FROM CHARKHA TO THE WHEEL

For some time my interest in rural lifestyle had been growing. This led me to Gandhiji's writings. And reading them has given me a new perspective . Gandhiji speaks about achieving self sufficiency in rural areas .He wants the villagers to dust off the laxity that has settled in them with passing time. He wants the youth of Bharat to go back to the villages and ignite fire within the villagers.
What our villagers lack is proper sanitation, nutritious food and spirit of inquiry. What they have is thousands of years of experience, morals and ethics. It would be a two way flow if youth goes back to the villages. The past one year has been an enlightening one for me. I have visited a lot of villages in maharashtra and this has reinforced my belief in this concept. I have a lot to learn from the simple,modest and hard working villagers and some to give them too.
Each village has its own unique specialty . They have with them their own unique heritage . Gandhiji's vision is to develop competency in each one of these villages so that they can harness their own art. This would help them remain connected with their past and give them employment.
One more important benefit of this approach would be that creativity and innovation would not be lost. With more impetus on mass production and services ,these seem to be losing out. We have gone from Charkha to Wheel but its effects have not been fully understood.With Charkha ,millions of rural folk had employment .And not only that they tried out new innovations . But with the Wheel (read industrialization) ,monotony has come in. Mind sharpens when worked upon. If people are not made to think , they why would they think? We are losing out a huge chunk of intellectuals to this industrialization.
Some would think i am going Al Gore, portraying a grimmer view of the scenario, but believe me friends, this is an optimist portrayal. We have grossly failed in utilizing the huge chunk of human resource we have been blessed with. We ,in city, have a shallow understanding of rural life. Much can be understood about it by going there only. We shouldn't impose our technology on them. Let us acknowledge their heritage , promote it and encourage them to find appropriate technological solutions for their problems. I am sure their solutions would be much better than us .