Gandhi's Constructive Program — and Ours

“Nonviolence for Gandhi was more than just a technique of struggle or a strategy for resisting military aggression; it was intimately related to the wider struggle for social justice, economic self-reliance, and ecological harmony as well as the quest for self-realization.” (The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense, Robert Burrowes, SUNY Press)

The nonviolence movement in the West has, for the most part, ignored what Gandhi believed was key to social change: constructive program.
Gandhi stated that there were three elements needed for social transformation: personal transformation, political action, and constructive program. In the US we mostly focus on political action, in particular on protest and civil disobedience.

Constructive program is “building the new society in the shell of the old.” In his introduction to the booklet, Constructive Programme: Its Meaning and Place, Gandhi said that constructive program is the construction of “complete Independence by truthful and nonviolent means.” As people who are struggling for independence from an empire that is trying to rule us and the world, we need to develop our own truthful and nonviolent means.

The core elements of the constructive program that Gandhi believed would be necessary for the transformation and liberation of India involved programs to embody equality, liberate education, promote economic self-reliance, and create a clean environment. Equality meant creating ashrams, political campaigns, and cooperative enterprises across communal lines (Hindu/Muslim/Sikh, etc.), embodying gender equality, and transcending caste distinctions, especially “untouchability.” Gandhi saw a need for mind-opening education for children and adults. The economic self-reliance campaigns involved, most famously, spinning homemade cloth and the salt satyagraha, but also included the diversification of crops, the creation of other village industries, and the development of labor unions. Environmental efforts focused on the whole community getting involved in creating village sanitation systems, which meant, for Hindus, overtly flouting caste norms.

The process of working on constructive program has fundamental benefits, the first of which is to provide immediate assistance to those in greatest need. As people come together (constructive programs are community, not individual, action), they build constituencies for social change. Constructive work provides opportunities for us to develop the skills we need to build a new society.

As Burrowes describes it, “For the individual, [constructive program] meant increased power-from-within through the development of personal identity, self-reliance, and fearlessness. For the community, it meant the creation of a new set of political, social, and economic relations.” In cases where political revolutions have taken place but the population is not organized to exercise self-determination, the creation of a new society has been extremely difficult. In some cases, the usurpation of power by a new dictatorship has been the result; in others there has been political regime change without fundamental social or economic transformation.

The society we presently live in is very different from India in the first half of the 20th century. But as we look at the social, economic and environmental problems we face today, the similarities as well as the differences are striking. Can the problems of militarism, racism, poverty, sexism, classism, heterosexism, lack of access to affordable health care, housing, and decent education, and the need for immigrant rights and sustainable agriculture be transformed through a constructive program? While there are many projects that address these issues, a constructive program is a holistic approach to what needs to be changed, a vision based on nonviolent principles. Burrows explains, “At the community level, then, the constructive program is that part of the strategy designed to facilitate the development of new social structures that foster political participation, cultural diversity, economic self-reliance, and ecological resilience.”

Challenges In Creating Our Own Constructive Program

Gandhi’s constructive program was rooted in the reality of the extreme poverty of India. While we certainly have poverty in the US, and a growing gap between the rich and the poor, most of us need to reduce our consumption. Our challenge is to develop a society that does not consume more than its fair share of the earth’s resources, reducing our consumption of non-renewable energy within a framework of self-reliance.

Who should create such a vision for our society? What should the process be? Can a document such as the Earth Charter, a synthesis of values, principles, and aspirations created through an international consultation, serve as a framework for a present day constructive program, with communities working on the projects they feel are most needed? It is essential that there be a common vision and principles that link us together.

There are examples of projects in the US which are potential components of a comprehensive constructive program: the growth of community land trusts, the development of cooperatives, the creation of battered women’s shelters and rape crisis centers, the proliferation of mediation centers, the amplified interest in alternative public schools, the blossoming of sustainable agriculture, the exponential spread of free software, and the increased interest in community-controlled economic development all contain the seeds for building an alternative society.

While developing a constructive program can be the answer to the often asked questions “but what are you for?” and “how can we be proactive rather than reactive?,” is there enough of a perceived need to mobilize people? It is easier to protest the things we don’t like than to build the things we want. It takes a sustained level of organizing to create a new society. But what if we don’t?

For a copy of Gandhi’s pamphlet, Constructive Programme: Its Meaning and Place, contact WRL-NE, POB 1093, Norwich, CT 06360, 860/887-6869, wrlne@peoplepc.com.