I repeated it in another form
saying "Don't you like the taste of honey?" She startled me with "I do not know
what it tastes like." I turned round to the owner and enquired if he did not give
his own children any honey. He gave me what he thought to be a perfect
answer. "How can I afford to use it at home when I get Re. 1/- per lb. at the
society?" My appreciative attitude vanished and I remarked to the elated
secretary of the society, "Your work is damned when this child does not know
the taste of honey. By offering high prices you are enticing away this honey
from the mouth of this child to the over-laden tables of the rich". The story is
the same everywhere with eggs, milk and other articles with high nutritive
values. In the N. W. F. Province, where eggs were once largely produced and
locally consumed, the consumption of the local population has fallen
considerably since the military authorities of Rawalpindi, Quetta and Ambala
began to draw on these supplies.
Money valuation benumbs the faculty for the better appreciation of higher
considerations, and results in a transaction which may be a gain to one party,
but leads to irreparable loss to the other. Instead of drawing on surpluses (as
we noted in the last chapter in the example of the boy with jilabis) it helps to
drain out vital sustenance, thus causing grave social loss which is not apparent
at the moment. It was the monetary mechanism that was at the bottom of the
great Bengal famine of 1943. It snatched away life-giving elements from the
mouth of the starving population before they were aware of it, by giving them
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valueless paper notes representing frozen credits at London. Let us take this
terrible disaster to heart and learn the lesson it has to teach us, reminding us,
that there are other and more vital considerations in this life than money with
which to measure values.
Milk produced by villagers is taken to be sold
in towns leaving the village children
without this nutritive article of deit
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X. LIFE, LIVING AND EXISTENCE
Has life any significance? Does it convey any meaning? What constitutes it? -
mere existence?
We have seen that man is distinguished from the lower orders by the possession
of Freewill. Therefore, what a man is, is declared by the way he exercises his
will interpreting his scale of values. Thus eventually, man is what he prefers to
be. Man, by his living, gives expression to his faculties and we term the re-
sultant his 'Personality'. Life is the means by which man develops himself and it
is that which affords him the opportunity to express himself through his
creative faculty. Hence the great importance that has to be placed of the way
people live or have to live.
Life then becomes the great canvas on which man, the artist with his peculiar
brand of paint of many values, and the firm strokes of his brush of freewill,
brings into existence his indelible work of art, which he will leave behind him
to help or retard human progress. If he uses a large mixture of self-centered
values, which are like water-colours that may wash out or fade away with age,
his work will not attain a high degree of permanence and will be disfigured by
violence. On the other hand, if he uses mainly altruistic or objective values,
which are like the earth paints used at Ajanta that have retained their
freshness through the centuries, then his masterpiece will go down from
generation to generation with its message of permanence and non-violence.
Such being man's opportunity and responsibility, he cannot afford to leave his
life meekly in the hands of others. Each man is responsible for the way he lives.
He cannot substitute for his masterpiece cheap lithographs supplied wholesale,
with frame and all complete, by the manufacturers.
The standardized production of large scale industries today, more or less lays
down the way people are to live, instead of consumers calling for the type of
goods they want, the producers press, whatever they make, on the passive
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public. We cannot discharge our responsibilities by remaining passive. We need
to be up and doing.
The two great global wars, that have been visited on this generation, are
witnesses to the destructive nature of modern institution and organizations.
Even science, which by its very nature ought to be objective and creative, has
been prostituted by being turned into an abominable engine of destruction.
Instead of standing firm footed on the rock of permanence and non-violence,
eminent scientists have been engulfed by the river of violence in spate, which
is carrying death and ruin through the fair fields of human progress and
civilization. They complacently claim to be on neutral ground. This is self-
deception. There is no neutrality. Either we are creative or destructive. By the
exercise of their freewill, they have chosen to serve the latter end and hence
great is the destruction thereof.
Material destruction, immense as it is, is the least part of it. What is bemoaned
above everything else is the irreplaceable loss of young promising lives. If a
tiger should kill a great scientist what is its gain and what is the loss to
humanity? The man-eater gets perhaps 120 lbs. of flesh, bone and blood. The
nutritive value of these can well be replaced even from the vegetable kingdom:
if the digestive apparatus were adapted to it. On the other hand, what
humanity loses is not so much the flesh and blood but the higher faculties
which are the resultant of generations of culture, expressed under changing
values of life and action and which are of no use to the tiger, while the loss is
an irreparable one to mankind. That part which is noblest and highest and
which works towards permanence is lost by the parasitic act of the tiger, whose
gain is but transient. The flesh and blood have gone to appease its hunger for a
few hours at the cost of an eternal loss as a heritage. The higher life of the
scientist comprising knowledge, creation and love has been of no use to the
prowling beast.
In the same way, the loss to humanity occasioned by the millions of lives
sacrificed in these wars cannot be computed by human effort. The clock of
human progress and civilization is set back centuries by such holocausts.
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