________________
PARAMETERS OF New ECONOMIC POLICY
87
Spontaneous Thinking In the context of the overall problem, it was natural that an idea should have emerged that there should be a global economic system under which powerful nations are not able to exploit small nations, snatch away their freedom, establish their dominance over them and pollute the environment. Indeed, the problem has posed a new question which today's man is compelled to ponder over.
Many thinkers in the West have been engaged in examining this. The author of To Have To Be did a lot of thinking about this. The authors of Third Wave, the New World Order, Earth in Balance and others are worried that if a world economic order is not evolved, it will be difficult to visualise horrible the future, which would be horrible. The socialistic economic system has faltered and the capitalist economic system is on the verge of faltering. What Keynes said appeared good, but in that no thinking was done on the fact that, if the resources are limited, then how could unlimited use be made of them? If the resources were limitless, raw materials were limitless, then, perhaps, industries, on massive scale could be established and operated everywhere. Since the resources are limited, this is not possible. This is the reason why even capitalism is faltering.
The problem is that a village-based economic system and village industries do not appear to be a possibility today. Keynes said that we have moved so much forward that it is not possible to retreat and the way population is increasing, it does not at all appear to be possible. It is, therefore, necessary that we think from the point of view of anekanta and see if some elements of truth could emerge and how these could be harmonised among themselves. We will then find out how we can bring Mahavira, Gandhi, Marx and Keynes on one platform. In this context, a new thinking is an imperative.
Cantralisation and Decentralisation Centralisation is the main thrust of today's economic strategies. If we bring Mahavira and Gandhi on that platform, there will emerge a synthesis ensuring that, along with centralisation,
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org