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

produces an unstable equilibrium. In the effort to right itself, the swing again
causes violence.
If we seek to obtain permanence and non-violence, we must have an order in
which the customer will play the leading role and that personally. This can only
be achieved when consumption-goods are locally made, perhaps in cottages,
under the eye of the consumer, to meet the existing needs. Only under such
conditions can the consumer bring into effect his scale of values which will
develop, as well as express, his personality. Modern forms of production and
sale have reduced life into stagnation and living into mere existence. The
atmosphere is suffocative. It can be cleared by those who have the needed gifts
to belong to this House of Creation asserting their personalities and arousing
themselves to action. The monetary scale of values, which has taken complete
possession of this House, has to be ousted and the manifold scale of cultural
values has to be installed and given full sway over the conditions that affect
the life of the people in general.
House of Social Innovations : This House belongs to the Economy of Gregation.
Hence the deciding criterion at every stage will be "what is good for society in
general" ? And not any consideration of personal benefit to any individual or to
any special persons. It is needless to point out that money values will have
hardly any place here. Long range considerations will prevail over short range
policies.
There have been, of late, many attempts at Socio-economic experiments.
Russia set the ball rolling with her Soviet Communism. Then Fascists and Nazis
followed. Their experiments have failed to usher in permanence and non-
violence. On the other hand, they have sunk humanity in a river of blood. They
sought shortcuts, each for their own class or nation, forgetting the larger issues
of the whole human family. The submissive populations have been drilled under
the maxim ⁴My Country-Right or Wrong'. Hence they have landed themselves in
violence and destruction.
The League of Nations, though it has an ambitious and high-sounding name to
comprehend the whole world, also followed a transient and short-sighted

Economy of Permanence
economy, serving only the selfish interest of a few who controlled its
machinery. Therefore, it also failed to secure permanence and non-violence for
humanity at large.
Proper planning of life is imperative. To be successful the objective of the plan
recommended must be universal and be in complete alignment with the eternal
order of things. It should not be a convenient attempt (such as the one we
noticed in the last House) to foist standardized methods of life on others, with
the purpose of disposing of the products of centralized factories,, nor should it
be such as to kill individual expressions of personality.
In our land, the field of work for those in this House is immense. The villages
are in dire need of those who will organize their activities so as to make life
possible. Today, they fare worse than the jungle animals, which at least obtain
sufficient nourishment for healthy and active life. The social and economic
environment is such as to kill all initiative. It will be the function of those of
this House to plan out the lives of the helpless masses so as to afford them the
chance of leading a human life rich in it. Possibilities for self-expression.
Planning to this end implies the formulation of a norm towards which we should
work. If the norm is well-conceived it will afford free play to all creative
faculties of every member of society. Whether the norm is a proper one or not
can be judged by the effect any change in it causes. The natural norm can nei-
ther be raise nor lowered within the short span of life. Any such deviation will
cause pathological conditions. Nature has designed the wonderful human
system through millions of years. No scientist can equip a laboratory so simple
and yet so efficient as the digestive system we possess. No engineer has yet
devised a self- acting and self-regulating pump as the heart. Whether wireless
or otherwise, no Morconi has designed a system of communications as perfect
as our nervous system. The normal working of this body and mind cannot be
altered or designed afresh by ignorant man. Hence, it will be futile for any
mortal individual to attempt to change the course of life as he wishes it. All
that can be done is to co-operate with nature and arrange to maintain the
environment in such a form as will guarantee its working at its best. This stage
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or norm is set by nature and man's part is to study and understand nature's
requirements and pay heed to it. If there be any departure from nature's norm,
it will lead to social maladjustments.
Every medical man is aware of the futility of trying to alter the normal
temperature of the body. If it goes above the norm, fever sets in and if it falls
below depression and weakness follow, in either case, death is the end. Nor
can we tune the heart to cope with a life of feverish activity that a man may
desire to lead. No doubt there is a certain range of adaptability. We cannot
bank on this unduly. Too much strain give the danger signal of high blood
pressure. But that is not a new norm at which we may settle down without
endangering life. In the same way, there is a norm or requirements which,
when fulfilled, causes the human system to function at its best. The purpose of
planning is to determine it and take such steps as will ensure it to every human
being.
