Venu Madhav Govindu - A larger freedom: Gandhi’s thinking on constructive work
Amongst left-leaning
historians, David Hardiman’s engagement with Gandhi is rather unique. A
founding figure of the once influential Subaltern school, Hardiman has been an
important historian of modern India with a specialisation in the social history
of Gujarat. His account of the Kheda satyagraha and its aftermath (Peasant
Nationalists of Gujarat: Kheda District 1917-34, 1981) was rich in
empirical detail but was also shaped by leftist shibboleths against Gandhian
nationalism. Over the decades since, Hardiman has engaged in a reassessment of
his views on the significance of revolutionary violence as a means of political
transformation, and specifically on the role and significance of Gandhian
non-violence in India’s struggle for freedom. This ability to question one’s
own certitudes is an altogether rare trait, especially amongst intellectuals.
Hence, one must seriously reckon with his current project of examining Indian
nationalism through the lens of non-violent resistance.
In a recent article
(A different way to fight), Hardiman sheds light on the
efficacy of non-violent resistance in political transformation. He also states,
in passing, that Gandhian constructive workers helped “people in their everyday
needs”, thereby gaining “the sympathy of the masses”. He further argues that
“it requires long years of patient organisation in constructive work that gains
mass sympathy for a cause — the protest comes only as a culmination”. Such a
characterisation might lead the reader to believe that the primary objective of
constructive work was to gain mass sympathy, only to be deployed towards the
anti-colonial project. Indeed, both the British rulers and many Congressmen
often saw it as a mere tool for furthering the politics of the Congress.
However, we get a very different picture if we move beyond the 1920s and
examine the evolution of Gandhi’s own thinking and activities in the 1930s.
Throughout his public
life in India (1915-48), Gandhi devoted his energies to both the political
campaign for India’s freedom as well as a range of socio-economic interventions
that were clubbed under the rubric of constructive work. Such activities
included communal harmony, the removal of untouchability, sanitation, khadi,
village industries and basic education or Nai Talim. While much scholarly
attention has focussed on Gandhi as a political leader, relatively little
research has been carried out towards understanding constructive work. Even the
little attention devoted to khadi is primarily owing to its symbolic
significance in the political struggle against the Raj... read more:
