E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

195 Contextualising Gandhian ThoughtThe means that one adopts to earn one's livelihoodshould be truthful and nonviolent, not deceitful and violent, orexploitative. 8 All work has equal value, and should thereforereceive equal remuneration. 9 This remuneration should be suchas assures a decent living. The level or standard of livingshould be such as leads one to self-realisation or the fullestdevelopment and expression of one's personality, and not thevicious cycle of multiplying wants.Gandhi believed that aparigraha or the abdication ofacquisitiveness would facilitate and promote equal distribution.Equal distribution was his ideal. But since absolute equalitywill be unattainable, and even injurious in some cases, hewould work for the equitable distribution of wealth. 10 Toachieve this objective, he would provide equality ofopportunity, ensure equality of incomes; reduce wagedisparities to the minimum warranted by differences in theneeds of the recipient; and reorganise the system of production.To prevent concentration of economic and political power, andto see that workers are not reduced to the status of mere wageearners,he would work for a system of production that does notdivest the worker of the ownership of the instruments ofproduction. The evils that arise from the alteration ordiminution of the status of the worker when he becomes awage-earner will continue, and perhaps, be accentuated whenthe all-powerful State becomes the beneficiary and the defenderof the evil. Gandhi did not believe that the evils that flow fromthe concentration of the ownership of the instruments ofproduction could be overcome by transferring the concentratedownership to the State which has already concentrated allpolitical power in its hands. 11 If concentration is the culprit, itshould be minimised or eliminated, and not transferred fromone place to another. Gandhi thus wanted curative or correctiveaction at the very source of the malady. He wanted a revolutionat the base itself.