In an earlier post 'The present disorder in the nation', I ended with a question as what could be an alternative to modern-day chaos. This post tries to answer that question, with a proposal listing fundamental principles of economics, governance and education.
Basis 1: Economics
Basis 1: Economics
A
large society, or nation, is a collection of sustainable communities.
Economically, it is important that every community be sustainable in
itself, in as much as it produces a large number of its needed goods.
Every citizen is assured of a livelihood in that community itself.
When we don't have this, then we see the sorrow of migration,
exploitation and poverty.
A
community is a socio-economic-ecologic unit; a sustainable
community implies that social concerns, economic concerns and
environmental concerns are all effectively addressed within the
system. This underscores the fact that livelihood is not just about
'making money' – it is a socio-economic-ecologic action. Every
family is provided opportunity to be industrious – it works to
produce goods needed by itself and its community, it derives
satisfaction from that action and result, the work is done in social
harmony, strengthening the social fabric, and that work, done on and
using natural resources, ensures ecological balance.
Any
movement towards a just, equitable and sustainable order will
naturally reduce and minimise the role of money, of money-lenders, of
financial speculation. It will naturally move towards eliminating
exploitation.
To
realise such a self-sufficiency, our economic principles would
be:
1.
Zero-debt system; no domestic debt, no foreign debt. This implies
zero fiscal deficit planning.
2.
Production-driven economy: Cottage-level production, community-level
industry.
3.
De-centralised focus: Distributed production, diverse methods,
diversity of products.
4.
Maximum consumption within the community, within the district.
Minimal transportation.
5.
Appropriate use of technology for sustainable communities. Innovation
in mechanical devises, animal power and renewable energy, minimal use
of coal and petroleum energy.
Since
Agriculture is the most important component of self-sustainable
economic activity, we can derive the sub-principles of
agricultural production as:
a.)
Natural farming methods based upon principles of sustainability.
b.)
Zero use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
c.)
Zero-budget farming - no loan-based activity.
d.)
Farming for self-sufficiency, for self-consumption, to aim to produce
more than one's needs.
Basis
2: Governance
A
sustainable community can be a village, it can be a group of
villages, or for certain objectives of self-sufficiency, we can even
have the district as a community unit. Logically, therefore,
governance, too, should have a decentralised focus. Local
self-governance of gram sabhas are of greater importance to the
citizen than the state or central government. Governance can then be
rightly addressed towards strengthening socio-economic principles,
ethics and education.
Unfortunately
now, we are giving too much importance, and too much power, to the
central government, a power which it has repeatedly abused. It has
made us hugely indebted, it has acted to devalue our currency, it has
signed agreements with foreign institutions which are unfavourable to
us, it has sold our national resources like forests, minerals, rivers
and mountains. But who is the central governmment? It is,
after all, a collection of our own citizens - in the form of
politicians and bureaucrats - who are given too much power for the
nation's good. They are also open to too many temptations because of
a centralised economic system, temptations offered both by Indian and
multinational businessmen, leading to most of them accumulating huge
amounts of corrupt money..
We have to take the scent of power and
money out of politics. That may not happen easily, simply by defining
some good principles, but it may not happen at all if we do not
attend to the principles and make it clear to ourselves. After this,
as awareness and acceptance of these principles gains momentum in
society, there is definite possibility that we can take the
scent of money out of politics and governance – so that then people
of right character will undertake political responsibility as seva,
and good conduct may begin to flower throughout the community.
To
promote and support such an ethical system, we would need these
principles of governance:
1.
A politician has to ensure ethical behaviour in society, that is his
work. He does this on the basis of principles of a just
socio-economic system, and by study and understanding of these
principles. All actions are rooted on these, and so the politician is
not a law-maker; he can devise rules on the basis of these
principles, that is all.
2.
All social principles rest on the spirit of justice and right
conduct. It is rooted in tradition; it espouses what is good for all,
and not just what may be good or profitable for some. The economic
principles have been listed above.
3.
The spirit of justice encompasses our relationship with nature; as a
corollary, right conduct and means of livelihood will ensure zero
exploitation and zero pollution of natural resources.
4.
Party-less local self-governance through a community, or gram
panchayat, is the basic unit, and the most important unit, of the
political system. It will ensure the success of social and economic
principles and help to remove any obstacles in its flow.
5.
State levels of governance are made up of representatives of the
district level; they will study and suggest solutions for
inter-district issues like movement of goods, sharing of natural
resources, and appropriate use of mass technology.
6.
The Central level of governance is the least important, in the
day-to-day life of the citizen. At the same time, it represents the
flowering of a national tradition of ethical behaviour; the
representatives here are primarily to provide guidance and
inspiration through their own proven expertise and understanding of
ethical principles; they will work for peace at the nation's borders,
and also enable exchanges of people between nations.
Since
we have a history of gross political mis-governance, it is important
here to add some sub-principles of what politics and
the politician may not do:
a.)
Politics is not a career. It is not a livelihood.
b.)
The politician is not a promoter of commerce and business.
c.)
The politician is not the owner of the nation's properties, he
cannot sell or mortgage national assets.
d.)
The political representative cannot sign agreements with other
nations or institutions which are contrary to our socio-economic
principles. In fact, it is the duty of the political representative
to be aware of and to correctly educate the world on India's ethical
principles.
Basis
3: Education
Why
are we stating the socio-economic principles again, 70 years after
so-called independence? Why have we strayed from these principles,
strayed so far away that we have become an exploitative,
individualistic, greedy, unjust and cruel society? Seen thus, we
begin to grasp the significance of education.
A
colonial centrally-governed education system is a hangover of British
rule, and should actually have been purged in 1947 itself. The reason
is that it removed ethics from education, it removed self-sufficiency
from education, it removed responsible living from education, and it
removed spiritual development of the human being from education.
If
we re-introduce these as the basis of education, then it will
naturally be locally rooted, culturally rooted, and the result of
education will be a strengthening of community rather than a
destruction of community. The proof of such an education will be that
contentment, beauty, joy and complete fulfillment can be seen and
realised in the community itself.
To
have a learning system which will naturally prepare us to understand
and live ethically, we need these principles of education:
1.
Schools are rooted to community; they are a part of community life,
language and customs.
2.
Learning is through direct observation; of self, family and society.
3.
Learning is from the local environment; understanding the world
through the village.
4.
Production-integrated learning - the school itself is a real
producing environment.
5.
Education should result in an ethical, confident, livelihood-ready
person. Education should result in strengthening the village or local
community.
A
question may arise as to whether all this can be achieved with our
contemporary syllabus, which is fragmentary and information-based. To
make clear the generic syllabus, we add these sub-principles
of the content of education:
a.)
Understanding the self.
b.)
Understanding the environment, the relationship of self to
environment.
c.)
Understanding the ethical principles of tradition and socio-economic
society.
d.)
Understanding right livelihood, learning skills for self-production.
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