Mahatma Gandhi's Economic Thoughts on Agriculture

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi has to be counted among the epoch-making philosophers in the history of India.  He has a reputation as a pioneer of Satyagraha, a freedom fighter and a constructive social reformer.  He believed that the labor-intensive life of farmers and artisans was the best life. Gandhiji wanted to improve the economic life of the common man in India.  The majority of people in India live in villages.  Insufficient land in the village and unemployment are the main reasons for their poverty.  So he undertook the program of reviving rural industries and making agriculture a secondary business.  He gave Swadeshi vows to his followers so that industries could be created in the village.  Although the ideal of economic decentralization seemed appealing to many, including Gandhiji, he did not provide clear guidance to his followers.  So their thoughts were limited to a few villages.  As an alternative to the capitalist economy, Gandhiji proposed the idea of ​​a self-sufficient village state in the medieval period.  But with the establishment of capitalism in India, the economic exploitation of the common people began.  Because the establishment did not support them.  Gandhiji's decentralization of the economy, his opposition to machine culture, the decentralization of economic power, etc., necessitated a collective movement to put them into practice.  Gandhiji was not able to set up such a movement in India or his followers.  That is why even though Gandhiji's ideas were good, they could not be put into practice.

Objectives :- 1) To find out the reasons why the people of rural India are in the throes of economic and unemployment today.  2) To find out the real ideas of Gandhiji about the economic life of rural agriculture.

Methodology :- Using this analytical and comparative method of historical research, the article presents research based on primary and secondary historical tools.