Question- Describe characteristics of Ruskin's socialism.

Or
Comment on Ruskin's socialism.

Answer -

The Victorian age to which Ruskin belonged was an age of great industrial progress. Large scale production with the help of machinery made the capitalists rich. On the other hand the labourers had to work hard for long hours on starvation wages. Their lot particularly of women and children was very miserable. It was the industrial age. England made great industrial progress. It was an epock of peace and plenty. Factories and mills were being established everywhere. The great industrial and scientific progress had its dark side also. The factories and mills took the place of cottage industries. Hence the capitalists flourished and crafts men lost their honour and became servants of industrialists. Thus the great industrial revolution while creating the previledged class of capitalists and will owners rolling in wealth and riches, also brought in its wake the semi-starved and ill-clad class of labourers. As a result of growing materialism the natural beauty was defiled. The smoke emitted from chimneys of factories polluted used fresh air and spoiled green pastures. The water of streams and rivers was made dirty as people threw away their refuse, and dirty and useless things in them. Ruskin was greetly moved to see the destruction of natural beauty He wrote:

Ruskin had started his career as an art critic but he possessed the qualities of a social reformer. He possessed specifial qualifications for social and and economic criticism. As Ruskin had started his career as an art critic, people expressed doubts as to his ability to be a social reformer when he took up these subjects.

Ruskin took up the cause of social reform in the year 1860. He was aware of the illness of growing industrialization. The industrial urge of his times led to unhealthy competitions and intolerance. In made people greedy and selfish. The money-making tendency made the privileged class exploit the poor workers. Ruskin exposed the ugliness of an industrial world and the selfsishness of an economic order.

Ruskin criticises the concept of political economy because it safeguards the interests of the capitalists. It is based on the exploitation of the labourers. Ruskin regards accumulation of wealth in the hards of a few rich people and the exploitation of the poor, as a practice amounting to robbery. He is deadly against the view point of many economists that concentration of wealth in the hands of a few people is not harmful.

Ruskin is extremely surprised to see that the books on Political Economy very cunningly omit the exploitation of the poor by the rich. Ruskin says that, the question of exploitation does not relate merely to the poor of England but it is also a vital question concerning the poor of all countries. He insists that the practice of exploitation should find place in the books of political economy and should be condemned.

According to Ruskin the capitalists invest money to make profit and sometime spend money on superficial things. Then it is recovered from buyers by raising the price of the commodity. Ruskin criticises the concept of wealth and the rich in the following words:

"What do we mean by rich? In truth riches act only through negation. The force of your guinea depends wholly on the want of it by the neighbour If he did not want it, it would be of no use. The art of making yourself rich is that art of keeping your neighbour poor. A society of universal millionaires would have to black their own boots."

In his lecture on 'Work', Ruskin attacks the capitalists for their material pursuit. He refers to various games. The first of all English games is the game of money-making. Ruskin compares London to the cricket ground without the turf and the billiard table without the green cloth. The billiard table has pockets in its corners in which the ball slips. Similarly London has pits as deep as hell. Money passes into there pockets. Capitalists are busy with the business of money making through their factories. The rich say that they play the game of money making with the sportsman's spirit. But it is wrong. Their game is money making and it is not for the sake of pleasure.

Ruskin always expressed himself in favour of socialism. He gave new definitions to various items used in political economy as economy, wealth, utility and cost etc. He examined the theory of wages. He wanted that fixed and fair wags to be paid to the labourers instead of their being determined by pure demand and supply. It can be said that Ruskin has the necessary qualifications and experience to be a social reformer.

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