BY RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Autobiography

My Boyhood Days

Essays and Addresses

The Centre of Indian CultureCrisis in CivilizationLetters from RussiaThe Religion of an ArtistA Vision of India's History

Novels and Short Stories

Four ChaptersThe Parrot's Training and Other StoriesThe Runaway and Other StoriesTwo Sisters

Paintings and Drawings

Chitralipi-1Chitralipi-2

Poetry

PoemsSyamali

THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

VISVA-BHARATI

CALCUTTA

Edited by PUUNWHAM SEN

February 1963

Translated from the original Bengali essays and addresses byApurvakumar Chanda, Somnath Maitra, Jitendranarayan Sen

and Surendranath Tagore

© Visva-Bharati 1963

Published for Visva-Bharatiby Kanai Samanta

5 Dwarkanath Tagore Lane, Calcutta 7

Printed by Prabhat Chandra Rayat Sri Gouranga Press Private Limited

S Chintamani Das Lane, Calcutta 9

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P R E F A C E

IT IS NOW not necessary to explain to enlightened readers thevirtues and advantages of co-operative enterprise. Its usefulnessis now taken for granted and serious students of rural economicsare engaged in very useful research work in this field of nationalwelfare. But over half a century ago when nobody botheredabout the principles of co-operation or of their application to therural problems Gurudeva Rahindranath Tagore thought aboutthem and devotedly worked in this field of study as a pioneer forthe uplift of the countless men and women residing in remotevillages scattered all over Bengal and wallowing in the mire ofpoverty, ignorance and superstition. The discussions held indifferent seminars and the papers read in different symposiumsduring Gurudeva's birth centenary celebrations have thrown con-siderable light on this aspect of his genius. It is, therefore,appropriate that the English translations of his thoughtful essayson the topic of co-operation should be collected and made avail-able to non-Bengali reading public. It is hoped that a perusalof these essays will enable such readers to understand the prob-lems with which he was confronted and that an appreciation ofthe solutions thereof indicated by him will help them to forman idea of his great and keen foresight and his sincere solicitudefor the toiling masses of humanity.

Sudhi Ranjan Das

WE SEE our real motherland in the village; her heart is there,and it is there that Lakshmi, the Goddess of Plenty, seeks herthrone.

For a long time that throne has not been kept ready for her,for the opulent demi-god Kuver has lured men's minds away tothe city's yakshapuri. We have long neglected to invoke Lakshmito her own sphere of plenty; thus from the land have vanishedhealth and beauty, knowledge and joy, and even of life itself littleremains. To-day in the village the tanks are dry, the air pestilent,the roads impassable, the granaries empty and social bonds lax.Envy and malice, squabbles and misdeeds hasten the decay of thecrumbling society. The end seems near, for in this squalid,uncared-for land the fearful rule of Yama grows more powerfulevery day.

May the Giver of all Bounty be pleased with those who haveto-day taken upon themselves the task of filling with milk thedrained breasts of the village— that nourisher of life; who arelighting a lamp to bring radiance to her gloomy and joyless home.May these dedicated souls, by their sacrifice, service and devotion,by unifying all in harmonious living and co-ordinating alldisjointed efforts, banish from India the sins of her people,accumulated through centuries of ignorance and inertia, and withthese the curse of an angry deity; this is what I pray for withmy whole soul.

1928Rabindranath Tagore

1IN EVERY COUNTRY the poorer classes make a far largersector than the well-to-do. Then, which countries in parti-cular may be named as poor? It is where the means oflivelihood are the fewest and even those are often blocked.Where the "have-nots" can aspire to a better life, hopeitself is a real asset.

It is not enough to say there is a shortage of funds inour country ; worse, there is a shortage of hope. We castall the blame on fate as we bear torments of hunger. Wegrovel in the dust, assured that only the mercy of Heavenor of people from outside can save us. It does not strikeus that the remedy is in our own hands.

That is why it is better to instil hope in the heart thanto offer alms. It is his own deficiency, and no decree offate, that makes a man sink into the depths. To thinkthere is no escape from preordained misery is to make themisery perpetual. To seek new paths in a constant renewalof strength— that has always been the secret of progress.When a man waits helplessly for a turning in the wheelof fortune, he has to be regarded as shorn of manhood.

Man loses his true stature when he fails to unite fullywith his fellows. A complete man is one who has this capa-city for union, a lone individual is a fragmented being.We know that a child dreads ghosts only when he is alone.This is the lone person's fear of his own weakness. Mostof our fears are replicas of this fear of ghosts.

There is the fear of poverty. It can be countered if westand and act in a group. It is only by combining thatman has achieved all that is worthwhile in life— knowledge,faith, power, wealth. Sandy soil yields no crop because itdoes not stick together. Sap cannot collect in that soil

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but escapes through the interstices. The soil can be madeproductive by the addition of loam, humus and leaf-mouldwhich close the gaps. It is the same with human beings.Where the chasms between them are wide, their strengthis of no use.

Let us examine one of the basic things when we saythat man has really found himself by uniting with others.Man can speak, he has language. Animals have nolanguage. Through the unifying force of language a mind,otherwise sunk in itself, combines with others. It isthrough speech that the mind I have is projected into otherminds, and those in turn become part of my own. Thisthinking in unison is an enrichment that negates innerpoverty.

When mankind learnt to preserve language through thewritten word, the area of contact between minds wasextended. Spoken words do not go far. They get lost incourse of time, and often become distorted as they passfrom mouth to mouth. But the written word crossesoceans and mountains and is still unchanged. Every manmay thus gain the thinking of countless others.

That is not all. The written word goes beyond unitingthe minds of living men alone; it removes the barriersbetween the minds of to-day and the minds of those whobelonged to a remote past. This great contact betweenthoughts has created what is called civilization. What iscivilization but a state of union in which the strength ofeach individual adds power to all and the power of allfortifies the individual?

Behind the abject poverty of our country is the factthat we keep ourselves segregated, trying to bear all ourheavy burdens by ourselves. In Europe, when the steamengine came, many handicraft workers were thrown out10

of employment— how could the bare hands of individualschallenge the machine? But the people of Europe thinkfor one another in a crisis— where civilization is a powerfulforce, fellow-feeling must be intense. The realizationbegan to grow that the combined efforts of the peoplecould be their strength and their capital. The mind ofcivilized man has gained in stature by the union of thethoughts of many; likewise, the combined work of manycould attain a new magnitude. This union leading to pros-perity has been an ever-widening path in Europe and I donot see a better path anywhere else.

I have to visit a small village once in a while. I standon a verandah, and see field after field stretching away formiles. This land is cultivated by many farmers, some ofwhom own two bighas, some four and some even ten. Thefirst noticeable fact is that only a few cultivators have therequisite number of bullocks, while others have too few ortoo many. Ploughing may start at the right time, or itmay be late— that has to depend on the farmer's resources.Further, much of the labour of the bullocks is wasted as thedirection of the plough changes frequently because of thetwisted boundary lines of the plots. If each cultivator didnot regard his small holdings as an independent unit, if alladjoining strips were reckoned as one, fewer plough-sharesand bullocks could do the tilling and much wasteful labourwould be eliminated. There would again be a great savingof energy and expense if, after harvest, the farmers collec-tively stored and marketed their produce.

He who can do the largest measure of work in theshortest span of time wins out. That is why men employtools, which make one pair of hands equal to five or eventen. The savage who scratches the earth with his barehands has to accept defeat from the man with the plough.

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It is not his own physical strength but the use of tools thathas helped man to get the best out of cultivation, transport,and such activities as weaving, extracting oil, and manufac-turing sugar. The plough, the loom, the bullock cart, thehorse-drawn vehicle and the oil press have all reduced timeand increased output. These have made progress possible ;otherwise, there would have been but little to distinguishman from the ape.

Man worked with his small tools until the advent ofmodern machinery driven by steam and electricity. Thesmall tools acknowledged defeat from the big machines, asbare hands had yielded to the hands equipped with tools.

The time has come even for our cultivators to considerthese facts ; otherwise they cannot survive. But it will nothelp merely to theorize; the right answers must be foundthrough actual practice. In Europe and America they areall moving fast in that direction. They plough and reap,tie the sheafs and store the crop in granaries, all with thehelp of machines. Applied to this country, this processwill have several advantages. Before cultivation can start,one has often to wait for the rains to come. If there is abrief shower one day, a small plot can be just lightlyscratched with the ploughshare ; in case there is no morerain for weeks, there will have to be late sowing, and thenthe unripe crop may get covered with water in the latemonsoon. There may be trouble at harvest, too; extrahelping hands are scarce in the village and men from out-side have to be hired ; if there is a heavy downpour whilethe reaped crop still lies on the fields, heavy losses willfollow. With a mechanical plough and harvester, fulladvantage may be taken of every favourable turn in theweather; cultivation will be completed and the ripenedgrain gathered with great speed.12

These machines, it is true, can be put to work only overlarge tracts of land, and considerable funds are needed fortheir procurement and use. But if therefore we give up allhope saying that our peasantry cannot afford them, it willsimply mean inviting ruin. In the present age of mechan-ization our men, cultivators as well as artisans, must acceptthe machine or step back and further back until they toppleinto a perilous chasm.

