Digital Swadeshi

A Philosopher of Glocalisation: ‘For my material needs,the village is my world. For my spiritual needs,the world is my village.’ Gandhi’s philosophy helps create a harmonious relationship between Village and the Global Village,between Swadeshi and Globalisation. Gandhi believed in the cooperative co-existence of localism,nationalism and globalism. ‘Interdependence,’ he stated,‘is and ought be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency’. The Internet Age has the potential to translate this concept into reality.

In April 2012,The Economist carried a special report titled ‘The Third Revolution’. In terms of impact and recall value,this report,by Paul Markillie,is certain to be in the same league as another memorable special report in The Economist — ‘Death of Distance’ (1995) by Frances Cairncross,which predicted that distance would not be a limiting factor in people’s ability to communicate,instantaneously,in the Internet age through voice,data and video. The third industrial revolution,which refers to the currently unfolding phenomenon of digital manufacturing,extends the death-of-distance promise of the Internet further: It is all set to create a future when distance will not be a limiting factor even in the making of products of one’s choice – practically anything,anywhere and anytime.

The first industrial revolution began in Britain in the late eighteenth century with the mechanisation of the textile industry,pioneered by the likes of Samuel Crompton and James Hargreaves,about which Gandhi himself has commented extensively. It gave birth to the town-based factory by sounding the death knell for the weavers’ cottages in villages. The second industrial revolution arrived in America in the early twentieth century,when carmaker Henry Ford pioneered the modern model of mass production based on moving assembly lines. It entailed standardisation of tools and implements,the use of various time-saving devices,detailed instructions for workmen on what,when and how they should carry out their tasks,etc. Workers thus became inseparable,unfree and soulless parts of the assembly line,a predicament that was memorably portrayed in Modern Times (1934),one of the most popular films by Charlie Chaplin.

The ‘Third Industrial Revolution’ turns upside down the central paradigms of both its first and second editions. Thanks to the revolutionary power of the high-speed,large-bandwidth and ubiquitously accessible Internet,it has engendered completely new manufacturing processes such as three-dimensional or 3D printing,easy-to-use robots and a wide range of collaborative manufacturing services that are available online — such as creation of both standard and customised designs and manuals,provision of information regarding materials and parts,remotely controlled repair services,etc.

In 3D printing,the digital machine ‘prints’ — rather,manufactures — an object based on a design file fed to the computer and using a software that enables it to add,layer after layer,material needed to make the object three-dimensionally. This process is also called ‘additive manufacturing’ since,unlike traditional machining — which is a subtractive manufacturing methodology — it involves spraying of ultra-thin layers of materials and adding more such layers as per the design. The range of objects that can be 3D-printed is incredibly large – from footwear to dental products,and from automotive and critical aerospace components to self-cleaning glass in buildings. Specialised 3D printers,called bio-printers,can also be used to repair or replace human tissues,including blood vessels.

In January 2010,Chris Anderson,editor-in-chief of Wired magazine wrote a similar and widely discussed cover feature titled ‘In the Next Industrial Revolution,Atoms Are the New Bits’. Its blurb said: ‘In an age of open source,custom-fabricated,do-it-yourself product design,all you need to conquer the world is a brilliant idea.’ It is difficult to disagree with Anderson when he says: ‘The Internet democratized publishing,broadcasting,and communications,and the consequence was a massive increase in the range of both participation and participants in everything digital — the long tail of bits. Now the same is happening to manufacturing — the long tail of things.’

Web-enabled 3-D printing will prove Swadeshi right

How does digital manufacturing validate the Gandhian paradigm,especially his concept of swadeshi? Firstly,it allows things to be made in much smaller numbers and when they are needed — not only ‘just in time’ but also ‘just in quantities required’ by the user or for sale in the nearby markets. ‘The wheel is almost coming full circle,’ The Economist remarks,‘turning away from mass manufacturing and towards much more individualised production’. In other words,‘economies of scale’,which was a systemic necessity both in the first and second industrial revolutions,is thus replaced by ‘economies of scaling down’. Therefore,huge factories with assembly lines that dominated and dwarfed the human being will become things of the past. Factories of the future will have a ‘human scale’,just as Gandhi had desired.

Secondly,overproduction,the bane of both the first and the second industrial revolutions,will no longer remain a systemic necessity. Gandhi had repeatedly spoken about the ills of overproduction,as can be seen from his interview to the Associated Press of India in December 1931. ‘There must be a return to simplicity and proper proportions,’ he said. ‘The flesh has taken precedence over the spirit. The machine age is ruining the Western civilisation.’ Digital manufacturing is finally going to bring economics to its ‘proper proportions’,facilitate ‘a return to hand industry’ and the ‘emancipation of the individual from factory slavery’.

