The Social Vision of the Alternative Food Movement - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 535

movement from trying to set the agenda for these societies on certain issues. Witness,
for example, the intense lobbying carried out by some Western organizations seeking to
bar farmers in India and Africa from gaining access to agricultural biotechnology.
How do people in these regions relate to such issues as development, sustainability,
the use of science and technology, changing aspirations, and so on? The views of two
prominent Indian thinkers might give us some useful insights.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), the leader of the Indian independence movement, ven-
erated as the “father of the nation,” can be viewed from many different angles: Gandhi
the nationalist; Gandhi the politician; Gandhi the prophet of nonviolence; and the
Gandhi of Hind Swaraj , the repudiator of scientific and technological progress and
“Western-style” industrial development. In Hind Swaraj , a short book that he wrote in
1909, Gandhi lays out a vision that is remarkably similar to the pretechnological pastoral
vision of the alternative food movement, as the following quote regarding Western civi-
lization demonstrates:
[On Western civilization] Let us first consider what state of things is described by
the word “civilization.” . . . Formerly, in Europe, people ploughed their lands mainly
by manual labor. Now, one man can plough a vast tract by means of steam engines
and can thus amass great wealth. This is called a sign of civilization. Formerly, only
a few men wrote valuable topics. Now, anybody writes and prints anything he likes
and poisons people's minds. . . . This civilization takes note neither of morality nor of
religion. . . . This civilization is irreligion. . . . This civilization is such that one has only
to be patient and it will be self-destroyed.
(Gandhi 1938, 29-30)
Gandhi had similar things to say regarding education:
If we consider our civilization to be the highest, I have regretfully to say that much
of the effort [for universal primary education for boys] . . . is of no use. . . . . To teach
boys reading, writing and arithmetic is called primary education. A peasant earns his
bread honestly. He has ordinary knowledge of the world. He knows fairly well how he
should behave towards his parents, his wife, his children and his fellow villagers. He
understands and observes the rules of morality. But he cannot write his own name.
What do you propose to do by giving him knowledge of letters? Will you add an inch
to his happiness? Do you wish to make him discontented with his cottage or his lot?
(Gandhi 1938, 60)
In spite of Gandhi's iconic status in India, his Hind Swaraj worldview was never widely
accepted. In 1945, Jawaharlal Nehru (who was to become independent India's first prime
minister) wrote to Gandhi, saying, “it is many years since I read Hind Swaraj . . . but
even when I read it twenty years ago it seemed to me completely unreal” (Rudolph and
Rudolph 2006, 25).