In October 1945, two years before India's independence, Gandhi and Nehru exchanged ideas on the question of swaraj. Nehru dismissed Gandhi's idea of Hind Swaraj as outlandish. The idea of swaraj was sumamarily superseded by the modern notion of 'development', with consequences which made even Nehru himself regret his views towards the end of his life.
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/freedom-issue-2017-essay/who-killed-swaraj
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/freedom-issue-2017-essay/who-killed-swaraj
I had read the article in the link earlier and have left the following comment there:
ReplyDelete"I am not at all surprised that you did not find the word Swaraj in our constitution. After all, it was written by the children of Macaulay about who you have written in your latest essay in the Caravan magazine.
I would rather not spend time on Nehru and Gandhi and look at what can be done now.
I had great hopes that PURA will be pursued vigorously by the government of India and the states and am sad that it has not happened. Let me just elaborate a little further on this concept. Around Pune, Coimbatore and Pondicheri, but at fairly remote rural parts, a number of gated communities have come up for affluent retired people and such projects are hot sellers for builders. The idea is the same as for PURA but the target audience has changed. If the success of the gated communities are any indication, with modern wireless communication technologies and increasing reach of electricity to villages, we can indeed make PURA a success. This will prevent migration to cities and may even reverse the trend as employment opportunities in rural areas will increase."