To almost no one's surprise, the SRM is pushing Gandhi-style swadeshi - domestic production of virtually all consumer goods (not just hand-spun cloth) and rejection of imports to the greatest extent possible. Indeed, the SRM may now stand for Swadeshi Ramrajya Movement, as well as Spiritual Regeneration Movement.
BRING THE JOBS HOME!
NO MORE OFFSHORING!
NO MORE OUTSOURCING!
BUY THE GOODS YOUR NEIGHBORS HELP TO MANUFACTURE!
SAY NO TO "MADE IN CHINA"! SAY YES TO "MADE IN PATRIA"!
Nothing plays as well to laid-off workers and those who are in fear of losing their jobs as simplistic, knee-jerk protectionism. All is fair in love and war and recessions.
"Under this plan of life, in seeming to serve India to the exclusion of every other country, I do not harm any other country. My patriotism is both exclusive and inclusive. It is exclusive in the sense that, in all humility, I confine my attention to the land of my birth, but is inclusive in the sense that my service is not of a competitive or antagonistic nature. SIC UTERE TUO UT ALIENUM NON LAEDAS is not merely a legal maxim, but it is a grand doctrine of life. It is the key to proper practice of ahimsa or love."
"I have never considered the exclusion of everything foreign under every conceivable circumstance as a part of Swadeshi. The broad definition of Swadeshi is the use of all home-made things to the exclusion of foreign things, in so far as such use is necessary for the protection of home industry, more especially those industries without which India will become pauperized. In my opinion, therefore, Swadeshi which excludes the use of everything foreign, no matter how beneficial it may be, and irrespective of the fact that it impoverishes nobody, is a narrow interpretation of Swadeshi." (Mahatma Gandhi, 1926)
Gandhi's thoughts on the meaning of Swadeshi.
The Gospel of Swadeshi
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