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

Economy of Permanence

not shirk the routine labour and discipline involved in manufacturing such
metal. They took work as nature meant it to be. Hence we have this monument
declaring that fact to us today.
One would associate the idea of wealth and comfort with the industry of mining
gold. But this system of relegating drudgery to one class and appropriating
pleasure by another has made the district of the most famous gold mines in
India one of the poorest localities. The farmer of that district has been reduced
to such a wretched condition financially that he is driven to maintain a 'dual
purpose cow', i.e., a cow yields a few drops of milk at one time and when dry is
used to plough the land !
While on a visit there I was taken down the shaft of one of the deepest mines,
about 7000 ft. There in darkness made visible by small Davy's lamps men
worked in tunnels, blasting the rock, in dust, in dirt and danger from morning
till evening for a pittance that hardly helped to keep the wolf from the door.
The strain of this labour was so great that men were completely done up when
brought up into the fresh air and light. This district contributes the greatest
revenue from liquor to the State. Is it a wonder that after the nerves of the
miners had been strained to this extent they should find refuge in the oblivion
provided by merciful alcohol? Venereal diseases are also rampant among such
miners. Wherever the nervous system is overwrought it is but to be expected
that it will naturally rush for relaxation made available in wine and women.
This is a pathological condition of the human constitution. At the end of my
visit, when the manager of the mine asked if I could suggest any social welfare
work that he can introduce for the betterment of the conditions of life of the
miners I gave him these two alternatives-1. The best welfare work will be to
restore the dignity of work and labour by closing down such a mine, or in the
alternative, 2. To provide more liquor shops to enable the men to drown their
miseries. It is needless to say that these shocked the manager, and that neither
of them were found acceptable as the company was one which paid the
heaviest dividends. Money and gold were much more to them than human
beings.

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If we are to derive full benefit from work as designed by nature we have to
keep as close as we can to the simple original form of work without dividing it
up into its ineffective parts.
Wages: We saw that nature rewarded work in a wholesome manner by
conferring benefits on the worker. Such benefits derived from work are the
natural wages.
As life became more and more complex, division of labour was brought into
being by man with a dole in the form of a money wage representing a share of
the natural benefit derived on the whole. But such complications need not
carry us off our track if we constantly keep the true function of work before us.
Unfortunately, since the appearance of the wage system, the emphasis had
shifted from the function of work to the product of work, so much so that today
the product holds the field to the exclusion of the function. An employer thinks
of the product he can sell with the greatest profit in the open market. He pro-
ceeds to obtain such products with the least cost. He offers a wage for making
it. The overcrowded labour force volunteers in keen competition to produce
the articles for a wage whatever may be the moral outcome, conditions of
work, the methods adopted and their consequences. No scale of values other
than money enters into the equation. In this manner, work has been
commercialised and labour has been degraded into a commodity at the disposal
of the highest bidder. The employer seeks to obtain his labour at the cheapest
rate possible.
A slave trader wants sailors to man his ships to transport slaves captured in the
West Coast of Africa to the plantations of the U. S. A. or a poppy planter wants
labour on his estate for producing opium to be forced down on China. The
required labour should be forthcoming regardless of any social or moral
consideration, other than money wages. Thus moral values etc. are sought to
be sterilised.
When a mother nurses her baby or cooks food for her children she functions in
the way intended by nature in the 'Economy of Service'. All the return she gets
is the joy of seeing her children well fed and happy-that is her wage'.
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From this there is a fall to the 'Economy of Enterprise' when a wet nurse feeds
the baby or a hired cook prepares the meals. In either case the mother's work
and function has been commercialised. The wet nurse and the cook derive their
satisfaction from the amount of money-wages received, the good of the
children takes a secondary place.
A mother nursing the child
Then we descend further to the 'Economy of Predation' when the natural other's
milk is sought to be substituted not out of mere necessity but to preserve the
mother's 'figure', and the poor baby is bottle-fed on synthetic milk. The
manufacturer does not worry about the baby but is only concerned to push his
goods in the market by all forms of claims for his product and concern for the
mother's 'figure'.
