J C Kumarappa -an intro to the lesser known Gandhian

J C Kumarappa

J C Kumarappa

A photo while he was in Gandhi Niketan near Madurai

Kumarappa - a short bio

• Joseph Chelladurai Cornelius• Born Jan 4, 1892 (Thanjavur, Tamilnadu)• Died Jan 30, 1960 (Madurai, TamilNadu)• Studied economics and CA in UK in 1919• Studied economics and business

administration in USA (Syracuse and Columbia Universities) 1927 – 29

• Met Gandhi in 1927 and was a Gandhian

• Worked as professor of economics in Gujarat Vidyapith

• Supported Gandhi's notion of village industries

• Rejected socialism's class war and force of implementation

• Rejected emphasis on material development and competition in free market economics

• Gandhi and Kumarappa envisioned an economy focused on satisfying human needs and challenges while rooting out socio-economic conflict, unemployment, poverty and deprivation.

• Helped found 'All India Village Industries Association in 1935

• Supported small scale projects against large scale dams

• Supported organic manure against chemical fertilizers.

• One of the earliest environmentalists in India• Wrote the book "Economy of Permanence" • Went to prison several times during British rule

because of his fiery writings in Young India

• Kumarappa was a close associate of Gandhiji

and a firm believer in the theory that the

village must be made the focus of economic

planning. Aware of the dangers of unchecked

industrialisation, Kumarappa advocated that

human beings should collaborate with nature

to meet their needs.

• Was convinced that making villages self-

sufficient through small-scale industries

was the key to the regeneration of

national life.

• Advocated against the use of tractors in

fields because of the overall losses and

unemployment.

An illustration by Kumarappa

• The lopsided nature of expenditure was illustrated

by

• Kumarappa in a comparison. In 1925-26, America spent 48.8 % on Debts, Military and Administrative expenditure whereas British India spent a whopping 93.7 % of revenues on

• the same, leaving practically nothing for public works.

Work

• For Kumarappa, work has ‘two important

components’ – the ‘creative element which

makes for the development and happiness of

the individual’, and ‘toil or drudgery’.

• For Kumarappa, the ‘strong have always

attempted to divide work and allocate the

heavy part to the worker and retain to

themselves the higher and the more pleasant

part’. This creates violence.

•

• Indeed, this violence at the individual level also operates at a much larger level and punctuates the rise and fall of entire civilisations: Greek, Roman etc.

• The bargaining power of a seller of perishables

- bananas or fish- is not on a par with that of

the buyer, the holder of imperishable gold. The

growth of money exchange has smothered all

conditions of equity and justice.

Money

Books by Kumarappa (short list)

• Economy of Permanence• The Practice and Precepts of

Jesus (1945) • Christianity: Its Economy and

Way of Life (1945). • Cow in Economy• Public finance and our poverty• Clive to Keynes

Centers

• KIGS - Kumarappa Institute of Gram Swaraj, Jaipur www.kigs.org

• KNHPI - Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute, Jaipur

• Source of information: Various websites in internet