Invoking Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s Perspectives in the context of Oxfam Report On Inequality in India

The accelerated pace of globalisation at the heart of which remain neoliberal policies has resulted in higher level of inequalities causing frustration and dejection among vast masses of ordinary peoples across several countries.

PROLIFERATION OF LITERATURE ON INEQUALITY AT GLOBAL LEVEL

Internationally acclaimed  thinkers and economists have published monumental books on Inequality depicting the widening gulf between common people and a small section of the rich and wealthy and the danger it posed to social stability and harmony. In the  book “Capital in Twenty First Century” its author Thomas Pickety very graphically analysed the alarming levels of inequality in the world. Yet another landmark book “The Price of Inequality” written by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz stressed on the point that economic progress and advancement would be arrested due to massive gap in income between the privileged few and majority of People.  An article from the London Guardian on inequality in income described it as a ticking time bomb. In the context of such worldwide  concern  by thinkers and scholars on the issue of inequality it is important to invoke the perspectives of  Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who very extensively reflected on the issue and stressed on removal of social and economic disparity for creating a healthy social and economic order. In fact in twenty first century world we should invoke Mahatma Gandhi’s emphasis on Economic Equality in his remarkable publication Constructive Work published in 1943. It contained 18 points and one of the points in that publication dealt with Economic Equality which Gandhiji described as “the master key to non-violent independence”. Dr. Ambedkar’s probing analysis of graded social inequality of Indian society and the resultant social exclusion and exploitation suffered by the depressed castes has attracted the attention of international media. The editorial of the   London Guardian of  30th April 2011 on Dr. Ambedkar contained the lines based on his incisive thoughts articulated in the Constituent Assembly. 

"How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life?" asked Ambedkar. "If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril." His message, intended for 20th-century India, is just as relevant for 21st-century Britain."

The above narrative from the London Guardian amply demonstrates the global significance of the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr.B.R. Ambedkar.

Martin Luther King III, the son of Martin Luther King jr who led the Civil Rights Movement in America in the 1950s and 60s, also invoked Ambedkar to highlight the decline of opportunities for education for blacks in America.

An instructive article,  “India Maoist Group Gives up Violence” authored by N. Bhanutej and published in the AlJazeera website on 20th  December  2013,   reveals that some Maoist leaders are now quitting violence because of the impact of Dr. Ambedkar’s thoughts on them. The confession of a Maoist leader that "We realised the blunder of not studying Ambedkar (leader of the so-called lower castes or dalits). All the while, we have focussed only on Marx, Lenin and Mao. We believe that we have much to learn from the Gandhian movement as well” sums up the critical significance of worldview of Gandhi and Ambedkar in creatively channelising the violent movements for justice and equality. The observations of the leader of the Communist Party of India(Revolutionary) Shri Noor Zulfikar quoted in the article sums up the new thinking aligned to the Constitution of India. He said, “The need of the hour is not armed struggle, but a broad, democratic and open mass movement and a united front of various people's struggles. For this, we have to work in the democratic and legal framework”.

The article published in the Aljazeera website clearly brought out that the constitutional method prescribed by Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar constituted the constructive approach to redress the continuing social and economic grievances of marginalised people who are now becoming victims of inequality which is rising in India.

Oxfam Report

It is worthwhile to note that  the recent Oxfam report on inequality in the context of India brought to public domain the disturbing facts which can be seen from the perspectives of Mahatma Gandhi who had reflected deeply on issues which form part of the report. It is alarming to find the report flagging 15 shocking facts about inequality in India. Out of these 15 shocking facts four  facts need serious analysis by applying perspectives of Gandhi. The four  facts are :

1) India added 17 new billionaires last year, raising the number to 101 billionaires.

2) Indian billionaires’ wealth increased by INR 4891 billion —from INR 15,778 billion to over INR 20,676 billion. INR 4891 billion is sufficient to finance 85 per cent of the all states' budget on Health and Education.

