We have given the villager only the right of vote. And this too we have given him only to take back after every five years – he will give us his vote. He is only the custodian of the right of vote; and we being his leaders he must return the vote to us at the time of elections. We are always their leaders. Sir, I have had experience of Legislative Assemblies for the last ten or twelve years and I know that we are not treating the villagers fairly. All budget amounts are mostly spent in towns. Only in the towns you have electricity and all sorts of other amenities. Their roads are cemented. There is public health only in the towns. But the villagers are totally neglected. Every man who has the least initiative comes to the towns. All intelligence has come away and now it is only the sluggish people who are left in the villages. Anyone who has passed the Matriculation Examination comes to the towns and employs himself in some service or other. So the villages are fast going to ruination. Now, Sir, it is very good to say that we want economic equality and economic democracy but cannot we on this occasion direct the future governments of the country that this is the line through which we want to achieve our objective of economic democracy? I am not opposed to big concentrations of industries in big towns. In fact, these big industries have been drawing muscular man-power from the villages. Villages have been their recruiting grounds. Villagers come and employ themselves in these big mills only to demoralise themselves in the bad atmosphere in towns. That is the reason why the Britishers purposely kept them weak and poor from all points of view. Initiative they have been deprived of, because otherwise they would not work as mere labourers. Sir, all the villagers cannot come to the towns. Even if you go on increasing the number of industrial towns, you cannot accommodate the vast populations living in the rural areas. They will have no housing in the towns. The purpose of my placing this amendment before you is that instead of the muscular power going to the machine, I want to carry the machines to the sources of muscular power. I want the machines to be taken to the villages so that the villagers who are living in their own sweet homes in their own healthy environments may not be snatched away from their families. At present, Sir, the pressure on land has become too much. The House may be surprised to know that in 1891 only 61 per cent of our population were employed on agriculture. In 1901, it was 66 per cent and in 1931 it was 72 per cent. Land has been torn into tiny fragments and agriculture has become totally uneconomic. If things go on like that, most of the villagers will come to the towns. We are enjoying our life in towns, while the villagers in whose name we come here are deprived of even their ordinary privileges of citizenship. Therefore, Sir, I submit that this amendment may kindly be accepted. Our Party, the Congress Party, has been propagating Swadeshi and cottage industries since its very inception. But now that the time has come for making our constitution, if we ignore the villagers that will be disappointing to the village people. I do not want to take any more time of the House because most of the Members of this honourable august House already appreciate the usefulness of the amendment that I am bringing forward. I hope honourable Members will consider the feasibility of giving to the world a new type of social revolution. In Russia, they say, there is already achieved economic democracy, but this economic democracy in Russia has concentrated all power in the hands of the State, with the result that the State has become autocratic. If you want to combine political democracy with economic democracy and translate into life Dr. Ambedkar’s maxim, “One man, one unit”, then you should make the villages self-reliant and self-sufficient. Otherwise the millions who are unemployed in the rural areas will never enjoy the fruits of freedom; they will remain slaves of the towns men as they are today. Political consciousness and patriotism will come only when they are economically contented. The way to do this is to give them cottage industries so that they can live happily with their families in their own happy surroundings. It is only then that they can exert some influence on the government that be and contribute towards the progress of the country. With these words, Sir, I move this amendment and I hope the House will accept it.