When the extravagant claims of baby feeds do not bear any close relation to
facts we go right down to the 'Parasitic Economy' where the profit made is the
overruling consideration irrespective of any harm that may befall the baby.
Thus ultimately the natural function of the mother is sought to be performed by
various agents for a money reward. Thus the dignity of work of the mother is
lost along with the healthy constituents attached to it, all that is left being
pure commerce which is bought and sold for money.
At one time, Kashmir used to manufacture a kind of carriage rug with furry
appearance-somewhat like a turkish towel—these were extremely soft and
warm and needed skill in making them. They also took a long time to produce
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with the consequence that they were comparatively expensive. These gradually
fell out of use-yielding place to mill-made rugs.
Once a worker of the Charkha Sangh found some poor labourers breaking stones
for road making. On enquiry he discovered these were skilled weavers of this
type of rugs who were specialists in that particular department of the art.
When their product was dislodged they lost their occupation and the world of
art the use of their trained faculties.
By the shifting of the emphasis from work to the product, skilled workmen are
reduced to stone breakers. Is this an economic and natural utilization of human
faculties? Such is the degradation of work caused by the money wage system
ignoring the function of work.
Importation of manufactured wares have deprived artisans of the benefit of
ennobling work. Earlier we noticed how independent farmers in England were
converted into subservient 'hands' in British Factories. The imports of the
products of such factories have driven human beings in our country to compete
with dumb animals for a livelihood. In most cities it is a common sight to see
man taking the place of bullocks and horses in drawing carts and rickshaws.
This is the counterpart of the 'Labour Saving Devices' in the industrialized
countries. It may save labour in England, but drives men in India to desperation
to find the where-withal to keep body and soul together. What may cause
plenty *n one sphere should not create scarcity in another, if it lays claim to
solve problems without bringing in its wake a crop of fresh difficulties. Is it
progress to reduce a skilled artisan into a stone-breaker or a rickshaw puller,
and thus make them compete for the fodder of animals?
We have restore work to its pristine glory as the moulder of character and the
developer of the best in human faculties. This can be done only by releasing
work from its fetters and allowing it free scope to function naturally.
Man needs the fire of work to let him glow with the radiance of life. Proper
work will radiate warmth, not only to the actual worker, but to all those
around. When a devoted mother works hard for her children not only does she
find her own happiness in it but the whole household comes under effect of her
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love and devotion. The children are well-looked after in body and in mind and
they will grow up to be sturdy citizens. A nurse or a house-keeper, however
efficient, cannot replace a mother in the home.
In the same manner, the true function of work cannot be performed by the
mere bait of money wage. Just as mother-love cannot be bought or sold, the
professional interest in work loses much by commercialization.
A physician, who takes an interest both in the patient and the disease, and
studies every case diligently, will gain much more experience and knowledge
than one who attends on his patient for the fees he gets. The former works
because he loves the work, the latter practices because of his desire for
wealth. The first is strictly a professional man while the second is but a trader
in medicine and so far as he prescribes patent medicines he becomes a
salesman of the manufacturers. A man may be dying but in a money-based
economy, if he has not the money to pay the fees of a good physician he will
not be given any attention. Another man may be just fussy, but if he has a fat
purse, all the medical profession will be at his beck and call.
In the same way, a lawyer who takes a moral interest in his case and deals with
it on that level is a professional man, while another who takes his case for the
fees he is paid, is only commercializing law. There is many a man rotting
behind bars today just because he is not able to produce the wherewithal to
satisfy the voracious appetite of his lawyer.
Unfortunately, every walk of life has been brought down into the market place
and is held firmly under the grip of money economy, so much so that it is hardly
possible to meet with professional persons with a human outlook.
In all these cases we have examined, the emphasis has shifted from work to
wages, and as there is no creative factor in wages, progress is absent. People
deplore that the science of medicine in our country has not produced any
research-worker worthy of notice. The reason is not far to seek. The profession
is being practised on the level of the 'Parasitic Economy' or that of 'Predation
Few indeed reach that of the 'Economy of Enterprise'. The rare ones in the
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'Economy of Gregation' or that of 'Service' are hardly effective because of the
enormous field and the lack of facilities in an organized fashion.
