This Oct. 2 marks the 140th anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's birth. And although the Mahatma (Great Soul), is acknowledged worldwide as one of the outstanding moral and political thinkers of our time, his approach to economics has been viewed largely in the somewhat limited context of his objections to machinery, advocacy of village industries and boycott of foreign goods.
However, closer inspection of his writings reveals not only that his ideas on economics are a part of his world-view and a work in progress subject to change, but also that there is much for present-day economists especially here in Indonesia, to learn from what Gandhi thought, wrote about and practiced.
The Nobel economics laureate, Amartya Sen, argues that "the nature of modern economics has been substantially impoverished by the gap that has grown between economics and ethics". Gandhi's writings on economics over six decades ago can be seen as a lengthy effort to bridge that gap and very much in tune with today's worldwide concerns about sustainable development.
A Gandhian approach to the linking of ethics and economics could be useful in a number of ways. Gandhi said villagers needed to be taught about the fundamentals that make for the quality of life - sanitation and nutrition. We observe similar concerns in Indonesia today, not only in villages but also in rapidly growing towns and cities. A recent walk around a beautiful village near Bogor was a delight until I looked over the parapet of a bridge and saw not a glistening river but a cascade of rubbish festering in the hot sun. People get into the habit of throwing their rubbish where it's most convenient, unaware of disease factors, the risks for young and old alike and the ensuing cost of medical aid.
Until everybody realizes that no amount of technology can help unless lakes, rivers, canals and the sea are not used as dumping grounds for human excrement and various kinds of garbage, progress in improving health and defeating global warming will be slow.
Economic theory on the use of public goods, including environmental facilities such as canals and lakes shows us that human beings have a tendency to take public facilities for granted and abuse them rather than use them respectfully.
It is the time for us as individuals to consider public facilities in the same way that we view our own belongings and to treat such places with care and respect. As Gandhi noted, we have to teach our people how to economize in time, health and money.
While a centralized approach characterized Indonesia's government at the time of independence in 1945 and indeed until the fall of Soeharto in 1998, decentralization and democracy have been important features in recent years. Gandhi also believed with regard to the development process in the rural economy that some degree of decentralized planning was possible and desirable.
His main concern was the decentralization of production which was to be achieved through village industries. Though politicians of his day, including Nehru were opposed to Gandhi's focus on cottage industries because they saw that India needed to become an industrialized nation, one feels that the combination of industrialization and cottage industry enterprises was and still is worth pursuing.
Gandhi's insights into the problems of choice of technology in labor-abundant economies are in line with statistics from Indonesia which show that small to middle-sized home industries (UKM) absorb large quantities of workers and because of this, such home industries usually intensively use local resources. This is especially the case since most of these industries are located in villages. Their growth has a positive impact on the increase of the labor force, decreasing poverty, creating more equality in income distribution and the development of village economies.
Undoubtedly one of Gandhi's greatest concerns was self-respect, a concept that is missing from development economics - self-respect, which he considered the most important "primary good" is a common thread running through his plea for the limitation of wants, his reservations about charity as a virtue and his insistence on cleanliness as an important element in one's life style.
Economic development is not just a matter of money. Goods and services are important but a sense of independence is vital too. Gandhi didn't live to see the enormous expansion in local, national and international bureaucracy in developing countries, supposedly in the pursuit of the "basic needs strategy", but since he regarded self-respect as the most basic need of all, he would probably have disapproved.
On the other hand he would surely have approved of Muhammad Yunus' Grameen Bank. Trusted by the bank, borrowers of small loans have an excellent record of paying back, a huge gain in self-respect and the means to lift themselves above the poverty line.
Gandhi saw poor sanitation, poverty and idleness as the three major evils to be fought in the quest for development and of these he considered poor sanitation the greatest evil which could be remedied by changing people's habits through education and effective legislation, particularly at municipal level.
As one who devoted his life to minority causes, Gandhi was passionately concerned with the good of all as opposed to the good of the majority. One sees such a concern today in US President Barack Obama's affordable, accesible healthcare options for all.
Meanwhile here in Indonesia it is the age old concept of gotong royong, working together for the good of all, which is still the way for our nation to move forward.
The writer is a student of the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia
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