WEBVTT - Andrew on India 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:08.080 Hello and welcome to it could happen here once again, 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:12.880 posted by myself Andrew from the YouTube channel andrewism as 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:17.720 we talked about whatever and whatever in question is the 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:22.480 second most populous country in the world, and one potential 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:25.840 vision for its future drawn from its anti clunial past. 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.520 Are speaking, of course about India, a sub concern from 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.720 which I draw a good portion of my heritage, and 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.680 when I boasts over nine thousand years of recorded history 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:42.720 and roughly fifty years of knowing human settlement, India is 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:50.360 an incredibly diverised country ethnically, linguistically, religiously and otherwise. But 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.640 unfortunately it has suffered much of the same fate that 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:57.280 the rest the world has fallen free to the rapacious 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:05.080 appetite of British clunialism. Well, historically, the Indian local economy 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:11.000 was dependent upon the most productive and sustainable agriculture and horticulture, 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.480 and of course pottery and food and Jamaican jewelry was 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.360 very well known for jewelry, and in fact Indian jewelry 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.720 makers ended up starting some very successful jewelry businesses when 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:28.360 they were freed from indentionship in Trinidad Um. They also 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:30.839 got involved in leather work and a lot of other 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:36.400 economic activities in India. Um, but the basis of India 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:41.160 has traditionally, historically, you know, for thousands of years been textiles, 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.760 different types of tex styles. Each village had its spinners 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.200 and carters and dyers and weavers who were of course 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:52.160 at the hearts of that village's economy. But an interesting 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.720 outcome of British cleanism in India has been the flooding 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.400 of India with the machine made, inexpensive, mass produced textiles 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:05.680 from Lancashire during you know, in brit terms Industrial Revolution. 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.320 The local textile artists were very quickly put out to 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:13.600 business and village economies suffered very terribly. So I mean, 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.680 you know, well, I think we're familiar with this sort 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:25.200 of general story. Smaller cottage industries became overrun by you know, 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.200 mass production. And of course I don't mean to sound 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:31.840 like I'm entirely demonizing mass production, just describing what has happened. 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:35.640 Of course, mass production has had its many benefits in 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:42.040 providing access to resources and two products many different people. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.560 But of course it's also had its many drawbacks, including 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.400 you know, the share environmental impact as well as the 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.040 impact on people, um. You know, as Mark spoke about, 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:59.160 of um, their alienation from the process of production, as 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:05.160 the industrial system basically separated each step in the process 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.760 of production two different workers, and so no one had 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.320 a hand in the production of a product and start 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.600 to finish. And of course that that had significant social 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:19.239 and I would also assume mental impact on the people 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:25.120 with you know, that whole era of British economic imperialism 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.040 happening India. The changes that took place within a generation 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:33.359 was so rapid, you know, your headwards spin, that evolution 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:37.760 of you know, the India home economy. It was really 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:42.920 a site to behold. And another element of British economic 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:46.440 imperialist on British imperialism more broadly was the introduction of 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:51.080 British education under colonial rule in the eighteenth century. UM. 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.040 When Lord McCaulay introduced the Indian Education Act in the 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:58.560 British Parliament, UM, he said, and I quote, a single 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:02.920 shelf of a good European library was with the whole 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.240 native literature of India. Neither as a language of the law, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:08.920 nor as a language of religion, has a sand script 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.440 any particular claim to our engagement. We must do our 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.159 best to former class of persons Indian in blood and color, 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:20.000 but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:25.880 So the typical racism, typical white pants, burt and typical 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.880 you know. Um, of course this phrase was used in 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:35.039 a North American Indigenous American context, but I believe the 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.479 phrase is taking the Indian out of the man. Yeah, 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.760 kill the Indians, save the man, right. Um, So it's 