India have been following a City-centric approach in development.

But do you think that the

Gandhi's model village, being self sufficient, could be a better option? Isn't that a better way
for inclusive and sustainable development rather than humongous 'growth without
development' of our cities?

Basically Development of a nation manifests pertinent, unexploitative, sustainable use of all

the resources available therein which includes natural resources, human resources etc.
Gandhijis idea of model village was based on assumption that India is made of villages,
which are the soul of our nation, and development of our country lies in development of
such self centered, self sufficient villages which will be developing all by themselves but
independent of each other which according to Gandhiji was necessary for betterment of all.
In order to comprehend Gandhijis idea of villages, one has to consider the ideological base
he followed and the economic nature of our country (and the world) at that time. Gandhijis
ideology was socialistic in nature believing in equitable distribution of resources among all,
equal devlopment of all regardless of their cast, creed, race, religion etc. Moreover at the
time of independence, indian society was vulnerable, poor, and marginally literate. Low
income was another gruesome character of our nation at that time. Thus It was pretty
obvious to go for development from below which would create a concrete base for
development of superstructure like industries, dams, power stations etc. and above all
Gandhiji believed in peaceful existence of all free from any kind of exploitation, inequality,
unsustainability which according to him may occur if country follows urbanisational mode of
devlopment.
Today India is not following city centric model of devlopmental but the model which is all
inclusive (villages and cities) that encompasses all the sections of society interwoven in
each other. Although this is also true that major part of state expenditure is poured in the
development of cities but dependent nature of large population on cities partially validates
that. Only concern is that humongous growth of urban areas must be economically, socially
and environmentally sustainable in nature and anyhow state must adhere to these
principals. In short if villages are heart of our nation, cities are the face of the nation.
Balanced, sustainable growth of all the regions of a state or country regardless of village or
state only will ensure development of a nation. Because, even the development of a
particular state is unachievable if all the regions of that state do not go hand in hand e.g.
State of Maharashtra will never be a developed state if it ignores the non urbanised region
of Vidarbha or urbanised region of western Maharashtra and same is for Rajasthan or any
other state for that matter. Hence Sustainable economic development necessitates
collaboration of all the regions of a state ,of a country, and of a world which may fulfill the
needs of one another in case of insufficiency of resources etc.
In todays era of Globalization, Universe is a Global village, even two nations cant remain
isolated from each other how come the villages will be? However, this doesnt invalidate

Gandhijis idea of self sufficient village, definitely it is necessary but simultaneously it is not
sufficient for development of a nation Moreover it would be biased to the law of evolution of
nature too.