INDUSTRIES – ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
Industries are the soul of modern materialistic civilization. They provide us everything in abundance. Even an ordinary man can purchase fine cloth that could be purchased only by members of royal families. It is with the help of industries that the transport system has developed. No one can have things from far off places. Food grains can be moved to famine affected areas.
Industries have enabled man to have a number of comforts and luxuries at prices they can afford. Even a poor man can have a transistor— even a T.V. set. The market is flooded with cheap things of everyday use. Plastic goods are available at throw away prices. Clothes of synthetic fiber have replaced cotton clothes. Industries manufacture many synthetic edibles and other things leaving the natural things for more essential uses.
But industries have made man dependent on them. He does not want to work as hard as he did in the past. Thus he is losing his physical capacities and is gradually becoming a slave of industries. Moreover industries have hit the village artisan. He cannot compete with industries and becomes unemployed. As he has no agricultural land he runs to the cities. The cities are overcrowded by this extra labour force which loses its identity. He lives in slums in dirty insanitary conditions. That is why Gandhiji was against large scale industries.
Industries have divided the world into two parts-the developed countries and the undeveloped countries. Developed countries have most sophisticated industries which do not require labour. Undeveloped countries have spare man power which cannot be employed. Thus the gulf between the European countries, the USA, Canada and Japan on the one hand and African, Asian and Latin American countries on the other has increased. There is no political slavery. But the poor countries are the economic slaves of the rich countries which have industries.