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.040 kind of interesting. It's a different type of Indian talking 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.960 about there, but that sort of idea still applies. And 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.719 really that sort of sentiment is something that has existed 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.680 throughout the history of communism, something that you know, is 0:04:54.760 --> 0:05:01.039 seen in all of Britain's former colonies. Because Monster's Aim 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.039 was put into Parliament and pushed forward, it was pursued 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:06.600 with the mine to the British Raj. All the traditional 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:11.760 schools that took place in different village communities were gradually 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:16.240 replaced by colonial schools and universities. Of course, take advantage 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.880 of the cast and class system that was in place 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:21.920 in India prior to their arrival. The British would have 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.320 selected wealth year Indians to be sensed the public schools 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:29.720 such as Eton and Harew and universities like Oxford and Cambridge, 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.800 and those Indians that you know, they learned English poetry, 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.520 English law, English customs, to the neglect of their own culture. 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:40.599 You know, it's like why read the classics of the 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:46.080 Vedas when you have Shakespeare and the London Times. And 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.320 so having been raised in that environment, having grown up, 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.400 having basically their minds colonized from the crib, they began 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:58.000 to see their own cultures as backward, uncivilized, old fashioned, 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.719 regressive and again and something you see all over the world. 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:05.560 You sort in the residential schools, you see it in 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.120 the schools in the Caribbean, and you see it in 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.960 schools in Africa. Basically everywhere they colonized went Um. They 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.080 would take a generation, they were take generations of young people, 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.800 and they would develop that self hatred um not the 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.839 stained for their own culture by you know, positioning um, 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:28.960 their education, British education, as you know, superior. In fact, 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:34.320 during the process of decolonization could and quote um of 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.560 you know, formal political independence. So many of the former 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.400 colonies of Britain, particularly in the Caribbeans, that's way most 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.800 familiar Um. A lot of the people who became you know, 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.520 the fullest prime ministers of the country, the one that 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:51.080 would establish the trajectory of the country for years of 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:56.480 decades to come. UM thinking of people like Bustamante and Jamaica, 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.880 Eric Williams, Dr Ric Williams, in Trance people, UM, among others. 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.839 Basically all of the fullest prime ministers basically every single 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:13.040 Caribbean country. They had all been educated UM in English schools, 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.520 in English universities, in well in the prestige schools of 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:21.440 their countries. Didn't end up being flown out to writain 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:26.640 itself and they basically became the rulers, became the leaders. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.480 Um were handed power over by the British to basically 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.280 rule in their stead. Of course, with all the talk 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:39.880 of finally independence, UM people got caught up in that 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:44.080 energy of political independence and freedom from the control of 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:48.480 the British after all the decades and centuries of struggle. 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:54.640 But unfortunately it proved I believe to be a rules 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.760 as very little changed for the average person in the 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.760 years post political independence. Yeah, this is something that Phnan 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.640 talks about UM in in the sort of Francophone context 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:10.080 of like even even in countries you have like Atward, 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:12.280 you know that the colonizers are thrown up actual revolutions. 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:17.520 You get this class of like like lawyers and intellectuals 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:21.640 who are like have been educated like in imperialist powers 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.800 or in sort of their schools, who wind up as 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.120 like the first generation of of post independence leaders. And 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.520 those people, like you know what, whether they want to 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.719 or not, end up sort of like reflecting the sort 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:40.199 of values and political positions of like of the form 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:42.400 of colonial powers. And there's this whole sort of dynamic 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.000 that like, I feel like, I feel like this is 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:49.160 the part of Penon that people don't read very much. 