He who is lacking in hope must perish. No one cansave him by offering alms or some other help. He mustbe made to realize that what is not possible for a singleindividual will be possible when fifty unite in a group.The fifty who have hitherto cultivated their separateholdings, side by side, will have all the advantages of alarge working-capital if they pool all their resources— land,labour, granaries. It will not be difficult then to get themachines. A farmer can hardly do good business with asmall daily surplus of a seer of milk, but if a hundred mencollect all their, spare milk, they can produce and sell gheeafter they have bought a butter-churning machine. InEurope this is a common practice. People in Denmarkand other small countries have combined and by the pro-per marketing of butter, cheese and cream they have elimi-nated poverty from their lives. Besides, trade contactshave made these farmers and dairymen realize their closekinship with the peoples of the world, and their minds havebecome enriched with understanding and knowledge.

This combination of many people to earn a living isknown in Europe as the co-operative system. It is by thissystem that our country can be rescued from its age-longpoverty and stagnation.

Our educated men are eager to serve the country.Nursing the sick, feeding the hungry and giving alms to

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the poor— these are some of the ways. That is like tryingto put out a fire by blowing on it, when it has envelopedthe whole village. Our ills cannot be cured by treatmentof the symptoms. The causes have to be removed. First,the people must cease to be parochial; they must feel thatthey are part of a world society. Secondly, in the economicsphere, their efforts have to be co-ordinated to the effortsof men elsewhere. In other words, like tall trees they needwide spaces to spread out their roots under the earth andtheir branches in the air and light. Fruit-bearing will thenbe easy and profuse and no one will have to worry on thataccount.

1918

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MAN IS by nature gregarious. Singly he is not complete;he is fully himself only in conjunction with others.

Because it is man's nature to live and work with others,his welfare and prosperity lie in fulfilling his nature. Whydoes man regard greed and anger and attachment andother such passions as his enemies? Because they rule theminds of individuals and comrnvaiities to sucb an extentthat they injure the interests of his corporate life. Theperson whose greed is overpowering magnifies his owninterest and minimizes the interests of others; he thenfinds it easy to harm others and cause them pain and suffer-ing. Thus the passions that make us forget others proveinimical not only to others but to ourselves, for they pre-vent us from fulfilling ourselves in kinship with ourfellow-men.

When many live as one, each one benefits by thecombined strength of: the many. "No one by bis unaidedefforts could ever hope to send a letter from Calcutta toCape Comorin at a cost of only a few pice. The postalsystem is the result of a gigantic co-operative effort; itsbenefits are so great that in the matter of despatching andreceiving letters it gives a poor person the same facilities asa millionaire. There is no limit to the benefits which eventhis one product of co-operation confers on humanity inthe spheres of religion, finance and education. It is notnecessary to refer in detail to the many religious oreducational institutions in every society which are run byco-operative effort; everyone knows about them.

Thus we see that the welfare of the individual as wellas the community is achieved only when there is scope ina community for each member to work for the good of all.

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Where ignorance or injustice prevent him from workingfor the common good, the result is misery and misfortune.

Almost in every society, work for the common good ishindered when the desire for making money takes posses-sion of men, for personal ambition then gets the better ofthe sense of social welfare. Whenever a man resolves toexcel others in wealth or power he does harm to himselffor, as I have said before, no one is complete in himself.That selfishness and greed hurt the truth of man's being isproved by the fact that all conflicts and treachery betweenman and man centre round this lust for wealth and power.

If wealth and power could be gained by the concertedlabour of the members of a community, everyone couldenjoy the fruits of such corporate endeavour. The richhave always been exhorted to give away then- riches, whichmeans that money, like knowledge and religion, is to beused as an instrument of human welfare, and that it wouldbe an evil if not put to such use. The claims of humanwelfare are opposed to the claims of selfishness, and belongto a higher category. The exhortation to give wealth awayin charity is an attempt to link the interests of the rich tothe welfare of the community, but it makes the latterdependent on the former, instead of placing it in the fore-front. That is why charity, instead of banishing poverty,gives it a longer lease of life.

Because the exhortations of religion have failed to doany good, and because in every society the conflict betweenwealth and poverty has been growing in intensity some,who desire to abolish this iniquitous inequality from humansociety, would resort to force to gain their object. Theywould rob and plunder and kill in order to dispossess therich of their wealth, and establish economic equalityamong the different classes in society. Attempts of this

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kind are a common feature of life in many countries of theWest. The reason is that in the West people believe morein physical force because they have more of that commoditythan we ; they do even good by force. This results in thedestruction of both wealth and humanity.

Neither religion nor brute force, therefore, can solve theproblem of poverty. Men must learn that the enjoymentof wealth by the employment of large capitals should nolonger be the monopoly of selfish individuals. If, to-day,a millionaire were to establish his own postal system withrelays of camels, for his individual use, he would enjoy farless advantages than a poor peasant; and yet there was atime when the rich had their own camel-post, and the poorhad none at all. Had a rich man in those days been soadvised by his religious preceptor, he might have condes-

• cended to arrange for the despatch of the letters of a fewvillagers along with his own ; but that would not have beena real solution of the problem of providing postal facilitiesfor all in the land. It is not in the power of rich individualsto remove the general poverty in a country.

That can only be done by the community as a whole.This must be clearly understood and exemplified. Theartificial distribution of wealth can do no good; wealthmust be produced by natural means. If the people in acommunity pool their earning capacity, they can easilyprove that this combined capital has infinitely greatervalue than that of any individual, however rich. Not byforce of arms, but by such examples alone, can capital bedisarmed and stripped of its power to do harm. Man'snatural desire for the enjoyment of wealth cannot betrampled to death by violent means. The only way to ridit of its narrowness is to fulfil that desire in the widestsense by securing the enjoyment of wealth for all men.

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History furnishes examples of the struggle between thepower of the rulers and the power of the people. Religionhas always enjoined on the king the duty of working forthe well-being of his subjects. Some have followed thiscounsel whole-heartedly, others half-heartedly; some havedisregarded it altogether. This condition still prevails inmany countries of the world. In most cases the king sub-ordinates the welfare of his subjects to his own enjoymentof pleasure and the consolidation of his own power. Thistype of monarchy has been replaced in many countries bydemocratic government. The object of such democraciesis to combine the desire and capacity for self-governmentin individuals to form the central governing power of theState. The U.S.A. boasts such a democracy.

But democracy is bound to be impaired where there istoo great a disparity between the profits of capital and thewages of labour. For money is the basis of all power ; andwhere there is great inequality of incomes, the rulingpower cannot possibly operate equally through all. Thatis why the dominating power of capital is seen at everystep in the government of the U.S.A. Money formulatespublic opinion there, and the evil power of money crusheseverything opposed to the self-interest of the rich. Thiscannot be called a government of the people, by the people,for the people.

The best way to make substantial freedom the commonproperty of the people is to pool their earning capacity.Wealth will not, then, accumulate in the form of money inthe hands of individuals or small groups; but the goodthings that money buys to-day for the very rich only, willbe enjoyed by all. When, by co-operative endeavour, menwill learn to turn their own work into wealth for all, thenonly will the real foundation of man's freedom be laid.IS

In our country, we have recently commenced studyingand experimenting with this co-operative method of pro-ducing wealth. This is particularly necessary for us; forif we fail to abolish poverty, misery and death will be ourdestiny. We shall be saved from this calamity only if weremember and act up to the patent truth that wealth islatent in each of us.

The villages in the country must be built up to be com-pletely self-sufficient, and able to supply all their ownneeds. For this, village-groups should be formed— a fewvillages going to form each such group— and the headmenof each group should make it self-sufficient by providingwork for all, and seeing that all their wants are met. Thusonly can self-government become a reality all over thecountry. The villagers must be educated, assisted andencouraged to establish primary schools, centres for train-ing in arts and crafts, centres for religious activities, co-operative stores and banks. Our salvation lies in thusmaking our villages self-reliant and knit together by theties of corporate life. Our main problem is how to buildup model village communities.