Such dearth of true and honest workers is felt in every sphere of life. Perhaps it
is indispensable in a money-ridden economy where the emphasis has shifted
progressively from work to wages and produce.
If the nature of work is properly appreciated and applied, it will stand in the
same relation to the higher faculties as food is to the physical body. It
nourishes and enlivens the higher man and urges him to produce the best he is
capable of. It directs his freewill along the proper course and disciplines the
animal in him into progressive channels. It furnishes an excellent background
for man to display his scale of values and develop his personality.
Conclusion: We have noted that the attempt at division of labour ended in
shifting the emphasis from the function of work, and fixing it on the produce as
far as the owner of machines was concerned, and on wages in regard to the
workers. The consequence of this has been disastrous in that the most
important aspect, the reaction of work on the worker has been lost sight of.
We also noticed that in nature the motive for cooperation war the self-interest
of the worker and the benefit derived directly. The honey-bee does not
consider the fertilizing of the plants as its primary duty but concerns itself
mainly with obtaining nectar and pollen which, from the point of view of
nature, are its full and undivided wages for services rendered.
Division of labour has also resulted in subdivision of the benefits derived into
profits, salaries, wages, rent, interest etc. which has had the effect of
depriving the worker of the bulk of the fruits of his labour. The exploiter has
stepped in and has carried away a large slice of the benefits like the wax-moth
in a honeycomb eating away the products of the activity of the bee.
Our analysis leads us to the conclusion that self-interest is the only incentive in
nature for creatures to extend their co-operation. All efforts to nibble away
such benefits are contrary to the Economy of Permanence and will lead to
violence sooner or later. Socialists, who aim at equitable distribution but plan
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on collecting the profits together first and then set about distributing, are
going counter to their bountiful nature, which rewards directly. This socialist
method also will spell violence in the long run.
Planning : Though this is not the place to consider in detail a proper scheme of
Planned Economy, yet it may not be out of place to point out at this stage that
no plan centering its consideration solely on products and wages will be in
alignment with nature. Any plan to answer our purpose and to lead to the
achievement of the Economy of Permanence will have to be centered on the
function of work, and be founded on the capacity and the nature of the human
being for whom the work is intended.
A farmer had his grains harvested and stored in his barns, rats made inroads on
his stock. Then he considered the problem and planned his household based on
the ways of nature. To keep the rats away he obtained a cat: the very nature of
a cat being to hunt down the rats, his method was in accordance with the
natural order. Then to feed the cat he bought a cow and, finally, to look after
the cow and the household he married a wife! Such functional planning will
lead to success.
Unfortunately, most of the plans that are brought out at present are product-
centered with a certain amount of attention paid to wages. As in Germany and
Russia, such plans will no doubt produce quick results, but they will not be
lasting and in time will generate violence, as they do not follow the way of
Permanence.
[ In Part II of this book, while dealing with the question arising out of 'Man in
Gregation', we shall have occasion to consider our approach to a planned
economy as well as discuss such subjects as Democracy, Government or State,
Trade Exchange, Communication, Natural resources, Education, etc. ]
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PART TWO
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INTRODUCTION
In the first part of this book we considered man as an individual and saw how
he acts as a single creation. We noticed the way. Nature works and we
observed that science is our study of Nature and its working, and the object of
science is to enable man to work along the lines on which the universe moves.
Any deviation from this leads us into violence and disorder. Most creatures work
in alignment with Nature merely by instinct, but man, with his gift of freewill
and intelligence, co-operates with Nature consciously, this being the main
difference between the lower orders and man. We noted the various standards
of values that man, in this conscious existence, Utilizes to gauge his action and
the part work plays in developing and improving his faculties.
When man works in this way he is able to bring about an economy of
permanence which will do away with the need for periodic upheavals in the
form of global wars.
In this second part of the book we shall study how man lives in Gregation.
Among animals also there are to be observed forces which bring like creatures
together for certain purposes. In the case of animals of prey, such as the wolf,
they hunt in packs, their motive is self-centered and their life is parasitic.
