TOURISM – A NEW INDUSTRY
J.C. Kumarappa
Every aspect of human nature is capable of being commercialized. Friendship is commercialized in diplomacy. Even the noble function of motherhood is commercialized by the wet nurse. One of the most beautiful aspects of human relationship is hospitality. Amongst the oriental peoples till now the true human elements are still retained in the simple hospitality extended to strangers. Hospitality is a twice blessed thing. It blesses him who gives and him who receives, and binds the two together with bonds of pleasant memories.
In true modern style the Central Transport Ministry is scheming to commercialize hospitality into a new national industry—tourist traffic. When this is properly developed our highest officials will stand at the Gate Way of India bowing and scraping to every globe-trotter. When our children have not enough to eat, enough to put on and adequate means of education and we lack in transport with people riding on the top of railway carriages an on the couplings and foot-boards, one would have thought that the Transport Ministry would have its hands full to put its household in order, but the thirst for the Dollar Exchange seems to be more luring than the service to our own people.
As a means of education and culture our land had developed the technique of pilgrimages. Men and women traveled leisurely, studied customs and traditions, visited places of unique interest, topographically and historically, and acquired a wider understanding which ultimately burnt itself into the national culture.
On the other hand, the modern tourist takes his travel as lightly as a cinema-goer. It is a means of spending his money and wasting his time. It matters little what the ultimate gain is. It is usually undertaken by the play-boys and girls of the nations to make the world their playground. They forget that life is real and life is earnest and spending their time and money is not the goal. Are we to utilize our government organization to cater to such needs?
The argument that the visitors to the United Kingdom spent in the country about 30 million pounds per year and the Americans squander about 100 millions in foreign countries will hold no water. Money has its own value but it is not everything. An industry is not merely a means of accumulating material wealth. It should lead to the development of the people engaged in it. The hotels in Switzerland which cater to American traffic try to approximate their conditions of life to those prevailing in America so that their guests may feel perfectly at home! The attitude of the host to the guest carries no personal interest other than that which is centred round the purse. Such mercenary hospitality is a degrading feature of tourism. When that develops the true spiritual significance of travel and pilgrimage disappears yielding place to mere commercialism.
We do not wish to discourage foreigners coming to our land to learn and understand our attitude to life, but the development of tourist traffic is not the way to do it. It is purely a commercial device to garner in as much of the Dollar Exchange as we possibly can. We make no contribution to civilization but we shall be merely providing momentary amusement, recreation and diversion. Even these functions may have a value of their own, but when these exclude the other, as they would if the methods proposed are followed, the government will not be justified in its existence by what would ultimately prove to be a disservice to the nation. As things are today, we need every ounce of energy to rebuild our culture and character and we do not require to manufacture fly-paper to entrap the stray flies.
(Harijan, Sep. 11, 1949)