1923

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YEARS AGO, when most of those present here to-daywere in their mothers' arms or yet unborn, the idea hadstruck me that in the past there existed a natural channelthrough which the vital forces could flow, healthy andunimpeded, through our social organism. In the Westernworld the popular mind is creating economic, intellectualand spiritual wealth by localizing itself in certain definitecentres and these centres are the real source of its power.In India the whole mind of the people spread itself overthe entire country even to the remotest villages, in thoughtand deed and joy. This explains why the successiveonslaughts of various foreign powers in different periodsof her history have not been fatal to her. Not a village waswithout its institution for elementary education, located inthe chandimandap of the local magnate. For every fouror five villages, there was at least one learned pandit, freelygiving of his store of learning to those who sought it. Onsuch men rested the responsibility of maintaining thepurity of the traditional social ideal. The enjoyment ofwealth in those days was not narrowly personal. Fromeach main current of wealth branched out a number ofirrigation canals on every side. Similarly, the intellectualtreasures of the wise were freely open to all. Teachers,far from demanding fees, did not even look to the studentsfor their maintenance. Thus did the multifarious life-force permeate each village. That was why there was thenno scarcity of food or water, and the spirit of man had notto starve. It was this that received its death-blow when,following the European example, the towns began to beconverted into the life-centres of the country. The life ofthe villages began to be impoverished when the social20

nervous system, that formerly knit together the rich andthe poor, the learned and the unlettered, by a simple anduniversally recognized arrangement, was torn to pieces bythis blow from outside.

This thought used to perturb me when I was in dailytouch with the villages of Bengal. I have seen with myown eyes the working of this all-embracing system whichhad kept up the manliness of the common people beingobstructed and the channels for the natural flow of lifebeing choked up. It struck me then, that so long as thisvital problem remained unsolved, all our efforts for politi-cal advance would lack their foundation and our real wel-fare remain postponed. This was what I said in my speechon the "Swadeshi Samaj", in 1904. But mere wordsare of little avail in our country to wake up the people. Soinspite of my lamentable want of practicality, I set to thework of reviving the consciousness of certain villages fromwithin, a work in which some young men also came to myhelp. From this work I learnt one lesson— at the root ofthe suffering of any man, be it due to poverty or to ignor-ance, there is always some violation of truth. At the bottomof the truth that is in man is his sense of righteousnesswhich alone can establish real and deep relations betweenman and man. When this truth is distorted or weakened,the pools of his villages dry up, his fields become unproduc-tive, he succumbs to disease and is blinded by ignorance.The poverty of spirit that sunders man from his neigh-bours— it is that which kills every side of his being. Fromthis destruction no external force can save him.

If a fire breaks out in a village, it is found that the firecannot be brought under until it has consumtd the wholevillage. This is the outside aspect. The real tiuth is, thereis no firmness of cohesion between the villagers, and it is

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through the gaps of their discord that the fire spreads.Through these same gaps our intelligence leaks away, ourcourage disappears and our endeavours are reduced tofutility. It is because of this that no water is ever handy,and that while their houses are burning, the villagers canonly join their voices in lamentation, but not join forcesin putting out the fire.

Human civilization has progressed from stage to stage.At every succeeding stage, man has but rediscovered thisold truth in newer and wider aspects. When he lived inthe forest, the hindrance to his union with others was dueto natural causes, for he was confined at every step by hisouter circumstances ; when on coming out of the forest hereached the river, he found therein a speedy method oflocomotion that gave him outward points of contact withdistant people and corresponding opportunities for his innerexpansion.

That is to say he was put on the way to realizing histruth on a larger scale. And a new chapter of civilizationbegan with these open riversides. The Ganges has thusperformed the sacred task of developing and expandingthe civilization of ancient India. The same reason led theIndian to hold in holy regard the land watered by the fiverivers. India has not yet forgotten the service renderedby the Ganges in uniting man with man and therewithbearing the current of her social, intellectual and spiritualtradition from the western hillside to the eastern shores.

In the forest age of civilization we see man maintaininghimself by pasturing his flocks and then he had to satisfyhis personal needs by his individual efforts. With hismastery of agriculture the food for the many began to beproduced by combined efforts. This regularized produc-tion of a sufficiency of food made it possible for the many22

to live together. The union of the many is the truth ofhumanity; in this union is his civilization. King Janakaonce represented the ancient Indian culture. In him werecombined the two different currents of civilization—supply-ing food and wisdom, agriculture and the culture of thespirit,— that is to say, economic and transcendental. Theserepresent two different ways of attaining unity. For Sitawas no fleshly daughter of Janaka. Just as Draupadi inthe Mahabharata was born of sacrifice, so Sita in theRamayana was born of agriculture. Janaka found her inthe furrow of his plough. This Sita, this agriculture, accom-panied the demon-conquering hero from the north to thesouth and linked the Aryan and non-Aryan in a commontie of civilization. In the material sphere, agricultureraised the piecemeal individual life of man into the coher-ence of a large and systematized society. In the spiritualsphere, Brahmavidya, the cult of the Supreme, performeda corresponding function. When on the one hand, eachdevotee hoped to exercise a potent influence on his deityby the magic power of incantations and rituals, man alsofelt through his realization of the divine a deep andpervading sense of unity between soul and soul, the indi-vidual self and the supreme self.

In the scientific world, the separate creation of differentforms of life was once a current creed. Man's conceptionof living creatures was then only fragmentary. WhenDarwin discovered and announced a basic pattern of unityin the origin of species, this one ray of truth cleared theway to the scientific conception of unity along the wholerange of life down to matter. Whether in the field ofknowledge, or imagination or work, the realization of truthalways leads to a synthesis, and this synthesis leads to awealth of creation. By reason of its realization of universal

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laws Europe has attained a proficiency in knowledge andefficiency in work, unique in human history. Anotherreason for this is that all the countries of Europe have co-operated in the work of adding to the totality of knowledge.

But on the other hand, in the competitive spheres ofpolitics and economics, Europe has completely ignored thegreat truth of union. And the consequence is, Europe hasnow set about to pour libations of human blood on thesacrificial fire of destruction on a heroic scale that no pre-vious period of history can equal. In the throes of thissinful rebellion against truth the world has lost all peace.

All over the world, the economic and political life ofman is shamelessly defiled with hypocrisy, falsehood andmurderous cruelty. Fallen from truth, man seems to pre-pare, with all his vast resources of intellect, wealth andpower, for a universal suicide.

Man has accepted the truth of co-operation socially butnot economically. The production of wealth, its distribu-tion and enjoyment are supposed to be entirely personalmatters. Here he is unwilling to curb bis egoism, his self-indulgence. Here his attitude is that of an isolated indi-vidual, and hence his sense of moral responsibility isweak.

When we take up a rebellious attitude against this stateof things, we generally fulminate against the relationsbetween capital and labour, forgetting that similar chargescan be brought against all kinds of business activity. Alawyer, perhaps, peruses a single document or pleads for afew minutes, and yet demands fees running into hundredsor thousands— does he not then exploit, as far as he can,his poor clients' ignorance and inability? The capitalist fac-tory owners but do the same. The intensity of exploitationvaries with the inequality of the respective economic condi-24

tions. In our country the bridegroom's people demand anunreasonable dowry simply because of the existing ine-quality of the marriage conditions. A girl must get marriedbut a boy need not, this gives the latter's side the upperhand. The preaching of morality is not effective in suchcases, the real remedy lies in getting rid of the inequalities.

In the present age science has found the key to openmany of the closed chambers in the power-house of Nature,and since then the difference between those who havebecome possessed of these powers and those who have nothas inordinately increased. Formerly, the production ofwealth, both of goods and of profits, was limited. Theequilibrium of society, therefore, was not thereby disturbed.But now the desire for money has so outstripped that forother forms of social well-being and has brought aboutsuch a tremendous discord that social life has becomediseased and human nature overwhelmed. Money hasceased to be an instrument in the hands of man, but hasbecome a demoniac power, before which the larger claimsof humanity have become insignificant. Between moneyaccumulated by the help of machinery and the naturalpowers of an ordinary man the difference is so great thatthe ordinary man must accept defeat at every step. Thosein whose favour is this difference exploit the others to theextreme limit, and becoming unduly bloated themselves,destroy the equilibrium of the social structure.

Harmony is the very basis of society. Whenever thisharmony is destroyed, passions become violent, anti-socialdisorder prevails, the few destroy the sustenance of themany, seeking to use them as tools for their self-aggrandize-ment. Then, crushed under the burden of the misery ofthe masses, thus reduced to slaves, society either becomesmoribund or, to save itself, prepares for a revolution.