On the other hand, we have animals which get together, for motives other than
aggression, and very often purely for defence, such as herds of cattle and
elephants. Here though taken individually each has a selfish motive in its own
safety, yet in the aggregate each has a duty in defending the whole.
The social and economic order of the West as we had observed in the first part,
being parasitic, can be placed in the pack type of gregation, depending for its
welfare on the harm it can do to other groups. From the parasitic stage we
advance on through predatory and enterprising stages to the gregarious stage.
In the gregarious stage, as we have seen, there can be two kinds, the pack-type
which represents the right-centred economy and the herd-type which repesents
the duty-centred economy.
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As man evolves, his consciousness of duties enlarges and he becomes more and
more aware, not of the benefits he gets by being a member of society, but of
the duties he is to perform towards the well-being of that society. In the final
stage he reaches the service economy in which he realizes himself in the
service of others.
In this part of the book we shall consider not the gragation of the pack-type but
man working together for the common good of mankind.
What the world needs today is the knowledge of how people can work together
and bring about general welfare of mankind without involving the destruction
of others. It may be that in this economy the apparent well being may not be
flashy but if would certainly be lasting.
The Western pack-type gregation economy is today an example of what would
be the result of following those methods. Those who have eyes to see need only
behold and note in what stare Europe is today to study the end of the pack-
type gregation. Nearly 150 years of large scale production at a feverish heat has
resulted in starvation and nakedness and lack of consumers of goods, not to
mention the millions of lives that have been lost and the untold material
wealth that has been either blown up into the air or sunk in the sea, leaving
man tearing his hair not knowing what to do next. The pack-type gregation,
therefore, is one of which we should beware, as we are interested only in
bringing about an economy of permanence. The economy of pack-type
gregation ultimately leads to conflict and destruction. Though it may seem to
flourish for a while it ends up in a conflagration and therefore it is in the long
run a transient economy. Hence we need not spend our time and effort in
studying the working of this type of economy in India.
For our part, as we are interested in an economy of permanence, we have to
study how man should act in a group and as a group to be able to work towards
an economy of permanence.
In the first part of this book we saw man's action individually in the group. We
studied the values that should govern his consumption.
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In this second part we shall see how man should act as a group in production as
well as in distribution. Here there are three forms in which man may be said to
work as a group. (1) In production he works individually, though in certain
processes he may have to combine with others similarly placed. This part of
man's work along with his neighbours, considers not only his interest, but also
theirs and in the long run his larger interests. (2) Then man works jointly, in a
group of similar interests, this we call co-operative effort, which is the second
type of work in gregation. (3) Then comes the third type where the short range
work having been assigned to individuals and co-operative bodies, the purely
long range work is taken up by a body of selfless individuals who perform their
duties purely with a view to benefit society at large. Such a group we call the
State. At the present time it is difficult to point out anywhere in the world
where the State is composed of the type of individuals who would be qualified
to undertake this responsibility. The present forms of States are largely failing
in their duty towards the common man.
We shall first take up planning for the group, then we shall consider how
economic activity is carried on by individuals in conjunction with their fellow-
being. Then we shall look at the various functions that can be done by co-
operative effort, and finally we shall study how the State can work and what
the State can do to accomplish the ends for which the people are striving. In all
of these we have to keep before us the various principles we have studied in
the first part, as these will also govern the actions of men when they act in
gregation.
The scheme put forward in part I and part II, if worked out thoroughly, ought to
lead us ultimately to social order based on non-violence which should provide
the people with plenty as far as their primary needs are concerned and would
bring about peace amongst nations.
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THE NEED AND NATURE OF PLANNING
What is it that we plan for? Many people think that national planning is a very
intricate matter to be understood only by technicians and experts. Planning will
have no life if the man in the street does not understand what we are planning
for. We cannot call it national planning if the farmers do not comprehend the
purpose of it and lend their whole-hearted support to the carrying out of the
plan. Unless we are able to get that intellectual understanding we shall not be
able to carry through our plan, except by tremendous violence as has been
done in Russia. We do not want bloodshed to carry out our plan. The people
should understand whether or not what is laid before them is to their interest.
If they approve of it we shall have their willing co-operation.
