Economics of Mahaveera

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Adarsh Sahitya Sangh

Page 75

ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMICS
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that fellowship with others be developed. If along with the attempt for the exploitation of truth, this direction had also remained associated with it, then there would not have been any need for making nuclear weapons and a large chunk of world's budgets would not have been spent for the production of armaments. Ignoring the important principle of fellowship, what great efforts are being made for eradication of poverty and hunger from the society? Only plans are being made for big factories and machines and agricultural production on a large scale. The strategy is proving counter-productive. Expressions of intent are made in one direction and action is taken in another direction. All efforts are being made trying to establish one's own sovereignty over land, water or sky, and to gain one's own dominance over the markets. At the back of these attempts is greed. The results are surfacing. That is why a new thought has appeared: the Capitalist and Socialist Economics are not meant for the welfare of the mankind. It is being felt that it is imperative that a new economic system is visualised, designed and evolved.
The Path of Anekanta
The central problem is that the times have moved so far ahead that now it is not possible to bring the world back to two thousand years or two thousand five hundred years. To lead a simple life, like Gandhiji, is very difficult. Gandhiji lived a life which belonged to a time a thousand years ago. The persons having received education from the modern universities and having lived a life patterned by Modern Economics would not be prepared to live that kind of life. To achieve such a thing is even beyond imagination. There is, therefore, the need for carving out a middle course so that a solution is found for the present problems and man is not forced to experience the horrible kalkhand. This could be the course of co-existence and the anekanta approach.
We need to change the motivations and the present approach. The new approach should aim at satisfying the primary needs of life. For this, a new economics will have to be visualised, the first principle of which would be the assignment of priority to the fulfilment of primary needs. As long as there is even one