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Such revolutionary tendencies have been for a long timegathering volume in Europe. Inequalities in Europenaturally incline towards violent methods of rectification,because in the European blood there is an instinctive desireto destroy. They satisfy this desire by unnecessarilyhunting birds and beasts far and near. When, therefore,they find a set of circumstances not to their liking, theywant to exterminate every one standing in the way beforegiving a thought to the root idea. When the air is chargedwith disease-germs, to kill an infected man does not driveaway the disease. The unequal distribution of wealthwhich is being encouraged to-day has its root in greed.Man was never free from greed, but it seldom crossed thelimits within which it is not harmful, but rather useful.But now its attraction has become irresistibly strong be-cause with the increased means of production the profitis immensely magnified. So long as the outside temptationis left intact, greed, if chased out of one individual, willlodge in another, and even the one who was the chaserin one case runs the risk of himself becoming the victimin another. If the means of satisfying unbounded greedare concentrated in one centre their attraction is bound toagitate the popular mind and it is only by their wide dis-tribution that the effect of such attraction can be avoided.A huge capital gathers together the money-making powerscattered in many men and starts an all-devouringconcern, before the organized strength of which theisolated units needs must yield. The only remedy isin voluntary union of these disparate forces in orderto ensure the flow of profit through all. The remedyis not in killing the capitalist, but in giving all equalopportunities of becoming capitalists. Man can riseout of the misery and conflict of inequality if the

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truth of unity is also allowed to prevail in the religion ofeconomics.

In the prehistoric age huge primitive animals gatheredwithin their bodies immense bulk and power. But man didnot establish his superiority by becoming a still biggermonster. Man came to this world, weak and small, andwas able to overcome much huger animals in their isola-tion by realizing the unity of separate units of power. Eachman to-day is the master of an immense power because ofthe combination of the physical and mental powers ofmany men. Man thus is now the lord of animal creation.

Only recently man has discovered the utility of thistruth in the domain of economics. This is what is knownas the production of wealth by co-operation and this showsthat the time is not distant when mammoth capital willcease to exist, by splitting up into smaller units. Man willbe free from the tyranny of economic inequality not bywading through blood, but by establishing a principle ofharmony between the various units of power. That is, theprinciples of humanism whose absence caused such a dis-order in economics are going to be recognized at last. Justas, formerly, the weak social animal conquered the isolatedmonster; even so to-day, victory will come to the econo-mically weak, not by exterminating the powerful but byrealizing their own strength through unity. I can alreadysee its victorious colours flying in the distance and in ourcountry, too, that same victory is being heralded by theprinciple of co-operation.

The previous speaker has referred to Denmark. Buthe has overlooked one fact— conditions in India and Den-mark are not the same. The improvement of dairy-farm-ing there is not due entirely to the co-operative movement;the help and initiative of the State plays a big role.

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Arrangements have been made for the extensive trainingof the people at large in dairy-farming which is possibleonly in a free country.

Another great advantage of Denmark is that the coun-try does not groan under the heavy weight of armaments.The entire revenue can be adequately applied to the mani-fold needs of the people. But it does not rest with us inIndia to disburse the revenue for purposes of the healthand education of the people. The amount set apart forthe country's welfare is hopelessly inadequate for thesepurposes. Here again the problem is the extreme differencebetween the powers of the state and the powers of thepeople. But we must conquer our poverty and downfalldue to this difference by realizing our own strength throughmethods of co-operation, by improving our own health andeducation. I have often said this in the past and it has tobe said again and again even now.

There was a time in our country when the communityhad a claim on the wealth of the rich who were forced bythe pressure of public opinion to acknowledge the respon-sibility of their wealth. That led to the efficient supplyof social needs, and society was kept alive. But becauseof such traditions of charity, the people never learned todepend on themselves. They did not feel that the foodand drink, health and education, religion and joy of thevillage depended on the co-operation of the good-will ofeach of them. So when the modern social changes came,when the enjoyment of wealth became exclusively personal,when the responsibility of possession did not naturally leadto its application for the general welfare, people failedmiserably to uphold their own interests. It is because therich spend their wealth in the towns and cities that thepoor villagers have to lament the niggardliness of their fate.28

They have lost the power to believe that the means oftheir betterment are in themselves.

If in the first instance, this faith can be revived andconvincingly demonstrated in the economic field, the coun-try will, in time, prosper in every other. Our duty to-dayis to preach this truth by spreading the co-operativesystem among the people. The organized strength of thepuny monkeys caused the downfall of the powerful mons-ter, Ravan, ten-headed in his greed, twenty-handed in hisexploitation. This organization was bound by ties of loveto a central figure. Ramchandra by his love unified theweak and made of them a terrible force. We want thatlove, that coherence for our salvation to-day.

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IN A CERTAIN PHASE of civilization the city gains greatlyin importance over the village. It is not that the country'slife finds a more intense expression in the city; thecountry's power gets concentrated in the city which thusattains a new prestige.

The social temper of the Bengal village repeated itselfto some extent in the life of the city. In outward appearancethe city was quite unlike the village; yet at some pointsthe two resembled each other in character. This was thecase even with the big cities. With all their pride theyrecognized their kinship with the village. The two weresomewhat like the inner and outer apartments of a house ;wealth and pomp resided in the outer section, leisure andease in the other, and the two were linked by the closestrelationship.

It is no longer so. In the last half-century the cityhas grown to be very much the city and the village cannotreach it even by the back entrance. This is what is meantby the saying: "Your own courtyard is alien ground."Villages lie all around the cities and yet it is as if the twoare hundreds of miles apart.

This unnatural severance can do no good. Not that itis something peculiar to our country; it is a mark of themodern age. The wind from the West has scattered theseeds of social dissonance all over the world, destroyingnot only peace and happiness, but the very core of life itself.Here is a problem on which people everywhere mustponder.

Civilization, as it is known in Europe, sucks up the lifeof the masses to build a special kind of power. It is likethe flowering of the bamboo— the flower draws the life

30

of the whole plant. The English word for this is exploita-tion. The smaller part seeks to grow big by swallowingthe larger. The small becomes bloated while the large isdrained of sustenance. The result is a growth in theintensity of an anti-social, separatist individualism.

I have suggested already that the might of a countryis in its cities even though the villages are its life centre.It is in cities that ways have to be devised for the develop-ment of financial, political and democratic power. Theseways are not always social in character. Here the machinehas more importance than human values. All power goesto those who control the machine. Therefore, cities arein the main a competitive field and here the urge for mutualhelp is not suitably encouraged.

Individualism and competition are necessary for thegeneration of power, but danger comes when the properlimits are exceeded. Modern civilization has indeed gonebeyond the limits. Many-limbed as it is, a multiplicity ofappurtenances are needed for its expression and preserva-tion. Inadequate resources are almost a crime in this orderof life which has to stand on a vast assortment of mate-rials. Education, health, law and justice, communica-tions, transport, food, accommodation, conduct of warfare,maintenance of peace and order— all cost huge sums ofmoney. Poverty brings with it humiliation, for poverty isa drag on the progress of this civilization.

Money is now the source of all power and is prizedabove all else. Even State policy is no longer based on theextension of sovereignty; what is more attractive is theexpansion of trade and commerce, the means of makingnew wealth. In the days when civilization was not many-limbed, the scholar and the sage, the hero and the philan-thropist were more highly respected than the rich. By the

31

honour shown to them, it was humanity itself that washonoured. People were contemptuous of the mere money-maker. All civilization is now a parasite of wealth. It isnot merely the earning of money, the worship of money isdominant. The false god destroys the goodness in man.Never before was man such a great enemy of man; for,nothing can be more cruel, more iniquitous, than this goldhunger. The all-powerful hunger is a product of moderncivilization, and measures for satisfying it surpass all otherendeavours.

Out of greed comes sin and sin leads to destruction.Greed is an anti-social impulse. All that weakens thesocial sensibility of man leads at every step to internal con-flict and does not let the fire of discontent die out, untilthe very social existence of man is violently disrupted andmust come to its end.

A ceaseless clash goes on in the western world betweenthose who make big money and those who are mere toolsfor the purpose. There is no visible way of settling theconflict; for, the greed of the working class equals the greedof the capitalist. Everyone wants more and more moneyto enjoy in full measure the bliss of civilization. To hopethat the tussle will come to a stop somewhere seems futile.

When greed and the worship of might grow un-restrained in social life, it becomes impossible for man todevote himself to the development of his humanity. Helongs for power, not for fullness of self. Under such con-ditions the city becomes supreme and the village falls intoneglect. All opportunities, all advantages, all that isneeded for the enjoyment of life pile up in the city; thevillage simply slaves to provide food and just managessomehow to exist. Society gets divided— on one side thereis light and on the other deep darkness. It is thus that

32

urban civilization in Europe tears apart the integrity ofmankind. Ancient Greece was centred on cities, with awater-tight division between the master and the slave. So,after a hey-day of prosperity Greece was swept aside.Ancient Italy, too, was city-based and for a time shewielded great power. Power is intrinsically a-social— itcreates a rigid class distinction between master and slave.The few masters become parasites of the numerous slaves.This parasitism destroys the basis of their humanity.

