Machine

Gandhi Ji does not reject machinery as such. He observes: “How can I be against all machinery when I know that even this body is the most delicate piece of machinery? A spinning wheel is a machine; a little toothpick is a machine. What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such. The craze is for what they call labour-saving machinery. Men go on saving labour till thousands are without work and thrown on the open streets to die of starvation. I want to save time and labour not for a fraction of mankind, but for all, I want the concentration of wealth, not in the hands of a few, but in the hands of all. Today machinery merely helps a few to ride on the back of millions. The impetus behind it all is not the philanthropy to save labour but greed. It is against this constitution of things that I am fighting with all my might. The machine should not tend to atrophy the limbs of man. Factories run by power-driven machinery should be nationalised, state-controlled. The supreme consideration is the man.”