Gandhi - If I was made PM

"If I was made Prime Minister of the country, these would be the first things I would do : I would stop all machine-driven flour-mills and restrict the number of oil-pressing factories but install the indigenous mills all over the country. I might not destroy the existing textile mills, but certainly would not help them in any way and, in any case, would not permit new ones to be set up.

I would close all the cinemas and theatres, though I might, as an exception, permit exhibition of pictures of educational value or showing scenes of natural beauty. But singing and dancing I would stop completely. I have great regard for dancing and music. I love music indeed. I may even claim that I understand what is good music and what is not. But I would surely prohibit music and dancing which tend to pervert the minds of young men and women. I would stop the sale of gramophone records. That is, I would suggest to the Government that it should impose heavy taxes on all such life-killing activities.

Similarly, harmful drinks and drugs like liqours, tobacco and tea also should be heavily taxed so that their consumption would automat-ically decrease.

Moreover, ideal villages which are self-reliant in regard to food, which have not a single flour-mill and in which the residents grow all the cotton they need and manufacture their own cloth, right up to the stage of stitching gram-ents in their own homes, should be awarded prizes and exempted from all taxes. In such and ideal village, every resident will be his own policeman, his own doctor and his own watchman, and the people will have no time then to quarrel and fight among themselves."

MK Gandhi

Narayana Sarma Benevolent Dictator?! Gandhi had such strong streaks of fanaticism!

Aparna Krishnan emi cheddamu ? which human being, avatars included, was free of any fault :)

Vipin Sharma wishful thinking of a dreamer of utopia that could never ever come true although the dream was ideal for the spiritual land of India.

Narayana Sarma 'What to do' has always been the question. "Stop" something. "Destroy" some thing. "Not permit" something. "Close" something down. "Prohibit" something - these are important 'action' verbs, Aparna Krishnan; and what everyone could try doing is see that they are also power-centric; and if you seek some (utopian, yes) place where this power centric thinking does not exist, you would not think in these terms at all.

Narayana Sarma I am completely against liquor. I like total Prohibition. But I would see banning liquor only as an intermediate-yet-necessary step, which could help clear at least a few layers of- well, dullness- tamas- from people's minds and thus pave way for deeper transformation of existing thought processes including 'likes' and 'dislikes'. That transformation may eventually lead people to appreciate the value of the earlier- 'imposed' discipline of teetotalism- like a child appreciating its mother's decisions at some point of time- but at that point of time when I demand prohibition, I would still be using centralised Power, the very existence of which I dislike. Option to ban, if it exists, Aparna Krishnan, it could be used for any end, by anyone. Now I'd use it against liquor; tomorrow somebody else may use it against Satanic verses.

Aparna Krishnan Existance is paved with only Catch 22s !

Aparna Krishnan Do you think Gandhi did not see the point you did Narayana Sarma !

Narayana Sarma Aparna Krishnan He probably did, but come on, your excerpt does not present that angle so well :)

Narayana Sarma Aparna Krishnan Eric Fromm's analysis of Gandhi- "Gandhi's truth" was a terribly interesting read. (I read it when i was quite young) If I remember right, the central theme of the book was that our AhimsaPujari was actually very "violent" at heart. Fromm also points out, quite convincingly, that Gandhi understood that to some extent and tried to get rid of it, rather unsuccessfully. This 'power play' could as well be one of the demon's many tentacles, I dont know- and he is sadly no more to clarify.

Aparna Krishnan Yes, i can understand. That violence is in each one of our hearts also.

Aparna Krishnan Narayana Sarma , yes this excerpt was not very satisfying me also. As it did seem like a Total Dictator picture. But that is also the problem with excerpts, because the truth lies embedde din the context always. Still I shared it, is I see you too have done !