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:53.200 But that's about how these leaders sort of like lose 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.000 touch with it with the sort of like anti colonial masses, 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:59.760 and how they sort of like wind up reincorporating their 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.200 country back into sort of colonialism. Yeah. Yeah, that's really 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.679 how you see that new clonal dynamic developing UM. And 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:12.040 it's really it's hard to tell retrospectively whether these leaders 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.959 thought they were actually you know, anti colonial, or if 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.400 they knew that they were you know, carrying on a 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:24.680 particular legacy. But I find that because is only UM 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:29.120 only recently celebrated just last year sixty years of independence. 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.720 There of course people who were alive prior to independence, 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:34.640 and so you find a lot of the older generation 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:37.720 how they how some of them speak, particularly the more 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.400 educated ones, how they carry themselves, or they dress, the 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:45.199 attitudes their spouses very much like to get any kind 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:49.840 of respect in their time, you had to behave to me, 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:51.560 had to present yourself to me, and to present yourself 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:56.640 in a as approximate to Britishness as possible, the whole 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.280 you know, conversation of respectability, politics and stuff. So I 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.160 have understanding of what they had to go through and 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.480 where they're coming from when they hold onto these perspectives 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:09.520 still because that's what they grew up in. But there 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.680 really is a shame that they've been holding back progress 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:17.000 for so long now because they still hold onto these 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:22.560 deeply conservative, deeply religious, deeply reactionary ideas that were just 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:27.800 you know, they just inplicated within the education system and 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.960 in the cultural pygeist of their time. I was just 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:34.880 when May was talking about Fan, I was thinking as 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.200 well about like, have you read a book called Beyond 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:42.079 the Boundary by seller James Andrew. I haven't because it's 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:46.800 about cricket and I'm not too integrated cricket. But I've been. Um. 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.280 I know it's an iconic and that's I think he 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.440 explains a lot of it very well. I think people 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:55.160 could read it even if they don't. Like I'm not 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.640 a big cricket person, but it's certainly one of the 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.520 best sports books I've read, maybe one of the best books. 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:06.200 And he doesn't he put a lot of bangers in 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:11.000 his time. Yeah, he did have some bangs, highly recommended. Yeah, 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:12.920 if you don't want to read about cricket. He also 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:17.120 talks about this in The Crewmen and the Ghana Revolution. Yeah, 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:24.000 but it's not about cricket. It's more of an autobiography, 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.720 like seen through the lens of his his cricket, I think. 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.439 But yeah, it's cool because I know he spent a 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:31.480 lot of time he grew up of course born readers 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:33.960 and stuff. I'm truing that, so be interested to see 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.720 um sort of if he talks about his political development, 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:43.800 how battery was in his time in Ta, yeah, I 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:45.600 think he does. It's been a while since I've read it, 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:47.520 but I think he talks about like how he sort 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:51.360 of saw himself constituted a colonial subject, like through his 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.120 experiences interacting with British people on one of the places 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:56.960 where the terrains where he did encountered them, I guess 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:02.120 was playing cricket because great, yes, of course, and you know, 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:07.040 thankfully we've come to decimate them at their own game 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:15.800 as usual. It's true. Yeah, yeah, And even like English 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:17.839 cricket at a certain point, like getting really into cricket, 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:21.200 which I know it's a diversion, but like they had 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:22.920 rules where you could only have a certain number of 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:28.440 international players playing for each English county. It's extremely like 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:30.720 if you look at how the Empire constituted White Us 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.319 through sport, and like who was allowed to play rugby, 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:35.319 which is a touching sport, and who was allowed to 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:37.720 play cricket, which which isn't normally a touching sport like 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.720 it did. It's racist as fun. Yeah, I mean, of 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:48.040 course it's hilarious in sports history. Sorry for the cricket diversion. Sorry, 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:52.520 please continue. It's entirely fine. I see, it's all Greek 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.320 to me because I don't know what any of those 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:58.680 points or numbers or anything means um to many different 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:00.600 types of cricket. I mean, I've had trying to explain 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:02.920 to me be for it's just the fine thing. Um, 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.120 I know, people who play it though, so you know, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:17.480 good for them at all. But back to India, right, 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.520 If there's one particular person in India's history that really 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:25.680 represented to this type of Western educated, colonized subject trying 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.360 to be something bigger than that kind of mentality, it 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:33.920 was Jawaharlal Never who became the first Prime minister after independence. 