Q.Read the passage given and answer following questions. Gandhi on Machinery, in Hind Swaraj 1924 : “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 the few, but in the hands of all.” 1934 : “When as a nation we adopt the spinning-wheel, we not only solve the question of unemployment but we declare that we have no intention of exploiting any nation, and we also end the exploitation of the poor by the rich.”
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Gandhi’s critique of machinery is not against machines themselves, but against labour-saving machinery that concentrates wealth and throws workers out of employment. His alternative was the spinning-wheel (charkha), which provides decentralised, self-reliant work for all and prevents exploitation by eliminating the need for large-scale capital and foreign domination.
(a) Example of how machinery creates a problem for workers
Gandhi’s central objection is to what he calls the “craze for machinery” — specifically, labour-saving machinery. The problem is not that the machine does work, but that it saves labour for a few while displacing many.
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Labour-saving machinery reduces the need for human workers.
When a factory installs a machine that does the work of ten people, those ten people lose their jobs. The machine’s owner saves on wages, but the workers are thrown “on the open streets to die of starvation.”
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This concentrates wealth in a few hands.
The profit from the machine goes to the owner, not to the workers who are now unemployed. So machinery, as used in industrial capitalism, creates a small class of rich owners and a large class of poor, jobless workers.
A common mistake is to say Gandhi opposed all machinery. He explicitly says: “What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such.” The problem is the purpose — saving labour for a few at the cost of the many.
Example answer: A labour-saving machine in a textile mill replaces 50 hand-weavers. The mill owner profits, but the weavers lose their livelihood and cannot find other work.
(b) Gandhi’s alternative and how the spinning-wheel prevents exploitation
Gandhi’s alternative is the spinning-wheel (charkha). This is not a rejection of all technology, but a choice of technology that serves the many, not the few.
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The spinning-wheel is a decentralised, labour-absorbing tool.
Unlike a factory machine, the charkha is simple, cheap, and can be used by anyone in their own home. It does not displace workers — it gives them work. Every family can spin its own cloth, so no one is left unemployed.
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Adopting the spinning-wheel prevents exploitation in two ways:
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It ends the exploitation of the poor by the rich.
When the poor spin their own cloth, they do not have to buy expensive mill-made cloth from rich factory owners. They become self-reliant. The rich cannot control their livelihood.
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It ends the exploitation of one nation by another. …
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