- In his way, Gandhi had been a critic of modern civilisation. He criticised almost every aspect of modern civilisation. Whether it was the machine, profession of doctor’s lawyers or various political structures like State/Parliament, Gandhi could never confirm his appreciation of these signifiers of modernity. This shows that to some extent for Gandhi everything was wrong with modern civilisation.
- However, interestingly Gandhi’s life was highly influenced by these modern metaphors. Similarly, though he wrote extensively that modern political institutions were hardly worth being called so as they cared neither for people’s participation nor for their political empowerment, Parliaments were like talking shops, modern political institutions were not only misusing public money but misled people’s aspirations.
- Gandhi never advocated total reaggregation of politics from political institutions. He very much understood the perpetual need for political institutions. Hence, if Ram Rajya was ideal, then Swaraj was the second-best option for Gandhi.
- Gandhi was in favour of controlled and balanced development founded on humanity and morality. But a body-centric or materialist view of man attributed two basic properties to him, namely, ‘selfishness’ and an ‘infinite multiplicity of wants and regarded them as natural and legitimate.’
- A proper civilisation placed man at its center and measured its greatness in terms of its ability to produce men and women possessing such distinctively human powers as self-determination, autonomy, self-knowledge, self-discipline and social cooperation. Modern civilisation did the opposite.
- Encouraging them to subject their powers to large organisations run by experts, rendered men passive, helpless and heteronomous. Further, modern society is a functionally specialized society.