The West has created areas of light and darkness notonly in its own regions but throughout the world. Itsdemands, vast as they are, cannot be met within its fron-tiers. The people of Britain must have India in their pos-session in order to acquire and maintain the wealth whichis said to be essential for civilized living. If they give upIndia, they will have no option but to lower their highstandards of luxury. They must have slave peoples as theirinstrument of power. That is why the entire British racelives as India's parasite. That is why the Great Powers ofEurope have been anxious to carve out Asia and Africafor themselves ; otherwise their pleasure-ridden civilizationwould have to be half-starved.

The resources needed for unlimited enjoyment cannotbe equitably divided among all. Many must be deprived,that a few can go on adding to their hoarded wealth. Hereis the most crucial problem for the peoples of the West.Within their own countries greed has brought about thesame rift between the Haves and the Have-nots as existsbetween subject races and their foreign overlords. Thisextreme dissonance is hostile to the religion of universalhumanity. Wherever the unity of man is in peril, disrup-tive forces arise, openly or in secret. The master hurtsthe slave openly, but covertly the slave hurts even more,

3 33

for he destroys the moral sense in his master. This is agreat danger ; for while animals die only from lack of food,man dies also from lack of moral sense.

In Aesop's Fables we read of the one-eyed deer thatwas killed by an arrow coming from its blind side. Thepurely material aspect of the current civilization of man ishis blind side. We find in Europe to-day a large and variedco-operation in the acquisition of knowledge but a bittercompetition in the acquisition of. wealth. A single lampof knowledge in Europe kindles a thousand lamps and thelight of all illuminates the modern age. Thus Europetowers over all the other continents. Convener and priestof the worship of knowledge, she has collected many fag-gots from many places to feed the sacred fire so that itwould never be quenched. Never before in the history ofman have co-operative principles in the realm of knowledgebeen so widely at work. In earlier times every countrydeveloped its learning independently and in isolation fromothers. The learning of Greece belonged mainly toGreece, the learning of Rome to Rome, and it was the samein India and China. Happily for the countries and regionsof the European continent, they are closely situated andthe natural boundaries between them are not so difficultto cross— there are no barriers of vast deserts or high moun-tain ranges. They are one in religion and for a long timethis religion was centred on Rome.

For many centuries while learning was disseminated allover Europe through the medium of only one language,Latin, the oneness of religion worked further for unity. Thebasic principle of this religion is unification; at its centreis the love of Christ and its injunction is service to all man-kind. In course of time each country as it came out ofthe nursery of Latin began to advance scholarship through2A

its own language. All learning, however, flowed througha. single channel and was stored in one treasure house. Outof this was born western civilization, a civilization of know-ledge rooted in co-operation. We speak of eastern civiliza-tion, but that is a negative term, merely implying that itis not European. There is no concord between the mindsof China and Arabia ; in many respects they are even con-trary. The Hindus of India and the Semitic races ofwestern Asia are quite dissimilar in their culture. Theabsence of co-operation in the learning of the Asian nationshas led to their ancient history being split into differentsections. Under the compulsions of history some areas mayhave had cultural exchanges but the mind of Asia neverbecame a unified entity. So it is that, when we speak ofeastern civilization, we are thinking only of our own natio-nal civilization. That is why Asia, unlike Europe, hasbeen unable to make a strong impact on the modern age.

But where is it that, in this civilization of Europe, theseed of its doom is being sown? It is in its failure to co-operate in the realm of material progress. Here the coun-tries of Europe are separated and mutually opposed to anunnatural extent. As material progress, aided by science,becomes vast and varied, curious contradictions arise. Onone side there is the rapid advance of life-saving knowledge—never before did man have such mastery over his physi-cal health, over the productivity of land, and over all mate-rial obstacles to living. It is as if man is trying to snatchfrom heaven the nectar that gives deathlessness. On theother side, we see something entirely contrary. Neverbefore has there been such devoted effort to deal out death ;every country in Europe is most enthusiastically engagedin this effort. Europe grew powerful by unifying know-ledge ; it is now ready to utilize that very power to destroy

35

itself. In its search for knowledge Europe advances on thepath of saving life, while in its search for material wealthit marches on the path of destroying life. It is difficultto foresee which force will ultimately prevail.

Some say that, to avert disaster, the machines nowemployed by man should be scrapped. That is absurd.Quadrupeds have four feet but no arms. They somehowmanage to, do what is needed for a bare existence. Thisbare existence means poverty, and defeat. Man, however,iSjfoitunate in having been provided with two hands, whichadd vastly to his efficiency, an advantage that gives himmastery over all other living beings. When he increasedhis. efficiency further, with the help of machines, he tookone more step forward. It is absurd to suggest that thispower of man should be curbed. Nations who have failedto gain control over the machine must face defeat, just asbeasts had to face defeat from man.

The problem arises when one man, or a group of people,aided by some opportunity, captures the means and mate-rials of power. There was a time when all political powerin every country was in the hands of one man, whose willalone prevailed. When he had to be restrained from mis-use of power, an appeal to his conscience was the only way.But the ears of the mighty were not always open to suchappeal. So it happened that people in some countrieswrested authority from the ruler by force. They said, "Thepower of the ruler is simply the sum total of our ownpower. The concentration of power in one hand has madeus powerless. If we can find out how each one of us canuse that power, then by the union of all our power we canhave our united kingdom." England had this opportunity.If it did not come to several other countries, that was be-cause all nations do not have the education or the mental36

capacity to divide up the concentrated power and fheiiunite it anew for application in practice.

This is also true of the power of money, restricted to aparticular class. It is by collecting in their own hands theworking capacity of many people that the rich attainedtheir position. Their capital is the combined labour powerof many people and it has taken concrete shape in wealth.That labour power is the real capital, the power inherent inevery worker. If they can only say, "We shall combineour strength," their real capital will be in their own hands.Those who lack the capacity to unite must of necessitysuffer. They can gain no permanent benefit by abusingothers or by robbing them.

In material affairs man has for long neglected hishumanity, using his strength only in the furtherance ofgreed. Numberless slaves are harnessed to the chariot ofwealth and driven forward under the whip. The oppressedmust eventually say to themselves, "It is our dividedstrength, concentrated in the hands of the mighty, whichhas given them power. By attacking the power we canbreak it but we cannot put it together again, and so it willbe no good to us. We must, therefore, try to combine allour labour power and thereby gain economic benefits to beshared by all."

That is the co-operative principle. It is this principlewhich has made man great in knowledge and given a moralbasis to his conduct of practical affairs. Where it is lack-ing, there is suffering, malice, falsity, barbarity and strife.

The clash of power against power raises conflagrationson all sides. Man is being sacrificed at the altar of indivi-dual greed. Unless stopped, this will cause the most terri-ble havoc in history. The rift between the mighty and theweak in the world of material affairs is the most serious

37

danger to-day. Differences exist between the learned andthe ignorant; but men do not raise walls of separation overthe right to knowledge; the intellectual classes are notanxious to gain strength by group combination. The in-ordinate greed for money, however, has been raising wallsto keep people apart in every country and in every home.Differences also existed between people in the past; but thewalls did not reach such great heights. Greed did not over-whelm and corrupt all literature, art, politics and domesticlife. Beyond the monetary fields were other wider fieldswhere men could unite.

It is not the rich but the poor who must rescue societyfrom the crushing weight of great wealth. The buildingof an entrance gate to the heavily barred economic fieldmust lie in their hands. The weakness of the poor has solong kept civilization weak and incomplete ; they must setthis right by the conquest of power.

The co-operative principle is progressing in Europeancountries, who have an advantage over us— they have moreexperience and sense of combination. We Indians, espe-cially the Hindus, are backward in this respect. But itmay well be expected that even we, goaded by our unbear-able poverty and by our great longing for a better life, willultimately accept the co-operative way. If we fail, there willbe no escape from our woes and no one can be blamed onthat score.

It has been said that poverty will be rooted out if ourliving is reduced to bare necessities, as in the past. Thatsimply means that one who is lying right at the bottomcannot fall further down. It is hardly a solution.

The history of man does not indicate that he will everretrace his footsteps. His intelligence has to express itselfin newer creations through the ages. New times make new38

demands. Those who cannot meet the demands get dis-missed. By his inventive power man goes on creating newopportunities for himself, and his needs multiply. Evenbefore the plough-share came, man existed on fruits androots which he gathered from the forests. No one at thetime could have felt that he lacked anything. When theplough was invented, cultivation began and there followedtrade and commerce, laws .and regulations. Trouble alsocame in its wake— violence, theft and robbery, forgery,cheating and lying. But to suggest that the plough shouldbe discarded on this account is to ask that we should facebackward while we try to march. History tells us of someraces who, instead of advancing on the path of newer crea-tions, remained stationary, their faces turned to whatancient possessions they had. They were worse than thedead, because they were dead-alive. It must be concededthat the dead do not need money to spend; is that anyreason to say that the best solution of die problem ofpoverty is death? It is not for man to continue somehowto exist with the relics of past ages. Man's needs are varied;his necessities are numerous; but he has also the abilityto meet his own demands.