Our object is to organise the villages for a happier, more prosperous and fuller
life in which the individual villager will have the opportunity to develop both as
an individual and as a unit of a well integrated society. This has to be done by
using local initiative and local resources to the utmost extent possible in the
economic, political, and social fields, building these on cooperative lines. Self-
reliant and properly organised life in the villages will thus be the aim of our
planning. Whatever schemes of activity are taken up locally should not merely
be good for the locality, but should fit in harmoniously with the general plan.
Such work should ultimately lead to the establishment of a just and democratic
social order.
WHAT IS PLANNING
Planning means the getting together of certain factors to serve an end. What
are the factors in India that we have got to get together? There may be factors
today in our plans that do not exist in other countries. Therefore, the plan that
Russia has taken or the plan that England or America has followed need not
necessarily be the same that will lead us to the goal.
When the plan of Great Britain is mentioned it will cause astonishment. People
have never heard of it. The British do not plan but they work to plan. That is
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their genius. They get every man to work to a certain plan. Were there no plans
there would have been no British Empire and there would be no British trade.
So the whole of their financial schemings and imperial preferences, the fleet,
and the shipping policy-all these make the plan. It may not be a national plan;
it may be a London centred plan, or may be a Bank of England centred plan;
but it is a plan all the same.
Therefore all these plan whether it is the Soviet Plan, or the American Plan, or
the British Plan-they all have certain factors for their background. If these
factors do not exist in our country and those circumstances do not hold good
here at present, and yet if we plan on the same lines as they had done, then
we shall surely fail.
PLAN OF ACTIVITY
In India, afflicted with poverty, dirt, disease and ignorance, our plan should
cover the following main centres of activity.

1. Agriculture
2. Village Industries.
3. Sanitation, Health and Housing.
4. Village Education.
5. Village Organisation.
6. Village Culture.
   THE AIM
   When the Russians planned, Russia was under the Czarist regime. The
   aristocrats were rolling in wealth and the peasants were extremely oppressed.
   Naturally, the peasants said: "When we come into power, we must be rolling in
   wealth." Rolling in wealth means satisfying a multiplicity of wants-palatial
   houses, plenty of material goods, pleasures and the rest of it-and they made
   that their goal and they worked towards that. Their plans took root in that soil.
   It has been repeatedly stated that we want to remove poverty. Poverty again is
   a term which requires definition. Poverty, somebody said, is inability to meet

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your wants. But what is your want? Is a Rolls-Royce car a want? If you cannot
meet that want, are you poor? If a lady wants a lipstick and has not got enough
cash to purchase it, is she poor? There are wants which are primary needs, and
there are also wants which are artificially created. There are wants without
satisfying which a human being cannot live; they are needed for the expressing
of his personality and for the existence of his physical body. These are the
natural wants we shall endeavour to supply, not the artificially created wants.
What is the greatest of primary needs? First comes food. We may go without
clothing, but we cannot go without food. In our country we are having not
occasional famines, but repeated famines, and, therefore, the primary factor in
our plan must be the attempt to meet that situation. Food and the prevention
of famines; how are we going to achieve that? Is it by application of Capital?
Many people come out and say: "You apply capital and then your results will be
so much more". Learned economists have worked out the amount of capital to
be applied and the percentages of increased production that will result from it,
as if we have only to pour capital into the fields before they come up in crops!
That cannot be the case.
In our country, the tremendous factor for production is human labour. If we
wish to meet our needs we have got to utilise this enormous factor producing
commodities to satisfy hunger.
As regards the method of production, there is general feeling abroad that we
can build up the economic condition of the people by introducing large
centralised units of production with modern machinery. This is a conception
that requires to be examined carefully before we yield to it. Organising
economic production means bringing together various factors in the proper
manner. The chief of such factors are natural resources, capital equipment and
labour. Under varying conditions varying combinations of these may be called
for. In Britain, at the time of the Industrial Revolution, capital was plentiful
and so in their method of production capital equipment looms large. In the U.
S. A. labour was scarce while natural resources were almost inexhaustible,
hence they took to labour-saving devices leading to the advent of machinery.