3)Between 2018 till 2022, India is estimated to produce 70 new millionaires every day

4) Number of billionaires has increased from only 9 in 2000 to 101 in 2017

The sad part is that in  a neoliberal economy increasing emphasis has been laid on number of millionaires or billionaires produced in a country where the State is withdrawing from key aspects of collective life and the space vacated by the State is occupied by the private and corporate sector. It is educative to note that Mahatma Gandhi had indicted such an approach in a society which gave importance to the creation of millionaires. He had said that a well ordered society would be known not for producing millionaires but for eradicating poverty and hunger. So if the Oxfam report says that production of millionaires and billionaires in Indian society and concentration of wealth in their hands is a shocking fact then it means that Indian society is not a well ordered society and is replete with many fault lines which can be explosive on account of rising levels of inequality.

Gandhi stressed on economic equality as a master key to non-violent independence.

Gandhi’s inclusion of economic equality in his Constructive Work and his apt description of it as “the master key to non-violent independence” clearly and categorically cautions us that rising levels of inequality constitutes a source of violence. In fact he himself had warned that “A violent and bloody revolution is a certainty one day unless there is a voluntary abdication of riches and the power that riches give and sharing them for the common good.” He very sharply observed that “Working for economic equality means abolishing the eternal conflict between capital and labour. It means the levelling down of the few rich in whose hands is concentrated the bulk of the nation's wealth on the one hand, and the levelling up of the semi- starved naked millions on the other. A non-violent system of Government is clearly an impossibility so long as the wide gulf between the rich and the hungry millions persists.” The persistence of wide gulf between haves and have nots in India which the Oxfam Report brings out has produced many forms of violence and strained social harmony.

Illness has become an industry

The Report states that inequality in income has restricted access to health care of those who do not earn enough because of the operation of market economy. Access to health care has become unaffordable because of too many private hospitals which have come up across length and breadth of the country based on the conscious policy decision of the Government to withdraw from the health sector and allow private players to occupy that space. Too many private hospitals are now prominently visible in all clusters  of  our urban areas in this neoliberal era. It is rather disturbing to note that in such private hospitals the cost of treatment is exorbitant and, therefore, beyond the reach of the people who suffer on account of rising levels of inequality. Referring to such a situation a community surgeon of Maharashtra Dr. Anita had said that for some people “illness has become an industry.” It is educative to note that Mahatma Gandhi had anticipated such a situation and in his book Hind Swaraj written in 1909 he poignantly said that too many hospitals never constituted signs of civilization.  If one applies that insight of Gandhi to the present day situation marked by prevalence of too many hospitals providing health care at a high cost then certainly we are deficient in terms of civilizational standards. So inequality manifested in getting access to health care because of inequality of income is a negation of civilized existence.

Inequality in Income deepens gender divide

The Oxfam report notes that inequality of income deepens gender inequality as the work done by women at home is never calculated to measure our gross domestic product and because of such devaluation of women’s unpaid work they are treated unfairly at home and even become victims of domestic violence, Therefore, it suggests to take into women’s unpaid work done at home for the purpose of calculating their immense worth as builders of home and nation. It is illuminating to note that Mahatma Gandhi stressed on gender equality at home in 1922 when he wrote a primer “Bal Pothi” for school children. In that book there is a small chapter on Household Work. Gandhiji through that book wanted to teach that household work should not be exclusive preserve of women and that men should also do household work side by side with men. He wanted to generate a mindset among students that house belonged to both men and women and therefore, household work was a joint responsibility to be undertaken by them.  That sharing of household work would herald a new era of gender equality was stressed by Gandhi in the second decade of 20th century.  When that book was circulated among his associates they all protested stating that it would bring about a rebellion in the family.  When that book was referred to by the then first lady of India Smt. Usha Narayanan while addressing a meeting of women on the occasion of International Women’s Day in 1999 the Hindustan Times, a leading newspaper of Delhi, put a box item under the caption ‘Bal Pothi’ and gave adequate coverage to the idea that household work should be done by men and women.  The news item attracted the attention of late Prof. Madhu Dandavate who wrote a letter to the then HRD Minister of India Shri Murli Manohar Joshi and requested him to translate Bal Pothi to all languages and introduce it in school curriculum in all States of our country for character building and education of our children.  It is ironic that Prof. Dandavate did not get a reply from the concerned Minister.  That particular event speaks volumes for the gender sensitivity of the Minister concerned who was holding the portfolio of Human Resource Development at the national level.  In 2002 while participating in the discussion on International Women’s Day in the Rajya Sabha a nominated Member of the House Smt. Shabana Azmi stated that school textbooks contained gender bias.  To prove that point she referred to the textbooks for standard I children where there was a question “Where is mother?”  And the answer was that mother was in kitchen.  And answer to the question where is father was that father was in office.  She stated as to why such gender bias was there in the school textbooks.  She then suggested that answer to the question where is mother and father should be that both of them are in kitchen or both of them are in office.  It is heartening that a nominated lady member of the Rajya Sabha talked about removing gender bias from school textbooks. 