What is a luxury? Should we say that it is a luxury togive up the castor oil lamp for the kerosene lantern, andto replace the kerosene lantern with electric light? Onlyif we have no use for artificial illumination, once daylightis gone, can we think of giving up electric light. That lightis only an improved way of satisfying the need which wasfelt when darkness fell and the bean oil lamp was lit. Itis no luxury to-day if we use electric light, and not to useit is only a sign of poverty. When the bullock cart wasfirst devised, it was an expression of. wealth; but within itlay concealed the conception of the motor-car. If the man

39

who used the bullock cart does not ride a motor-car to-day,it is only his poverty that is indicated. The wealth of onetime is merely poverty in a succeeding age. Only thefeeble-minded may suggest that poverty will be conqueredif you revert to it.

That most of the advantages created in the modern ageare enjoyed only by a few, while the majority are denied,is a misfortune for which society must expiate. Theremedy lies not in restricting wealth or taking forcible pos-session of it or giving it away. The remedy is in stimulat-ing in all people the capacity for creating new wealth; inother words, it is in expounding to the people the princi-ples of co-operation.

I do not believe that inequality in wealth can ever becompletely removed by force. The disparity inherent inman is sure to assert itself. There is also the difference intemperament. Some love to hoard money while othershave no such inclination, so that unevenness in wealth iscreated. A mechanical uniformity is neither possible noreven desirable. As in the world of nature so in the worldof man, complete uniformity paralyzes initiative and makesthe intellect idle. But excessive unevenness is equally bad,since it greatly hinders the development of social contactamongst people by the creation of distance between them.Evil builds its nest under the shadow of such barriers.

Every man is entitled to adequate wages and leisure.To have only the barest means of living is an insult. Thedignity of civilized living rests to-day on a chosen few,maintained by the unwilling labour of many. Vast massesof people, deprived of education, health and the means ofenjoyment, are doomed to exist as dullards. We have sel-dom worried about the consequence, but we cannot remainunconcerned any longer. All over the world to-day violent40

social upheavals have started symptoms of intensificationof power within a narrow space. That power must now bereleased ; it must become broad-based.

At one time the co-operative principle was followed tosome extent in our village-based economy. But life nowis not as simple as in those days. Besides, it is now farmore difficult for the rich to be selfless. So much thebetter, though; the masses must now develop their owninherent strength— that will be of more permanent worth.If the Indian economy is based once more on co-operation,the villages which are the nurseries of our civilization willbe vitalized and the whole country will gain a new life.Poverty holds the scene and there are as yet few towers ofaccumulated wealth standing as barriers on the path of thehumble masses. So co-operation will have little challengeto face. And it is my earnest prayer that the liberationof wealth, its re-distribution, be carried on in this countryto the fullest extent, so that, through the united efforts ofall the people, the goddess of food and plenty may befirmly enthroned for all time to come.

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APPENDIXES

THERE WAS A TIME when the means and methods ofproduction, the distribution and enjoyment of wealth weresimple and therefore easily assimilated to the life of thepeople. But science has helped wealth to alienate itselffrom the living heart of society, to concentrate its resources,for the sake of efficiency, in monster organizations that havetheir own separate laws of existence and claims of self-preservation. And these, not having close association withthe people in their daily stream of thoughts and feelings,their movements of creative activity, have become an out-side imposition upon them, creating constant problems ofmaladjustment, whirlpools of noise, dirt and ugliness, ofsocial insanitation, of fragmentary toil that kills therhythm of body and mind. The highly specialized know-ledge and skill, the enormous amount of material andmoney, needful for establishing and maintaining theseorganizations have inevitably raised them beyond the reachof the generality of men, creating opportunities only forthe fortunate who are scarce, preparing a soil fit only foran intensive cultivation of anti-social instincts.

When the social balance is thus upset by such constantdraining of individual powers into a narrowly limitedchannel of irresponsible economic dominance, it is nevertolerated with impunity for long. The latest Frankensteinof a malady of bis own creation, against which man is try-ing to fight, is this too abnormally congested wealth, redwith aggressive inflammation. The sound process of treat-ment in such a case is never through a destructive mutila-tion which always fails to reach the root, leaving thewound of its own making to fester, but through a stimula-tion of the natural circulation of national prosperity,

45

thereby helping the inner spirit of recovery to do its workin the depth of the social constitution. To my mind, suchtreatment has been started with the introduction of theco-operative principle in economic life.

I am not competent to discuss the practical detailsconnected with this movement, but more than oncehave I expressed my strong faith in its principle— theprinciple, in fact, that abides as the very foundation ofhuman civilization. If it be true that there is a demon ofruthless competition in Nature, with whose help she carrieson her severe task of selection in the world of life, it isalso true that in man this characteristic of hers is undergoinga gradual reversal. The test of the fitness for survival inthe vegetable and the animal has been principally external;it has become inner in man to such a degree that the claimof a mere physical existence is often sacrificed for the sakeof an ideal which is acknowledged to be human and there-fore beyond the rule of natural selection. The process ofevolution that was chiefly physical and biolo^cal incharacter has thus taken in man a turn that constantlyleads him to startling variations, intellectual and spiritual,but hardly ever physiological except as an aberration. Itis like the change of state from dark heat to white radiance,from the rude compulsion of passion to the freedom ofself-rule.

The most precious wealth man has ever attained is theconsciousness of his fundamental unity which has made itthe mission of the whole human world to work togetherfor the service of every individual born in it. In religion,in science, in art, perpetual currents of contribution cometo us from distant times and alien countries imparting thestrength of truth to our particular civilization which in itslarger and more permanent aspect is also universally46

human. In fact, the cultivation of moral perfection has itsonly meaning in this truth of unity'that has to be main-tained by the curbing and controlling of our selfish instinctsand by the acknowledgment of our mental obligations.

Though in the province of politics and economics, andstill more in that of self-interest, we also have a world-widesystem of interdependence, it remains here as a mereexternal fact; and the inner ideal of human unity, whichis moral, not utilitarian in character, hardly finds credence ;on the contrary it is brutally violated at every step. Thiscomprises the dark continent of primitive nature, stillremaining unconquered by the spirit of man, where theanimal reigns supreme with teeth and claws bared, in thefierce struggle of relentless competition.

A very large class of men still believe that in thesedepartments of civilization, representing the collectivewordliness of the Nation, the only reliable truth is the spiritof efficiency. Therefore are these the arena not only forconflicts of physical power and skill, but for a constantcompetition in mutual cheating and other hideous crimesmanufacturing their poisoned shafts in underground cells.Here only can moral laws be safely laughed at and mockersbe sublimely proud of the enormity of their wicked callous-ness. These organized centres of moral pollution, fromwhich a pestilence of death threatens to spread all over theworld, are the only departments of the human world wherethe dead past of the dark history of man still holds un-ashamed sway. They ignore great Human Truth in favourof a natural truth which is for the beast, and thus courtthe punishment of a violent extinction, or a moral degene-racy worse than death.

It may be that the League of Nations is the beginningof the acknowledgment of the moral truth of co-operation

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in politics, and will rescue it from the barbarity of thearrogant individualism of the nation that takes no heedof the necessity of self-control except upon some compul-sion of physical menace from outside.

The co-operative movement which is gradually gainingground in our economic life because it represents thehighest truth of man, the truth of his unity, is also theonly way that can lead to the true wealth of the people,the wealth born of the great meeting of individual wills.The huge megatherium of capitalism with its stupendoustail of bought-up workers will naturally become extinctwhen individual men come to realize their own truth,—notthrough the indecent exaggeration of their exclusive wealth,but through a combination of their individuality foundedupon mutual trust and understanding.

Barbarism is exclusive, specially guarding its cave-dwellings of isolation. And the barbarians, thus mistrust-ful of others, constantly ready with their bows and arrows,remain stunted in mind and poor in spirit. Likewise, theisolated disproportion of exclusive wealth is barbarous. Itwill become civilized when it evolves the true fulfilmentof its moral character; its power of co-operation ; and whenit grows sincerely ashamed of its iniquitous greed and ofthe unseemly scrimmage of competition through which onegains profit at the cost of another's loss and which, withits external barriers of monstrous weight and dimension,only serves to disturb the natural circulation of wealth andleaves the poverty problem unsolved.