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Expansion of such an economic organisation will naturally lead to "saving of
labour¹¹ or, in other words, creation of unemployment. Hence, in our county,
where capital is scarce and labour is plentiful, the methods followed in Great
Britain and the U.S.A. will naturally be out of place.
Man himself is a machine of a fine type with this difference that, unlike a
mechanical contrivance, he has to be kept alive by feeding whether he works or
not. Hence, even if we produce materials for consumption by mechanical aids
the people will have to be fed. Therefore, the efficient utilization of the
factors available will indicate extensive use of man-power as the normal
method of production in our country. If we fail to adopt this mode we shall be
guilty of throwing away the great labour wealth of our country. Such a course
can never lead us to prosperity.
The well-being of a nation does not consist merely in the output of material
production. This production is important only in so far as it enables the people
to meet their wants. In the first instance, therefore we must proceed to
organize the people to produce goods to satisfy their own needs, in regard to
food materials to afford them an adequate diet, clothing to protect them
against the weather and proper shelter; then we should arrange for their
physical, mental and moral welfare by making available medical aid, education
and other social amenities. Before these elementary, needs are fully met. It
would be folly to aim at producing goods for the export market. Money in itself
satisfies nothing except the miser's pleasure of counting it. Money is not an end
in itself. If our organization is such as to put much money in the hands of the
people and yet let them starve for lack of food materials, it would stand
condemned. Hence, our first care is to see that the people are satisfactorily
fed, clothed and housed, and only after these necessities have been adequately
provided for can they be allowed to indulge in other production. To direct
economic activity into this course is the first duty of any government worth the
name.
Apart from the mere satisfaction of the physical needs of the people we should
aim at inculcating the spirit of self-help, mutual aid, and a consciousness of
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social solidarity. When we achieve this and we shall have travelled a long way
on the road to Swaraj through self-sufficiency.
Here again we have to bear in mind that our plan concerns not merely a few
people but every citizen in this country. The plan that we propose, if it is to be
a satisfactory plan, must touch every living person in India. A broad-based plan
like that, in a poverty-stricken country as ours, where finance is not available,
cannot be based on the presumption that capital is available. Hence, any plan
based on the availability of capital is out of court in India, and any plan that
leaves out the primary need of supplying food is also out of court, and any plan
that omits to take note of the factor of Indian labour wealth cannot be a proper
plan for India. The Western plans are material centred. That is to say, they
want to exploit all resources. To what end? That they were not sure of. Tables
and chairs do not satisfy our primary needs.
If it is to be a plan for India, the plan must centre round the farmer first and
then grow out of it for the whole country. It may be that ultimately we may not
bt as rich as England or America but we will have sufficient food. England was
on the brink of starvation five years ago.
Therefore, self-sufficiency in food and clothing should be one of the prime
features in any plan for India. If every village cannot be self-sufficient in food
and clothing, it is no use having Swaraj. We want to assure to everybody
enough food and clothing. And unless we do that, it is no plan for our country.
The Tata-Birla Plan and others of its ilk require thousands, and thousands of
crores of rupees to get them going. For this plan we do not require much money
because we are not working on a thing which we have not got. We are only
rechannelling the people's activity, we are only showing them the right way, we
are only regulating their natural activities, and thereby we control the
activities of millions of people into desirable lines.
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II. AGRICULTURE
Our first care must be food and clothing. To this end we must concentrate on
Agriculture and Village Industries. Agriculture production should be regulated
and controlled keeping in mind two main considerations :

1. The locality must try to produce all its own food requirements and raw
   materials for primary necessities of life.
2. It must aim to supply raw materials suitable for village industries rather than
   for factories : for example, instead of growing thick rind sugarcane of long
   staple cotton, as demanded by the factories, soft rind sugarcane as can be
   crushed by the village 'kolhus' for gur making and short staple cotton as
   required for hand spinning should be grown. The surplus land can be utilized to
   supplement crops needed by surrounding districts. Land utilized for sugarcane
   for the factory, tobacco, jute and other money crops should be reduced to the
   minimum, and, if need be, even eliminated altogether. In order to make the
   farmers adopt this policy, utilization of land should be regulated by issuing
   licenses by the government authorising the farmer to grow certain crops only
   according to the plans for the province and heavy dues and extra land revenue
   should be levied on land used to raise money crops. This will restrain the
   farmer's incentive to go in for money crops in preference to food crops. On the
   whole, prices of agricultural products should be made to compare favourable
   with those of industrial products by suitable control.