Unfortunately, today the golden calf (or rather as gold has vanished into thin
air, the Sterling calf) has been enthroned and all considerations centre round
money and not round human personality.
There have been plans and plans, all aiming at an abundance of material
production but lacking root in human nature. Such plans are like a well
arranged vase of cut flowers. They are, no doubt, beautiful and retain for a
time their natural scent and appearance but, as they are severed from the
parent plant, death is in them. Therefore, their glory is shortlived.
A planner should rather like a gardener. He first prepares the soil, sows the
seed and waters it and having done his part he stands aside. The plant of its
own nature, drawing the nutriment supplied by the conditioned soil, grows and
brings forth flowers. The well arranged vase, however much loaded and
crowded with flowers, was transient and death was in it, while the plant is
permanent because it draws its sap from nature with its roots and so has life.
Some flowers of the plant may fade away but others will blossom forth to take
their place.
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Similarly, planning should ensure wholesome conditions for the growth of
human beings. What is put forth by them is not the end or aim. The method of
starting with a predetermined output and working towards it, is not the way of
nature. We may, by such methods, Obtain forced results but that, not being a
natural growth, will fade away and may even leave behind an aftermath of
decay. Such forced pace is like a Chrismas tree well decorated with tinsel
candles etc., and overladen with presents-drums, bugles, dolls etc.; neither the
decorations nor the presents being natural to the tree it cannot pride itself on
it. As the X'mas tree is but a branch cut off from the live plant, it cannot draw
the sap of life from mother earth through roots and so the leaves, though they
may retain their freshness for a while, will droop down and the branch itself
will dry up, being thereafter fit only for firewood. Such also will be the fate of
plans that follow the glamour of plenty.
The condition and environment for the full growth of the faculties of man that
have to be ensured are the primary end of planning. Every individual has to
have enough wholesome and balanced food, sufficient clothing to protect the
body from changes in weather, adequate housing accommodation, full op-
portunities for training the mind and body for life, clean surroundings to
safeguard health and ample facilities for human intercourse, economic
production and exchange. Such then are the planners' objectives. Beyond these
all other accomplishments should be left to the initiative of the people
themselves. Only then will they have room to afford them chances of exercising
their freewill and their scale of values, which would make their lives, not mere
existence, but something worthwhile and that will produce a culture as a
consequence, which will be lasting and will be a definite contribution to the
progress of mankind.
No planned way of life can deprive the human being of his right to choose his
own method of Jiving, as long as the chosen form does not infringe on the
rights of his fellow-beings. The planned life is only to ensure that-each person
gets his minimum human needs at the least. Over and above that, every
individual must have as much scope as possible for the individual sense of
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values to make its presence felt. Any planned life that is too rigid to allow of it
and takes away or restricts beyond measure the individual freedom to act and
express his idea of values will be guilty of regimentation. Regimentation
deprives a human being of his individuality and lowers him to the level of a
cogwheel in an unalterable machine. Such regimentation of life from the cradle
to the grave, whatever be its merits or efficiency, will stand condemned as it
fails to answer our first requirement for the progress of a human being, the
right of freedom to express one's personality.
Regimentation certainly has its place and function where the objective is not
the development of personality but some joint effort-as in an army or a
factory-where each head or hand counts rather than the individual, who has to
be submerged in such cases in the general interest of the goal, which is the all
absorbing and supreme consideration and the individual is only the means of
attaining it. To us, the development of the individual being the objective, and
the organization only the means of securing it, there can be no place for
regimentation in our scheme.
For example, in a well conducted dairy, animals will be fed well on properly
prepared cattle feed, given salt and water in due time and in regulated
measure, stabled in well constructed sheds, taken out to exercise in the sun for
a while, rubbed down and cleaned daily and milked according to time table.
This is not what a human being needs if he is to rise above the level of mere
existence of brute beasts. A well regulated prison affords such conditions of
existence. Under prison rules it is even made a punishable offence to abstain
from proper sleep or rest or food which may have a deleterious effect on the
health of the prisoner. Such care is taken of the body of the prisoner. But that
is not life where freedom of choice and activity has been taken away.
