Socialists around the world never fail to use the name of Mohandas
Gandhi to push their agenda. However, Gandhi was far from
being a leftist, and his political positions were in direct opposition to the
left.
In his autobiography, Jawaharlal Nehru lamented that Gandhi put up with capitalism but considered
socialism as an inherently violent system. He added that when Gandhi used the
word ‘socialist’ to describe himself, he intended it as a peculiar form of “muddled humanitarianism” and did not mean it in the economic sense. According to Nehru,
Gandhi’s opposition to the economic ideas of socialism did not result from the
ignorance of the subject as Gandhi had “read many books on economics and
socialism and even Marxism, and [had] discussed it with others.”
GANDHI'S IDEAS ON TRUSTEESHIP !!
Gandhi was repulsed by the Marxist concepts of class wars and
violent revolutions, and as Nehru put it,
“He suspects also socialism, and more particularly Marxism, because of their
association with violence.” Nehru also complained about Gandhi’s advocacy of
trusts run by wealthy people for the benefit of others and claimed that he was “always laying stress on the idea of the trusteeship of the feudal
prince, of the big landlord, of the capitalist.”
Elsewhere, Gandhi opposed the socialist position on private
property when he told a group of land owners, “I shall be no party to dispossessing propertied classes of their
private property without just cause... But supposing that there is an attempt
unjustly to deprive you of your property, you will find me fighting on your
side.”
GANDHI'S IDEAS ON ABORTIONS !!!
Economics is not the only field where Gandhi’s ideas clash with
those of the left. Socialists in western countries are obsessed with the issue
of abortion to such an extent that it is one of the main issues which define
them. According to the
socialists, the inferior status of women in western societies is the result of
women giving birth to babies and women should undergo abortions in order to
blunt the advantage of men and become their equals. This argument has taken deep root
in western countries where millions of infants are killed every year with a large number of these deaths classified as “live
birth abortions”. Gandhi wrote of the practice of abortion in Young India, “It
seems to me clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime.”
GANDHI'S IDEAS ON RIGHT TO OWN WEAPONS !!!
Yet another issue which highlights the differences between Gandhi
and the leftists is the right to own weapons. While the left wants to outlaw guns in general with only the
communists entitled to the ownership of guns, Gandhi stated in his
autobiography that depriving the whole nation of arms was the blackest law
passed by the British.
GANDHI'S IDEAS ON ISSUE OF CASTEISM !!!
Gandhi also differed from the left on the issue
of caste. While the Marxists saw
the existence of castes as an opportunity to cause divisions by pitting
different castes against each other in order to spark a class war, Gandhi
discerned the importance of castes which played the role of economic guilds. He wanted an economic system in which various castes cooperated
with each other as equals by specialising in their trades. Gandhi was aware of
the methods of communists and socialists who caused divisions among the people
and stated that the communists and socialists “believe
in generating and accentuating hatred”.
GANDHI'S IDEAS ON INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
Apart from these issues, socialists opposed the principle
of individual freedom and looked up to the
government to solve all problems by imposing controls. In contrast, Gandhi
opposed granting power to the state as he believed that “the state represents
violence in a concentrated and organized form.” Gandhi considered governments to be
harmful as they destroyed individual freedom. He wrote in favour of individual
freedom, “I want freedom for the full expression of my personality. I must be
free to build a staircase to Sirius if I want to.” Gandhi opposed all controls
and when the topic of food control was discussed in 1947, he stated that “control gives rise to fraud,
suppression of truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity.”
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Gandhian Socialism---
Decentralization of political and economical power, a skeptical approach towards technology and large scale industrialization with an emphasis on self-employment and self-reliance are key features of Gandhian Socialism.
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India’s history books in the past sixty years have been written by
Marxists, and Gandhi’s views have been distorted to fit in with the Marxist
agenda. These books suppress Gandhi’s views on Marxism and socialism and
instead present a sanitized version of history with Gandhi merely as a hero to
be worshiped before invoking the doctrine of socialism. Instead of deifying
Gandhi as a Mahatma and blindly worshiping him, Indians would do well to
objectively examine his works and understand his political views.
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Narayan Murthy, founder of Infosys, once said he is a socialist at heart and a capitalist by profession. Gandhi wanted the capitalist or the wealth creators to be the trustees of the wealth they create. In that trusteeship remains one of the most relevant of Gandhi's concept, which something which most of us can easily relate.