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JUST AS the present-day politics is a manifestation ofextreme individualism in nations, so is the process of gain-ing a livelihood an expression of the extreme selfishnessof individuals. That is why man has descended to suchdepths of deceit and cruelty in his indiscriminate competi-tion. And yet, since man is man, even in his business heought to have cultivated his humanity rather than thepowers of exploitation. In working for his livelihood heought to have earned not only his daily bread, but also hiseternal truth.

When, years ago, I first became acquainted with theprinciples of co-operation in the field of business, one ofthe knots of a tangled problem which had long perplexedmy mind seemed to have been unravelled. I felt that theseparateness of self-interest, which had so long contemptu-ously ignored the claims of the truth of man, was at lengthto be replaced by a combination of common interestswhich would help to uphold that truth, proclaiming thatpoverty lay in the separation, and wealth in the union ofman and man. For myself I had never believed that thisoriginal truth of man could find its limit in any region ofhis activity.

The co-operative principle tells us, in the field of man'slivelihood, that only when he arrives at his truth can heget rid of his poverty, and not by any external means. Andthe manhood of man is at length honoured by the enuncia-tion of this principle. Co-operation is an ideal, not a meresystem, and therefore it can give rise to innumerablemethods of its application. It leads us into no blind alley;for at every step it communes with our spirit. And so, itseemed to me, in its wake would come, not merely food,4 4^

but the goddess of plenty herself, in whom all kinds ofmaterial food are established in an essential moraloneness.

It was while some of us were thinking of the waysand means of adopting this principle in our insti-tution that I came across the book called The NationalBeing written by that Irish idealist, A.E., who has a rarecombination in himself of poetry and practical wisdom.There I could see a great concrete realization of the co-operative living of my dreams. It became vividly clear tome what varied results could flow therefrom, how full thelife of man could be made thereby. I could understandhow great the concrete truth was in any plane of life, thetruth that in separation is bondage, in union liberation. Ithas been said in the Upanishad that Brahma is reason,Brahma is spirit, but Anna also is Brahma, which meansthat Food also represents an eternal truth, and thereforethrough it we may arrive at a great realization if we travelalong the true path.

I know there will be many to tax me with indicating asolution of great difficulty. To give concrete shape to theideal of co-operation on so vast a scale will involve endlesstoil in experiment and failure before at length it may be-come an accomplished fact. No doubt it is difficult.Nothing great can be got cheap. We only cheat our-selves when we try to acquire things that are precious witha price that is inadequate. The problem of our povertybeing complex, with its origin in our ignorance and un-wisdom, in the inaptitude of our habits, the weakness ofour character, it can only be effectively attacked by takingin hand our life as a whole and finding both internal andexternal remedies for the malady which afflicts it. Howcan there be an easy solution?50

There are many who assert and some who believe thatSwaraj can be attained by the charkha ; but I have yet tomeet a person who has a clear idea of the process. Thatis why there is no discussion, but only quarrelling over thequestion. If I state that it is not possible to repel foreigninvaders armed with guns and cannons by the indigen-ous bow and arrow, there will, I suppose, still be someto contradict me, asking, "Why not?" It has alreadybeen said by some, "Would not the foreigners be drowned,even if everyone of our three hundred and thirty millionwere only to spit at them?" While not denying the fear-someness of such a flood, or the efficacy of such a sugges-tion, for throwing odium on foreign military science, thedifficulty which my mind feels to be insuperable is thatyou can never get all these millions even to spit in unison.It is too simple for human beings. The same difficultyapplies to the charkha solution.

The disappointments, the failures, the recommencementsthat Sir Horace Plunkett had to face when he set to workto apply the co-operative principle in the economic recons-truction of Ireland, are a matter of history. But thoughit takes time to start a fire, once alight it spreads rapidly.That is the way with truth as well. In whatever cornerof the earth it may take root, the range of its seeds isworld-wide, and everywhere they may find soil for growthand give of their fruit to each locality. Sir Horace Plun-kett's success was not confined to Ireland alone; heachieved also the possibility of success for India. If anytrue devotee of our motherland is able to eradicate thepoverty of only one of her villages, he will have given per-manent wealth to the thirty-three crores of his countrymen.Those who are wont to measure truth by its size get onlyan outside view, and fail to realize that each seed, in its

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tiny vital spark, brings divine authority to conquer thewhole world. . .

1925

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It gives me no little pleasure on the occasion of thisSilver Jubilee, to look back on the day when the infantinstitution with the then somewhat ambitious soundingname of the Hindusthan Co-operative Insurance Societyhad its birth in one of the rooms of my house in Jora-sanko. The reason why I was tempted to do what littleI could to help in ushering it into the world was, not thatI pretended to have any understanding of business details,or was over-persuaded by its originator Ambika CharanUkil whose single-minded devotion to the cause of Co-operation had won my esteem, or even that my nephew,Surendranath, was among the active promoters, butbecause of my own strong faith in the principles embodiedin its constitution. When, over twenty-five years ago thescheme of this Insurance Society was laid before me, apicture of the long and arduous road that needs must betraversed by such an institution, flashed vividly throughmy mind. But it was this very difficulty of achievementthat chiefly attracted me to its programme, and the otherattraction was the strangeness of the spectacle that it con-jured up, of our Bengali countrymen thus banding togetherto organize a vast wealth-producing organization on up todate lines.

I had always felt that the attainment of human welfareand prosperity, in the true sense of these words, by meansof mutual aid and co-operative striving was of the veryessence of civilized life. It is by such endeavour thatScience has achieved its triumphs, and while so doing hasbeen able to knit mankind more closely together. Thesame is to be seen in the civic and political fields, not tospeak of that of religion. Only in the case of the piroduc-

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f and enjoyment of material wealth has civilizationfailed to justify itself. Here Science has been misused byWealth as a means of secluding itself from the livingheart of the people, of gathering up and reserving itsresources in self-seeking organizations, thereby raisingconstant problems of class bitterness, creating opportunitiesonly for the fortunate who are few, preparing a soil fitonly for the cultivation of anti-social instincts. Neverthe-less, the sound process of treatment for the resulting socialmalady can never be through a destructive mutilation thatfails to reach the root, but must be by a stimulation of thenatural circulation of national prosperity that leaves theinner spirit of recovery to do its work in the depth of thesocial constitution. This was, to my mind, the objectiveof the contemplated Insurance Society, by means of theinfusion of the spirit of co-operation into the art ofinsurance.

The most precious wealth that man has attained is theconsciousness of his fundamental unity, which is more andmore impelling the human world to work together for theservice of every individual born in it. This consciousnesswhich is gradually gaining ground in our economic life,because it represents the highest truth of man, is the onlymeans that can lead to the true wealth of the people, thewealth born of the fruitful meeting of individual'wills. Thehuge megatherium of capitalism with its stupendous tailof bought-up workers will naturally become extinct whenindividual men come to realize that their real well-beingcan be achieved, not through an exaggeration of their ownexclusive wealth, but by the associated endeavour of theirindividualities, based upon mutual trust and help. It wasa realization of this fundamental truth, as it seemed to me,that impelled the promoters of the Hindusthan Co-opera-54

tive Insurance Society to make this daring experiment forwhich the country was then hardly prepared, to ventureout into the open road in the face of all risks, determinedto acquire and learn through their own experiences, ratherthan succumb to the timid counsels of worldlywise criticswho believe it to be an advantage for a child to be sparedthe troubles and dangers of growing, and think it is a signof prudent respectability to be content with a monotonous-ly easy success depending on some hoarded patrimony oftradition. And it was, I repeat, because I had felt in myheart the truth they sought to reduce to practise through-out our country, that I was impelled to give these venture-some spirits my blessing, and bid them god-speed.

The Hindusthan Society had to pay for its temerity, asevery child of promise has to do, by having to face allkinds of trials and tribulations in the first stages of itscareer, but the seed planted by its originators proved soundat the core, and succeeded in weathering every storm thatbeat on it in the course of its chequered career. Its pro-gress, though not unhampered, was steady, and it did nothesitate to adapt and re-adapt its constitution to its chang-ing environment as mistakes had to be corrected or newneeds arose, till at length as it rejoices my heart to find to-day, it has matured into a sturdy growth of immensefuture promise. It is not for me to enlarge on the many-sided present-day activities of the Society which, judgingfrom its largely expanding business, must now be a matterof common knowledge to our countrymen—how it hasprovided a competence for innumerable individuals,helped industries and institutions of public benefit toflourish, given profitable and honourable employment tohundreds and thousands of workers, and generally assistedin creating and conserving wealth for our country and

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countrymen. In a word, it seems to me to-day that thisInstitution, initiated, organized and administered byBengalis has crowded the progress of a century into itsfirst twenty-five years, and it goes without saying that Ifeel proud of this achievement. But, at the same time, Imust frankly admit that I am not competent to weigh orappraise its results in detail. I am here to-day to congra-tulate, not to criticize. I must confess that while mypoet's vision may have found proper scope at the incep-tion, in welcoming and heartening a high-spirited under-taking, it seems somewhat out of place in the presentgathering of business experts.

