Pravat Patnaik speaks at the event in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 4: Eminent economist Pravat Patnaik has stressed on the relevance of the Gandhian concept of economy in today’s world.

Delivering a memorial lecture on the “Role of Gandhian Economy in Rural Development” here today, Patnaik said: “The modern world is going through a severe economic crisis. In this context, the Gandhian concept has greater relevance.”

“The Gandhian diction that every one should be gainfully employed holds good even today,” he said.

Patnaik, a professor of economics at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said there was an impression that Gandhi was pre-modern and opposed to mechanisation. But, he was actually opposed to the use of machines for maximising profit.

Quoting from Gandhi’s Young India, Patnaik said the Mahatma had observed that machinery had its place. But, its use should not be allowed to the extent that it would displace labour and lead to unemployment.

Marx had also believed that the more productive machines get, the more displacement of labour would take place, he said.

Speaking on the growth of unemployment in India, Patnaik said the GDP growth rate had been between 8 per cent and 10 per cent a year during the period between 2004-05 and 2009-10.

However, there was a mere 0.88 per cent employment growth during the same period.

Gandhi’s concept of Gram Swaraj spoke of a decentralised economy and charkha was a symbol of an alternative, he said, adding that unless the Gandhian model was translated into action, his dream of wiping out tears from the eyes of people would not be fulfilled.

Eminent writer Sitakant Mohapatra said Gandhism was spreading across the globe. Civil disobedience and the relevance of non-violence were being taught in Harvard University.

But India has forgotten Gandhi.

The memorial lecture was organised on the occasion of the fourth death anniversary of ardent Gandhian and former legislator Rajkishore Nayak.

The meeting was presided by freedom fighter Bhabani Charan Patnaik.