GANDHIAN THEORY
There are certain practical difficulties in discussing Gandhian theory of population. First of all, Gandhi was not a social scientist. He was a practical idealist who had neither time nor the aptitude for constructing systematic theories (Iyer, 1986). Therefore, his ideas are open to several interpretations. One way of looking at his social theory is to assume that: (a) his theory of society is rooted in his own understanding of mystical tradition of India that provides a common framework of moral action in the midst of a number of religious and moral philosophies existing in the country for a long time; (b) it needs to be constructed partly from his own writings, speeches, notes, etc. and partly from his social experiments; and (c) it evolved with time, sometimes contradicting the earlier position in some respects, without ever negating its mystical and moral substratum.
Gandhi had expressed a deep concern for population control on several occasions. The main source of his ideas on population are his autobiography and the report of the summit meeting on birth control in 1935, in which he had held lengthy discussions with Margaret Sanger of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). It may be noted that at that time there were not many people to support birth control: the world had not seen the phenomenon of population explosion. The writings of Paul R. Ehrilch or Garrett James Hardin did not exist. Margaret Sanger had undergone a jail term for 30 days (in her country) for holding views favourable to birth control. |
