Control over the organ of generation is impossible without proper control over all the senses. “My experience says that one who has not won palate cannot win sexual desire”, said Gandhi (1999). A householder lives for his household creating a boundary wall around their love. In order to rise to the height of universal love one would have to remain unmarried or live with his wife as brother and sister.
EVALUATION OF GANDHIAN THEORY OF POPULATION
For those who believe in Gandhian values of good life, Gandhian theory of population presents a fresh approach to population control that goes beyond the birth control and raises the issue of constructing a good society. The question is: a population can achieve a low growth rate using birth control but can it achieve the moral values required to establish an egalitarian and non-violent order? Such questions cannot be answered on empirical basis. Gandhi provided a critique of modernity, and presented a practical alternative to it, which is neither traditional nor from within the modernity. Can Gandhi be called postmodern? One thing is clear that he was one of those early thinkers who could connect population growth with gender, political power, voluntarism, religion and social values. It requires serious thinking. |
