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Gandhian Approach to Development: Implications for the Post-COVID World

In: Social Entrepreneurship and Gandhian Thoughts in the Post-COVID World

Author

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  • John S. Moolakkattu

    (School of International Relations & Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University)

Abstract

Many wonder how Gandhi would have responded to rural poverty, pandemics, and climate change. This is because conventional understandings of human organization, with their increased focus on resilience without questioning the capitalist order, have failed to instill confidence in achieving sustainability. Human greed, instead of focusing on basic needs, lies behind this predicament. This chapter draws on ideas of degrowth, solidarity economy, and, above all, the Gandhian approach to development, suggesting how villages can produce most of the goods they need and insulate themselves from corporate exploitation. In such a village-based democratic order built on self-reliance and basic needs satisfaction, health will attain a community orientation rather than an individual orientation, and production will be ecologically intensive. Gandhi was oblivious to modern environmental challenges. However, his village-based development model created the groundwork for a sustainable way of life, and its environmental implications were spelled out more explicitly by his committed economist, J. C. Kumarappa. Gandhi seems to suggest that humans can improve the quality of life even when the standard of living decreases in material terms, and calls for humility, recognizing the limits to human material and technological progress.

Suggested Citation

  • John S. Moolakkattu, 2023. "Gandhian Approach to Development: Implications for the Post-COVID World," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: Babita Bhatt & Israr Qureshi & Dhirendra Mani Shukla & Vinay Pillai (ed.), Social Entrepreneurship and Gandhian Thoughts in the Post-COVID World, pages 67-83, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:isbchp:978-981-99-4008-0_4
    DOI: 10.1007/978-981-99-4008-0_4
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