32. Communal life in Villages

New Basis

The new basis has to be built here in the villages where the Hindus and the Muslims have lived and suffered together on the land of their forefathers and must live together in the future.

I ask all Hindus and Muslims to devote themselves to the noble task of recognizing village life and in improving their economic condition. Through cottage industries they will find themselves working together in the common task, and unity will thereby grow among them. You must carry out my eighteen point constructive work which will spread like a life giving influence over the entire country side.

You should banish intoxicating drinks and drugs from your midst. I hope that you will eradicate untouchability if there is any trace of it still left in your village. The Hindus, the Muslims, the Sikhs, the Parsis and the Christians should all live as brothers and sisters. If you achieve all I have mentioned, you will demonstrate real independence and people from all over India will come to see your model village and take inspiration from it.

That the edifice of unity can rest on constructive work alone is a maxim which everybody should remember. The question is how to realize it. It is up to every worker who believes in it to live it in his life and to bring home to his neighbor's. By going into explaining the scientific basis of the constructive programme, it can be made interesting. Our daily experience shows that this programme cannot be advanced by mechanical or unintelligent work.