Question

Gandhi does not reject machinery as such. He observes can I be against all machinery when I know that even this body is a most delicate piece of machinery? The spinning wheel is machinery, a little toothpick is a machine. What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such. The craze is for what they call labour-saving machinery. Men go on "saving labour" till thousands are without work and thrown on the open streets to die of starvation. I want to save time and labour not for a fraction of mankind but for all. I want the concentration of wealth, not in the hands of a few but in the hands of all. Today machinery merely helps a few to ride on the back of millions. The impetus behind it all is not the philanthropy to solve labour but greed. It is against this evil that I am fighting with all my might. The machine should not tend to atrophy the limbs of man. Factories run by power-driven machinery should be nationalised. The supreme consideration is the man. Find a word from the passage which means: 'wasting away'. delicate craze impetus atrophy Mark for review

Answer 1

Atrophy is the word that means wasting away, decreasing in size, or wasting away of a body part or tissue.

The following phrases sum up Mahatma Gandhi's animosity toward machinery-

• Man is the most important consideration. The machine shouldn't have a tendency to cause atrophied human limbs.
• I firmly believe that our handicrafts will endure long after the machine age's innovations have vanished, just as service and honest labor will endure long after all forms of exploitation have ended. I continue with my work because this faith keeps me going.
• Men like Stephenson and Columbus were sustained by an unwavering faith in their work. I have faith in my job.
• Equipment is like a snake hole with anywhere from one to one hundred snakes within. Huge cities are found where there is machinery, and trams and railroads are found in large cities. Only one person can see the electric light there.
• The health of the population has declined in areas where artificial locomotion has developed, an honest doctor will tell you. I recall that when money was scarce in a European town, the tramway companies, lawyers, and physicians' receipts decreased and the population's health improved. I can't think of a single benefit related to machines.

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