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:38.200 Nu of course sought to promote the industrialization of India, 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.600 not be a capitalist route, but by more of a 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.160 centralized plane and route, which is why if you look 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:46.520 at the India India's constitution, you will see that it's 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:52.160 refers to itself as a socialist country. Yeah. Actually, really, 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.200 if I'm remembering right, neighbor was like he was like 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:57.600 a Fabian socialist or something. Yeah, yeah, be his inspiration. 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.959 His inspiration came from the intellectuals of the London School 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:06.440 of Economics and the Phobian society. So yeah, he's quite 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.520 the character. You see the sort of direction that he 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.199 ends up putting the country. And I mean even today, 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.199 India in many ways continues to be ruled in the 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:21.760 English way without English rulers. Um, just like in the 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.760 Caribbean continues to be ruled in the English way. Without 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:29.920 English rulers in Africa, you know, the various countries have 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.800 been ruling their various colonize and powers way rather than 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.600 in their own way without the colonizes rulers. The other 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:41.440 colonizing rulers. UM. The industrialists, the intellectuals, the entrepreneurs, all 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.040 of them are working with the government to see the 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:49.760 salvation of India taking place in a subordination to the world. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.360 Back can the I M F from the G A 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.200 T T. You know, they see India as part of 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:59.960 this global economy, meant to submit into sue to moultinary 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.880 no corporations. UM. But of course the people of India 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.720 UH not to please in the people of India suffering 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:12.040 under the brunt of that um. After seeing the failures 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:14.920 of of course the Congress Party under Nehru and his 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:22.200 daughter Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi. Um, the 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.720 poor continues to be poor than ever the middle classes 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:35.440 and tuning towards uh just say certain directions. UM. And 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:37.920 of course, as we've seen in the past few years, 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:43.240 the farmers have been agitating against various pressures. They've been 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:50.640 placed under things kind of stuff and it was pretty 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:57.880 much how Mahatma Gandhi predicted that it would because, unlike 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.880 Nehru and unlike other western that he here to think 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:05.000 of his time, UM, Gandhi thought differently about what India's 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.480 potential could be, what it looked like. And that's part 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:15.080 of the reason they killed him. And I must preface 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.600 this discussion of Gandhi's vision of a free India by noting, 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.600 of course that Gandhi himself was a very flawed person. Um, 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:30.640 you know, racist, sexist, Um, pretty sure he assaulted somebody, 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:36.680 He did some very um fucked up stuff to his knees. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:40.080 I just well, we leave it at that. But I 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:42.280 mean that's not something you can put aside, so something 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:46.960 to be cognizant of. But one of the aspects of 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:53.000 UM his time on this planet UM had been his 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.600 development of a sort of a vision of a free India, 0:16:56.200 --> 0:17:00.120 not as a nation state, but as a confederation of 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:04.439 self governance, self reliance, self employed people living in village 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:09.520 communities deriving their right livelihood from the products of their homesteads. 