Swadeshi as an antidote to disruption: Reclaiming economic self-reliance in an age of global fragility

The hyper-globalized economy reveals profound systemic vulnerabilities, as evidenced by a 5.3% decline in global merchandise trade in 2020 (WTO, 2021) and a 45% reduction in U.S. beef production capacity (USDA, 2020). Moving beyond conventional economic analysis, this paper argues that the Gandhian principle of Swadeshi (local self-sufficiency), reinterpreted through the lens of social responsibility as a strategy for decentralized economic antifragility, offers a robust framework for resilience that intrinsically prioritizes community well-being and ecological balance. Using a mixed-methods approach—a comparative case study and fixed-effects panel regression analysis of Indian district-level data (2015–2022)—this study finds that a one-unit increase in the Regional Self-Sufficiency Index (RSSI) corresponds to a significant 0.32-unit decrease in price volatility during disruptions (β = -0.32, p = 0.015, 95% CI [-0.58, -0.06]). The model indicates that a 15% increase in regional self-sufficiency could reduce disruption impact by 27–38%. Policy implications, framed through a social responsibility perspective, include the implementation of "Social Resilience Budgets" mandating public procurement from bio-regional social enterprises and the creation of green credit lines for local cooperatives.