TECHNOLOGY / MACHINERY IS ALWAYS THE VILLAIN !!!!!

How machine made Manchester clothes , destroyed and killed Indian weavers, similar events are happening within the country (India). 

Technology ultimately will suck the societies across the globe DRY !!!

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/whatsapp-worsens-varanasi-weavers-woes/article5852911.ece

The full article is copied here

TODAY'S PAPER » NATIONAL

VARANASI, March 31, 2014

WhatsApp worsens Varanasi weavers’ woes

OMAR RASHID

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Traders send blueprints of Banarasi sari designs to be mass-produced in Surat

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The mainstay of the Banarasi sari, woven with expensive natural yarn such as Chinese silk and cotton, is its design. What was an organic and handmade process, however, has now, to the dismay of weavers, been hijacked by technology to abet mass production — power looms in Surat ensure that designs of synthetic and polyester yarns are produced in bulk in quick time.

To facilitate this, traders in Varanasi have got into the practice of taking pictures of designs on their smartphone and ‘WhatsApping’ copies of it to traders in Surat.

Automated looms

In Surat, automated looms ‘copy’ these designs, print them on fabric and send the saris back to traders in Varanasi in large quantities. Abundant power supply, yarn and cheap labour ensures that Surat can produce five times the volume Varanasi can and around four times cheaper.

The system works well for traders and silk store-owners like Tamanna Ahmed, who buy samples of designs from weavers in Varanasi and, using WhatsApp, order finished products of the same design from Surat at a cheaper price. Customers also benefit as they can buy the intricate designs of the Banarasi sari at the cost of the inexpensive Surat fabric.

Technology seems to have revolutionised the Banarasi sari industry, which has over the years lagged due to competition, dependence on manual techniques and government apathy. In all this, however, the weavers find themselves at a loss. For them, WhatsApp enables traders in Surat and Varanasi to collude to sell copies of their world-famous designs through the multimedia app. “With technology, no design is safe. Earlier, a single design would last for 3 years, now it’s hardly exclusive for more than three months,” says Mr. Ahmed.

Atiq Ansari, a prominent weaver who shared the stage with Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal in his rally in Varanasi last week, says weavers feel robbed by the “copying” of designs. “Traders from Surat have copied our designs from the last 15 years. They would visit Varanasi and steal the designs and later replicate the fabric with mass production,” says Mr. Ansari.

“With the use of technology [and WhatsApp],” Mr. Ansari adds, “the situation has worsened in just the last 3-4 years. It’s the final blow to the hopes of the poor weavers. Since the creator is suffering, this is, overall, bad for the industry.”

The Banarasi sari business has been in flux since the 1960s when recession in handloom compelled weavers to shift to power looms.

Good margins, demand and competition led to the growth of a parallel printing industry in the 1970s-80s, which Mr. Ansari describes as a golden period. However, the industry suffered a decline after the H.D. Deve Gowda government banned import of Chinese silk yarn. Since the 1990s, recession has compelled weavers to migrate to textile cities like Surat and Mumbai in search of a livelihood.

Election buzz

In Varanasi, where Mr. Kejriwal is to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the AAP is wooing the weavers, who represent a major chunk of the 3 lakh Muslims in the constituency. Acknowledging their electoral worth, Mr. Modi, in his rally here last December, too had sought to strike a chord with the weavers. However, according to Mr. Ansari, the weavers were not impressed by Mr. Modi’s comparing the textile industries of Surat and Varanasi. “Can Modi show us a blueprint on how he can prevent Surat from copying our designs and ruining us?” he asks.

“Like all previous problems, we can deal with the other problems, but it is practically impossible to prevent Surat from copying our designs,” says Arshad Meraj, a weaver.

“The government has ignored the implementation of the power loom upgradation scheme. So we doubt it can implement its idea of patenting the Banarasi Sari,” he says.

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·  Earlier, a design would last 3 years; now it is exclusive for hardly 3 months: weaver

·  Recession has compelled weavers to migrate to textile cities like Surat for livelihood

Coupling Physical & Social Sciences - An ancient art but not to be attempted by dull-witted moderns !!!!!

Here is a book-review, giving us an idea of its contents.  The question raised in the book (highlighted in yellow) is fallacious !!! (to put it mildly). The paragraphs occurring before the question,  are on track. But the question itself and the  offered solutions  to the question raised, are preposterous, judging the contents.  

