Modern India

In the 1920s, a significant space in the nationalist spectrum was occupied by Gandhiji’s constructive programme. With the withdrawal of the non-cooperation after mob violence at Chauri-Chaura in 1922, the national movement got diverted into multiple channels. At one end was the politics of ‘constitutional opposition’ practiced by the Swarajists and at the other end, violent revolutionary activities in Punjab, UP and Bengal emerged. Gandhiji’s constructive programme, however, remained the major pillar of nationalist movement in this period. The constructive programme was a multi-faceted phenomenon. It had social, economic and moral dimensions providing it a strategic character,as discussed below: Facets of the Constructive Program of Gandhi:

As Discussed Below:

• Focus on basic and adult education: Basic education or Nai Talim under the constructive program was aimed at transforming village children into model villagers. Furthermore, in the form of adult education, opening the minds of the adult pupils to the greatness and vastness of their country was a key aspect of the program.
• Health and village sanitation: Gandhiji believed that the fundamental laws of health and hygiene are simple and easily learnt. The difficulty is about their observance. The art of keeping one’s health and the knowledge of hygiene was given greater emphasis through concerted efforts as part of the program.
• Socio-economic cohesion: The program focussed on promoting Hindu-Muslim unity, struggle against untouchability and social uplift of the lower caste like Harijans for their dignified life and cohesion among the masses for the larger goal/struggle.
• Participation of illiterate masses: The rural component especially the illiterate masses of the national movement were consolidated by Gandhian constructive work thus preparing the masses for the next round of agitation and prevented demoralisation and disillusionment among the participants in the struggle. It also helped enlarge the social base of the movement.
• Economic alleviation of masses: It consisted of promotion of Khadi, spinning, village industries, providing an alternative source of employment to poor villagers who could substitute their incomes by taking to Khadi work. Under the leadership of All India Spinners Association (AISA), the Khadi programme reached nearly five thousand villages and improved the conditions of a large number of villagers and imbibed the idea of self-reliance.
• Moral dimension: An ideal village life was Gandhiji’s answer to a centralised, aggressive and coercive modernity. The village reconstruction had a great moral significance for Gandhiji. For him the real India lived in its villages, not in the cities. For Gandhiji, the villages were the repository of a superior moral life and an effective answer to the distortions that had crept into human life as a result of excessive industrialisation.
• Provided strategic continuity to the freedom struggle: The constructive work meant going to the villages and focusing on village reconstruction. Under this impulse, many Ashrams opened up in villages and took up the work of spinning and Khadi. The main importance of this type of work for the nationalist struggle was that it provided continuity to the struggle and it helped to link up different phases of agitations.

The multifaceted constructive programme thus formed an important component of Gandhiji’s antiimperialist struggle in which phases of agitation alternated with phases of constructive programme and thus kept the movement going without any break. In this sense the significance went well beyond the anti-imperialist nationalist struggle.