SATYALOGUE
with PostModern Gandhiji (PMG)
An advice column offering the Mahatma’s perspective on modern dilemmas
Dear PMG,
In an earlier column titled “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants,”
the following piqued my interest: “Gandhiji intuitively understood that
swadesh (self-sufficiency) was both a strategic instrument to swaraj
and a practical tool for a village-based economy.”
I know that Gandhiji was trained as an attorney, not as
an economist, but what would he think of the fact that practically
everything on the shelves of stores in the US is made in China,
and now we are going to raise chicken and send it to China to be
cooked and processed for chicken nuggets, soup, restaurant food, and
fast food?!
Dangerous to our health now, as well as to our economy!
Dear Friend,
“The £ 3 Tax.” (M. K. Gandhi)
While most Satyalogue columns discuss issues at a
personal level, the question raised here is about the ethics of
globalization—a social, political, and economic phenomenon.
Many protectionists ask questions similar to the one you’ve
posed about whether “Made in China” is the first step toward
America becoming China’s “Maid in Chains.” Are Americans
becoming so subservient to, and dependent upon China that we
can no longer be a manufacturing power? Should our government
establish a tariff, an import tax curtailing free movement of
goods, to enable domestically manufactured products to have a
fighting chance?
Let’s explore Gandhian thinking around taxation. “The
£ 3 Tax” is the title of a chapter in Gandhiji’s autobiography
condemning the taxation of indentured Indians in South Africa.
What follows is a précis of that situation:
“About the year 1860 the Europeans in Natal, finding that there
was considerable scope for sugarcane cultivation, felt themselves
in need of labour… The Natal Government therefore corresponded
with the Indian Government, and secured their permission to
recruit Indian labour…. But the Indians gave more than had been
expected of them…
They entered trade…. The white traders were alarmed. When
they first welcomed the Indian labourers, they had not reckoned
with their business skill. They might be tolerated as independent
agriculturists, but their competition in trade could not be brooked.
This sowed the seed of the antagonism to Indians…. [and the
introduction of] an annual tax of £ 25.”
While the £ 25 tax on those who refused to return to India
or renew the indenture was eventually reduced to £ 3, one need
only substitute “Chinese labor” for “Indian labor,” to see a parallel.
Perhaps a modern-day Gandhian would see that like the Indian
traders who alarmed the South African “white traders” in the
mid-19th century, Chinese traders of the 21st century have outcompeted
the same outsourcers who first saw them as a cheap
source of labor.
While in his lifetime, Gandhiji sought to promote a village-based
economy, today, he would most likely understand that the world
itself is now a highly interconnected village.
[Dr. Rajesh C. Oza serves as a consultant to organizations and
individuals requiring change leadership. We invite questions for
consideration in the PMG column at raj.oza@sbcglobal.net.]