It is, therefore, imperative that no plan should raise insurmountable wells on
all sides and reduce life into a jail. It should function like a fence that, while
protecting the field from the depredations of destructive intruders, does not
interfere or shut off air and light from the sequestered spot. The creative
faculties of those who belong to this House and who dedicate their lives to
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serve their fellow beings, will have to be directed towards devising such plans
of free life for the people.
At this place we have confined ourselves to a consideration of the function of
the plan and the field to be devoted to it. In the following chapter we shall
take up the requisites of a norm of life which will form the basis of a
satisfactory plan.
The House of Sublimaton: In the Economy of Service, to which section the
House of Sublimation belongs, personal rights fade away yielding place to
duties that assume the regulation of life. Freewill is used to control the animal
side of man and his selfish bodily inclinations directing his activities rationally
into certain well chosen channels. The scale of values is designed to measure
the welfare of others rather than one's own pleasure. Hence, the perspective is
a long range one, as the immediate personal gain is not the desired end.
Therefore, for one in this House to be creative it is essential to realise in
oneself the defects and needs of society before any reform or plan can be
suggested. Mere intellectual appreciation or criticism will not serve the
purpose. A laboratory is called for to carry out experiments on a limited scale
and then only the remedy that has been proved efficacious can be
recommended to others. A nutrition expert first carries on experiments by
feeding guinea pigs or white mice, pigeons, monkeys etc., on different types of
articles of food and observes the effects produced on these creatures. Only
after this he is in a position to suggest the constituent parts of a well-balanced
diet for human beings. Similarly, in all socio-economic innovations it would be
necessary to try out the new ideas on human beings. The ones in this House,
therefore, are volunteer guinea pigs and scientific experts rolled into one.
We saw that those of the last house had to plan for the masses. But the plan
can be drawn up only on tried principles. This opens the field for the House of
Sublimation. Necessity is said to be the mother of invention. If we feel in our
own selves the needs of others, and if we are endowed with creative faculties,
we should be able to devise ways and means of solving those difficulties. One
belonging to this House will suffer or live vicariously in the lives of others. He
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will be more sensitive of the feeling of others and their surroundings than to his
own. He will weep with those who do weep and rejoice with those who do
rejoice. His scale of values will be altruistic. He will not be conscious of his own
rights. He will sublimate his fatherhood into protecting and supporting those
who are helpless friendless, accepting the whole human family as his own.
In the history of scientific research there are many instances of scientists trying
the effect of their researches on their own persons. Many have risked their lives
in doing so and some have lost them in the process. These are the martyrs with
whose blood human progress is cemented. One of the chief reasons why
Gandhiji has adopted the loin cloth as his complete wardrobe is because he
wanted to identify himself and feel one with the millions of our land who have
not even decent rags to cover their nakedness, leave along any protection
against the inclemencies of the weather.
In a country like ours, bristling with socio-economic problems, we need persons
who will take on themselves the disabilities, privations and poverty of the
masses and having experienced in their own being the sufferings of those
around them will proceed to find a suitable remedy. It is for this purpose that
the various human laboratories or ashrams and institutions like Tagore's
Santiniketan, and Gandhiji's Charkha Sangh, the Gram Udyoga Sangh, etc. are
established. These function like a nursery where a horticulturist produces
tested and selected seeds to supply the gardens of the land. The proved
remedies of these experimental stations are placed at the service of the world
at large.
Hence, it is through the House of Sublimation we can find a solution for the ills
humanity is suffering from violence and hatred. The life of the people in
general has to be planned and ordained, not from the point of view of
individual interest based on laissez-faire principles, but from a selfless,
detached and long range point of view. When so planned each member of
society, however humbly he may be placed, will have full opportunities to
make his own contribution for the good of all. Then life will be neither pure
imitation without any regard for varying circumstances nor will it be one of
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limited adoptions with just a few variations to suit local needs, nor will it be
called to perform the functions of an expanding market in the interests of
manufactures of material goods, nor will it be based on sectional needs ignoring
the wider range of responsibilities. Life so planned, will not only meet
individual and sectional needs, but it will also be set as to lead to the
happiness of all and open up wide fields of opportunities for personal
development and expressions which will not fall foul of the welfare of one's
neighbours.
