FOSS by Gandhiji

Foss by Gandhiji

1. Don’t Like, Make your own way instead of using arms: Means passive Resistance

Gandhiji stated that: passive resistance is one of the greatest virtues one can ever have. If we don’t like our rulers or anyone who controls us, we should just not cooperate with them. We should not cause any harm to them. Instead we ourselves must suffer if they impose any force upon us. Our ideals should remain unchanged. We must follow what our soul tells us to or what we feel is correct and a person who listens to what his soul tells never does anything that is wrong.

Similarly if i don’t like a company which does not provide us with the source code and does not allow us to redistribute, instead of cracking or doing reverse engineering to remove the lock from the software and redistribute, we must simply create our own software and make use of it and if we want redistribute. This is what passive resistance is. This way we can make our own way and follow our ideals of propagating information freely.

2. Becoming slaves using someone else’s language, machinery or technology.

The education system that India had been following since thousands of years was being changed by the British. They were imposing English upon us and the basic knowledge to be given was changed. The lower education that was being received was okay and could have been accepted. But the Indian education system was based on and had firm foundation of character and ethics. This was considered to be lower education and the other knowledge as the higher education. By employing their system, we were becoming slaves and were increasing slavery. The ideals of character and ethics were considered secondary.

Similarly the ideals that there must be free flow of information and other issues are going down by the closed source and not-free (free as in freedom) software. We are becoming slaves by using the kinds of softwares which are given by the proprietary companies and those who rise to FOSS are the rulers of themselves and are not enslaved by these big companies. They make their own way.

3. I admit you are my rulers. But it is not we who have to do as you wish, but it is you who have to do as we wish

The British were ruling upon the Indians. For their commercial benefits they were imposing such laws which were not in favour of people. These people had to follow what the British said. The British made certain rules against the general public. And thus gandhiji led the non cooperation movement and the civil disobedience movement. They had only one motto: the government must do whatever the people wish and not the opposite.

Till some 5 to 10 years ago large companies used to offer software whatever they felt was correct. Then what happened was a civil disobedience kind of movement i.e. the open source movement. After that these companies started shaking and agreed upon to the people and a new trend in these companies is seen nowadays of Crowd-sourcing( as the wired magazine states it). This word has become a buzzword in the industry nowadays.

4. Self reliance in Technology

Gandhiji wanted all the machines to be removed as there were many ill effects of machinery on the civilization. By use of machinery, the home businesses and the small scale industries were closing down. The individual production methods such as handlooms were at a threat and people were becoming unemployed. People should become self reliant in technology and not relying on large industries where machines do all the work and there is no need of workers.

We ourselves can become self reliant in technology by the free and open source software. Developers themselves can change these softwares and make use of them how they want it to be. Then we can say that we are self reliant.

5. Swaraj – First know what it is and then ask for Home Rule

“Is India really ready for Home Rule??” This question was being asked in the early 20^th century. Gandhiji explained everyone what the meaning of Swaraj is and asked them to ask everything else after that. First be clear what kind of and how we want the home rule and then demand for it. “Suppose the British leave the country, what will you do then??” This was the question asked by Gandhiji to an interviewer. He wanted to make the thought of swaraj clear in the minds of people and so make them ready for home rule.

Similarly, in the evolution of free software, the idea that free as in freedom has to be made clear before making anyone familiar to the Free and Open Source Software. Before joining the movement everyone should know what the freedom is and how it must be implemented.