• SURYAKANT NATH

Abstract: There can be many dimensions to human greatness. What determines its permanence is its depth. Greatest men are those whose significance for the humanity rises from the depths of their human-ness. An aspect of their personality is the way in which they lend themselves to the most diverse and incompatible interpretations. The impact of their personality on other people is itself a creative energy. The greatness of Socrates, for example, was the peculiar force in the fact that even after a generation of his death, there existed many rival schools of philosophy, all at loggerheads with each other, yet, claiming to be the heirs of the true teachings of Socrates. Mahatma Gandhi was a man of this kind. His impact on his generation and the generations after him has been simply immense. Many interpret him as a mystic, as a statesman, as a pacifist, as a democrat, a social revolutionary or a conservative of the most reactionary colour. Yet none of these interpretations can fully explain the secret of his phenomenal influence on people and movements around the world. Their incompatibility merely reveals that the significance of his ideas lay deeper than the level at which any such classification can reach. Gandhi’s statements were highly contextualized and framed in relation to an individual or a group and always likely to fire back a reply. He never sought to provide a grand political theory and his whole ideological praxis was based on truth. His quest in life evolved constantly in relation to his and other people’s experiences. Hence there was bound to be inconsistencies. For him, his method was dialogic in which knowledge arose from discussion rather than from a unified philosophical system, where there was little room for internal contradiction. This paper attempts to examine Gandhi as a figure whose life and work represented a dialogue between the many complex strands of the thought of his day, both Indian and extra-Indian, and the impact of his economic ideas on India during his life time and after independence.

Key Words: Passive Resistance, Trusteeship, Daridranarayan, Satyagraha, Truth-force, Soul-force, Ahimsa, Bread Labour, non-violent economy, sarvodaya

"Gandhi’s Economic ideas and their impact on Indian economy ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no.315-322, January-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1901G44.pdf

"Gandhi’s Economic ideas and their impact on Indian economy ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no. pp315-322, January-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1901G44.pdf