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XI. STANDARDS OF LIVING
For the reason discussed in the last chapter it becomes imperative that the
daily life of the people should be so regulated as to enable them to express
their personality. What we eat, wherewith we are clothed and what manner of
lives we lead, all have a bearing, not only on our own lives, but also, on the
future of mankind. Just as each person expresses himself through the scale of
values he uses so also his manner or living will expresses his personality. To do
this there should be norms for all people to adhere to, and these norms or
standards must be arrived at from purely objective considerations calculated to
afford every person that opportunity in full measure that is needed to develop
all his faculties and thereby his personality. The suggested norm or standard
should relate not only to bodily and material needs but also to all those
innumerable items that go to enrich and ennoble life and raise it above the
level of mere existence. Of course, it will naturally deal with food that is
required to maintain a level of human performance with adequate medical aid,
with clothing that will not only cover nakedness but will also afford room for an
expression of art and beauty, with education which will widen and brighten life
while developing the inherent faculties with congenial work that will open up
opportunities for the creative propensities of man and with all such other
accessory facilities that will help in the progress both of the individual and the
group.
A standard that is to fulfill all these requirements will naturally be one that has
to be acceptable both to the individual and to society. It cannot be chosen
merely from a one-sided consideration. If the individual is allowed to follow his
own sweet will without any other restrictive consideration, if he is one in the
House of Imitations or that of Adoptions his mode of life will not contribute
anything to progress but may ever harm society. If he belongs to the House of
Material Creations his innovations may clash with those of others and retard
progress thereby. A producer left to his own machinations will utilize the
opening to lay down ways by which he can push his own goods by propaganda
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and by setting up fashion favourable to his business. On the other hand, if it is
left to society alone, the individual citizen may be crushed and turned into an
unquestioning automaton. Such is the fate of the common man today under
Capitalism, Imperialism, Fascism, Nazism and State Socialism. The world is
largely under the heels of the producer who calls the tune and sets the pace.
This has led to chaos as even these interested parties have no agreed plan or
rule of life to guide them. Each manufacturer freely follows his own whims. As
a result there is widespread confusion in the methods of living.
It is difficult even to understand what people mean when they talk of a
standard of living. It is a delightfully vague term. Hence it becomes convenient
to bandy these words about without fear of committing oneself to anything
definite. Each person may have his own notion of a standard of living and as to
what it comprises. To one a radio set and a motor car may fall within the
barest minimum. To another two meals a day may be a rare luxury. Therefore,
it is necessary to work out an objective standard taking into consideration the
conditions obtaining in our land. Should this standard have an economic basis or
follow cultural considerations or social needs? What is meant by 'high' or Mow
standards? By the former standard is meant full satisfaction of a wide range of
material wants and by the latter a very limited enjoyment of worldly goods?
In previous chapters we have discussed the many ways of looking at life and
their respective scales of values. We have come to the conclusion that life is
not to be valued purely on a monetary basis nor by what looms large in the
immediate present, but that a well-balanced economy leading to permanence
and nonviolence calls for a comprehensive consideration of various factors
making life broad-based. In such an economy money is of the least importance.
"Man does not live by bread alone" but by everything that affords him
opportunities for the free expression of the whole man-his body, mind and
spirit-for all that will make him approach perfection.
The standard of life in England is generally spoken of as being high. There a
gardener may live in a two storeyed-cottage with three or four bedrooms
upstairs, with a flush lavatory and a bathroom. Downstairs there may be a living
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room and a dining room along with a kitchen store and washroom attached. All
windows will have glass shutters sheltered by curtains and blinds. The doors
will have heavy curtains to keep out the draught. The floors will be carpeted
and the walls well-papered. Every room will have its appropriate and adequate
furniture though simple and inexpensive. For instance, the dining room will
have a dining table with proper armless chairs, sideboard, perhaps fitted with a
mirror, with a requisite supply of table-linen, crockery etc. The table service
itself, though not very elaborate, will furnish appropriate dishes, plates, forks,
spoons, etc., for the various courses such as soup, fish, meat, sweet, and
dessert, for it is not the proper thing to eat one course with the equipment for
another. Knife and fork for fish is of one kind, knife and fork for meat is of
another, while the service sets are still different. When one person sits down to
a meal there will be at least about 50 pieces to wash up. Such is generally
accepted as a 'High' standard of living.
