We cannot neglect a single creature, nor can we ignore any particular part of this world. Therefore it is desirable to pursue the policy of decentralization in the management of industry as much as possible. The promotion of industry in one part of the world cannot eradicate either poverty or unemployment in any other part. So it is desirable to form self-sufficient units one by one, to produce the essential commodities of life, at least in the fields of agriculture and industry. Otherwise, people may have to face tremendous hardship and misery during war and other abnormal circumstances. With the development of transport facilities, we can increase the scope of these units.
– Problems of the Day
In the field of industry, we will have to accept the necessity of both small-scale and large-scale industries. For example, in a self-sufficient unit the requisite amount of yarn for the manufacture of cloth may be produced by many big textile mills. If the production of yarn came within the scope of large-scale industry, then with its cooperation a large number of satellite industries could flourish. We could form many weavers? cooperatives with every textile machine as the centre. There, weavers would be able to weave cloth in their own houses. They would no longer have to leave their homes at the distant call of a large-scale industry. Moreover, the weaving industry would no longer suffer even in war since textile machines would always be at hand.
– Problems of the Day
Under a capitalistic framework, [mechanization] means more misery and unemployment for the common people. Doubling the yield by using a machine will decrease the required number of labourers by half; consequently, capitalists will lay off labourers mercilessly. The unemployed labourers are ruined, bit by bit, by poverty and hunger. A few of them try to keep their souls and bodies together by indulging in theft, corruption, and other antisocial activities. This situation is certainly not desirable. No such reaction is possible in a collective economic system. There, mechanization will mean less labour and more comforts. With a double increase in the productivity of machines, the working hours will be reduced by half.
– Problems of the Day
The proper use of science under a collective economic system will only bring about human welfare. It may well be possible that due to mechanization no one will have to labour for more than five minutes a week! Being not always engrossed in anxiety about food and clothes, humanity will not misuse its mental and spiritual wealth. People will be able to devote more time to sports, literary discourses and spiritual pursuits.
– Problems of the Day
In the present age, there are so many elements hostile to morality. In urban civilization, more people live in a small area; this is the enemy of individual morality. It is essential for the moral development of an individual to live a life of solitude for some time. The city serves as an asylum for antisocial elements, but this generally doesn?t happen in villages. In villages everyone knows everyone else, and the source of each others? livelihood is known to all. In the city, even after twenty years, a person doesn?t know his neighbours, who may be scoundrels. Thus we have to keep aloof from the barbarity of city life.
This will not be done merely by speaking slogans like, “Go back to the village!” Employment opportunities will have to be created in the villages for the intelligentsia. The availability of a power supply and the expansion of cottage industries in the villages are the paramount needs of the hour. By cottage industries, I do not mean old and outmoded, but rather rationalized and well mechanized industries. Hence, decentralization is an economic necessity.
– The Opinion
Copyright Ananda Marga Publications 2011