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.399 It would have been a sort of bottom up system 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.560 where the power to decide what could be important into 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.440 or expert from the village where economic and political power 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:24.639 all I mean in the hands of village assemblies, where 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:29.000 people in these village assemblies, in these communities would continue 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:33.280 to live in relative how many with their surroundings with 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:38.600 They would continue to weave their homespun clothes, eat their 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.359 home and grown food, use their home made goods, care 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.160 for their animals, their forests and their lands, take care 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.520 of the fertility of the soil, enjoy the home grown 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:53.119 stories and epics of India, and continue to build their 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:59.880 temples and appreciate their various regional distinctive cultures. This were 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:05.359 is meant to be the system, the practice the idea 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.480 of the philosophy of Swedeshi, which is a conjunction of 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:14.639 two Sanskrit words Swa which meeting self or own and 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.760 desh meaning country, Swadeshi as an adjective meaning of one's 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:23.159 own country. According to the principle of Swadeshi, the idea 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.119 is that whatever has made or produced in a village 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:28.840 must be used first and foremost by the members of 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.280 that village. So I mean there could be traded and 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:37.560 collaboration between villages and communities, but Gandhi thought it should 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:39.119 be minimal, like sort of an ice and on the 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:43.000 cake um goods and services to him was something that 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.479 should have been generated within the community. The things that 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.040 needed to be used by the community should be created 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:54.680 in that community. Another influential, perhaps the most influential aspect 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.760 of Swadeshi and Swadeshi philosophy, took place in the early 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:03.280 twenty tieth century as a direct fallout the decision of 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:09.040 the British India governments to partition Bengal. The use of 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.160 Swedeshi goods or the goods that are produced and made 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.800 in India buy and he here for Indians and the 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.080 boycott of foreign made goods were among the two main 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:22.399 objectives of the Swadeshi movement, and so the boycott resolution 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:25.959 ended up being passed in the City Hall in August 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:29.360 seven nine four UM boycott in the use of Manchester 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.440 cloth and sold from Liverpool in the district to barrisl 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.080 The masses adopted the message of boycotts of formad goods 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.119 and the value of the British cloth sool. They have 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:44.919 fell very rapidly. Various songs and cultural works ended up 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.880 being produced in the time UM to sort of bolster 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:53.919 the movement. At one point, one English cloths were burned 0:19:54.640 --> 0:20:00.520 as part of the boycott, and the symbol of caddies spinners, 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.960 the sort of tool that was used to weave cloth 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:11.240 to we've fibers to create theon, became a major force 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:16.280 in the movement and the representation of the movement. I 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.119 think I get what you're saying, like, we can all 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:23.880 benefit from a little specialization and the like improvements that 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:28.920 that brings, while still sort of acknowledging that autonomy is desirable. Yeah, 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.359 I think there needs to be some some balance between 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:33.640 you know, autonomy and seft reliance and that kind of thing, 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.600 and also collaboration. I think he goes a bit too 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:42.000 much in that autonomy direction, But in the context of 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:46.480 when these ideas being developed, it's sort of understandable because, um, 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.240 in this time, you know, the self reliance of the 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:55.160 people as being vastly eroded, people being forced into you know, cities, 0:20:55.320 --> 0:21:01.000 they've lost their livelihoods, um, and they were there was 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:05.480 a sort of developing reliance and the global economy. Whereas 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.200 as she proposes a you know, India avoids economic dependence 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:14.720 on external market forces that create these vulnerabilities and communities 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:19.600 that end up um, you know, really harming the members 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:23.119 of that community, so that she's meant to avoid the 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:31.160 unhealthy and wasteful environmental destructive transportation of goods um between communities, 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:36.800 avoiding the excessive emissions that would cause UM, and promoting, 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.639 of course, the development of a strong economic base to 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.879 satisfy the needs of the community, to satisfy the uh 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:49.080 local production consumption, so that she is kind of about 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.520 both creating a self reliant India and also creating self 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:57.320 reliant villages within India, so that each village is a 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:03.520 microcosum of the greater in a web of sort of 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:19.719 a distributed, decentralized web of loosely interconnected communities. In a 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:23.399 time where the British were promoting the centralized, industrialized and 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.080 mechanized mode of production, Gandhy was turning to the principle 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:32.360 of decentralized, home, crowd and handcrafted modes of production h 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:37.560 rather than mass production production by the masses. I think 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.840 there was also a spiritual component of the idea of Sweeshi, 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:43.800 because at the time Gandhy was not a fan of 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:50.080 the idea that people were not using their hands to produce. 