In India, a really cultured man, perhaps a Dewan or a Prime Minister of a State
presiding over the destinies of millions of people, may have hardly any
furniture in his house though it may be of palatial dimensions. His reception
rooms may have floors of marble, mosaic or polished tiles and will be washable
and clean. There may be hardly any carpets to accumulate dust and dirt. The
Dewan himself will go about barefooted at home as the best of persons do in
the South. Our Dewan may squat on an asan on the floor and eat, perhaps off a
plantain leaf. He may not have been initiated into the art of wielding knives
and forks, for it is an art not easily acquired, following sacred rules not meant
for the common folk—he may use his nature-bestowed fingers, and when he has
finished his repast, the leaf will not have to be washed but may be thrown
away and may be readily disposed off by a goat which will turn it into milk for
its owner! There will be only his fingers to be washed. By contrast this will be
termed a 'low' standard of living.
Is this an appropriate use of terms 'high' and 'low'? If the standard or norm must
contain a multiplicity of material wants artificially created, then only these
terms will have any significance. But if we choose to be perverse and regard as
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desirable that which calls into play the highest faculties in man, then the
Dewan's life follows a higher standard than the British gardener's whose
standard now becomes 'low'. For a standard based on material considerations
the more suitable terms will be 'complex' and 'simple' rather than 'high' and
'low'. We may then say that the Dewan's standard of life is 'high' but 'simple' and
the British gardener's is 'low' but 'complex'. It would appear as though the
present terms have been specially devised to convey a psychological preference
for the 'complex' standard which is the foundation of a good market for the
manufacturers. Who will rationally fall for a standard which is dubbed
'complex'?
The complex standard converts its devotee into a drudge. From dawn till
nightfall the British gardener's wife, if she means to be reasonable clean, has to
toil away at sweeping the carpets with a vacuum cleaner, polishing the window
panes, washing the curtains, bed and table linen, the dishes, plates etc., and
cooking utensils, apart from attending to her daily round of duties such as
shopping and kitchen work. To clean even one fork properly between the
prongs will take more time and labour than washing one's hands. Is it a wonder
that where such complex standards prevail, women prefer to be rid of the
'nuisance' of having children? "Children and dogs not allowed" is an ubiquitous
notice board to be seen everywhere in such countries. Motherhood, of course,
adds to the already overcrowded time-table for the day, but the choice of
complex standard is a reflection on the scale of values prevalent. By various
means at their disposal- propaganda, advertisements, setting up fashions etc.-
the manufacturers are able to induce the house-wives to adopt this mode of
life and become their devoted customers. Let us beware of such traps which
will enslave us to material wants, but offer nothing in exchange for filling our
time with wasteful details which ought not to be allowed to encumber our
lives.
The interested parties glibly talk of creating leisure for the house-wife by
introducing labour-saving devices, but no sooner is a machine allowed to oust
human labour than some other invention is brought in to absorb the money and
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time saved by the former device, leaving the second state of the house-wife
worse than the first.
The two ways of dining
For example let us revert to our friend, the British gardener's wife. Formerly
carpets were beaten and cleaned by casual human labour. The vacuum cleaner
made its appearance. It dispensed with outside labour. A travelling salesman
would have visited the gardener's wife and waxed eloquent over the marvellous
performance of his commodity for sale-the vacuum cleaner-and would have
appealed to the thrifty house-wife by showing her how much she could save
every year by not having to call in human labour to do this heavy work of
carpet cleaning and how much such saving will amount to in her lifetime with
interest added ! As a result of this high pressure salesmanship she would go in
for a vacuum cleaner and would, no doubt, save a few shillings a year but she
has to do the cleaning herself with this 'labour-saving-device'. After a few
years, when she has saved a few pounds this way, the travelling salesman will
make his appearance again to sell her a newly invented dish washing machine.
