WOMEN AND VILLAGE INDUSTRIES
J.C. KUMARAPPA
(Summary of a speech delivered to the Mahila Seva Samaja, Bangalore city on 20th June, 1936. Source: Kumarappa Papers, NMML)
Nowhere in the world can we start with a clean slate. Human life is entwined with tradition, custom, modes and manners of centuries. If we consider the ways of remodelling our life we have to study our past carefully to trace the foundations of our present organisation.
Today we shall limit ourselves to recapitulating the immediate environments that preceded the development of the economic organisation that we see all around us. Historically they could be classed as organisation of (1) Might (2) Finance (3) Machine (4) Labour. These had been mingled in various proportions during different periods but the main features are the ones we are concerned with. The common people were the exploited ones; these organisations were the means adopted by the “great ones” of the earth.
1. Dynasty of Might: During the feudal days what counted was Might. People, especially in Europe, established their families on piracy, rapacity and brigandage. Most of the old houses of Europe can be traced back to some such predatory origin. The reward or income arising from such a career was tribute and the return they made for such reward was a doubtful protection from the aggression of other parties. The directing force of activity was greed for gain and an outlet for prowess. Unquestioning obedience to authority and discipline were magnified into virtues.
2. Dynasty of Finance: With the accumulated hoards of centuries from India flowing into Europe, we witness, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the growth of the dynasty of finance. Small workers and artisans are organised so as to bring in large return on the capital invested. Industries are promoted to afford profitable investment, and the capitalist emerged as the most powerful factor in the State. Might became subservient to Finance, and, Imperialism, as we know it today, was born. Interest and field for investment was the directing factor. Common people were forgotten except as creatures for exploitation. In this regime discipline took the form of team work.
3. Dynasty of Machine: When America was opened up man came up against nature, and the conquest of land, air and sea began and with it the reign of the machine. Here the directive force was for individual profit. What one can wrest out of nature and keep for oneself. This has created a desire for multiplicity of wants and possessions. The less we had to do the better. Because of the adversity the pioneer met with and because he had to toil from morning till night to keep body and soul together leisure was almost deified and made the most desired end in life. The discipline of the dynasty of might and the team work of finance was converted into a speeding up programme and the common run of people were turned into machines.
4. Dynasty of Labour: Every dog must have its day. So when the proper opportunity occurred the much exploited labourer also ascended the throne in Russia. The motive is not profit, but because it had been denied the good thing s of the earth so long labour has set its heart on a multiplicity of possessions as its destined end. The primary idea of discipline has been turned into coordination of work.
All these four dynasties have been and are dynasties of men. Created by men, worked by men and enjoyed by men only. In the last woman has been recognised to some extent; otherwise, in all of these only material considerations prevailed. The personality of the producer was forgotten. The world was gained; the soul was lost. What mattered to Napoleon if hundreds of thousands of soldiers were lost if he could but get to Moscow. Did king Leopold of Belgium spend sleepless nights over the fate of the tortured negro of Congo? Do Rockefellers break their hearts over the fate of the mill hands? Does Russia stop to think of the imminent degeneration that will follow centralized production?
Is there not something wrong with our economic organisation which leads to the destruction of food materials while millions are starving? Which utilizes milk etc. for preparing casein and other commercial products while children are undernourished? Which directs activity into toilet articles while people have no clothes to cover their nakedness?
What then is the reason for this maladjustment? There is but one answer to this. Woman has abdicated her rightful place in the economic world—not as a producer but as a consumer. Man has floundered and the fault lies, as at Eden, with the woman. The first Eve misguided man and the present day Eve has failed to direct man and hence man has been driven out of Eden into this world of chaos; God said to Adam “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” Man has sweated but has produced only face powder which he cannot eat. Hence he starves and has no bread.
In the nature of things woman’s function is as a director of economic activity. Man works to keep his house going. Many a man has given up his ideals and found pursuits to supply the wherewithal for his womankind. At present under capitalism she has yielded her throne to Interest and Profit. Man manufactures, not what the woman dictates, but what interest and profit direct. Having produced the goods man dictates to woman what she should use by advertisement and high pressure salesmanship and she is content to consume what has been produced.
Woman has always had power over man for good or ill. In our country with the present degraded position of women due to many causes, she works as a reactionary force. Until women rise to their rightful place as a helpmate of man, equipped mentally, morally and physically to discharge their duties there is little hope of national regeneration. Men may think thoughts, man may work wonders, but if women are not with them it will all be in vain.
If we agree that the chaos of the present economic world is due to misdirection then it is up to the women, as the principal consumers, to demand what they want and insist on getting it. According to our analysis there is reform needed in the diet of the people. We are throwing away the goodness and eating the chaff. Is not this the sphere of the woman?
The death rate in our country is amongst the highest in the civilized world. We need to attend to the sanitation of the houses, villages and towns if we would reduce diseases. Is this not women’s function? We must introduce modern hygienic conditions of living. Can we do so without women?
We find it will be necessary to produce articles of every day needs by decentralized methods. Should not women demand such goods only?
The demand is in women’s hands and the supply is with men. Unless women become discriminating buyers, our efforts will be of no avail. Under the influence of capitalism we are using a monetary basis for value. Is money value everything? Which one of you will buy a cheap sari with an ugly design just because it is cheap? In your purchases if you are guided by a sense of the artistic and the beautiful, why not use a moral sense of fair play and justice and buy goods the production of which supports the starving.
I appeal to you, sisters, to rise to your proper stature and direct the economic activity of man into rational channels. We have no use for the Dynasty of Might where women are the cave man’s captive, nor for the Dynasty of Finance where women are but dressed up dolls maintained in an ostentatious manner for the glory of man, nor for the Dynasty of the Machine which recognises no sex in its machine feeder unless it be to underpay the weaker one, nor for the Dynasty of Labour which gives her an equal status only to exploit her as an economic producer. We want a Dynasty of Women where women will exercise their authority with foresight and be rational buyers, consumers and creators of demand and direct the regenerating economic forces of man and machine into constructive and healthy spheres which will uplift the people around us and through them our nation and ultimately the whole world.