In Japan in every prefecture (equivalent to states of India) there is a gender equality centre.  In such centres the concerned authorities have developed literature centering around the idea that household work must be shared among men and women in the family.  In an interesting book it is shown through a cartoon that in a family both husband and wife work outside and one day the husband came home ahead of wife and was found watching TV in the drawing room.  After some time when wife entered the house the husband ordered her to rush to kitchen and cook food.  Below that cartoon a question is put as to how the husband who came home earlier than wife did not go to kitchen to cook food even though he was hungry.  In answering that question it was stated that the husband’s mind has been trained in a manner which teaches him that cooking is a responsibility of the wife even as she works like husband and earns for the family.  So in a developed country like Japan such mindsets are prevailing.  It is slowly changing by such literature which teaches the new generation that household work is not the exclusive domain of women.  This message is conveyed to the students by suitably incorporating this idea in the course curricula and transmitting it to larger society through print and electronic media.  As a result there is a change that has taken place in Japan and now men are joining hands with women in the family to do household work. 

The mindset of man that a wife is a property has to be changed.  It is because of such mindset that violence against women is perpetuated.  Even in a country like the USA when few congressmen were asked if wife beating was justified, some of them replied that wife beating once in a while was acceptable.   Such shocking affirmation concerning wife beating in a developed country like USA indicates the state of mind and psychology vis-à-vis women.  If such is the attitude of law makers in USA towards women, then one can well imagine the state of affairs in a country like ours which witnesses tragic dowry deaths. 

The fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing proclaimed that Women’s Rights are Human Rights.  This means violation of rights of women would necessarily lead to violation of human rights.  To commemorate the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing the United Nations Development Programme brought out its Human Development Report of 1995 on the theme Women and Human Development.  It is a very insightful report which threw light on gender dimension of development and underlined the point that development goals could not be achieved by excluding women from it.  It very thoughtfully observed that “If development is not engendered it would be endangered.”  Such articulations bring out the point that participation of women in the development process is a fundamental prerequisite for ensuring success and advancement of a nation.

It was Mahatma Gandhi who had stated that the progress of India had always been halfhearted because women never participated in it.  What was written by Gandhiji during freedom struggle has been articulated in the Human Development Report of 1995 where it is stated that if development is not engendered it would be endangered. 

Inequality breeds muscular nationalism

The Oxfam report also informs us that because of income inequality access to education is becoming restricted. Like private hospitals we have now scores of private educational institutions where education is available at a high price which is beyond the reach of vast masses of ordinary people.  In such private schools only students of high castes and well off sections of society get opportunities to study. And in Government schools students of underprivileged sections study. Now quality education is available in private educational establishments. It is because of too many private schools and educational institutions that quality education is monopolized by a few. It was Dr. Ambedkar who observed in 1919 that when education got monopolized because of four fold Varna system a kind of nationalism was created which produced more oppressors than  liberators.  If that analysis of Dr. Ambedkar is applied to the present situation marked by monopolization of education by a few based on access to wealth then we can say that the society at large is now witnessing a kind of nationalism which is muscular and any body who is questioning the high levels of inequality and structures of exclusion is dubbed as anti national and even urban naxal. They are hurled with sedition charges.

We can confront such a situation not based on muscular nationalism but based on deepening of public reasoning. It means application of constitutional method which eschews violence and embraces law and jurisprudence.  Only through lawful method we can address the problems caused by rising levels of inequality. It is in this context both Gandhi and Ambedkar are of critical significance. 

The author served as Officer on Special Duty and Press Secretary to President of India late Shri K R Narayanan and had a tenure as Director in Prime Minister's Office and Joint Secretary in Rajya Sabha Secretariat.