Thirdly,if overproduction in the economy is reduced,over-consumption,which is the twin ill of capitalist economies,will also come down significantly. This is because overproduction,which is often driven by the desire to maximise profits,necessitates maximization of consumption even if the people do not really need to consume a product — or do not need to consume a product in large quantities. This is a need of the economic machine,not of the people. The machine then engages the seductive profession of advertising to induce over-consumption in society. As Will Rogers (1879–1935),an American humourist and social commentator memorably put it: ‘Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have on something they don’t need’. Of course,the flip side is that the poor people in society remain deprived of even their real needs.

Fourthly,digital manufacturing will also allow things to be made in a decentralised setting,which has the promise of accomplishing something revolutionary. As The Economist puts it: ‘The factory of the future will focus on mass customisation and may look more like those weavers’ cottages than Ford’s assembly line’. Isn’t it the kind of rural re-industrialisation that the Mahatma had dreamt of?

Precisely because manufacturing in the digital age promotes — rather,necessitates — decentralisation,it will also require manufactured products to be sold mostly in local markets. Both the compulsion and the opportunity to export to far-off markets will be significantly reduced since almost anything can be made economically,more flexibly and with much lower input of labour and material resources,thanks partly to the invention of amazingly versatile new materials — such as nano-manufactured graphene and carbon tubes. Explaining his concept of swadeshi,Gandhi had stated that the first responsibility of an individual is towards his or her neighbours. Universal welfare or ‘sarvodaya’ is automatically guaranteed when all the people in the world care for their neighbours. Which is why,Gandhi described swadeshi as ‘care economics’ or ‘home economics’,in which one’s home has an organic relationship with one’s neighbours in the community. Digital manufacturing will thus help make economics compatible with ethics.

Digital manufacturing will bring another transformative benefit to the environment. Since much of physical manufacturing will become decentralised and localised — albeit with the borderless participation of the entire global population in terms of providing online digital services necessary for making things — today’s systemic need for centralised generation,transmission and distribution of power will also be considerably lessened. The demand for decentralised production and provision of energy will grow. This will give a big boost to renewable and non-polluting sources of energy such as solar power. It is absolutely certain that the future will belong mainly to solar power,and not to the perishable and highly polluting hydrocarbon-based energy sources,which necessitated centralised production and long-distance transportation or transmission of energy.

The age of the third industrial revolution will make yet another Gandhian dream come true. As The Economist has noted in its special report,decentralised digital manufacturing will re-skill workers,unlike the previous two industrial revolutions that required workers to be largely de-skilled. This means that the workers even in the village-based factories of the future will have to be intelligent and proficient in the use of software and new technologies. They also should have an aesthetic sense and artistic talents,since digital manufacturing makes it possible to customise products to suit the cultural tastes of the producers and customers.

Gandhi had a similar vision about the ideal Indian village. He had written in Harijan on 4 August 1946: “When our villages are fully developed,there will be no dearth in them of men with a high degree of skill and artistic talent. There will be village poets,village artists,village architects,linguists and research workers. In short,there will be nothing in life worth having which will not be had in the villages. Today the villages are dung heaps. Tomorrow they will be like tiny gardens of Eden where dwell highly intelligent folk whom no one can deceive or exploit. The reconstruction of the villages along these lines should begin right now… not on a temporary but permanent basis.”

The Internet has indeed begun the reconstruction of life on Gandhian lines all over the Global Village. All this will of course take a long time. However,one thing is certain. Factories of the future will be very different from the ones of today. They will be human-scale centres of sustainable,intelligent,high-performance,knowledge-intensive and high-skill manufacturing. Many will have manufacturing platforms and equipment for handling micro- and nano-scale components. They will be agile,self-reconfigurable,scalable and multi-functional. Machines with self-learning,self-repairing and auto-calibrating capabilities will be common. They will ensure utmost energy efficiency,resource recycling and waste elimination. Above all,these decentralised production systems will greatly minimise the need for long-distance transportation.

To summarise,four breakthrough developments,each aided and accelerated by digital technologies,will transform global and national economies in the twenty-first century in ways that advance Gandhi’s ideals: Future Media (social media resources as instruments of democratic empowerment); Future Money (local or community currencies,and new trust-based and care-promoting economic activities); Future Manufacturing (empowerment of local producers and restoration of the dignity of labour); and Future Energy (ubiquitous use of non-polluting renewables). It is possible to imagine that these four developments will decisively impact the Future of Cities as well as the Future of Villages.

Thus,what we can plausibly envision is not just the Digital Future of Cities,but also the Digital Future of Villages. Unlike at present,tomorrow’s villages in India and in other countries will be proud and prosperous addresses in the Global Village — just as Gandhi had wanted.