The Gandhian perspective on development

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi - the father of the Indian nation - had one of the deepest insights into the Indian reality. He had neither time and patience nor inclination to formulate any theory. He wrote voluminously, but his writings do not constitute theory; at best, they provide raw materials for subsequent theorizing. Gandhi often made extreme statements and then proceeded to qualify them in many ways. Again, Gandhi did not think out his concepts. Rather, he arrived at several concepts intuitively. This has made the task of both interpreting as well as determining what Gandhi stood for somewhat difficult. Nevertheless, this paper seeks to elaborate, as far as this is possible, what may be called the Gandhian perspective on development.