It is possible that after these long years of struggle, thepath of the future advancement of the HindusthanSociety has been made easy. But it is this becoming easythat makes me afraid. In the beginning, the Ideal heldsovereign place. Now it is faced with its rival Success. Itis doubtless good to have both ; but unfortunately Successhas a way of making of itself its sole end and aim, and ifthe Ideal stands in the way it is quietly elbowed out ofsight. Always and everywhere is this tragedy to be seen.It is characteristic of modern civilization as a whole. Themoral ideal that once nourished its upward progress hasbeen used by greed with the help of science in order toraise a skyscraper to material prosperity. This Tower ofBabel is about to topple over while the fire of an all-per-vading hunger ravages its foundations. What I feelimpelled, therefore, to say to you in conclusion, may notsound in your ears like counsel fit for businessmen to giveand receive. It is my earnest appeal to the present admi-nistrators not to allow themselves to be lured by theglamour of success to desert the great ideal with which theinstitution was inspired at the start, the ideal of bringing

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equitable relations and mutual helpfulness, peace andharmony into the process of wealth production. To ignorethe ideal would be to cut at the root of the success. AndI would finally ask them to remember that in taking thesacred name of Co-operation this Society and all connectedwith it have incurred a responsibility to all humanity, notalone to the people of Bengal or even of India. . . .

1934

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N O T E S

INTRODUCTORY NOTE. This was a message to the workers of theVisva-Bharati Central Co-operative Bank. The Bengali versionwas published in Sri Sudhirchandra Kar's essay, "LokasevakRabindranath", MASK BASUMATI, Agrahayan 1360 B.S. (1953).

ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES

1 This essay was first published, under the title "Samavaya", inthe first issue of BHANDAR, (Sravan 1325: July-August 1918),an organ of the Bengal Co-operative Organization Society.

The English version is reproduced here from TOWARDS

UNIVERSAL MAN, a collection of Rabindranath Tagore's essayspublished by Asia Publishing House on behalf of the TagoreCommemorative Volume Society, New Delhi, on the occasionof the Centenary of the birth of the poet on 7 May 1961.

2 This was written as an introduction to Dr. N. Gangulee's book,JATIYA BHrrn (1338 B.S.), and was published earlier, under thetitle "Samavaya", in BANGABANI, Phalgun 1329 (February-March,1923).

The English version is reproduced here from the HTNDUSTHAN

STANDARD, 2 May 1954.

3 This is a report of the Presidential Address delivered at apublic meeting held to celebrate the International Co-operators'Day on 2 July 1927 under the auspices of the Bengal Co-opera-tive Organization Society at the Albert Hall, Calcutta. Thereport was published under the title "Bharatvarshe SamavayerVisishtata" in BHANDAR, Sravan 1334 (July-August 1927).

The English version reproduced here was published, underthe title "Co-operation and our Destiny", in THE BENGAL

CO-OPERATIVE JOURNAL, January-March 1928.An abridged version, entitled "The Truth of Co-operation",

was published in FOREIGN AFFAIRS, May 1928.

4 This inaugural address to the Burdwan Division Co-operativeConference, held at Sriniketan on 9 February 1929, was firstissued, on the occasion of the Conference, as a pamphlet underthe title SAMAVAYANITI.

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The English version is reproduced here from TOWARDS

UNIVERSAL MAN.

APPENDIXES

1 This is the 'substance' of the address delivered on 2 July 1927on the International Co-operators' Day (a fuller report ofwhich also appears in this book). This summary was published,under the title "The Co-operative Principle", in THE BENGAL

CO-OPERATIVE JOURNAL, July-September 1927. A slightly dif-ferent version appeared in THE VISVA-BHARATI QUARTERLY,

July 1927, in the section "Notes and Comments", and is re-produced here.

2 This is an extract from "The Cult of the Charkha" (THEMODERN REVIEW, September 1925), an English version of theessay "Charkha", first published in SABUJ PATRA, Bhadra 1332(August-September 1925).

3 This is the English version of the Presidential Address at thecelebration of the Silver Jubilee of the Hindusthan Co-opera-tive Insurance Society held at the Town Hall, Calcutta on13 February 1934, and is reproduced here from SILVER JUBILEE

. . . REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS . . . (1934) issued by the Societyand kindly lent by Sri Sachindrachandra Biswas.

Rabindranath Tagore's association with this Society, towhich he refers in his address, may be recalled here in thewords of Surendranath Tagore, one of the founders of theSociety:

"It was at this juncture [when the founders were about toset their hands to the work of promotion, yet had 'the greatestmisgivings' as to their 'capacity to ensure success'] that myuncle, Rabindranath, who was then urging on our countrymenthe principles of self-determination and co-operative effort, gaveus his practical encouragement and support by lending theground floor of his house in Jorasanko, known later asVICHTTRA, for use as our office during the promotion stage, andit was here that the actual beginning was made. Later, healso wrote out for us our first Bengali Prospectus, and joinedas a signatory to the Memorandum of Association."

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Rabindranath Tagore was one of the signatories to anappeal, dated 18 March 1906, by some leading gentlemen ofBengal who had 'agreed to subscribe shares according to ourmeans', for 'similar support and encouragement' from othersto the scheme of the National (later, Hindusthan) Co-operativeInsurance Society.

A copy of this appeal was kindly made available to thecompiler by Sri Sachindrachandra Biswas.

The original Bengali versions of most of the material pub-lished in this book are available in Rabindranath Tagore'sSAMAVAYANITI (Visva-Bharati, 1360 B.S.).

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GLOSSARY

Anna BrahmaAnna: food, rice. Food, as the source of life permeated bythe Spirit Divine.

BrahmavidyaKnowledge of the Absolute.

ChandimandapCourtyard in front of temple. Social centre of the village.Classes were held and panchayats sat here.

CharkhaSpinning wheel. Spinning was a cardinal principle in the socialand political philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Rabindranathdiffered with Gandhiji over the charkha's role in ending povertyor winning freedom. He held that these were too complicatedprocesses to admit of such over-simplification. He also firmlybelieved in industrialization. The two friends never succeeded inconvincing each other.

Demon-quelling heroRamchandra. He killed Ravana, the demon king, and rescued hiswife Sita, whom the latter had kidnapped.

DraupadiDaughter of the King of Panchala and a bride in the Pandavahousehold. A prominent character in the Mahabharata.

GheeClarified butter.

JanakaKing of Mithila. Sita's father. Was known as a rajarshi (sage-king). Greatly respected for his saintliness, scholarship and austerelife. Tilled his own land.

Land watered by the five riversPunjab (panch: five; ap: water). Five rivers flow through theState : Satadru, Vipasa, Iravati, Chandrabhaga, Vitasta (modernnames: Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, Jhelum). In ancient India

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homage was paid to the river, as to the sun and sky (air), as thesources of all life, and therefore holy. The river's flow was alsotaken as a symbol of the flow of life. Jeevan (Sans.) means bothlife and water. That is one reason why almost all the teerthas(places of pilgrimage) in India are situated on the bank of a river,or by the sea. The "sacredness" of some rivers is a later concep-tion based on mythology. The river's role in the spread of civili-zation (as the first known means of transport) has also been widelyacknowledged in India.

MahabharataOne of the two ancient Indian epics.

One great loveThe joint enterprise for the rescue of Sita, held captive by Ravana.Ramchandra's great love for Sita, or (according to Rahindranath'sinterpretation of Sita as a symbol) man's great love for land,inspired this joint enterprise.

PanditLit. man of learning.

PathsataVillage school.

RamayanaLit. the story of Ram (chandra). One of the two ancient Indianepics.

RamchandraKing of Ajodhya. Hero of Ramayana.

RavanaTen-headed and twenty-armed demon king of Lanka (commonlybelieved to be Ceylon), whom Ramchandra destroyed with the helpof his monkey army.

ShastrasHindu scriptures and law books.

SitaLit. furrow, ploughed land. Janaka's adopted daughter andRamchandra's wife. Heroine of the Ramayana. Said to have

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been found by Janaka in the furrow as he was ploughing his land.Rabindranath interprets Sita as the symbol of agriculture.

SwarajSelf-rule, Independence.

YakshapuriLand of the Yakshas (legendary demi-gods) who guard thetreasures of the gods. Kuver is their king.

YamaGod of death.