A little reflection would indicate that these ideals of Simplicity, Human Values and Sanctity of Labour are, in the last analysis, founded on non-violence which is the bed-rock of Gandhian thought. “As I was picturing life based on non-violence,” observes Gandhiji, “I saw that it must be reduced to the simplest terms consistent with high thinking.” “Society based on non-violence can onlyconsist of groups settled in villages in which voluntary co-operation is the condition of dignified and peaceful existence. . . .The nearest approach to civilisation based upon non-violence is the erstwhile village republic of India. I admit that it was crude. I know that there was in it no non-violence of my definition and conception. But the germ ’was there.”[73]Gandhiji, consequently, passionately pleads for a civilisation founded on ‘Villagism.’ “Rural Economy as I have conceived it eschews exploitation altogether, and exploitation is the essence of violence.”[74]
