Global Swadeshi

What is Swadeshi?

Swadeshi means "own land." Gandhi used the term narrowly during the Indian independence movement to refer to economic self-sufficiency, particuarly in the matter of cloth. Each person was supposed to spin the yarn required to make their clothes and other fabric items using a manual spinning wheel, called a chakra. Self-sufficiency in clothing, through using local materials, local skills, and local labor was symbolic of a larger, collective struggle for freedom from British oppression.

Economic and political independence are inherently interlinked. Swadeshi was Gandhi's word for the practice of a way of life which created economic independence, and the pressure towards political independence which this practice created.

What is Global Swadeshi?

Global swadeshi is the hope that one day everybody on the planet can enjoy swadeshi, in the sense of owning the things they need to be fully alive and economically self-supporting at this level. Tools and technologies, like the modern equivalents of Gandhi's chakra are one part of this process. The other part of this process is the collective struggle for freedom from oppression and freedom from want. Global swadeshi is a goal state: voluntary cooperation to create the conditions of life on the planet which will result in there being enough for everybody.

While so many are poor, we cannot say that we are a rich world. Rather, we are a world which has the capacity first to support everyone, and secondly to manifest the latent abundance of the world in ways which this generation cannot even dream of.

The global swadeshi movement exists in the hearts, hands and minds of every person who wants to help themselves and their neighbors become free.

Join us at the Global Swadeshi Network