   Commercial crops such as tobacco, jute, sugarcane etc. are doubly wasteful.
   They reduce the food production for man as well as for animals which would
   otherwise have got their fodder from food crops.
   Primary products like cereals and milk should not be allowed to be used for
   commercial purposes for obtaining starch and casien. The supply of gur which
   may fall, due to the decline in the cultivation of factory varieties of sugarcane,
   can be made good by the production of gur from palm trees now tapped for
   toddy or from those which are found or can be grown in waste lands in
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sufficient numbers as to fully meet our demand in this respect and the best of
land, which is under sugarcane today, can be utilized for the production of
cereals, fruits and vegetables that the country needs so badly.
The first thing is to start with a balanced diet. In India we have people living on
cereals only, and cereals do not provide all that is necessary for the body in a
compact form. If we can arrange our cultivation, so that every village cultivates
what is necessary for a balanced diet, w can easily secure a balanced diet. In
that way we can work out the acreage that is necessary for a particular type of
food.
It is ordinarily presumed that an acre of land provides more calories through
the production of grains than through any other food. But, apart from the
question of calories, the grains are very poor suppliers of protective food
factors. Therefore if we aim at getting these factors from cereals only huge
quantities of grains will be required. On the other hand, if the grains are
substituted and supplemented by foods like fruits and vegetables, milk and its
products, gur, nuts and oilseeds, etc., the protective food factors required to
make up a balanced diet may be obtained through lesser quantities of these
types of food than through grains alone. Even the supply of calories per acre is
greater in the case of gur and of the root vegetables like potato than in the
case of cereal grains. Thus, a balanced diet may be a double blessing and may
offer the solution to our problem. It reduces the per capita requirement of land
and at the same time, it supplies the body with all its requirements in their
correct proportions so as to keep it fit and healthy. It is calculated that the per
capita land available in India at present for food cultivation comes to about 0.7
acres. This very land which is found to be too inadequate to meet our
requirements in food according to the present distribution of cultivation
becomes sufficient in the re-ordered system of agriculture. In this manner the
land of the locality should be so distributed for the purpose of growing crops as
to provide its population with all the needed materials for a balanced diet,
clothing and all primary necessities. This aspect of the question when
thoroughly investigated and a definite plan chalked out should be enforced by
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licensing farmers to grow only certain crops on their lands. The table on the
next page shows land distribution for balanced cultivation for a population of
one lakh. This table provides far a balanced vegetarian diet yielding 2,860
calories per day for the average person and allows for the growing of cotton for
25 yards of cloth per annum per head. For non-vagetarian diet 6 ozs. of milk
may be substituted by 4 ozs. of meat or fish and one egg.
Rough calculations based on all-India statistics, which of course will differ from
place to place, have been given. If we allow 16 ozs. of cereals per individual, it
means that 65.2 per cent of our land will have to be under cereals. Similarly, if
we provide 2 ozs. of pulses per head, it means 8 per cent of our land will have
to be under that cultivation.
This table is worked out on a basis of a lakh of people. If a village or contiguous
area can grow these things in this proportion, then the people will have their
primary wants satisfied. Hence, we must aim at growing these things. The land
is a social asset, and it has got to be utilized exactly as it is needed for the
community. If a man says, "I have got so many acres of land, I am going to grow
tobacco," he has no right to grow tobacco simply because it may bring him
more money. In a society there are many j things which we cannot do as we
individually would wish. You • cannot, for instance, drive on the right side of
the road. The ownership in land is yours no doubt, but you have got to have the
use of your land marshalled in such a way that it benefits everybody.
Therefore, it is suggested that a man must take out licenses for cultivating
certain products. The man who has been licensed to cultivate linseed cannot
grow tobacco even if it paid him ten times as mush.
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Economy of Permanence
DISTRIBUTION OF CULTIVATION PER LAKH OF POPULATION
| | | | | Per lakh of population | | | |