Swaraj and Swadeshi --by AnneML ('Animal')

Gandhi wrote that Swaraj (self-rule) without swadeshi (country-made goods) is a lifeless corpse. 

For years, multinational companies have used third-world countries to hone their techniques of control over markets, economies and governments. The history of Gandhi’s struggle in India is ample testament to this. The fact that he included swadeshi and khadi as essential elements of resisting these forces is extremely important.

The current BP oil spill crisis is a clear lesson to us how these economic and political control mechanisms are at work here in the US. Our dependence on oil is not something that just happened. There have been many machinations in the course of the past century that served to eliminate or cripple alternatives to petroleum in a variety of industries. In addition to this, specific developments leading to the BP oil spill are clear examples of these control mechanisms. BP used lobbying and manipulation to minimize federal regulation that would complicate their deep offshore drilling; the US federal requirement of a disaster response plan for BP’s deep well in the Gulf was conveniently eliminated.   

The US government was not in a position, itself, to deal with a major deep-water oil spill. However, BP was permitted to drill off US shores without a plan to address easily imaginable problems that might arise from what they were doing. Now that the disastrous oil spill has happened, the federal government is pretty much incapable of applying sanctions or pressure on BP.  “It’s complicated,” says Obama. Maybe not so much.
 

The simple fact is that we do not have swaraj (self-rule) here in the US. This is not government “of, by, and for the people.”  This is government subjugated to the mega-corporations and oligarchies that transcend national borders and hold the power cards.

 

We also do not have swadeshi (country-made goods). The vast majority of people in the US are immersed in and dependent upon a mass market that has less and less to do with country-made goods. Try to find genuine “Made in USA” products in many product markets. Oh, they may be there, but they are huddled in amongst a plethora of competing products that were manufactured in other countries even if the product name is ostensibly “American.” 

Small businesses face huge and often unfair competitive pressures from mega-corporations. If a small business is successful, it too often gets swallowed up by some larger corporation. Sobe teas and elixirs were a great product; Sobe is now owned by Pepsi, and its original line of products has been discontinued. Burt’s Bees, the “Earth Friendly, Natural Personal Care Company,” is now owned by Clorox. Geez. 

Communities that want to establish their own, sustainable solar energy projects are increasingly threatened by roadblocks like California’s Proposition 16, promulgated by Pacific Gas & Electric, and only narrowly defeated at the polls. And so on and so on.

 

Can we have Swaraj (self-rule) without swadeshi (country-made goods)? Gandhi didn’t think so, and neither do I. Our swaraj may not yet be a “lifeless corpse,” but it is badly in need of some resuscitation.
 

So, what to do. Gandhi used khadi (hand-spun, hand-woven, and hand-sewn cloth) as a symbol of the essence of swaraj. All sorts of terms are associated with khadi: self-reliance, self-sustainability, “decentralized units of self-sustaining ecologies.” 

One term associated with khadi that I find particularly interesting is “non-cooperation.” We do not have to cooperate with the multinationals and mega-corporations. Every effort on the individual and community level to achieve sustainability is an act of non-cooperation. Revolutionary, indeed.