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Gandhian socialism is the branch ofsocialism based on theHindu nationalist interpretation of the theories ofMahatma Gandhi. Gandhian socialism generally centers onHind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule authored by Gandhi.Atal Bihari Vajpayee of theright-wingBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other party leaders initially attempted to incorporate Gandhian socialism as one of the ideological influences of the party in the 1980s to moderate its Hindu nationalism, but the BJP failed to achieve electoral success from this.[1][2]
Federation of political and economical power and demonstrating atraditionalist reluctance towards themodernisation oftechnology and large scaleindustrialisation whilst emphasising self-employment andself-reliance are key features of Gandhian socialism.
Gandhian socialism was greatly influenced by ideas that he embraced from his reading ofRuskin'sUnto This Last in 1904 during a 24-hour train journey in South Africa.[3] He translated the book into Gujarati asSarvodaya (welfare of all) and summarized its contents into three main ideas:
He articulated his ideas in his work titledSwaraj andIndia of My Dreams in which, he describes Indian society, with no one rich or poor, no class conflict, where there is an equal distribution of the resources, and self-sufficient economy without any exploitation and violence.[5] Thus, Gandhian socialism differed from Western socialism because the latter believed in material progress whereas Gandhi considered every one materially equal.[6] AsJawahar Lal Nehru puts in his biography, "he suspects also socialism, and more particularlyMarxism, because of their association with violence." He believed his style of socialism came from the strong beliefs he held in non-violence and not those adopted from any books.[7] Many experts observed that, similar to other schools of socialism, Gandhi's concept of socialism was a result of ethical considerations, but had nothing to do with class-consciousness as professed by the western socialism.[8] There was also a religious aspect of Gandhi's socialism. To understand Gandhi's socialist philosophy, asRomain Rolland observed; "it should be realized that his doctrine is like a huge edifice composed of two different floors or grades. Below is the solid groundwork, the basic foundation of religion. On this vast and unshakable foundation is based the political and social campaign."[9]
The key aspects of the economic policies of Gandhian socialism are based on ethics. According to Gandhi: "Economics that hurts the moral well-being of a human or a nation is immoral and, therefore sinful". Hence, Gandhian socialism roots for economic social justice by promoting equality for all.[10] Evolving from this ideology, the economic components of Gandhian socialism are centered aroundSwaraj, resulting from complete economic freedom. This is achieved through self-sufficiency and self-reliance, where, everyone gets an appropriate share of his labor. According to Marbaniang, Gandhian social economics argues "for a decentralized, nonparliamentarian, and autonomous rural communitarian self-governance based on the concept of the dignity of labor and the individual ethic of nonviolent social cooperation."[11] Therefore, Gandhian socialism advocates a society without economic classes, which Gandhi termed it asSarvodaya.[12][13] An example of this concept can be seen in the implementation ofPanchayat Raj in India.[14] In 1938, during the formulation of an economic plan for the post-independent India, it was noted that the planning under a democratic India should be based not only on raising thestandard of living by copying varioussocialist,capitalist, or afascist nation's plan, but it should be centered towards its roots firm in Indian soil and India's problems.[15]
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