GANDHIAN MODEL FOR INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Gandhi was perhaps the first Indian social thinker to raise the basic issue of the rural vs. urban antagonism in colonial societies. He had also raised the equally important issues of agricultural vs industry, small vs large industry, labour-intensive vs capital-intensive techniques in Indian economic development. In fact, Gandhi had suggested a number of cottage industries that can be started in villages. These included khadi industries, gur making, basket making, rope making, oil pressing units. Above all, Gandhi gave priority to khadi industry. According to Gandhi khadi is the Central Industry on which all other village industries revolve He has tried to evolve practical programmes for immediate economic amelioration of the masses and for the restoration of self-respect among them. He believed that economic self-sufficiency for an individual and for a nation is unavoidable. This led him to think the various problems of the country and suggested action plan to solve them. Gandhi is of the view that full employment of human resources is the basic need of a country. It is true that national income will increase if each and every person is employed fully. This can be possible to a large extent with the development of small scale possible to a large extent with the development of small scale industries with labour intensive techniques. The mechanization and large scale production cannot provide all the solutions to the problem of poverty and unemployment. Self-sufficient village economy is an ideal solution to the Indian economy.