Consider the following sentence from the review. (red color text)  “Our economic activities are becoming information-dependent and many products and technologies process only information and so consume less energy.” Our own experiences belies this sentence !!! Just try to recollect the number of computers and printers we (only ourselves) had changed/thrown-out/exchanged in the last say ten years. Obsolescence  is  the  twin-brother of technology, and generates lot of wastage. From the tenor of the review, we are lead to conclude that the authors  have not fully understood what entropy really is and thus this book is bound to mislead.

A brief take on this subject  ie Entropy,  is given in my blog-page http://msradha.blogspot.in/2013/04/caution-men-at-work-about-karma.html

The book review :- 

 The real price of development N. BALASUBRAMANIAN

Many sins are committed in the name of development. We are becoming aware that much of what were hailed as achievements over the past few centuries were actually “sordid boons.” Curiously, the words ecology and economics have a common root, okios , which means ‘habitat’ in ancient Greek. But dialogues between economists and ecologists/environmentalists on how to achieve development with the least incomprehension of, and violence to, habitat have been of recent origin.

The strain imposed by development has been measured using a number of Indicators. In its report released on September 27, 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that the warming of the climate system is unequivocal — oceans have warmed, snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen and greenhouse gases have increased — and there is a 95 per cent chance it is all manmade. The living planet index based on a number of indicators of biodiversity has fallen in the poorer countries. Materials Footprint is increasing by 6 per cent for every 10 per cent increase in GDP. Earth Overshoot Day is the day every year when we have consumed natural resources at a rate beyond what our planet can replenish and have produced more waste than can be reabsorbed. In 1970 it fell on December 29. Advanced by two days every year, it fell on August 20 in 2013.

Physical and social sciences

Physical and social sciences together must address the problems of growth and its implications.  To the growing community of scholars who are equally at home in both sciences, the book’s emphasis on “the role of entropy law of thermodynamics in making the basic assumptions regarding a development model” is encouraging. Frederic Soddy (not mentioned in the book), a Nobel-prize winning chemist, was the first to introduce thermodynamics into economics. Working with Rutherford, he split the atom and was the first to produce and name isotopes. Aware of the destructive power he unleashed, he wanted to improve the economic system, which was not in a position to act on scientific advances. So he shifted his career to economics and came up with radical ideas in the 1920s. He was derided by economists and none of them quoted him for 70 years, but he was rediscovered recently.

The book makes the point that development increases entropy, and asks: “Can growth of human knowledge and technological progress reverse the effects of entropy law and delink economic growth and rise of entropy?”

The role of knowledge and human values in directing development cannot be over-emphasised. Our economic activities are becoming information-dependent and many products and technologies process only information and so consume less energy. The internet changed the way we consume energy. To what extent can we uncouple economic growth from energy growth? How soon can we have a grid of wind, solar, geothermal and tidal energy, and next-generation nuclear fission and fusion, and energy from nuclear waste?  Advanced diesel engines with low compression ratio and the consequent benefits resulting in much higher fuel efficiency, and electric transport, can prove game- changers. We can prospect for materials in space colonies. These involve uncertainties and we must also get better at technology forecasting. 

Clean technologies with minimal reduction in productivity are the concern of all countries: a rise of 2.5 per cent in global temperature will reduce agricultural productivity by 6 per cent in America but by 38 per cent in India.

The author covers comprehensively 14 interrelated topics relevant to the title of the book. A background in mathematics is needed to understand the concept of sustainable development and the ideas of Partha Dasgupta and Nardhaus. There is even a mathematical model to choose an optimum family size (my next wedding present!). The data in the book refer mostly to India, although a few tables draw information from the International Energy Agency, the World Bank and the UN.

Among some minor blemishes, the description of photosynthesis is sketchy. In the accompanying chemical equation — the only equation in the book — a chemical formula is written without saying it means glucose. It is hoped that the next edition will have more recent data in the tables. In the current edition, some of the data go back to the 1990s.

The book will appeal to researchers in the area of development economics and policy analysts /makers and succeed as a textbook . Hopefully, it will stir the conscience of a new generation.