He will again expatiate over the performance of the machine. If her savings
scraped together happen to fall short of the amount needed to pay down cash
for it, the salesman obligingly will offer an installment payment scheme or a
hire purchase system by which she pays a small deposit immediately, all that
she may have in ready cash and the machine is left with her for use for which
she should have to pay a small hire annually for five or seven years, after which
the whole machine will become her sole property. She falls a victim to this
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temptation and pledging her future savings instals a dish washing machine! She
can now dispense with the service of the neighbour, an old woman perhaps,
who came in to help wash the dishes for half an hour daily, thus perhaps saving
two shillings a week, but she has now to 'attend' to the machine herself. If the
vacuum cleaner or this dish washing machine needs attention, the company will
send its visiting mechanic to set it right and, of course, make a small charge for
his time. In this manner both the labour and the money saved by dispensing
with human labour is quickly absorbed by the manufacturers, while the simple
gardener's wife sloggers on like a donkey having displaced the help of other
human beings. She has to put in extra work attending on those-her mechanical
servants. The leisure promised to her proves illusory and whatever she saves up
goes towards the purchase of some other 'labour-saving-device'. She is no better
off in the end. If anything she has to work harder, all by herself driving her
machines. The human labour that has been driven out of employment here will
ultimately turn up at the factory gates of the manufacturers for work and
wages. The story of these we shall trace later.
Has the standard of living of the gardener's wife changed so as to allow her
opportunities for the free play of her higher faculties? Has this complex
standard given her more time for thought and reflection? On the other hand, as
she has to attend to everything single-handed she may have no time even to
look into a magazine. She drudges from morn till night. All this for what? Her
time is filled up with work that brings little of real life. Is this 'living' in the
proper sense of the word? It is worse than mere existence.
The simple life, on the other hand, can be 'high' and present all that is finest in
human life, perhaps, even better than a complex life which later kills
personality as it follows ways set by others.
Taking the occasion of dining, whether the meal is taken in Western style or in
Indian style there a little difference nutritively. The Indian method of eating
has advantages of cheapness combined with cleanliness and affords free scope
for one's ideas of art in serving. What is more colourful than a meal served on a
green fresh leaf? The cream rice or chapatties with yellow dhal, white dahi, red
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chutneys, brown pickles, multicoloured salad of fresh vegetables, red tomatoes
etc., make a pleasing sight to start with; when the meal is over and the leaves
have been removed only the floor remains to be washed out. The diners
themselves, who eat with their fingers, invariably wash their teeth and rinse
their mouths also after meals, which is a most desirable and hygienic habit. But
those who use forks and spoons have abandoned this wholesome custom. The
farthest they may go in this direction is to dip their finger tips daintily in a
finger bowl of water and after moistening their lips wipe them off with a
napkin! Wherein lies the superiority or higher quality of the most complicated
Western style? The complex manner of life increases expense without any
corresponding benefit in cleanliness or art.] Therefore, as has been already
observed, the distinction is more accurately made by calling the Western
method 'complex' and ours 'simple' rather than 'high' and 'low' respectively.
Within a definite mode of living there can be 'high' and 'low' standard indicating
differing qualities. A man who uses fine. counts for his dhoties has a 'higher'
standard than one who is content with coarser cloth; while one who uses suits,
cut and tailored in Western style with collar, tie and perhaps a hat, cannot be,
for that reason, said to have a higher standard than one who uses just a Dhoti
and Kurta. The hat wallah certainly has an imitation-complex standard while
the dhoti wallah is perhaps more original in having his dhoti designed and
woven to his taste locally and definitely more sensible in view of the climate.
Similarly, one who eats plain rich with chillies or pickles has a 'low' standard in
comparison with one who enjoys a well balanced diet.
The life of one in the 'Parasitic' or 'Predatory Economy' is certainly lower than
the life of one in "Service Economy". The standard of life of a multimillionaire,
however expensive it may be, is 'low' in comparison with that of an ashramite
devoted to the service of the land.
In the preceding example, we discussed the Indian Dewan, who belongs to the
Economy of Gregation, and has a higher standard of life, whatever his material
mode of living may be, than the British gardener who at best belongs to the
Economy of Enterprise.
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The trend in modern life is to follow fashions by increasing the complexity
competitively while lowering the human standard in so doing.
