The Web of Freedom: An Excerpt

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:42:44 +0000

The value of Kumarappa’s work lies in his ability to present an economic philosophy while working to improve village industries. Right at the inception of the All-India Village Industries Association (AIVIA) in 1934, Kumarappa was clear that while the industries that had long sustained millions’ were languishing, if India ‘was to progress economically and culturally it was imperative that the villages had to become centres of activity’. If the villager had to have social and economic autonomy, the villages had to be made ‘self-dependent, self-supporting and self respecting’. An important, and often forgotten, aspect of this understanding was the emphasis that both Gandhi and Kumarappa laid on adapting and modifying the village economy ‘to meet the present-day needs’. Kumarappa repeatedly emphasized that the entire effort of the AIVIA was ‘to bring science and progress into the stagnant pools that are called “villages” today’. The AIVIA intended to assemble and disseminate reliable and scientifically validated information on all aspects of village-based production as well as carry out research work on its own. But if science was to be brought to bear on the problems of the villages, the association needed trained workers. In a lament that is strikingly contemporary, Kumarappa pointed out that capable individuals ‘end up in town in search of secure employment’ and ‘the artistically inclined deserted the indigenous art’. The cumulative impact of this process for many decades has only ‘brought ruin and distress to our country-side’. Sapped of skill, energy and hope, the villagers had neither ‘the enterprise … nor the resources to carry out experiments’ towards improving their methods of production.