Economist Gandhi: The Roots and the Relevance of the Political Economy of the Mahatma

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Examining Mahatma Gandhi through an unconventional lens, this book is an original and thought-provoking contribution to Gandhian literature. A refreshing take on the Mahatma's economic philosophy, Economist Gandhi tells us why we need to look at him as an unlikely management guru and an original thinker who enriched the discourse around market capitalism. The book explains Gandhi's positive approach towards business: even though he greatly reduced his individual wants, he was against poverty and wanted every Indian to enjoy a materially comfortable life.

Economist Gandhi is probably the first book on Gandhi that claims that he was not against business and capitalists. It not only provides insights into a hidden facet of Gandhi's personality-his thoughts on economics and capitalism-but also enlightens the reader about some of Gandhi's views on religion, ethics, human nature, education and society. The book unveils a Gandhi who is brilliant, daring and, most importantly, distinctive.

JAITHIRTH RAO is a retired entrepreneur who has been a visiting faculty member at IIT Bombay, IIM Ahmedabad and Loyola College, Chennai. He has also been entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School. His previous publications include a poetry book, a book of essays and a book on Indian conservative traditions.

Approaching Gandhi from uncustomary places, Jaithirth Rao makes original and provocative points in this enjoyable book. While its title might surprise those unaware of Gandhi's involvement with economics, the book also enlightens the reader with some of Gandhi's views on ethics, religion, human nature and society.

The writer is a businessman and entrepreneur convinced about Burkean conservatism. Something alerts me that he and I are unlikely to take identical views on India's politics. But I respect (and envy) Rao's apparent case in multiple worlds: business economics, European cultural history, Sanskrit and more.

And including, now, Gandhian thought. The author seems to have captured aspects of Gandhi's thinking usually missed by those who are sure they know their Gandhi.

If the thinker Gandhi is portrayed in these pages, the observer- empiricist Gandhi, too, will be found. Also noticed by Rao is a usually undetected facet of Gandhi's: his feminine-maternal side.

Confronting Gandhi the economist, the author identifies a key Gandhi focus-the consumer. Concerned as Gandhi is with the worker in a plant, with the mill's owner, and with the spinner and weaver of khadi, he is just as keen, Rao shows, on the consumer of the cloth, or of anything else jointly created by labour and capital. The author also gives us his understanding of Gandhi's conception of an ascetic, dedicated or soul-filled life. Rao's Gandhi insists that a spiritual life has to involve service to fellow humans. To renounce this world and yet serve its residents was Gandhi's prescription for himself and others.

Rao also shows that the Gandhi, who drastically reduced his personal wants, never elevated poverty. It was rather the opposite. Wounded by India's poverty, Gandhi wanted everyone to enjoy a decent level of life.

The Gandhi unveiled by Rao is brilliant, unexpected and daring. Also, almost always this is a smiling Gandhi. He is very human, too. In his humanity, Rao's Gandhi is equal to everyone else, including the writer, who himself seems to smile while writing about Gandhi. One of the most charming things about Gandhi is that he allows writers-encourages them, makes it easy for them-to write freely about him. If only other famous figures had this quality!

Rao reveals the impish Gandhi. Absent from these pages, however, is the anguished Gandhi, the one acquainted with grief. This is not a complaint. Why should every portrait be complete!

Rao's familiarity with European cultural history enables him to recognize the influence on Gandhi of Western thinking. Just as the wants-reducing Gandhi was also a foe of poverty, the passionately Indian Gandhi also kept his mind's windows and doors open, letting in light from all sides.

Rao's discussion of Gandhi's Nai Talim-or New Education- and of trusteeship seems to offer fresh insights. The tinkeret experimenter Gandhi identified by Rao in his analysis of Nai Talim is unknown to most. Rao's discovery of this Gandhi is bound to intrigue readers.

His reflections on Gandhi's fascination for the Isa Upanishad, and on Gandhi's use of that Upanishad as a foundation for his theory of trusteeship, also convey an original flavour.

**Contents and Sample Pages**