In America, home-life is being rapidly broken up by false ideas of living being
disseminated. A couple may live in a flat of one or two rooms with 'labour-
saving devices'. The husband will go to work in the morning and so will the
wife. Each will have a snack breakfast on the way in some cafeteria, perhaps,
lunch at a factory refreshment bar or grill, and the two will meet in the
evening and have their supper in a restaurant and, if their combined income is
big enough to support a car, will go for a drive and visit a cinema and return to
their rooms to listen in to the radio. There is no house-keeping, cooking or
other attributes of the home. They will not care to have bother of having
children nor can their 'high' standard of living allow of it. These are they who
are slaving away for the manufacturers who set the 'high' standard so as to have
'hands' readily available for the factories. The casual labour that helped the
British gardener's wife, the parlour maids and other household servants have
been driven to the factory gates and have had their standard of living 'raised'.
Such 'high' standards are advocated not for the betterment of the people from
altruistic motives but to serve the selfish ends of interested parties.
Manufacturers, apart from diverting servants into factory hands, paralyse the
freedom of action and movement of their employees by such standards being
set up. The bargaining power of labour is reduced in the proportion in which
material standards are raised.
A mill-owner, who desires that his 'hands' should not seek periodical digression
but should be regular in their attendance so that his mill production may be
steady and not fluctuate, will plan on his workers leading a complex standard
of existence which he will be pleased to call a 'high' standard of living. To
achieve this end he will pay his workers higher wages, support a liberal-
welfare schemes, and get them accustomed to amenities of factory life such as
clubs, tea rooms, games, cinemas, good housing etc. The result of all this will
be, that the worker who gets used to live on this level of a complex standard of
the American couple we noticed, will be loathe to change places even if his
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principles were violated by the factory owner. Such a standard is expensive and
so he will have no reserves to fall back on, in case of being put out of
employment, and being habituated to spending money on material wants, these
would assume the role of necessities without which, he is led to believe, he
cannot live. Thus are his freedom of movement and bargaining power curbed
and the worker is glued down to his work bench. Such a standard functions like
a nose-string to a bullock. It is placed there to neutralize his freewill and to
make the worker amenable to the will of the employer.
The high salaries paid to public servants under a foreign government are of this
nature. Many a patriot has been drawn away from his path of duty by such baits
and has been so caught in the meshes as to deaden his conscience into adopting
strong measures against his own people which he would never have consented
to in his untramelled and detached state. Such persons have their sense of
values distorted and their will to act has been paralysed by the lure of colourful
and comfortable existence.
Again, looking at it from the point of view of the bargaining power of capital
and labour, if any dispute should arise between the employer and the workers,
the former, having greater financial reserves, can bide his time and wait till
the power of resistance of the workers is broken. The workers who live on their
wages cannot hold out long before they are faced with dire need and
starvation. But workers, whose method of living is simple and, therefore,
inexpensive, can resist longer than those whose living is complex and
expensive. Hence also is the employer interested in advocating a complex
standard of living for his workers so that his workers may not be in a position to
bargain with him long. Apart from these reasons concerning his workers, we
have already seen how the complex modes of living afford good markets for the
manufacturers as in the case of the British gardener's household. So both on the
side of production and that of sales, the complex standard is a profitable one
for the manufacturers.
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Industrial nations, like America follow such a policy as being one of 'enlightened
self-interest' but it is inimical to man's freedom of action and growth of
personality.
There are other objectives in introducing or following a complex standard of
life, but as these do not concern the masses intimately we shall but give a
passing notice to such.
Ostentation calls for a complex standard. A person may put his servants in
uniform to attract attention or appear distinguished. A uniform sinks the
personality of the servant and makes him a mere functionary. He ceases to be
'Rama' of 'Din Mohamed' and becomes 'Boy', Bearer, Peon, Chaprasi, 'Driver' etc.
Such servants (poor creatures that they are) do not possess such finery in
private life and so hug these uniforms and are proud of them. Ostentations
spending has been well termed 'conspicuous waste'. Such habits, in a poor
country like ours, must be regarded 'criminal waste'.