( N. Balasubramanian is Advisor, Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, Bangalore )

Link to the review  http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-bookreview/the-real-price-of-development/article5283383.ece

MACHINERY IS EVIL !!!! - Gandhiji. -KARMA /WORK ANALYSIS !

Introduction.

Work extracted through Machinery is evil. That is why modern society is caught in the quagmire of EVIL, since machines of all kinds are extensively used.  The West  addresses  this problem  of doing away with  social evils, with  technology and more and more machines.  Eg. The equipments for security and  surveillance and the ubiquitous  camera that you see everywhere. But then the problems do not vanish and it redounds with multiple and complex negative effects, threatening biological life on this planet . Thus it  is evident that the WEST does not fully comprehend the  human  spiritual, mental and physical constitution, essential for  devising  effective and long-lasting solutions conducive to peaceful living and happiness.  Their incomplete knowledge  of human nature & processes prevents them from conceiving  BENIGN Management /Work  Theories and Practices, essential for harmonious living. The deficiency of the West stems from its lack of understanding of the COSMIC process. Their Cosmology is weak and erroneous.

A chunk of modern machines run on electricity. Though businessmen and management experts consider the  chronic power shortage in Tamil Nadu  to be a bane, it  should be considered as a boon in disguise. People are inadvertently being conditioned to reduce power dependency and thus are weaned away from machinery.

Western Machinery Fetishism

In  the blog-posting  'PAUL & THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY' , it had been pointed out that Paul Lafrague had blundered badly, in advocating more and more industrial machinery to rescue the working class from drudgery.  Further  he had advocated the duration of work to be limited to  maximum three or four hours a day. And to  dispense off with manual labour  he  suggested the desirability of inventing more and more machinery. This was in the year 1883.

 In 1908, Gandhiji  wrote  The Hind Swaraj, a very fundamental work  , touching  all aspects  required of  peaceful national living.  In 1921, in  the foreword to a  later edition of the book ,  Gandhiji has said that the book was written  “in answer  to the Indian School of violence  and its prototype  in South Africa” (The full text of 'A Word of Explanation' by Gandhiji is provided in the scanned images in the blog-post).  According to Lord Lothian, a Britisher,  what Gandhiji was trying to teach India and the world “now lay in the germ in that little book which deserved to be read and re-read in order to understand Gandhiji properly”. One chapter of Hind Swaraj addresses the 'evils' due to machinery.

TO THE ‘MODERN’ WORLD GANDHIJI PRESENTED ‘MODERN’ ARGUMENTS AGAINST MACHINERY.

Gandhiji was not advancing naïve  arguments against MACHINERY. His reasonings against Machinery  are sound, and today we  experience  that, it had withstood the tests of TIME.  Gandhiji  appeared very candid, when he said that “the impetus behind  it  all(machinery) is not the philanthropy to save labour, but GREED.”   Paul Lafarge also desired  more and more machinery for rescuing humans from drudgery (saving labour) without worrying about its negative consequences. But  Gandhiji  is  more  pragmatic  with his total understanding of  human nature . Further  it was Gandhiji’s caution that machinery will help concentrate the wealth in the hands of a few. This is very conspicuous today, and  frequently we read in the media  about the trillionaires list and the FORTUNE 500 companies.

Gandhiji also believed that machinery will atrophy the limbs of man, and will encroach upon his individuality. This aspect of machinery we are experiencing constantly, in our daily life. Not only our limbs, but our intellectual  faculties are atrophied. Our privacies are invaded and personalities distorted. The machines are ruling our life, in our house as well as in the work-place  For primary needs of man  like food and clothing (ploughshare and needle ,spinning wheel and sewing machine)  Gandhiji was agreeable  to  the usage of limited machinery.

 

ULTIMATE VIEW ABOUT MACHINERY & GITA  18 : 11

Gandhiji   likens his body to a most delicate piece of machinery. At a very personal level, as a Indian, he understands that the body stands in the way of  salvation, ie absolute liberation of the soul.  Gita 18:11 states that One who is in embodied form cannot fully dispense away with KARMA (action/momement/work).  And  Gita 18:48 , says that all KARMAS have negative side-effects,  the degree of NEGATIVITY depending on the KARMA, ie. good or bad.  Non-karma, ie perfect stillness represents the state of Moksha. Negative-karma ie Vikarma generates Vasanas or tendencies, which will lead to further karma. Whereas positive ( as per shastras) karmas burns up one’s  karma-generating-vasanas from this life as well as previous lives, helping in advancing in the steps towards liberation.

