The Charkha and the Internet
Sudheendra
Kulkarni, ‘Music of the Spinning Wheel:
Mahatma
Gandhi’s Manifesto
for the Internet Age’,
Amaryllis
Publications, New Delhi
Of all the great figures of the 20th century,
Gandhi has perhaps best stood the test of time.
In the aftermath of a century of unprecedented mass violence, many see
in him the prophet of the only possible future for mankind, a future without
hatred, greed and lust for power.
Interest in Gandhi’s thought and actions is on the increase, and his
message to the world appears uniquely relevant.
He remains however, in many ways, an enigma.
The
one aspect of Gandhian thought that is most enigmatic is his outlook towards
science, technology and industrialization. Gandhi’s views on industrialization
did not commend themselves to the Indian intelligentsia. To many of his eminent
contemporaries, Gandhian economics seemed a throwback to primitiveness; to a
utopian pre-industrial position which was untenable in the modern world.
But
was Gandhi really opposed to industrialization and to modern science and
technology? Did he, with his unusual
ideas on development, seek to take India
States
the author of the book under review: “The
more I dug into this subject, the more convinced I became that Gandhi was far
from being an opponent of modern science and technology. On the contrary, by redefining development,
the Gandhian vision seeks to relocate that
place of science and its practical uses in the overall terrain of human affairs
where it can promote mankind’s holistic progress, and not be used for
exploitation and violence.”
The
purpose of this book is not merely to dynamite the mountain of misconception on
this score that survives even six decades after Gandhi’s death. It is not merely to demonstrate that the
moral symbolism of khadi and charkha has an abiding relevance for the
twenty-first century. Rather, it is also
to postulate that the Internet – and all other digital-era technologies
supported by it – have the potential to realize the kernel of what Gandhi had
been envisioning to achieve through the spinning wheel: a new, nonviolent,
inter-dependent, cooperative, sustainable and morally guided world order.
The
future world shaped by digital technologies could well validate and actualize
the fundamental philosophy of the spinning wheel. This possibility has arisen because the
socio-economic and political conditions that gave rise to the use of science
and technology in the pre-Internet era for the domination and disempowerment of
large masses of people, are speedily changing in the age of the Internet. A new networked global community is emerging
in which the Internet and digital technologies are providing intellectual and
practical tools to the common people to change social, political and economic
structures.
Indeed,
as far as the transformative power of the digital-age technologies is
concerned, mankind has so far seen only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The twenty-first century will bring a tsunami
of changes that will transform the material aspects of our world beyond recognition
at all levels – global, national and local.
These
technology-driven changes, the book argues, will prove Gandhi right. “For
they will mean transition from globalization to glocalisation; from
centralization to decentralization; from power and prosperity in the hands of a
few to many; from prosperity defined purely in material terms to that which
gives primacy to the richness of culture and ethical values; from unhealthy
competition to healthy cooperation; from an exploitative attitude towards
nature and its resources to an attitude of harmonious co-living. The disconnect between economics and ethics,
which the world has experienced for the past several centuries with the onset
of colonialism and the mad race to conquer distant markets, will be substantially reduced. Old technologies gave birth to this
exploitative order. New technologies, if
used wisely, will dig its grave. Several
forms of large-scale violence, such as wars between nation-states, will become
a thing of the past. Isn’t this what
khadi and the spinning wheel of Gandhi’s conception stood for?”
The
principal learning from Gandhi’s charkha movement is that technology must
empower the common man and that it should be a binding force for society to
pursue a lofty goal. Both of these are
true for the Internet. Anyone can
connect to it freely.
Anyone
can benefit from, and contribute to, the ocean of information and knowledge
contained in it. In the process, the
Internet has also become a new uniting power on a planetary scale by bringing
individuals, groups, countries and cultures together in virtual as well as real
spaces. Indeed, it is mid-wifing the
birth of altogether new communities cutting across physical, racial, religious,
economic and cultural barriers. Thus, it
has become more than a technology of empowerment; it has become an ally and a
catalyst in human evolution.
As
Jean-Francois Noubel, says, ‘We are
currently witnessing the evolution from localized collective intelligence to
global collective intelligence’.
This
can have a profound impact on the nature of economic, social, political and
governance organizations in the future.
Today’s large organizations, which are the products of the industrial
revolution, colonialism, capitalism, communism and variants of these, work
mostly on the predatory instincts of self-survival, control, conquest or
elimination of the adversary, disrespect for the environment and lip service to
human dignity. Violence in some form or
the other is hard-wired into the functioning of many of these
organizations. In contrast, the Internet
has been slowly spawning new kinds of collectivities which promote Gandhian
values such as cooperation, mutual trust and caring, sharing of resources and
collective growth.
The
author introduces a caveat here by affirming that the Internet has the potential to realize the ideals that
Gandhi associated with the charkha. However, whether its potential is
substantially realized in the coming decades or not depends on the wisdom
content of a number of other socio-political factors.
Actualization
of the enormous potential of the Internet to promote nonviolent and sustainable
development depends on the morally self-restrained conduct of individuals and
institutions. Hence this book also
contains philosophical speculation about the future of information technology, based
on some prescient thoughts of Gandhi himself on Satyagraha and Swaraj. In the Gandhian conception, Satya (Truth) also defines the moral and
ontological dimension of life, and is not merely the true-false matrix that
drives scientific research in the material world.
Similarly, swaraj means a lot more than political
‘freedom’ for a nation. It essentially
means enlightened and ethically guided self-governance, in which the ‘self’
stands as much for the individual as for the other concentric social institutions
in what Gandhi describes as the ‘Oceanic
Circle Oceanic Circle
A clarification on the
title of the book would be in order. Gandhi’s quest for truth and nonviolence
was also a quest for harmony. And the
most universal language of harmony is music.
He frequently uses the term ‘music of the spinning wheel’ in his
writings on the charkha and khadi.
All
of us netizens around the world have to ask ourselves: How can we experience
the music of harmony within ourselves when we work on the Internet? And how can we spread, and actualize, the message
of harmony through our work.
This book is not the work
of idle academic curiosity about an iconic figure of yesteryears. It is a call to action and service, based on
the author’s reflections on what Gandhi means to India
‘Music of the Spinning Wheel’ presents Mahatma Gandhi’s life and mission in an altogether new and integral light, through the prism of the perils and possibilities of the Internet Age. Perhaps for the first time in Gandhian literature, this book discovers a correlation between the amazing potential of the Internet and the moral message of the spinning wheel. It also highlights the abiding relevance of Gandhian thought and ideas – from economics to education, from nature cure to environment protection, from sex to women’s empowerment, and from politics to peacemaking and peace-building.
Supported by an original and incisive exploration, the book argues that the Internet, and the many digital technologies spawned by it, has the potential to actualize the Mahatma’s ideals. In the process, the book also dynamites the widespread misconception that Gandhi was against modern science and technology. After surveying modern science’s journey, the book makes an optimistic prediction: “The marriage of modern technologies with swarajya and satyagraha, understood in the Gandhian sense, will shape tomorrow’s just and non-violent world.”
However, the author also places a cautionary caveat: “The Internet’s potential to inaugurate a new phase in human evolution can be realized only if the world’s affairs, and also our individual lives, are radically re-ordered along a strong ethical axis. Hence the book’s inspiring call to denizens of the digital world to become ‘Internet Satyagrahis’.
‘Music of the Spinning
Wheel’ is indeed a meticulously researched re-projection of Mahatma Gandhi as a
techno-savvy seer for India India
Book Review
Dr. D. Jeevan Kumar
Professor of Political Science, and
Director, Centre for Gandhian Studies