Then exclusiveness can only be ensured by a complex standard. Travelling first
class or paying high rents to live in aristocratic localities are of this category.
For our country no one standard can be fixed. Any form chosen will have to be
selected after fully taking into consideration the local demands of nutrition,
climate, facilities for human progress, opportunities for expressing personality,
etc.
In South India, rich as staple food may be adequate but it must be unpolished
and balanced with other articles like milk, dhal, vegetables, fat, etc. The
climate here may not call for much clothing or any foot-wear and a mat may be
sufficient bedding. In the North, wheat may do duty as a staple with other
articles to balance the diet. The severe cold of winter may call for more
clothing and foot-wear, charpoys or cots etc. So what is a necessity in one
place may be a superfluity in another. Hence the need to judge the mode of
life in close relationship with local circumstances and environment.
If the norm chosen is to lead to permanence and non-violence, it should fit into
the local economy of the people. We have, in an earlier chapter, noticed how
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nature works in cycles, the life of one unit forming the complement of another-
and how, if this cycle is broken, violence is generated accompanied by
destruction. The accepted standard of living, besides providing the opportunity
for the development of one's faculties and laying out the method of expressing
one's personality, should also form a link between the various members of
society whereby the better equipped help the less fortunately placed ones.
The British gardener's beds may be equipped with spring mattresses. These are
manufactured in factories with the labour of those who formerly, were helpers
in the gardener's household cleaning carpets and washing dishes-but were
displaced by labour-saving devices and drawn away by the factory owner by the
lure of a complex standard of life. Such mattresses are made of steel springs
which are themselves factory products. If any part of the mattress requires
attention the factory's 'service squad' will have to be called. There is no organic
unity between the life of the people and the production of such a mattress.
Our Dewan, leading a high but simple life, may sleep on a mat, not necessarily
a coarse one. It may well be a 'Patumadai' creation with silk warp and made of
reeds split into thirytows or even finer. Those mats are cooler than quilts or
mattresses and they are local products. The making of these provides scope for
the matweavers to develop their sense of art and skill in workmanship and
affords an outlet for their creative faculty; thus it helps in building and
expressing their personality. These mats have various artistic designs worked
into them and are so supple that they can be folded like silk. They are clean
being washable. Of course, the high quality ones are expensive. Mats may range
from 8 annas a pair to Rs. 200 each according to the material used and
workmanship involved. What the Dewan may spend on these will go directly to
support and maintain the artisans and their families and so forms a complete
cycle with the locally available reeds which constitute the raw materials. Such
an economy does not require the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to secure
their raw materials, find or make the markets and to keep the long ocean lanes
open and safe. Hence, they have no need of violence, as would be the case if
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the Dewan patronized spring mattresses made in Britain and included them in
his 'Standard of Living'.
Similarly also the Dewan's dhoti and other clothing, being of fine Khadi, made
to order, will encourage local spinners and weavers and afford them full scope
for development.
In such a manner, everyone of our requirements should be so linked up with
local production and the life of the people around us as to form a solid well-
knit economy. Only then will it lead to permanence, as it will promote healthy
growth without destruction by violence.
Frequently, the standard of life is described in terms of money and materials
without any reference to the lives of those around us. Such standards are
artificial and so are unstable and being superimposed and superficial will not be
permanent having no root in the very life of the people. The British gardener's
standard of life is laid out in that fashion. Such lead to regimentation and
standardization which are soul-killing.
There is no need thus to determine all the details that go to make life. What
we need to do is to take care of the minimum that is essential, and direct the
productivity of the people by conditioning their environments and making raw
materials etc. available to them, and then safely leave the rest to their
initiative and their ingenuity without further interference. Just as, if we want
to raise the level of water in a tank, all we need to do is to increase the
quantity of water in the tank. The level will rise of its own accord in obedience
to nature's laws without any further aid from us.
If people in our country are starving or going about ill-clad, they are neither
sliming for a beauty contest nor are they following the cult of the nude! They
know how and what to eat and what to put on. What is needed is not a
schedule but the goods-articles of food and clothing. We have to take steps to
make it possible to produce these in needed quantities.
If we increase productivity of the masses and direct consumption, so as to
afford a ready local market, the standard of living of the people will
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