In a world increasingly enamoured with technology and good-living on one hand and giving in to violence on the other, perhaps it is time to rediscover the Mahatma

Ram Rajya

Gandhi's vision of an ideal society

Gandhi outlined his concept of the ideal society in an article in Harijan in 1946.

‘‘Indian independence must begin at the bottom. Thus every village will be a republic or a panchayat, having full powers."

"It follows, therefore, that every village has to be self-sustained and capable of managing its affairs, even to the extent of defending itself against the whole world."

"It will be trained and prepared to perish in the attempt to defend itself against any onslaught from without."

"Thus ultimately, it is the individual who is the unit. But this does not exclude dependence on the willing help from neighbours or from the world."

"It will be free and voluntary play of mutual forces."

"Such a society is necessarily highly cultured in which every man and every woman knows what he or she wants and, what is more, knows that no one should want anything that the others cannot have with equal labour. ‘‘In this structure composed of innumerable villages, there will be ever widening, never ascending, circles." "Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom." "But will be an oceanic circle, whose centre will be the individual always ready to perish for the village, the latter ready to perish for the circle of villages, till at last the whole becomes one life composed of individuals, ever humble, sharing the majesty of the oceanic circle of which they are integral units." ‘‘Therefore, the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle, but will give strength to all within and will derive its own strength from it. "I may be taunted with the retort that this is all Utopian and, therefore, not worth a single thought." "If Euclid's point, though incapable of being drawn by any human agency, has an imperishable value, my picture has its own for mankind to live…’’