This year is the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi who was born on October 2. 1869. His writing and messages are as relevant today as was 100 years ago when he wrote them. Through the ages, India has given the world new thoughts.  Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, yoga are all part of the great spiritual wisdom given by India over time. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s message of nonviolence, sustainable living and how each one of us can change the world is a continuation of that long tradition. 
 
One of the central themes of Gandhi’s life was that the change we want to see in the world should start with us. All his life, he experimented first on himself and then expanded them for the larger good. I feel this motto is what each one of us should follow. How to discover the truth and goodness in each one of us and then to share it with humanity, so that this collective knowledge can help in mankind’s evolution. 
 
Mahatma Gandhi was a highly evolved and spiritual human being. To him, spirituality came first. Other things like politics, public life, etc. were by-products of his spirituality. His experiments on simple and sustainable living followed his own spiritual progress. Possessed with a great body and a powerful mind, he overcame fear. This quality of fearlessness made him blaze new trails and produce novel political strategies, like nonviolence, satyagraha, etc. He repeatedly showed his fearlessness by dealing with the British on equal terms. In the 1920s and 30s, during the height of colonial rule, such behaviour before his colonial masters was unique and provided a quantum jump in raising the consciousness of Indians about their worth. 
 
When the brain becomes powerful, it becomes sensitive to the surroundings. This was the genesis of Gandhiji's non-violence. Gandhi, as the 'pujari' (priest) of non-violence, used it for everything, including industrialization. 
 
He rightly thought that industrialization of the 1920s would be a violent system with heavy machinery, inefficient energy and materials-conversion technologies, with no concern for the environment. Intuitively, he revolted against those systems and felt that the simple life (with few needs) and most daily use things being produced from locally available materials were non-violent and more in tune with nature. 
 
There are lots of writings to show how Gandhi was anti-technology and anti-science. He was neither. In fact, he was the 'pujari' or worshipper of the human body - the greatest machine ever designed by nature - and hence could never be anti-technology. He wrote about this issue several times, being sensitive to this criticism.
 
In his life, he used the latest technologies of his time - telephones, telegraph, trains, cars and ships. What he rebelled against was the exploitative nature of technology and big machines of that time for the poor masses. Intuitively, he felt that decentralization and sustainable development was the solution to remove the poverty of the rural poor. 
 
Gandhi was an engineer at heart. He improvised and built equipment like better snake-catching tools, small cotton-spinning wheel (takli) and chappals (sandals) from used tires. In 1929, he even instituted an INR one lakh prize (INR 20 crores in today’s value; 2.6 times bigger than the Nobel Prize) for the design of a modern charkha (spinning wheel).
 
Such things could not come from an anti-technology person but from an innovator and an engineer. This is the hallmark of a great mind, which can produce original ideas in whichever field it becomes interested in. Had Gandhi lived today, he would have embraced the latest technology of 3D printing, cell phones and enhanced rural mobility, since it allows decentralized development and helps to improve the lives of the rural population. 
 
His dream of giving employment and a decent life to the rural population may, therefore, become possible with the availability of these energy-efficient and high-tech systems. He always believed in following nature, which today is called bio-mimicry and believed in achieving more from fewer resources. This has given rise to a new technological concept called frugal innovations.   
 
Gandhi believed in all-inclusive growth and felt that India could only become a great nation when its teeming and impoverished rural masses become more prosperous. He, therefore, focused on rural development for the last 30 years of his life and felt intuitively that India’s future lay in decentralized rural development. This vision, which he stated in the 1920s, is even more valid today a century later. 
 
It is said that even 72 years after independence, around 60% of India's rural population still lives in primitive conditions. They have hardly any electricity; they cook on primitive ‘chulhas’ (earthen stoves) which create tremendous indoor air pollution and have no clean drinking water. Their lives are in darkness and modern technology has left them untouched. There are estimates that nearly one million deaths take place every year in India because of indoor air pollution and unclean drinking water. Unless and until scientists, technologists and decision-makers improve their quality of life, India will not join the ranks of developed nations.
 
For this to happen, creation of wealth and employment should take place in rural areas. I believe this is possible when agriculture provides both energy and food security for India in an economically viable manner.  It is the land that provides the wealth of the country – a message that Gandhi always gave.
 
India produces 600-800 million tons/year of agricultural residues. Most of these residues are burnt in fields to solve the waste disposal problem. Not only does this create tremendous air pollution, but is a waste of an important energy resource.
 
Presently, these residues, which constitute 60-75% of the total biomass produced, do not fetch any money for farmers. These residues can be used for producing electricity via biomass-based power plants; can be a raw material base for producing chemicals and, after composting them, can produce excellent fertilizers. Since these residues can produce high-quality energy and materials, they, should be properly priced. 
 
With such pricing, the farmer can easily get an extra income of INR5000-7000 /acre per season.  This extra income can help make farming remunerative and change the face of rural India. Besides easing India’s energy crisis, it can be a INR. 200,000 crores/year (INR 2 billion /yr.) industry. Also, the use of biomass to produce energy can produce 50 million jobs in rural areas. Thus, farming for energy will lead to a prosperous India. 
 
Every citizen of this earth aspires to a decent lifestyle. I believe such a lifestyle is possible with much less energy than is consumed by an average US citizen. For example, in the US the per capita energy consumption is 350 GJ/year, while in India, it is a low of 18 GJ/year. If every citizen of India has the consumptive lifestyle of Americans then all the resources of earth will be sufficient for India alone.
 
In my own example, I have shown that consumption of 50-70 GJ/person/year, or one-fifth that of the US, through high technology, can provide a decent and emotionally satisfying lifestyle. This energy consumption will provide the lifestyle that Europeans had in the 1970s.  This type of energy consumption will put less pressure on the earth’s resources, besides substantially reducing environmental pollution.  
 
However, this can only happen if each one of us follows the Gandhian maxim of ‘simple living and high thinking’. As he pointed out, we should use natural resources for our needs and not for our greed!
 
Once our basic needs are satisfied, all of us long for something meaningful. Even the very rich are looking for some meaningful actions and purpose in their lives.  Happiness cannot be obtained by money alone; it only comes when there is some meaning to life. That meaning, I feel, comes from helping others less fortunate and by giving back something to society.  As engineers and scientists, we can do it by providing right-sized technologies at the right ‘price’ to the poor.  It is a double goal.  What is needed is the direction and will of political leadership to make the life of poor people better.
 
Thus, the mantra of India’s - and perhaps Southm Asia's - development should be spirituality with high technology.  Both allow us to reduce our greed for resources and to live in harmony with nature. If each of us tries to live in a sustainable but emotionally satisfying manner, then the world will become sustainable and a happy place. This, to my mind, is the essence of Gandhi’s teachings.
 
(The writer is  Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), Phaltan, Maharashtra. He can be contacted at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com)