This above tallies with  Gandhiji’s constant refrain that one cannot  or it is IMPOSSIBLE  for one to realize perfect Truth and Ahimsa, so long as one is imprisoned in this mortal frame.  Gandhiji  had fully understood the MATHEMATICAL  EQUATION provided by the Gita  with respect to realization of perfect Truth and Ahimsa. Once again consider Gita 18: 11 & 48. Embodiment =Body =Karma=Negative Consequences.  Gandhiji had equated the body to a delicate machinery. Body=Machine=Karma=Negative  effects (karma-bandham), which hinders the liberation of the soul. If body itself is  a hindrance, what about Machines, which mostly  contributes to increase in NEGATIVE  KARMA in GEOMETRIC PROPORTION. ? Today the world is in the grip of excessive negative karma, facilitated by MACHINERY of all kinds. Any thinking and feeling person cannot totally ignore this fact !!

Like our body , Gandhiji says that Machines are inevitable and is a NECESSARY EVIL.  Neverthless all should strive for transcendence. That means first we have to limit the use of  Machinery and totally dispense with it. This  will ultimately prove to be good for the individual as well as society/nations. This  represents  SANE Management /Work  practice.

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Quotes  from the book ‘The Hind-Swaraj  about Machinery & Scanned Text --(References)

GANDHIJI "IDEALLY , I WOULD RULE OUT ALL MACHINERY........

In the ‘PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION’  published in 1938, there is a conversation recorded, that happened  between Gandhiji and a 'questioner'. (Pages 74 and 75, scanned pages provided). This was his response about machinery " Ideally, I would rule out all machinery, even as I would reject this very body, which is not helpful for salvation, and seek the absolute liberation of the soul. From that point of view I would reject  all machinery, but machines will remain because, like the body, they are inevitable.  The body itself , as I  told you, is the purest piece of mechanism; but if it is a hindrance to the highest flights of the soul, it has to be rejected." (p.75)

Further, in A WORD OF EXPLANATION written by Gandhiji himself  for the 1921 edition of Hind Swaraj   his views about MACHINERY were  ".................I am not aiming at destroying  railways or hospitals, though I would certainly welcome their natural destruction. Neither railways  nor hospitals are a test of a high  and pure civilization. At best they are a necessary evil. Neither  adds one inch to the moral stature of a nation. Nor am I aiming at a permanent destruction of law courts, much as I regard it as a 'consummation devoutly  to be wished'. Still less am I trying  to destroy all machinery and mills. It requires a higher simplicity and renunciation than the people are today prepared for."

Chapter XIX of THE HIND-SWARAJ is titled  MACHINERY.

Quote "When I read Mr.Dutt's  Economic History of India, I wept; and as I think of it again my heart sickens. It is machinery  that has impoverished India. It is difficult to measure the harm that Manchester has done to us. It is due to Manchester that Indian handicraft  has all but disappeared......

.........Machinery  has begun to desolate Europe.  Ruination is  now knocking at the English gates, Machinery  is the chief symbol of modern civilization ; it represents a great sin.

The workers  in the mills of Bombay have become slaves. The condition of the women working in the mills is shocking. When there were no mills, these women were not starving. If the machinery craze grows in our country, it will become an unhappy land...........

Reader: Are the mills, then to be closed down ?

Editor (Gandhiji) : That is difficult. It is no easy task  to do  away with a thing that is established. We, therefore say  the the non-beginning of a  thing  is supreme wisdom. (Is Gandhiji considering 'Sarvarambha-parithyagi' of Gita 12:16 &  14:25 !!??)...............

........Machinery is like a snake-hole which may contain from one to a hundred snakes. ..........I cannot recall a single good point in connection with machinery.

..Do not, therefore, forget the main thing. It is  necessary to realize that machinery is bad. We shall then be able gradually to do away with it. Nature has not provided any way whereby we may reach a desired goal all of a sudden. If, instead of welcoming  machinery as a boon, we should look upon it as an evil, it would ultimately go.