Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

198 I Ramnalh
constitution could provide. Could this be the function of
trade unions, cooperatives, and consumers' associations?
Possibly, but "the democratic socialist State remains a
Leviathan that will sit heavily on the freedom of the people."
The remedy, then, would be Sarvodaya. "Speaking as
a socialist, I would put it thus: the remedy is to create and
develop forms of socialist living through the voluntary endeavour
of the people rather than to seek to establish socialism
by the use of the power of the State;' which would
be both a truer socialism and a truer democracy, characterized
by the values of "co-operation, self-discipline,
sense of responsibility," to enable "self-government, selfmanagement,
mutual co-operation and sharing, equality,
freedom, brotherhood;' which were best "practiced and
developed . .. in small communities."17
This would further require a blending and balance of
nature and culture, green space and urban space. Science
and technology could help. Indeed, departing from Gandhi
here, JP believed that the problem wasn't science and technology
but rather the destructive uses to which governments
:lnd profiteers had put them. (JP had high hopes fo r
nuclear energy.)
Nevertheless, his 1951 article "Socialism and
Sarvodaya" defended the Gandhian legacy against charges
of "wishy washy sentimentalism." It was a "concrete programme
of basic social revolution;' combining attention to
morality and ethics with unprecedented tactics of resistance
(with the corollary that ends do not justify means;
means create ends), and " [insisting] on decentralisationeconomic
and political." Although "in leftist circles, this is