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:54.119 The idea that you know, everyone should be involved in 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:57.359 some kind of um trade or skill of some kind 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:00.920 that utilizes their hands because of you know, the whole 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.679 spiritual component of using the body that you have fully 0:23:05.960 --> 0:23:08.520 and another aspect of the spirituality. So that she was 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:11.800 of course, the idea of this locally based community enhancing 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:16.280 a community spirit, community relationships, and community well being, an 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:22.000 economy that actively encourages mutual aid, that encourages the principle 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:28.520 of care between families, neighbors, animals, lands, forestry, natural resources 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:35.359 for present and future generations. It's, uh, there confrontation of 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:39.120 the driving force between mass production which Gandhi so has 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:44.320 this cult of the individual, where there must be to 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:48.119 expandsion of the economy of global scale uh and expand 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:51.600 the consumption production of the sake of economic growth out 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:56.440 of a desire for the individual's personal whims, for the 0:23:56.480 --> 0:24:06.080 desire for you know, personal and corporate profit. Another reason, 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.320 of course, that Gandhi rallied against this idea of mass 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:12.200 production and promoting into the production for the masses by 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.439 the masses. It's because mass production leads people leave in 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:18.800 their villages, they land their crafts and their homesteads to 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:22.040 go work in factories where they became cogs in a 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:25.560 machine standing in a conveyor belt, living in enchanty towns, 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:29.479 and dependence upon the movies see the bosses. And of course, 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:35.320 as those bosses gained access to more efficient technologies because 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:37.879 they were constant in pursuit of greater productivity in this 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:41.840 creative profit, the masters of this economy, you know, they 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:45.879 want more efficient machines working faster, and so they want 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:49.919 less people. We can those machines as so the result 0:24:50.000 --> 0:24:51.640 was that the people who had to move to these 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:55.560 cities to working these factories we eventually thrown out when 0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:59.680 they were no longer considered useful and became and joined 0:24:59.680 --> 0:25:06.080 the millions of unemployed, you know, rootless, job less people 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:13.280 in uh Indian society. Sweeter, she instead encourages the idea 0:25:13.400 --> 0:25:16.439 that the machine should be something that subordinates the worker, 0:25:16.840 --> 0:25:20.199 but instead something that is subordinated to the worker, that 0:25:20.240 --> 0:25:23.200 it doesn't become the master, but instead it is mastered 0:25:23.760 --> 0:25:27.199 and allows us to orchestrate our own pace of you know, 0:25:27.320 --> 0:25:31.640 human activity. It's not that Sweeter, Sweaters, she is necessarily 0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:37.040 against automation, against technological development, but it's more so that 0:25:37.840 --> 0:25:44.040 it aims to circumvent the harms that could be caused 0:25:44.119 --> 0:25:48.359 by such technology as being out of the control of 0:25:48.400 --> 0:25:52.199 the people themselves and in the control of the select 0:25:52.520 --> 0:25:56.240 private few. I think swear that she has a sort 0:25:56.240 --> 0:26:01.159 of an element of glorification of the past. Um. They 0:26:01.160 --> 0:26:05.719 weren't doing my research for this episode. I ended up 0:26:05.760 --> 0:26:10.159 looking into um of course, the writings of proponentsswether she 0:26:11.040 --> 0:26:16.080 um and people discussing Andy's thoughts on the subject. And 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:20.439 I'll just quote one particular passage. So what as she 0:26:20.720 --> 0:26:25.000 is the way to comprehensive peace, peace with oneself, peace 0:26:25.040 --> 0:26:29.240 between peoples, and peace with nature. The global economy drives 0:26:29.280 --> 0:26:33.160 people toward high performance, high achievement, and high ambition from 0:26:33.160 --> 0:26:38.080 materialistic success. This results in stress, loss of mening, loss 0:26:38.080 --> 0:26:40.280 of in a peace, loss of space for personal and 0:26:40.359 --> 0:26:44.080 family relationships, and loss of spiritual life. Gandhi realized in 0:26:44.119 --> 0:26:46.800 the past life in India was not only prosperous but 0:26:46.840 --> 0:26:50.840 also conducive to philosophical and spiritual development, so that she, 0:26:50.960 --> 0:26:56.840 for Gandhi, was a spiritual imperative. I think it's understandable 0:26:56.960 --> 0:27:05.320 that a de colonial project would attempt to develop a 0:27:05.520 --> 0:27:09.800 pride in the history of the people who have gone 0:27:09.840 --> 0:27:14.520 through so much UM and you know their legacy and 0:27:14.520 --> 0:27:18.480 their traditions and their ideas. But I think it's a 0:27:18.480 --> 0:27:25.800 bit of a stretch to um glorify h India's past 0:27:26.000 --> 0:27:28.560 and and precluling your past in such a respect. I 0:27:28.600 --> 0:27:33.520 don't think any people's freakling your past should be excessively 0:27:34.480 --> 0:27:45.720 glory glorified or um like mythologiized. Mythologized, Yeah, romanticized, because 0:27:45.720 --> 0:27:49.520 I feel as though one that clouds our judgments UM 0:27:49.560 --> 0:27:53.960 and a critical eye for the aspects of past societies 0:27:53.960 --> 0:27:56.320 that do do it need to be challenged, do need 0:27:56.400 --> 0:27:59.320 to be changed? Um? I think that's part of my 0:27:59.400 --> 0:28:02.399 issue is with A. She is this idea that you know, 0:28:02.560 --> 0:28:06.720 if things just go back to uh, these sorts of 0:28:07.920 --> 0:28:11.760