The search for today’s “charkha”: finding unity in the diversity of our projects for social change, as the discussion from last time continues.

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Recorded March 27, 2009

The coalition forming in Europe under the banner “The Strength of Nonviolence” is  comprised of a group of women and men who don’t want to remain passive in the face of blatant advocacy of violence by those in positions of power (totalitarianism of corporate capitalism) and  threaten the present and future of all. They believe that change is possible, but all the positive people must converge in common actions, maintaining the differences that enrich the whole. They write: “We have found inspiration in the great ideals and guides of nonviolence, examples that should be studied, expanded and put into practice. With this spirit in 2007 we have set in motion the campaign Europe for peace, for a Europe free from nuclear weapons and today we launch this on-line petition against the installation of a U.S. radar base in Czech Republic, a dangerous project that has already increased the international tensions and unleashed a new arms race.” See the powerful short video they made during Barack Obama’s recent visit to Prague.

Constructive program, the Progressive Unity Project, and the search for today’s “charkha”: Meditation is inner service, service is outer meditation. Also, teaching as a human need, plus one of the most powerful stories about Gandhi we’ve heard.

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Recorded March 27, 2009

Pace e Bene’s vision is dignity, justice, and peace for all. Their mission is to foster a just and peaceful world through nonviolent education, community-building, and action. Formed by a small group of Franciscans and others in 1989, Pace e Bene is a growing community representing a diversity of spiritual traditions and cultural backgrounds that networks with nonviolence practitioners in many parts of the world. You can visit Pace e Bene’s website here.

The word Swadeshi derives from Sanskrit and is a conjunction of two Sanskrit words. Swa means “self” or “own” and Desh means country, so Swadesh would be “own country”, and Swadeshi, the adjectival form, would mean “of one’s own country”.

Swadeshi is a call to the consumer to be aware of the violence he/she is causing by supporting those industries that result in poverty and harm to workers and to humans and other creatures. In other words, it is localism, self-suficiency but at the same time interdependence and, in Gandhi’s time, finally independence, as British control of India was rooted in control of her indigenous industries. From Gandhi’s perspective, swadeshi was the “center of the solar system” of the independence of India, and it was represented by the charkha or the spinning wheel. He said:

“The cleanest and the most popular form of Swadeshi is to stimulate hand-spinning and hand-weaving and to arrange for a judicious distribution of yarn and cloth so manufactured.”

“Swadeshi is an eternal principle whose neglect has brought untold grief to mankind. It means production and distribution of articles manufactured in one’s own country… Swadeshi is a constructive programme.”

“Swadeshi is that spirit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote…  In the domain of politics, I should make use of the indigenous institutions and serve them by curing them of their proved defects. In that of economics, I should use only things that are produced by my immediate neighbours and serve those industries by making them efficient and complete where they might be found wanting. It is suggested that such Swadeshi, if reduced to practice, will lead to the millennium, because we do not expect quite to reach it within our times, so may we not abandon Swadeshi even though it may not be fully attained for generations to come.”

It seems that Gandhi’s prediction is becoming a reality. Swadeshi is what the progressive movement of the XXI century is calling: think globally, act locally. In a world moving towards the emancipation of borders, we might adapt Gandhi’s strategy, and replace country for community and then form the community of communities: the Earth Community.

Resources:

• The Gospel of Swadeshi by Mohandas K. Gandhi.

• In the excellent issue of  YES! Magazine: Go Local!, you can explore more on the current swadeshi that is happening on the Earth Community.

• Perhaps the 21st century “outer charkha” is food. YES! Magazine’s issue Food for Everyone is an extraordinary resource to understand why “Healthy Food is the Foundation of Social Justice.”

• The “inner charkha“, a daily activity that everyone can practice in the planetization of the movement, is “being in receptive silence” (BIRS). Some examples of BIRS are meditation, silent prayer and contemplation of Nature.

See also:

charkha

constructive program

trusteeship

swaraj

sarvodaya

khadi